Graduate student seminar | Spectral Methods for Rotating Viscous Flow in a Curvilinear Domain (with Application to Gulf Stream Separation)

Wednesday, March 11, 2009 12:30 pm - 1:30 pm EDT (GMT -04:00)

Speaker

Derek Steinmoeller
University of Waterloo

Abstract

The Gulf Stream separates from the U.S. coast-line at Cape Hatteras and meanders into the north Atlantic ocean's interior. Although the phenomenon is widely known, it is still for the most part a misunderstood physical process. Numerical simulations are perhaps the best tool available to shed further light on what physical features drive the separation process.

Boundary-layer dynamics play a crucial role in the physics, so a high-order spatial discretization is desired to achieve a high-resolution depiction of the boundary-layers. A natural choice of numerical method is the Chebyshev spectral collocation method.

In this talk, I will motivate numerical simulations by introducing the physically interesting and beautiful phenomenon known as Gulf Stream separation, and I will derive suitable homogeneous 2D ocean model. I will then give an in-depth overview of how the Chebyshev spectral collocation method can be used to solve the required time-dependent problem in a curvilinear domain. I will present results for a selection of non-dimensional physical parameters. The physical implications of the results will be discussed and connections will be made with a previous study.