NONLINEAR 3-DIMENSIONAL EFFECTS ON GRAVITY-WAVE DRAG - SPLITTING FLOW AND BREAKING WAVES

A study has been made of some aspects of frictionless stratified flow past three-dimensional isolated mountains. The study uses a three-dimensional non-hydrostatic numerical model to investigate the behaviour of the flow as a function of the Froude number, and produces a picture of the dependence of the gravity-wave drag on the Froude number for a wide range of that parameter. At the same time, the results of the numerical experiments clarify the behaviour of the flow in the transition from high to low Froude number, showing the relative importance of wave breaking and flow splitting in the transitional regime.