CENTRIFUGAL INSTABILITY OF AN OSCILLATORY FLOW OVER PERIODIC RIPPLES

An oscillating flow over a sandy beach can initiate and enhance the formation of bed ripples, with crests perpendicular to the direction of the ambient oscillation. Under certain circumstances, bridges may develop to span adjacent ripple crests, resulting in a brick pattern. It has been suggested that the onset of this transition is due to a three-dimensional centrifugal instability of an otherwise two-dimensional flow over periodic long-crested ripples. Here we analyse theoretically such an instability by assuming that the ripples are rigid and smooth. Two complementary cases are studied. We first consider a weak ambient oscillation over ripples of finite slope in Case (i). The three-dimensional disturbance is found to be localized in a small region either along the crests or along the troughs. In Case (ii) we analyse finite oscillations over ripples of mild slope. The region influenced by the instability is now comparable with a ripple wavelength and the unstable disturbance along adjacent ripples may interact with each other. Four types of harmonic and subharmonic instabilities are found. The associated steady streaming close to the ripple surface shows various tendencies of possible sand accumulations, some of which appear to be qualitatively relevant to the initiation of brick-patterned ripples. © 1990, Cambridge University Press. All rights reserved.