An Exact, Steady, Purely Azimuthal Equatorial Flow with a Free Surface

The general problem of an ocean on a rotating sphere is considered. The governing equations for an inviscid, incompressible fluid, written in spherical coordinates that are fixed at a point on the rotating Earth, together with the free surface and rigid bottom boundary conditions, are introduced. An exact solution of this system is presented; this describes a steady flow that is moving only in the azimuthal direction, with no variation in this direction. However, this azimuthal velocity component has an arbitrary variation with depth (i.e., radius), and so, for example, an Equatorial Undercurrent (EUC) can be accommodated. The pressure boundary condition at the free surface relates this pressure to the shape of the surface via a Bernoulli relation; this provides the constraint on the existence of a solution, although the restrictions are somewhat involved in spherical coordinates. To examine this constraint in more detail, the corresponding problems in model cylindrical coordinates (with the equator “straightened” to become a generator of the cylinder), and then in the tangent-plane version (with the β-plane approximation incorporated), are also written down. Both these possess similar exact solutions, with a Bernoulli condition that is more readily interpreted in terms of the choices available. Some simple examples of the surface pressure, and associated surface distortion, are presented. The relevance of these exact solutions to more complicated, and physically realistic, flow structures is briefly mentioned.

A stationary potential-flow approximation for a breaking-wave crest

The flow in a breaking-wave crest is represented by a complex velocity potential on a Riemann surface, satisfying the Bernoulli condition on two free boundaries. The flow is assumed to be stationary in the reference frame which moves with the wave crest, and at large distances approximates Stokes corner flow in the main part of the fluid and a parabolic descending flow in the jet. The interaction of the jet with the rest of the fluid is neglected.The solution is obtained by means of a conformal transformation from a bounded, teardrop-shaped domain, using a Faber polynomial expansion. The Bernoulli condition is applied at a number of discrete points on the boundaries, and the resulting nonlinear equations for the expansion coefficients are solved iteratively. The resulting surface form is similar to that obtained by laboratory experiments and time-dependent numerical simulations of waves up to the point of breaking, with a stagnation point at the top of the crest, an overturning loop with major axis$\ap 8g^{-\frac{1}{3}}\Psi^{\frac{2}{3}}$, and a maximum acceleration of ≈ 5.4g, wheregis the gravitational acceleration and ψ is the flux in the jet.