C. Staquet et J. Sommeria, INTERNAL WAVES, TURBULENCE AND MIXING IN STRATIFIED FLOWS - A REPORT ON EUROMECH-COLLOQUIUM-339, Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 314, 1996, pp. 349-371
Euromech colloquium 339 was organized by C. Staquet in Lyon (France) f
rom September 6 to 9, 1995. It involved seventy-six participants from
fourteen countries. Papers were presented on various aspects of stably
stratified flows: (i) internal waves, their generation mechanisms, pr
opagation and reflection properties, their instabilities leading to br
eaking; (ii) vortex structures in stably stratified fluids, which can
be slow layerwise structures, or small intense vortices, appearing for
instance in shear flow instabilities; (iii) statistical properties of
random wave fields or stratified turbulence; (iv) mixing properties r
esulting from internal wave fields and stratified turbulence. These qu
ite different dynamical regimes are often closely connected in actual
flow problems, and one purpose of this colloquium was to better unders
tand these connections. Participants were interested in fundamental as
pects or in more specific applications, in engineering, geophysics and
astrophysics. The colloquium was a rare opportunity to gather togethe
r scientists with these different points of view, to compare approache
s and results, and to highlight general problems.