The reflexion of internal/inertial waves from bumpy surfaces. Part 2. Split reflexion and diffraction

Abstract

This paper considers the linear inviscid reflexion of internal/inertial waves from smooth bumpy surfaces where a characteristic (or ray) is tangent to the surface at some point. There are two principal cases. When a characteristic associated with the incident wave is tangent to the surface we have diffraction; when the tangential characteristic is associated with a reflected wave we have split reflexion, a phenomenon which has no counterpart in classical non-dispersive wave theory. In both these cases the problem of determining the wave field may be reduced to a set of coupled integral equations with two unknown functions. These equations are solved for the simplest topography for each case, and the properties of the wave fields for more general topographies are discussed. For both split reflexion and diffraction, the fluid velocity has an inverse-square-root singularity on the tangential characteristic, and the energy density has a corresponding logarithmic singularity. The diffracted wave field penetrates into the shadow region a distance which is of the order of the incident wavelength. Possibilities for instability and mixing are discussed.