Horizontal shear instabilities in low-Froude high-Re stratified flows produce vertical shear through two distinct pathways, each leading to small-scale KH instabilities at large buoyancy Reynolds number but with different peak mixing efficiencies.
Shear layer instability in a highly diffusive stably stratified atmosphere
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abstract
The linear stability of a shear layer in a highly diffusive stably stratified atmosphere has been investigated. This study completes and extends previous works by Dudis (1974) and Jones (1977). We show that: (i) an asymptotic regime is reached in the limit of large thermal diffusivity, (ii) there exists two different types of unstable modes. The slowest growing modes correspond to predominantly horizontal motions and the fast growing ones to isotropic motions, (iii) the physical interpretation of the stability properties in this asymptotic regime is simple. Applications to the dynamics of stellar radiative zone are discussed.
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physics.flu-dyn 1years
2026 1verdicts
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Two pathways to diapycnal mixing in strongly stratified flows with no initial vertical shear
Horizontal shear instabilities in low-Froude high-Re stratified flows produce vertical shear through two distinct pathways, each leading to small-scale KH instabilities at large buoyancy Reynolds number but with different peak mixing efficiencies.