Last year, we worked with 5 students of ENSE3 on the development of an OpenFOAM solvers to simulate flows in the Coriolis platform, the big rotating tank of the LEGI laboratory. This work produces a solver (see the repository and the documentation). We learned how to use OpenFoam to solve the Navier-Stokes equations under the Boussinesq approximation in a cylindrical geometry. We are now ready to address more difficult problems, i.e. to simulate real flows studied in the Coriolis platform.
For this research project, we propose to simulate the wake of a smooth 3D submarine mountain in a stratified and or rotating fluid. This configuration is interesting because:
- It can be studied experimentally so we can compare our results to experimental results.
- Production of internal gravity waves in a fluid flowing over a topography is a very important aspect of the oceanic and atmospheric dynamics. This problem has been extensively studied but mainly under the assumption of 2D mountains (ridges). Therefor the parametrizations are well adapted to ridges. However, it is clear that real mountains are not 2D and that the 2D and 3D cases are very different since the flow can get around a 3D mountain.
The students will learn a lot on numerical simulations of turbulent flows and on great tools widely used in research and industry: OpenFoam, Linux and Python.
Students will be supervised by Cyrille Bonamy (Ingénieur de Recherche Calcul at LEGI) and Pierre Augier (Chargé de Recherche). Depending on the participants of the project, we will communicate in English or/and in French.
Example of a mesh representing a smooth 3D mountain.