Chaotic mixing in a basin due to a sinusoidal wind field

Abstract

This paper presents a novel numerical study of wind-induced mixing in a circular shallow lake. The wind-induced hydrodynamic field is first predicted by a Godunov-type shallow water equation solver based on a quadtree grid. Then the horizontal mixing processes are analysed in terms of chaotic advection. The particle dynamics under a sinusoidal wind field are found to change from regular to chaotic states with increasing period of wind oscillation. The numerical approach is applicable to a wide range of environmental flows. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.