Fine structure of a stratified flow near a flat-plate surface

The pattern of disturbances arising during the motion of a strip along a horizontal surface in a continuously stratified fluid with identified upstream and attached internal waves, boundary layers, and edge singularities is calculated in the liner approximation. The flow pattern behind a flat plate moving with a constant velocity in a continuously stratified fluid is studied with the use of the optical schlieren technique; transformation of waves and finely structured elements of the flow with increasing plate velocity is analyzed. The calculated and experimentally observed patterns of internal waves at low velocities are demonstrated to be in good agreement. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 48, No. 6, pp. 77–91, November–December, 2007.