Trajectory encounter volume as a diagnostic of mixing potential in fluid flows

Rypina, Irina I.; Pratt, Lawrence J.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-24-189-2017

Articles | Volume 24, issue 2

https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-24-189-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Special issue:

Current perspectives in modelling, monitoring, and predicting...

https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-24-189-2017

© Author(s) 2017. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License.

Articles | Volume 24, issue 2

Research article

|

03 May 2017

Research article |

| 03 May 2017

Trajectory encounter volume as a diagnostic of mixing potential in fluid flows

Irina I. Rypina and Lawrence J. Pratt

Download

Final revised paper (published on 03 May 2017)
Preprint (discussion started on 07 Dec 2016)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

- Printer-friendly version

- Supplement

RC1: 'review report', Anonymous Referee #1, 02 Jan 2017
RC2: 'Review of Rypina and Pratt', Anonymous Referee #2, 02 Jan 2017
SC1: 'SC', Konstantin Koshel, 19 Jan 2017
AC1: 'answers to reviewers', Irina I. Rypina, 16 Mar 2017
AC2: 'revised paper', Irina I. Rypina, 16 Mar 2017

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by Irina I. Rypina on behalf of the Authors (16 Mar 2017) Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (01 Apr 2017) by Stephen Wiggins

AR by Irina I. Rypina on behalf of the Authors (03 Apr 2017)

Short summary

Fluid parcels exchange water properties when coming into contact with each other, leading to mixing. The trajectory encounter volume, defined here as the volume of fluid that passes close to a reference trajectory over a finite time interval, is introduced as a measure of the mixing potential of a flow. Regions with a low encounter volume (the cores of coherent eddies) have a low mixing potential. Regions with a large encounter volume (turbulent or chaotic regions) have a high mixing potential.