Homogeneous turbulence evolution in stably stratified flow. I: Internal gravity waves at low inverse Froude numbers. II: Asymptotic regimes of large evolution time at low inverse Froude numbers (Q1277964)

The evolution of homogeneous grid-generated turbulence in stratified fluid is investigated analytically. We apply a small parameter decomposition based on inverse Froude number to the theory of nearly homogeneous turbulence. By the multiple scale method, we calculate the frequency and amplitude of internal gravity waves and formulate differential system describing the wave-averaged behaviour of turbulence characteristics. The comparison with numerical results and with experimental data shows a good agreement for internal waves and for small-scale turbulence in collapsed state. The long-term turbulence evolution in weakly stratified media can be regarded as a singular perturbation problem permitting us to gain an insight into the interaction between gravity waves and active turbulence.