Tom Peacock: From the lab to the ocean: Experimental investigations of stratified flows

Stratified flow phenomena are prevalent throughout the oceans. We present the results of laboratory experiments that study several ocean inspired problems, including: the settling of marine snow, spontaneous propulsion of asymmetric objects and the generation of internal wave beams by topography. These experiments cover a large range of physical scales, from as small as 100 microns for the settling of marine snow to several meters for internal wave generation, emphasizing the richness of interesting and important research problems is stratified flow

Dr. Tom Peacock of Dept. of Mechanical Engineering, MIT is a visitor at the BILAT-program. He is an expert on theoretical physics, and does currently theoretical, experimental and field work on internal waves in the ocean.