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Original Articles

The transport of energy by internal waves

Pages 177-184 | Received 19 Apr 1968, Accepted 31 Aug 1968, Published online: 15 Dec 2016
 

Abstract

Two different concepts of energy transport by waves are developed and compared. The “wave energy flux” is related to the transport of a quantity known as the wave energy, and has often been used in analyzing the characteristics of the waves themselves. The “correlation wave energy flux” is related to the transport of energy by a phenomenon called a wave, is analogous to turbulence energy transports, and is of use in total system energy budgets. In dissipative fluids and fluids with spatially varying mean flows, the two are not the same. In the course of the analysis, a comparison is made between the Stokes expansion commonly used in linear wave theory and the mean and deviation approach of turbulence.