# Wave-induced vortex recoil and nonlinear refraction

1 SPHYNX - Systèmes Physiques Hors-équilibre, hYdrodynamique, éNergie et compleXes
SPEC - UMR3680 - Service de physique de l'état condensé, IRAMIS - Institut Rayonnement Matière de Saclay
Abstract : When a vortex refracts surface waves, the momentum flux carried by the waves changes direction and the waves induce a reaction force on the vortex. We study experimentally the resulting vortex distortion. Incoming surface gravity waves impinge on a steady vortex of velocity U$_0$ driven magneto-hydrodynamically at the bottom of a fluid layer. The waves induce a shift of the vortex center in the direction transverse to wave propagation, together with a decrease in surface vorticity. We interpret these two phenomena in the framework introduced by Craik and Leibovich (1976): we identify the dimensionless Stokes drift $S$ = $U_s$/$U_0$ as the relevant control parameter, $U_s$ being the Stokes drift velocity of the waves. We propose a simple vortex line model which indicates that the shift of the vortex center originates from a balance between vorticity advection by the Stokes drift and self-advection of the vortex. The decrease in surface vorticity is interpreted as a consequence of vorticity expulsion by the fast Stokes drift, which confines it at depth. This purely hydrodynamic process is analogous to the magnetohydrodynamic expulsion of magnetic field by a rapidly moving conductor through the electromagnetic skin effect. We study vorticity expulsion in the limit of fast Stokes drift and deduce that the surface vorticity decreases as 1/$S$, a prediction which is compatible with the experimental data. Such wave-induced vortex distortions have important consequences for the nonlinear regime of wave refraction: the refraction angle rapidly decreases with wave intensity.
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Cited literature [34 references]

https://hal-cea.archives-ouvertes.fr/cea-01599684
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Submitted on : Monday, October 2, 2017 - 1:43:22 PM
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### Citation

Thomas Humbert, Sébastien Aumaître, Basile Gallet. Wave-induced vortex recoil and nonlinear refraction. Physical Review Fluids, American Physical Society, 2017, 2, pp.094701. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevFluids.2.094701⟩. ⟨cea-01599684⟩

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