Wave-vortex interaction

TL;DR

This study experimentally investigates how electromagnetically generated vortex flows influence parametrically amplified surface waves, revealing that vortex intensity raises the instability threshold and affects wave dynamics.

Contribution

It provides new insights into the nonlinear interaction between vortex flows and surface waves, including bifurcation behavior and spectral characteristics.

Findings

Vortex flow increases the parametric instability threshold.

Spatio-temporal fluctuations from vortex flow interact nonlinearly with surface waves.

The power spectrum density of surface waves is characterized under different vortex intensities.

Abstract

We present an experimental study on the effect of a electromagneticaly generated vortex flow on parametrically amplified waves at the surface of a fluid. The underlying vortex flow, generated by a periodic Lorentz force, creates spatio-temporal fluctuations that interact nonlinearly with the standing surface waves. We characterize the bifurcation diagram and measure the power spectrum density (PSD) of the local surface wave amplitude. We show that the parametric instability threshold increases with increasing intensity of the vortex flow.