Turbulence in a stably stratified fluid: onset of global anisotropy as a function of the Richardson number

Abstract

It is necessary to introduce an external force to induce turbulence in a stably stratified fluid. The Heisenberg eddy viscosity technique should in this case suffice to calculate a space-time averaged quantity like the global anisotropy parameter as a function of the Richardson number. We find analytically that the anisotropy increases linearly with the Richardson number, with a small quadratic correction. A numerical simulation of the complete equations shows the linear behaviour.