Rotating Hydraulics

Larry Pratt received his Ph. D. in physical oceanography in the
Woods Hole/MIT Joint Program in 1982.  He
then served as a research associate and assistant research professor at the
University of Rhode Island before joining the scientific staff at the Woods
Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he is now a senior scientist.  He is editor of The Physical Oceanography of Sea Straits and has authored or
co-authored numerous articles on hydraulic effects in the ocean.




J. A. (Jack) Whitehead received his Ph. D. in engineering and
applied science from Yale University in 1968. 
After postdoctoral work and serving as assistant research geophysicist
at the Institute of Geophysical and Planetary Physics at UCLA, he joined the scientific
staff at the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution, where he is now a Senior
Scientist.  He has authored or
co-authored numerous articles on hydraulic effects in the ocean.




Hydraulic effects can occur when high-speed ocean currents
and atmospheric winds encounter strong topographic features. This book contains
a deep and extensive discussion of geophysical flows that are broad enough to
be influenced by Earth?s rotation and strong enough to experience classical
hydraulic effects such as critical control and hydraulic jumps. Examples include
deep overflows and coastal currents in the ocean and winds in the coastal
marine layer. The material is appropriate for students at the graduate or
advanced undergraduate level who have some elementary knowledge of fluid
mechanics.  Reviews of geophysical
observations and of the hydraulics of flow with no background rotation are
followed by chapters on models of currents in rotating channels, shock waves
and time dependence, coastal flow, two-layer stratification, and jets. Although
the primary focus is on the theory, a number of case studies, including the
Faroe Bank overflow and the California coastal marine layer winds, are
presented along with numerous laboratory experiments.  Exercises are presented at the end of most
sections.  The presentation should allow
the reader to develop a thorough understanding of the fundamentals of the
hydraulics of rotating flows.