Stokes Drift - Mathematical Description

Mathematical Description

The Lagrangian motion of a fluid parcel with position vector x = ξ(α,t) in the Eulerian coordinates is given by:

$\dot{\boldsymbol{\xi}}\, =\, \frac{\partial \boldsymbol{\xi}}{\partial t}\, =\, \boldsymbol{u}(\boldsymbol{\xi},t),$

where ∂ξ / ∂t is the partial derivative of ξ(α,t) with respect to t, and

ξ(α,t) is the Lagrangian position vector of a fluid parcel, in meters,

u(x,t) is the Eulerian velocity, in meters per second,

x is the position vector in the Eulerian coordinate system, in meters,

α is the position vector in the Lagrangian coordinate system, in meters,

t is the time, in seconds.

Often, the Lagrangian coordinates α are chosen to coincide with the Eulerian coordinates x at the initial time t = t₀ :

$\boldsymbol{\xi}(\boldsymbol{\alpha},t_0)\, =\, \boldsymbol{\alpha}.$

But also other ways of labeling the fluid parcels are possible.

If the average value of a quantity is denoted by an overbar, then the average Eulerian velocity vector ū_E and average Lagrangian velocity vector ū_L are:

$\begin{align} \overline{\boldsymbol{u}}_E\, &=\, \overline{\boldsymbol{u}(\boldsymbol{x},t)}, \\ \overline{\boldsymbol{u}}_L\, &=\, \overline{\dot{\boldsymbol{\xi}}(\boldsymbol{\alpha},t)}\, =\, \overline{\left(\frac{\partial \boldsymbol{\xi}(\boldsymbol{\alpha},t)}{\partial t}\right)}\, =\, \overline{\boldsymbol{u}(\boldsymbol{\xi}(\boldsymbol{\alpha},t),t)}. \end{align}$

Different definitions of the average may be used, depending on the subject of study, see ergodic theory:

time average,
space average,
ensemble average and
phase average.

Now, the Stokes drift velocity ū_S equals

$\overline{\boldsymbol{u}}_S\, =\, \overline{\boldsymbol{u}}_L\, -\, \overline{\boldsymbol{u}}_E.$

In many situations, the mapping of average quantities from some Eulerian position x to a corresponding Lagrangian position α forms a problem. Since a fluid parcel with label α traverses along a path of many different Eulerian positions x, it is not possible to assign α to a unique x. A mathematical sound basis for an unambiguous mapping between average Lagrangian and Eulerian quantities is provided by the theory of the Generalized Lagrangian Mean (GLM) by Andrews and McIntyre (1978).

Read more about this topic: Stokes Drift

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