No description available.

No description available.

Graduate

Graduate

Direct solution for three dimensional electric or magnetic field vectors throughout the frequency spectrum is accomplished by a finite element formulation which includes displacement and conduction currents, and requires no special treatment for material interfaces. Analysis of bus bar and Bath cube eddy current problems demonstrate the capabilities of the method. / Spurious components in solutions to vector field problems are shown to corrupt deterministic solutions. These corruptions are identifiable with spurious modes familiar to high frequency modal analysis. Spectrally correct mixed order finite elements are demonstrated to retrieve accuracy in deterministic analyses. / The formulation may be limited by computer round-off at matrix assembly which affects the solenoidality of vector fields. Furthermore, extreme values encountered in low frequency eddy current analysis lead to ill conditioning and unreliable solutions. These numerical instabilities are overcome by parametric adjustment of permittivities. Error estimates are established to monitor inaccuracies introduced by permittivity adjustment.

The generation and evolution of internal solitary waves by intrusive gravity currents and river plumes are examined in an axisymmetric geometry by way of theory, experiments and numerical simulations. Full depth lock-release experiments and simulations demonstrate that vertically symmetric intrusions propagating into a two-layer fluid with an interface of finite thickness can launch a mode-2 double humped solitary wave. The wave then surrounds the intrusion head and carries it outwards at a constant speed. The properties of the wave's speed and shape are shown to agree well with a Korteweg-de Vries theory that is derived heuristically on the basis of energy conservation. The numerical code is also adapted to oceanographic scales in an attempt to simulate the interaction between the ocean and a river plume emanating from the mouth of the Columbia River. Despite several approximations, the fundamental dynamics of the wave generation process are captured by the model.

Graduation date: 1991

Graduation date: 1981

Recent studies have identified the North Pacific Gyre Oscillation (NPGO) as a decadal mode of climate variability that is linked to previously unexplained fluctuations of salinity, nutrient, and chlorophyll in the Northeast Pacific. The NPGO reflects changes in strength of the central and eastern branches of the subtropical gyre and is driven by the atmosphere through the North Pacific Oscillation (NPO) -the second dominant mode of sea level pressure variability. We show that Rossby waves dynamics excited by the NPO propagate the NPGO signature from the central North Pacific into the Kuroshio-Oyashio Extension (KOE), and trigger changes in strength of the KOE with a lag of 3 years. This suggests that the NPGO index can be used to track changes in the entire northern branch of the North Pacific sub-tropical gyre. These results also provide a physical mechanism to explain coherent decadal climate variations and ecosystem changes between the North Pacific eastern and western boundaries.

Thesis (M.Eng.)--University of South Australia, 1998.