ABSTRACT
ABSTRACT: An experiment was conducted to study internal solitary wave induced flow field in a two-immiscible-fluid system. Gravitational collapse was adopted to generate internal solitary waves. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was used to monitor the interface of internal solitary waves and record the time-history curves of horizontal velocities and accelerations in the two layers. The vertical distribution of horizontal velocity at wave trough was obtained by analyzing the experimental data. Result shows: during the propagation of internal solitary waves, horizontal velocities in two layers increase at first and reach the maximum at wave troughs, then start to decrease. The directions of velocities are opposite in the two layers. Horizontal accelerations in two layers increase at first and then decrease to zero at wave trough, then start to increase in the opposite direction and then decrease. The directions of accelerations are opposite in two layers. Horizontal velocity in the upper layer is uniformly distributed in vertical distribution. Horizontal velocity in the lower layer has a slight tendency to decrease along with the increasing of water depth.
