The fall of an ellipse in a stratified fluid

Abstract

The free fall of an ellipse in an infinite linearly-stratified fluid is investigated using a linear two-dimensional, Boussinesq, diffusionless, inviscid model. The oscillations of the ellipse decay because of radiation damping, but unlike the case of a circular cylinder, the ellipse can also rotate and move horizontally. The resulting equations are solved analytically for some simple cases, for which there is little or no rotation. Motions with rotation are studied numerically using a spectral method to solve for the wave field in the fluid.