Geometrical Control of the Inertial Recirculation

Abstract

In this paper we discuss the conditions under which a free solution of the steady, one-layer, quasi-geostrophic equation on a ?-plane is realized in the inviscid limit. We restrict attention to the case where no body force is applied and the fluid moves under a stress prescribed at the boundary of the closed domain. We show that, depending on the geometrical configuration of the boundary where the stress is prescribed, either a frictional solution or a free inertial solution is found in the limit of infinitesimal dissipation.