AFM, Maison de la Mécanique, 39/41 rue Louis Blanc, 92400 Courbevoie, France(FR)
Abstract
Orbital dynamics that lead to forced longitudinal libration of celestial bodies also result in an elliptically deformed equatorial core-mantle boundary. In the present study, we investigate the effect of the topographic coupling on the flow in the liquid layers of a librating planet through a coupled numerical-experimental approach. We report the first evidence of libration-driven elliptical instability in a non-axisymmetric container. It is shown that intermittent turbulence, characteristic of such instabilities, is associated with an enhanced zonal flow