{
  "abstract": "Flows over topography in stratified fluids have long been studied in oceanography and atmospheric sciences, where internal gravity waves play a major role in energy dissipation, mixing and angular-momentum transfer. By contrast, the impact of topography in rapidly rotating homogeneous fluids remains poorly understood, despite its potential importance in well-mixed rotating fluid layers (e.g. planetary liquid cores or vigorously convecting subsurface oceans). In particular, predictive scaling laws for the drag generated by finite-amplitude topography are still lacking, even in the simplest case of a uniform steady flow past a topography. Here, we investigate the pressure drag produced by a uniform flow over a three-dimensional periodic topography in a rapidly rotating Cartesian fluid layer using asymptotic analysis and direct numerical simulations. We show that the topography excites inertial waves, which radiate energy into the fluid interior and generate a wave-driven pressure drag upper D D $D$ . In the shallow-slope limit left parenthesis h 0 k much less than 1 right parenthesis ( h 0 k ≪ 1 ) $(h_0k \\ll 1)$ , we recover the classical scaling law upper D proportional to h 0 squared k D ∝ h 0 2 k $D \\propto h_0^2 k$ . We then extend this theory to finite-slope topographies left parenthesis h 0 k greater than or equivalent to 1 right parenthesis ( h 0 k ≳ 1 ) $(h_0k \\gtrsim 1)$ in the quasi-geostrophic regime left parenthesis upper U 0 k much less than upper Omega right parenthesis ( U 0 k ≪ Ω ) $(U_0k \\ll \\varOmega )$ , deriving a correction that quantitatively agrees with direct numerical simulations. In the asymptotic steep limit left parenthesis h 0 k much greater than 1 right parenthesis ( h 0 k ≫ 1 ) $(h_0k \\gg 1)$ , the drag becomes independent of topographic height and scales as upper D proportional to k Superscript negative 1 D ∝ k − 1 $D \\propto k^{-1}$ , implying a maximum drag for an optimal slope h 0 k asymptotically equals 3.17 h 0 k ≃ 3.17 $h_0k \\simeq 3.17$ . Finally, we show that this prediction quantitatively explains previous laboratory experiments reporting an optimal topographic wavelength for spin-up in a rotating fluid.",
  "abstract_shown": true,
  "affiliations": [],
  "article_type": null,
  "arxiv": null,
  "author_total": 5,
  "authors": [
    {
      "name": "Vadim Giraud"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jerome Noir"
    },
    {
      "name": "David Cébron"
    },
    {
      "name": "Jérémie Vidal"
    },
    {
      "name": "Remy Monville"
    }
  ],
  "bibtex": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d12w71b0gpd3p.bib",
  "cited_by": 0,
  "doi": "10.1017/jfm.2026.11857",
  "fulltext_url": null,
  "id": "d12w71b0gpd3p",
  "issns": [
    "0022-1120",
    "1469-7645"
  ],
  "landing_url": "https://hal.science/hal-05847793v1",
  "language": "en",
  "licence": "CC-BY-4.0",
  "licence_label": "CC BY 4.0",
  "licence_source": "article",
  "licence_url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/",
  "metadata_licence": null,
  "native_subjects": [
    [
      "hal",
      "0.phys"
    ],
    [
      "hal",
      "1.phys.phys"
    ],
    [
      "hal",
      "2.phys.phys.phys-flu-dyn"
    ],
    [
      "openalex",
      "1910|Oceanographic and Atmospheric Processes"
    ]
  ],
  "openalex": "W7171743404",
  "pdf_url": "https://hal.science/hal-05847793/document",
  "pmcid": null,
  "pmid": null,
  "published": "2026-07-29",
  "publisher": "Cambridge University Press (CUP)",
  "ris": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d12w71b0gpd3p.ris",
  "sources": [
    {
      "first_seen": "2026-11-04T12:20:47Z",
      "native_id": "hal-05847793",
      "source": "hal",
      "url": "https://hal.science/hal-05847793v1"
    }
  ],
  "subjects": [
    {
      "field": "physics",
      "origin": "hal:2.phys.phys.phys-flu-dyn",
      "subfield": "fluid-dynamics"
    }
  ],
  "title": "Topographic drag in rapidly rotating fluids",
  "title_text": "Topographic drag in rapidly rotating fluids",
  "type": "peer-reviewed",
  "updated_at": "2026-11-04T12:20:47Z",
  "url": "https://research.draconitic.com/paper/d12w71b0gpd3p",
  "venue": "Journal of Fluid Mechanics",
  "versions": []
}