2D ray tracing algorithm as a preprocessing method for wave attractor problems

S. A. Elistratov<sup>ab

a</sup> P. P. Shirshov Institute of Oceanology, Russian Academy of Sciences
^b Ivannikov Institute for System Programming of the RAS

Abstract: Wave attractor numerical simulation is a costly problem that requires a precise calculation method as well as thorough setup parameters determination. These two facts require using preprocessing methods before CFD simulation. The coherent structure for a geometry and stratification selected will appear in a certain range of perturbation frequencies, which are typically unknown in advance. To check whether the attractor forms, one can run a ray tracing which represents the propagation of internal wave narrow beams in inviscid linear approximation of the Navier-Stokes equations. The current article describes the algorithm that can be used for the ray tracing on a wide class of problems. It is shown that this method is capable to detect specific forms of attractors under specific conditions. Additionally, a ray convergence measure estimation is proposed.

Keywords: wave attractors, preprocessing, ray tracing, internal waves

DOI: 10.15514/ISPRAS-2025-37(6)-45