Abstract
Recently, in a steady free shear layer, it was found that three dimensional streamwise vortices contributed to the mixing across density interface. However, in an unsteady stratified flow, even the origin of these vortices has not been confirmed yet.
In this paper, the breaking process of the interface in an unsteady exchange flow has been investigated experimentally. Experimental results show that streamwise vortices but spanwise vortices do not play an important role in interfacial breaking of an exchange flow system.
