Open AccessModeling the influence of wave‐enhanced turbulence in a shallow tide‐ and wind‐driven water column
Author(s) -
Jones Nicole L.,
Monismith Stephen G.
Publication year - 2008
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: oceans
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/2007jc004246
Subject(s) - turbulence , turbulence kinetic energy , dissipation , water column , waves and shallow water , mechanics , turbulence modeling , physics , wave model , kinetic energy , atmospheric sciences , environmental science , meteorology , geology , classical mechanics , thermodynamics , oceanography
The ability of one‐dimensional hydrodynamic models to reproduce dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy and velocity profiles for conditions of whitecapping waves in a shallow water, tide‐ and wind‐forced environment was assessed. The models were forced with the conditions experienced during a month‐long field experiment in a shallow estuarine embayment, and the results were compared with the observed dissipation and mean velocity profiles. Three turbulence models were assessed: the k ‐ ω model and two k ‐ l models, with different prescribed bilinear relationships for the turbulent length scale, l . The k ‐ ω turbulence model was found to best replicate the measured decay of dissipation with depth with a surface roughness length, z 0 s = 1.3 H s , and wave energy parameter, α = 60. The k ‐ l model achieved equally as good reproduction of the observations as the k ‐ ω model when the proportionality constant in the prescribed linear length scale relationship for the upper half of the water column was modified from the traditionally employed von Karman's constant, κ = 0.4, to 0.25. The model results show that the whitecapping waves often supplied the dominant source of turbulent kinetic energy over the majority of the water column in the shallow, tide‐ and wind‐forced system.