scholarly journals Cross-Shelf Transport Through the Interaction among a Coastal Jet, a Topographic Wave, and Tides

Fluids ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 181
Author(s):  
Helga S. Huntley ◽  
Charles W. McMahon ◽  
Joseph J. Kuehl ◽  
A. D. Kirwan

Shelf break flows are often characterized by along-isobath jets with cross-shelf currents associated with tides and waves guided by variable topography. Here, we address the question: Can a superposition of such flows produce significant aperiodic cross-shelf transport? To answer this question, we use a barotropic analytic model for the jet based on a similarity solution of the shallow water equations over variable topography, a wave disturbance determined by the topography, and a diurnal tidal disturbance. We use standard Lagrangian methods to assess the cross-shelf transport, presenting the results, however, in a Eulerian frame, so as to be amenable to oceanographic observations. The relative roles of the different flow components in cross-shelf transport are assessed through an extensive parameter study. We find that a superposition of all three flow components can indeed produce consequential background aperiodic transport. An application of the model using recent observations from the Texas Shelf demonstrates that a combination of these background mechanisms can produce significant transport under realistic conditions.

2018 ◽  
Vol 40 ◽  
pp. 05026
Author(s):  
Adrian Navas-Montilla ◽  
Javier Murillo

The presence of numerical shockwave anomalies appearing in the resolution of hyperbolic systems of conservation laws is a well-known problem in the scientific community. The most common anomalies are the carbuncle and the slowly-moving shock anomaly. They have been studied for decades in the framework of Euler equations, but only a few authors have considered such problems for the Shallow Water Equations (SWE). In this work, the SWE are considered and the aforementioned anomalies are studied. They arise in presence of hydraulic jumps, which are transcritical shockwaves mathematically modelled as a pure discontinuity. When solving numerically such discontinuities, an unphysical intermediate state appears and gives rise to a spurious spike in the momentum. This is observed in the numerical solution as a spike in the discharge appearing in the cell containing the jump. The presence of the spurious spike in the discharge has been taken for granted by the scientific community and has even become a feature of the solution. Even though it does not disturb the rest of the solution in steady cases, it produces an undesirable shedding of spurious oscillations downstream when considering transient events. We show how it is possible to define a coherent spike reduction technique that reduces the magnitude of this anomaly and ensures convergence to the exact solution with mesh refinement. Concerning the carbuncle, which may also appear in presence of strong hydraulic jumps, a combination of Riemann solvers is proposed to circumvent it. Also, it will be shown how there is still room from improvement when treating anomalies in moving hydraulic jumps over variable topography.


Author(s):  
Xiao-Hua Zhu ◽  
Xiao-Hua Zhu ◽  
Ze-Nan Zhu ◽  
Ze-Nan Zhu ◽  
Xinyu Guo ◽  
...  

A coastal acoustic tomography (CAT) experiment for mapping the tidal currents in the Zhitouyang Bay was successfully carried out with seven acoustic stations during July 12 to 13, 2009. The horizontal distributions of tidal current in the tomography domain are calculated by the inverse analysis in which the travel time differences for sound traveling reciprocally are used as data. Spatial mean amplitude ratios M2 : M4 : M6 are 1.00 : 0.15 : 0.11. The shallow-water equations are used to analyze the generation mechanisms of M4 and M6. In the deep area, velocity amplitudes of M4 measured by CAT agree well with those of M4 predicted by the advection terms in the shallow water equations, indicating that M4 in the deep area where water depths are larger than 60 m is predominantly generated by the advection terms. M6 measured by CAT and M6 predicted by the nonlinear quadratic bottom friction terms agree well in the area where water depths are less than 20 m, indicating that friction mechanisms are predominant for generating M6 in the shallow area. Dynamic analysis of the residual currents using the tidally averaged momentum equation shows that spatial mean values of the horizontal pressure gradient due to residual sea level and of the advection of residual currents together contribute about 75% of the spatial mean values of the advection by the tidal currents, indicating that residual currents in this bay are induced mainly by the nonlinear effects of tidal currents.


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