A Study of the Structure of the Near-Coastal Zone Water Column Using Numerical Simulations
Abstract
Our long-term goal is to understand how flows in the near-coastal zone (20m to 100m) respond to a variety of forcing mechanisms, including wind stresses, tidal pressure gradients, surface waves, surface heating and cooling, surface wave-bottom current interaction, and tidally generated bottom boundary currents. Because the nature of this response varies throughout the water column and depends strongly on the nonlinear coupling of stratification, turbulence, and flow structure, characterizing the structure of the water column in this environment is a very difficult field measurement task. It is possible to gain some insight into the physics, and into our ability to model or parameterize the physis, by looking at a more idealized version of this problem using a variety of numerical simulation approaches. We plan to develop Large Eddy Simulation Models of the flow structure in the stratified water column in the near-coastal zone. This area is typically subject to surface heating fluxes, wind stirring, and tidally generated bottom turbulence. Using these simulation tools, we will study the physics of two related flow problems in particular: (1) Stratified tidal flows (i.e., stratified flows with oscillating pressure gradients); and (2) Wavy turbulent flows (i.e., unstratified channel flows with waves).
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jan 01, 1998
- Accession Number
- ADA552503
Entities
People
- Jeffrey R. Koseff
- Joel H. Ferziger
- Stephen G. Monismith
Organizations
- Stanford University