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Evolution of the turbulence structure in the surf and swash zones

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 January 2010

IN MEI SOU ,
EDWIN A. COWEN  and
PHILIP L.-F. LIU
IN MEI SOU*
Affiliation:
Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Hawaii at Manoa, Honolulu, HI 96822, USA
EDWIN A. COWEN
Affiliation:
DeFrees Hydraulics Laboratory, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA
PHILIP L.-F. LIU
Affiliation:
DeFrees Hydraulics Laboratory, School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA Institute of Hydrological and Oceanic Sciences, National Central University, Jhongli, Taoyuan 32001, Taiwan
*
†Email address for correspondence: [email protected]
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Abstract

The velocity field and turbulence structure within the surf and swash zones forced by a laboratory-generated plunging breaking wave were investigated using a particle image velocimetry measurement technique. Two-dimensional velocity fields in the vertical plane from 200 consecutive monochromatic waves were measured at four cross-shore locations, shoreward of the breaker line. The phase-averaged mean flow fields indicate that a shear layer occurs when the uprush of the bore front interacts with the downwash flow. The turbulence characteristics were examined via spectral analysis. The larger-scale turbulence structure is closely associated with the breaking-wave- and the bore-generated turbulence in the surf zone; then, the large-scale turbulence energy cascades to smaller scales, as the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) evolves from the outer surf zone to the swash zone. Smaller-scale energy injection during the latter stage of the downwash phase is associated with the bed-generated turbulence, yielding a −1 slope in the upper inertial range in the spatial spectra. Depth-integrated TKE budget components indicate that a local TKE equilibrium exists during the bore-front phases and the latter stage of the downwash phases in the outer surf zone. The TKE decay resembles the decay of grid turbulence during the latter stage of the uprush and the early stage of the downwash, as the production rate is small because of the absence of strong mean shear during this stage of the wave cycle as well as the relatively short time available for the growth of the bed boundary layer.

Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 644 , 10 February 2010 , pp. 193 - 216
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

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