Mixing and Turbulence in a Flooding Coastal River
Publication: Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 139, Issue 12
Abstract
An experimental study of turbulence and vertical mixing was carried out in the lower east Pearl River (Mississippi and Louisiana) during a high-discharge period in February and March of 2010. Direct estimates were made of the time-varying profile of turbulent Reynolds stresses () through the water column. From this, both the vertical eddy viscosity () and mean vertical mixing time were calculated, and the water column was shown to be vertically well mixed at all times. Segmenting the stresses into stresses due to river discharge and stresses due to tidal flows shows the coequal nature of each component and highlights the ways they vary in importance during different flow regimes. Two simple turbulence models are examined and compared to the measured mixing parameters.
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Acknowledgments
This work was supported under the NRL 6.2 Core Project “The Performance of a Persistent Riverine Surveillance Network.” The authors thank Dr. Alan Weideman, Dr. Bill Teague, Mr. Wesley Goode, and Mr. Mark Hulburt for their valuable help with the experimental program. The authors further thank the editor and the three anonymous reviewers for comments which have made this a much improved paper. This paper is NRL contribution number NRL/JA/7320-10-0484.
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Information & Authors
Information
Published In
Journal of Hydraulic Engineering
Volume 139 • Issue 12 • December 2013
Pages: 1213 - 1222
Copyright
© 2013 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Nov 8, 2011
Accepted: Feb 25, 2013
Published online: Feb 27, 2013
Discussion open until: Jul 27, 2013
Published in print: Dec 1, 2013
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