Tidal bore progressing on a small slope

Abstract

In a natural estuary, a tidal bore may progress on a small sloping bed from the downstream to the upstream. In this study, a simple analytical solution for tidal bore formed in a small slope channel was developed using the finite control volume analysis. New unsteady experiments were conducted to verify the theoretical model. The model predictions generally agree with the observations. A general relation is obtained for the conjugate depth ratio as a function of the Froude number and the channel slope from the experimental data. The results indicate that the conjugate depth ratio increases with an increasing Froude number as well as with a decrease in channel slope. On a negative slope, the Froude number increases as the bore propagates along the channel, and decreases for a positive slope. The theoretically based model is accurate and simple to estimate the celerity of the tidal bore progressing along a small slope channel.