Unsteady turbulence, dynamic similarity and scale effects in bores and positive surges

Abstract

A tidal bore is a positive surge or compression wave formed in an estuarine system during the early flood tide under macro-tidal conditions. A series of physical experiments were conducted in a large facility to investigate the unsteady free-surface properties, velocity characteristics and Reynolds shear stresses. Both instantaneous and ensemble-averaged measurements were performed. The results demonstrated the intense turbulence and turbulent mixing under breaking and undular tidal bores. A range of dimensionless unsteady turbulent properties were carefully compared based upon both Froude and Morton similitudes with two different Reynolds number ranges. The data showed that several parameters were affected by scale effects, including velocity and Reynolds stress fluctuations during the bore propagation. The finding implies that laboratory study data might not be up-scaled to prototype conditions without some form of scale effects.