Shear Production and Dissipation in a Stratified Tidal Flow

The long term goal of this work is to understand the physics of turbulent stratified shear flows as might be found in coastal regions and estuaries where both shear and stratification are strong. It is our hypothesis that turbulence under these conditions of active generation may function in a way that is fundamentally different from weak turbulence below the thermocline (or above the bottom mixed layer) in the ocean. We anticipate that such an understanding will permit the development of accurate predictive models of turbulence dynamics for energetic coastal flows. We are also interested in how stratification of these flows affects sediment dynamics.