Surface gravity waves and internal waves are two of the most common natural phenomena in the ocean. While oceanographers believe that internal waves have greater influence over the surface waves, if is not clear to what extent that the former have affected the latter. As an internal wave propagating in the ocean, short period flow could be induced on the free surface layer. Moreover, as internal waves propagating over a submarine ridge, internal breaking accompanying by large vortex may have occurred, which may also affect the properties of the surface waves. To prove the relationship between them, basic mathematical equations have been derived, but had never been proven in the laboratory experiments or field observations.
In this thesis, the results of a series of laboratory experiments conducted at the National Sun Yen-sen University are employed to study the waveform evolution and change to the physical parameters of the surface waves, resulting from the generation of internal waves induced on a stratified fluid, as both propagate together above a plane bottom or across single ridge. These experiments were carried out in a stratified two-layer fresh/brine water system (upper layer with fresh water density 996 kg / m3; bottom layer brine water with 1030 kg / m3) in a steel framed wave tank of 12m long with cross-section of 0.7 m high by 0.5 m wide. A plunging-type wave maker was used to produce the designated surface waves, from which the internal waves were induced at the interface.
Based on the experimental results in the fluid system with uniform density, wave height and period of the surface wave were first calibrated. It was found that the amplitude of a surface wave decreased first due to the breaking of the internal wave on the apex of a submerged ridge and then increased due to wave regeneration at the back of the ridge, when the surface wave propagated over single ridge. Beyond the ridge, the peak period with maximum energy associated with the transmitted wave remained almost the same with that of the incident waves. In a stratified fluid system, wave height of the surface waves and internal waves did not suffer much change but the peak period of a surface wave increased as an internal wave just across the apex of the obstacle, under a condition referred to as weaken interaction between the waves and the obstacle. For the intense wave breaking condition at the interface, wave height of the internal waves decreased and the period of surface waves or internal waves shortened. However, wave height of the surface wave above the apex of the obstacle increased due to the intense wave breaking.
The results obtained from the present laboratory experiments on the interaction between a surface wave and the induced internal wave could benefit others interested in surface and internal wave interaction for practical applications in oceanography or numerical modeling.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:NSYSU/oai:NSYSU:etd-0725109-075310 |
| Date | 25 July 2009 |
| Creators | Lai, Keng-chen |
| Contributors | Ming-Kuang Hsu, Rong-Chung Hsu, Yu-Huai Wang |
| Publisher | NSYSU |
| Source Sets | NSYSU Electronic Thesis and Dissertation Archive |
| Language | Cholon |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | http://etd.lib.nsysu.edu.tw/ETD-db/ETD-search/view_etd?URN=etd-0725109-075310 |
| Rights | campus_withheld, Copyright information available at source archive |
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