Evaluation of M-Y closure model in tidal estuary with turbulence data from high-resolution current profiler

A high-resolution current profiler (HRCP), which belongs to a pulse-to-pulse coherent Doppler sonar, has been used to measure accurate vertical profiles of turbulence parameters, such as the Reynolds stresses, eddy viscosity, production and dissipation rates, etc., and to test the parameterization of dissipation rate and eddy viscosity. The HRCP and automatic ascending/descending CTD are deployed in a tidal shallow estuary. The current near the bed during the ebb tide is smaller than during the flood tide. Thus, the bed-generated turbulence during the ebb is weak compared with that during the flood. The velocity profiles are almost linear during the ebb, whereas the profiles fit to a logarithmic form during the flood. The rate of TKE production is not balanced by dissipation even near the bottom. The constant of proportionality B-1 in the dissipation model is much larger than 16.6 used in M-Y model. The results of numerical simulation using M-Y model are compared with the mean and turbulence data deduced by HRCP.