Growth and decay of turbulence in a stably stratified shear flow

Abstract

The behaviour of an evolving, stably stratified turbulent shear flow was investigated in a ten-layer, closed-loop, salt-stratified water channel. Simultaneous single-point measurements of the mean and fluctuating density and longitudinal and vertical velocities were made over a wide range of downstream positions. For strong stability, i.e. a mean gradient Richardson number Ri greater than a critical value of Ricr ≈ 0.25, there is no observed growth of turbulence and the buoyancy effects are similar to those in the unsheared experiments of Stillinger, Helland & Van Atta (1983) and Itsweire, Helland & Van Atta (1986). For values of Richardson number less than Ricr the turbulence grows at a rate depending on Ri and for large evolution times the ratio between the Ozmidov and turbulent lengthscale approaches a constant value which is also a function of Richardson number.Normalized velocity and density power spectra for the present experiments conform to normalized spectra from previous moderate- to high-Reynolds-number studies. With increasing or decreasing stability, the stratified shear spectra exhibit greater portions of the universal non-stratified spectrum curve. The shapes of the shear-stress and buoyancy-flux cospectra confirm that they act as sources and sinks for the velocity and density fluctuations.