What is Tide-Induced Residual Current?

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Abstract
We carried out a numerical experiment to study the velocity field of a two-dimensional tidal current in a simple model basin with a narrow strait. It was found that the tide-induced transient eddy (TITE) originated from the low pressure area that is generated downstream behind a headland by the nonlinearity or the centrifugal force of the tidal current flowing with a large curvature through a narrow channel. The transient eddy is maintained during certain phases of the tide, and therefore the Eulerian tide-induced residual current is the result of the averaging process of transient phenomena; the Eulerian residual current is only a mathematical representation of the tide-induced transient eddy and has no physical reality. We should abandon the concept of residual velocity. The lifetime of TITE depends on the magnitude of vorticity and its dissipation. In an inner basin with large bottom friction, the eddy diminishes within a short time (one or two hours) after the generation, and the pressure gra... Abstract We carried out a numerical experiment to study the velocity field of a two-dimensional tidal current in a simple model basin with a narrow strait. It was found that the tide-induced transient eddy (TITE) originated from the low pressure area that is generated downstream behind a headland by the nonlinearity or the centrifugal force of the tidal current flowing with a large curvature through a narrow channel. The transient eddy is maintained during certain phases of the tide, and therefore the Eulerian tide-induced residual current is the result of the averaging process of transient phenomena; the Eulerian residual current is only a mathematical representation of the tide-induced transient eddy and has no physical reality. We should abandon the concept of residual velocity. The lifetime of TITE depends on the magnitude of vorticity and its dissipation. In an inner basin with large bottom friction, the eddy diminishes within a short time (one or two hours) after the generation, and the pressure gra...

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