On the application of a turbulence closure modified model to the description of the density jump evolution in a stably stratified medium

Abstract

The self-similar turbulent density jump evolution has been studied in the scope of a turbulence closure modernized theory which takes into account the anisotropy and mutual transformation of the turbulent fluctuation kinetic and potential energy for a stably stratified fluid. The numerical calculation, performed using the equations for the average density and kinetic and potential energies of turbulent fluctuations, indicates that the vertical profiles of the buoyancy frequency, turbulence scale, and kinetic and potential energies drastically change when the turbulence anisotropy is strong. The vertical profiles of the corresponding energy and spatial discontinuity parameters, calculated at a weaker anisotropy, indicate that similar drastic changes are absent and a qualitative agreement exists with the known analytical solution, which describes the density jump evolution in a freshwater basin and was obtained previously [5, 8] in the scope of a turbulence local-similarity hypothesis applied in combination with the budget equation for the turbulent fluctuation kinetic energy.