A study of tides, setup and bottom friction in a shallow semi-enclosed basin. Part II. Tidal model and comparism with data.

Abstract

This is the second in a series of papers reporting the results of a study of tides, setup and bottom friction in the BightofAbaco, Bahamas. The extensive field data reported in Part I of the series (Filloux and Snyder, 1979) are compared with tidal computations using a modified elliptic model first developed by Sidjabat (1970). This model, a multiconstituent generalisation of the harmonic method of Dronkers (1964), is based on a polynomial representation of the magnitude of the current which provides a tractable resolution of bottom friction, resulting in a coupled set of time-independent equations governing the individual constituents. This resolution naturally splits the bottom friction into a part which can be absorbed on the left-hand (operator) side of the constituent equations and a part which can be treated as multilinear source terms on the right-hand side. The contribution to the left-hand side is large enough that the resulting coupled set may be solved iteratively, converging rapidly. The method provides an efficient and physically transparent alternative to time-stepping methods, particularly for parameter studies such as that described in the paper. (A)