Detailed observations of the structure within internal solitary waves propagating shoreward over Oregon's continental shelf reveal the evolving nature of interfaces as they become unstable and break, creating turbulent flow. A persistent feature is high acoustic backscatter beginning in the vicinity of the wave trough and continuing through its trailing edge and wake. This is demonstrated to be due to enhanced density microstructure. Increased small-scale strain ahead of the wave trough compresses select density interfaces, thereby locally increasing stratification. This is followed by a sequence of overturning, high-density microstructure, and turbulence at the interface, which is coincident with the high acoustic backscatter. The Richardson number estimated from observations is larger than 1/4, indicating that the interface is stable. However, density profiles reveal these preturbulent interfaces to be O(10 cm) thick, much thinner than can be resolved with shipboard velocity measurements. By assuming that streamlines parallel isopycnals ahead of the wave trough, a velocity profile is inferred in which the shear is sufficiently high to create explosively growing, small wavelength shear instabilities. It is argued that this is the generation mechanism for the observed turbulence and hence the persistent structure of high acoustic backscatter in these internal solitary waves.

This is a theoretical and experimental study of the basic hydraulics of two flowing layers. Unlike single-layer flows, two-layer flows respond quite differently to bottom depth as opposed to width variations. Bottom-depth changes affect the lower layer directly and the upper layer only indirectly. Changes in width can affect both layers. In fact for flows through a contraction control two distinct flow configurations are possible; which one actually occurs depends on the requirements of matching a downstream flow. Two-layer flows can pass through internally critical conditions at other than the narrowest section. When the two layers are flowing in the same direction, the result is a strong coupling between the two layers in the neighbourhood of the control. For contractions a particularly simple flow then exists upstream in which there is no longer any significant interfacial dynamics; downstream in the divergent section the flow remains internally supercritical, causing one of the layers to be rapidly accelerated with a resulting instability at the interface. A brief discussion of internal hydraulic jumps based upon the energy equations as opposed to the more traditional momentum equations is included. Previous uniqueness problems are thereby avoided.

The gravitational exchange of two fluids with different densities between reservoirs connected by a channel of constant depth and slowly varying breadth is analysed as a problem of internal hydraulics. It is shown that maximal two-way exchange with a net barotropic flow requires the presence of two controls, one at the narrrowest section and a second or ‘virtual’ control lying to one side of the narrowest section. The two controls are connected by a subcritical region, but are separated from subcritical conditions in the reservoirs by supercritical flow and stationary internal bores. Solutions are found for maximal exchange without a net barotropic component, in which case the problem is similar to that first examined by Stommel & Farmer (1953). The Stommel & Farmer analysis is shown to be a rather special limiting example of submaximal exchange, not generally applicable to natural flows. The addition of a net barotropic flow yields a range of different flow types, including maximal exchange, one-layer baroclinic flow, one-layer barotropic flow, submaximal flow governed by a reservoir condition and two-layer unidirectional flow. The maximal-exchange solution is integrated for periodic barotropic flow.

The analysis of two-layer exchange flow through contractions with a barotropic component treated by Armi & Farmer (1986) is extended to include exchange flows over sills and through a combination of a sill and contraction. It is shown that exchange over a sill is fundamentally different from exchange through a contraction. Control at the sill crest acts primarily through the deeper layer into which the sill projects and only indirectly controls the surface layer. This asymmetry in the control results in asymmetrical flows. The interface depth above the crest is not one half the total depth, as assumed in other studies by analogy with flow through contractions, but is somewhat deeper; the maximal exchange rate is less than for flow through a contraction of equal depth. When both a sill and a contraction are present, the contraction influences control at the sill crest only if it lies between the sill and the source of denser water. The response to barotropic flow is also asymmetrical: the transition to single-layer flow occurs at much lower speeds for a barotropic component in one direction than the other.Results of the analysis are applied to exchange flow through the Strait of Gibraltar, which includes both a sill and a contraction. It is shown that maximal exchange conditions apply throughout part of the tidal cycle, and observations illustrate several of the analytical predictions for barotropic flows, including the formation of fronts, single-layer flow, submaximal exchange and reverse flow.

Stratified flow over topography is examined in the context of its establishment from rest. A key element of numerical and steady-state analytical solutions for large amplitude topographic flow is the splitting of streamlines, which then enclose a trapped wedge of mixed fluid above the rapidly moving deeper layer. Measurements have been acquired that illustrate the development of this wedge and the role played by small-scale instabilities and mixing formed initially by the acceleration of subcritical stratified flow over the obstacle crest. The volume of trapped fluid progressively increases with time, permitting the primary flow to descend beneath it over the lee face of the obstacle. Throughout the evolution of this flow, small-scale instability and consequent entrainment would seem to be a prime candidate for producing the weakly stratified wedge, thus allowing establishment of the downslope flow to take place. Velocity structure of instabilities within the entrainment zone is observed and the associated entrainment rate determined. The entrainment is sufficient to produce a slow downstream motion within the upper layer and a density step between the layers that decreases with downstream distance. The resulting internal hydraulic response is explained in terms of a theory that accommodates the spatially variable density difference across the sheared interface. The measurements described here were acquired in a coastal inlet subject to gradually changing tidal currents. It is proposed that the observed mechanism for flow establishment also has application to atmospheric flow over mountains.