Enhanced mixing downstream of a pile in an estuarine flow

We studied the impact on stratification and mixing of a bridge pile in a stratified shear flow at the Western Bridge of the Great Belt Fixed Link, Denmark, in January and April 2006. Stratification was measured with high horizontal resolution by towed CTD chains and dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy was measured by a free-falling MSS 90 microstructure profiler equipped with shear probes. Background stratification and current were measured by standard CTD and a bottom-mounted ADCP, respectively. The spatial and temporal variability of the flow field close behind a single pile was measured by an ADCP mounted on a small catamaran tethered to this pile. A shear background flow of varying strength was observed with an inflow of up to 80 cm s− 1 in the surface layer and an outflow of 10 cm s− 1 in the bottom layer. The brackish surface layer was separated from the saline Kattegat water in the bottom layer by an intermediate layer resulting in a Brunt–Väisälä frequency of up to 100 cycles per hour (cph). The maximum Reynolds number (Re) and internal Froude number (Fr) were 4.6 × 106 and 1.3, respectively. Eddies occurred downstream of a pile with a characteristic diameter of the pile and a frequency corresponding to a von Kármán vortex street when near-surface Fr > 0.7. Enhanced mixing was observed in the von Kármán vortex streets, which caused an increase in salinity by a few psu in the surface mixed layer of the eddy up to 400 m downstream of the piles. Differential advection by cross-channel circulation smeared out laterally from the wakesʹ salinity anomalies and turbulence. The dissipation of turbulent kinetic energy in the intermediate layer increased by an order of magnitude downstream of the piles as a function of Fr when Fr > 0.7. This enhanced mixing reduced the mean potential energy anomaly downstream by some 10 Jm− 3 in the upper 15 m depth and caused an upstream-directed baroclinic pressure gradient of the same order as the barotropic pressure gradient, which forced reversed flow in the bottom layer.