Observational study on drag reduction of continental-shelf bottom boundary layer

Long-term and high-frequency observing of the oceanic bottom boundary layer was implemented using a seabed-mounted tripod equipped with multiple high-frequency instruments in a semidiurnal tide-dominated channel around the Zhoushan Islands, China. The estimated turbulent parameters, e.g., turbulent intensity, friction velocity, and bottom drag coefficient, varied with quarter-diurnal frequency. The amplitudes of turbulent intensity, bottom stress, and friction velocity were larger in spring tide than those in neap tide. As the Reynolds number increased from 103 to 105, the measured bottom drag coefficient initially increased, peaked at a Reynolds number of approximately 1.4 × 105, and then decreased. The observed drag reduction is similar to the variations of drag coefficient of cross-flow around a circular cylinder and the fluid friction of the pipe flow in the transitional state, which can provide a necessary and important proof for further theoretical and experimental investigations. Several plausible explanations are raised for this reduction: the stratification caused by the gradient of salinity or sediment suspension and the occurrence of recirculation vortices generated by seabed topography.