Numerical Investigation Of Breaking Internal Waves On Slopes

Over the past fifty years, advancements in ocean instrumentation have led to fascinating observations of internal waves propagating, shoaling, and breaking in the coastal ocean. These observations have shown that breaking internal waves are likely important contributors to transport and mixing in coastal ecosystems, as well as to turbulent dissipation and mixing in the global ocean energy budget. However, much of the physics of internal waves, especially the process of breaking on slopes, remains poorly understood. Due to the limited spatial and temporal resolution of field observations in the ocean, many idealized laboratory and numerical experiments have also been used study internal waves. The primary goal of this dissertation is to use high-resolution, laboratory-scale numerical simulations to increase the current understanding of breaking internal waves on slopes. I take advantage of high-performance, parallel computing to resolve turbulent effects using direct numerical simulations (DNS), and focus on three specific aspects of internal wave breaking: dynamics, energetics, and transport.