The generation mechanism of tide-induced residual current will be clarified in this chapter.

Let
us consider the coastal sea where the water density is uniform, there is no wind, no river
discharge and no heat transfer through the sea surface and only tide and tidal current exist. We
decompose current and sea surface height variations in Eqs. (3.1) to (3.4) into the averaged
component (U, V, W, ) and the tidal component (u', v', w', ')
(6.1)
We subtitle (6.1) in Eqs. (3.1) to (3.5), take an average over one tidal cycle and obtain the
following equations:
(6.2)
(6.3)
(6.4)
(6.5)
Pressure gradient p is converted to because the density is uniform and vertical viscosity is
converted to R, linearized friction coefficient. The over-bar in Eq. (6.5) means the average over
one-tidal cycle and Sx and Sy are called the tidal stress. Eq. (6.2) and (6.3) show that the tidal
stress, which is generated by the non-linearity of the tidal current motion, induces the averaged
flow. The tide-induced residual flow is defined as the average flow generated by the non-linearity
of the tidal current which originally had a rectilinear flow and no averaged component.
It is difficult to imagine the generation mechanism of tide-induced residual flow from Eqs. (6.2)
and (6.3). Tidal current is essentially a divergence motion; i.e. the sea surface rises when the tidal
current converges and falls when the tidal current diverges. On the other hand, tide-induced
residual current is essentially a rotational motion; i.e. there is no divergence or convergence in
the tide-induced residual current motion and it forms eddies. Therefore, we can easily understand
the generation mechanism of tide-induced residual flow using the vorticity equation (Yanagi and
Yoshikawa, 1983).
The momentum and continuity equations of a tidal current in vector form are as follows,
(6.6)
(6.7)
We make the vorticity equation by applying the outside vector production to Eq. (6.6);
(6.8)
(6.9)

By transforming Eq. (6.8), we can obtain the following equation:

(6.10)
The left-hand side term in Eq. (6.10) shows the temporal change of vorticity accompanying the
motion of the water mass. The first term on the right-hand side shows the generation of vorticity
due to the conversation law of potential vorticity by the stretching or shrinking of the water
column. For example, the water column moving to a shallow area through the flood tidal current
gets negative vorticity but that moving to a deep area through the ebb tidal current gets positive
vorticity, as shown in Fig. 6.1. the second term on the right-hand side shows the dissipation of
vorticity due to the horizontal viscosity and the third term that due to the bottom stress. When we
consider the horizontal two-dimensional problem, the third term expresses the vorticity
dissipation. However, in the case of a vertical two-dimensional problem, the vorticity is
generated in the bottom viscous boundary layer, as shown in Fig. 6.2 by the vertical viscosity.
The fourth term means that the vorticity is generated by the torque of the bottom drag force due
to the horizontal gradient of the water depth. The vertically averaged bottom drag force becomes
large in the shallow region and the water column obtains positive vorticity in the case shown in
Fig. 6.3. when the water column flows in the opposite direction, it obtains negative vorticity. The
second term on the right-hand side also expresses the vorticity generation by separation at the
head of the cape, as shown in Fig. 6.4.
Fig. 6.1 Generation of tidal vorticity due to the conservation law of potential vorticity.
Fig. 6.2 Generation of tidal vorticity in the viscous boundary layer.
Fig. 6.3 Generation of tidal vorticity due to the torque of bottom frictional stress.
Fig. 6.4 Generation of tidal vorticity by the separation at the head of the cape.
In such a case, the vorticity is given at one point or along the coast as a boundary condition of
the vorticity equation written in Eq. (6.10)
We drive the fluctuations of current, vorticity and water level into averaged and tidal components
in order to investigate the change of tidal vorticity of tide-induced residual flow as follows:
(6.11)
Substituting Eq. (6.11) into Eq. (6.10) and taking the average over one-tidal cycle, we can obtain
the equations
(6.12)
(6.13)

Ftt denotes the residual vorticity component of the tidal stress Sx and Sy, and the vorticity
transfer from the tidal current to the tide-induced residual flow. Frr means the redistribution of
residual vorticity by the tide-induced residual flow itself. Equations (6.12) means that the
transfer of tidal vorticity to the residual flow field by the nonlinear function of the tidal current
motion is balanced with the redistribution of residual vorticity by the residual flow itself and the
vorticity dissipation by the horizontal and vertical viscosity. Equation (6.13) means that the
convergence or divergence of averaged tidal vorrticity over a tidal cycle is necessary for the
generation of residual vorticity. We assume the viscous boundary layer shown in Fig. 6.5 to be
one example. The negative vorticity is generated at the flood tidal current and the positive one at
the ebb tidal current and the negative vorticity flux is obtained by averaging over one-tidal cycle
in the viscous boundary layer. However, the tide-induced residual flow is not generated under
this condition. When we consider the bay head as shown in Fig. 6.6, the averaged vorticity flux
over one-tidal cycle in the viscous boundary layer is not the same horizontally, i.e. the tidal
current and the vorticity flux become smaller near the bay head. Therefore, divergence of
negative vorticity flux occurs in the viscous boundary layer and results in the generation of a
clockwise residual circulation, as shown in Fig. 6.6.
Fig. 6.5 Tidal vorticity flux and averaged vorticity flux over one tidal cycle in the viscous
boundary layer.
Fig. 6.6 Convergence and divergence of averaged vorticity flux over one tidal cycle in the case
where the viscous boundary layer has a wall (a) and a generated tide-induced residual current (b).
Fig. 6.7 Only a simple tidal current (full line) exists in the case of a rectangular basin (a) but a
tide-induced residual circulation (broken line) is generated by the accumulation of tidal vorticity
in the case where a cape exists at the center of the rectangular basin (b)
Fig. 6.8
Fig. 6.9 Tide-induced residual flow in the case where Miyano Strait is closed (a) and that in the
case where the Hurushima strait is closed (b) (Yanagi and Yasuda, 1977).
Fig. 6.10 (a) Calculated maximum ebb tidal current in Osaka Bay, (b) calculated tidal stress
using the tidal current shown in Figs. 6.10(a) and (c) tide-induced residual current using tidal
stress shown in Fig. 6.10(b) (Yanagi and Takahashi, 1995)
The speed of tide-induced residual current generated by the mechanisms shown in Figs. 6.1 to
6.3 is very small and Frr is also small compared to F tt. However, Frr is nearly balanced with Ftt
near the tip of the cape and Frr is balanced with the vorticity dissipation due to the viscosity in
the central bay in the case shown in Fig. 6.7 where the tidal vorticity generated at the tip of the
cape accumulates in the bay and generates a strong tide-induced residual circulation there. Frr
plays a very important role in such a case (Yanagi, 1976; Oonishi, 1977).

Tide-induced residual flow is very stable throughout the year because the tidal current is also
stable, although wind-driven currents and density-driven currents, which are the other two main
components of the residual flow in the coastal sea, are very unstable.
The horizontal distribution of observed residual flows in the upper layer of Kasado Bay, in the
western part of the Seto Inland Sea, Japan and the results of current measurements over a 15 day
period at Stn.K-1 in the northern part of Kasado Bay are shown in Fig. 6.8 (Yanagi, 1977). A
strong tide-induced residual circulation is generated by the mechanism shown in Fig. 6.4 in
Kasado Bay where tide-induced residual flows have nearly the same directions in the upper and
lower layers but the magnitude in the upper layer is a little larger than that in the lower layer.
Tide-induced residual flow is intensified during the spring tide and weakened during the neap
tide. The hydraulic model experiment of Yanagi and Yasuda (1977) reproduces well the observed
tide-induced residual flow in Kasado Bay. Other hydraulic experiments were carried out to
investigate the generation mechanism of strong tide-induced residual flow in Kasado Bay. The
dominant tide-induced residual flow is not generated in the case where the Miyano Strait is
closed (Fig. 6.9(a)) but it is intensified approximately two times in the case where the Hurushima
Strait is closed (Fig. 6.9(b)). Tides in the bay are the same in both cases. These results suggest
that the Miyano Strait is the origin of the strong tide-induced residual flow in Kasado Bay and
the possibility of artificial control of tide-induced residual flow in the field.
A similar strong tide-induced residual flow is generated in Osaka Bay at the eastern part of the
Seto Inland Sea, Japan, by separation of the tidal eddy at the tip of the Akashi Strait, as shown in
Fig. 6.10. In order to reproduce this tide-induced residual flow using numerical model, we first
reproduce the three dimensional tidal current in the bay, as shown in Fig. 6.10(a), using Eqs.
(3.1), (3.2) and (3.5) and calculate the tidal stress, using this calculated tidal current, from Eq.
(6.5). the tidal stress is large near the Akashi Strait where the tidal current is strong and the
horizontal and vertical geometries are complex, as shown in Fig. 6.10(b). The calculated tideinduced residual current in the upper layer, using of Eqs. (6.2) to (6.4), is shown in Fig. 6.10(c)
and reproduces well the observed residual flow (Yanagi and Takahashi, 1994).