Vertical mixing processes due to waves and currents

Investigations reported relate to a series of hydrodynamic and fluorometric tracer experiments undertaken on a large scale wave-current facility. Detailed measurements were made under controlled laboratory conditions using non-intrusive measurement techniques, to elucidate the magnitude of vertical mixing under a wave-current environment. Results are presented for a current only and a wave-current condition. The spatial vertical concentration distributions, measured for the current only condition indicate that the vertical mixing can be adequately described by conventional mixing theories. The addition of waves onto the current only condition results in additional mixing mechanisms which increase the vertical mixing.