CURRENT PROFILE ANALYSIS

Bagoes Dwi Ramdhani

Faculty of Earth Sciences and Technology, Institute of Technology, Bandung, Indonesia
bagoesdwiramdhani@students.itb.ac.id

The purpose of this articel is analyze the ability of the current profile model equation by relate temporal evolution of
current speed and tide on the field. Tidal current is the periodic horizontal flow of water accompanying the rise and fall
of the tide. Tidal current flow in from open water during the flood stage and out during the ebb stage . These currents
have different speed and direction for each layer. Currents flow faster in layers near the surface and decrease
logarithmically when approaching the seabed because of friction and at the same time applies shear stress to the seabed.

By using MATLAB software to calculated and modeled the concept to see variation of current speed. Later on, it can be
used to determine the shear stress working on the seabed. The equation to determine current speed is shown below:

u z=

where

U
U
ln ( z ) ln ( z 0)

u z is speed in m/s,

meter when the speed is 0 m/s, and

can be calculated with:
2

b = u

Where

b = shear stress and

is shear velocity in m/s,

(1)

is Karmans constant equal to 0.4,

z0 is height in

z is the height in meter when there is a speed working on it. After that, shear stress

(2)

= water density. Also verify that the depth averaged speed of current () is equal

to speed at 40% of water column height. From the equation (1) can be expressed as linier regression equation by let the
uz becomes y, u*/ becomes A, ln(z) becomes x, and u*/ ln(z0) becomes B :

y= Ax+ B

(3)

Where y is dependent variable, x is independent variable, A is slope, and B is intercept. Once U* and z0 are known,
compare the theoretical current profile from Equation 1 with current profile from observation. After all of the calculation
is done, plot the value from currentprofile.dat and tidalstream.dat to analyze the relation of variation of shear
velocity with tide. Data used is from June 23th, 2009 at 14:00 and June 24th, 2009 at 01:00. The graphic of model and
actual data is shown in Figure 1.

(a)
(b)
(c)
Figure 1. Model and Actual Current Profiles from currentprofile.dat (a),June 23th, 2009 at 14:00 (b), and June 24th,
2009 at 01:00 (c) from tidalstream.dat.
From Figure 1 (a), model equation (1) can be used to represent logarithmic variation from current observation. Figure 1
(b) and (c) show that shear velocity is slower when ebbing and vice versa due to turning flow from water from ebb to
flood. Water density is 1029 kg/m3, shear stress (b) from June 23th at 14:00 is 0.59 kg/ms2 and from June 24th at 01:00 is
5.91 kg/ms2, it is become bigger during the flood midnight. Depth-averaged speed of current () from these 3 cases is
close to velocity at 40% height from seabed (u 8) which currentprofile.dat have = 1.0019 m/s and u8= 1.01 m/s, June
23th, 2009 at 14:00 have = 0.107 m/s and u8= 0.04 m/s and June 24th, 2009 at 01:00 have = 0.363 m/s and u8= 0.470
m/s. The variation of residual caused by the ability of model equation that cannot make sure have same directional of
() and (u8). From explain above we can conclude that theoritical model is quietly enough satisfiying and better
agreement to aproximation by the data on the field.