An experimental study of the motion of an internal solitary wave over a bottom ridge in a stratified fluid

A series of laboratory experiments has been carried out to investigate the interaction of an internal solitary wave of depression with a bottom ridge in a two-layer stratified fluid system. Density, velocity and vorticity fields induced by the wave propagation have been measured upstream, downstream and above the ridge, over a wide range of model parameters. The results show for cases in which the upper layer is stably-stratified that wave breaking may occur for large wave amplitude and strong blockage effect of the ridge. Consequently, mixing and overturning events take place, as measured with the use of an array of microconductivity probes. Some calculations, such as the buoyancy anomaly, the mixedness parameter, are carried out based on the measured density profiles.