Effect of thermal turbulent mixing on frontogenesis of sea breeze gravity current

A sea breeze was simulated in a water tank to examine the detailed flow structure of the sea breeze and to investigate the effect of thermal heating from the ground on its development and propagation. Surface heating causes the density difference that establish the sea breeze but at the same time it serves to dissipate the flow by inducing turbulent mixing. In order to identify the contribution of each force on the frontal development of the sea breeze, governing dimensionless groups were defined from the momentum equation and their relationships were correlated using laboratory and atmospheric data of the sea breeze. A critical condition was found that when a convective velocity scale, which characterizes intensity of the turbulent mixing, was of order 5 times more than the horizontal buoyancy velocity scale, which represents intensity of density driven horizontal flow, the turbulent mixing inhibited frontal development of the sea breeze.