CHAPTER 2

TIDAL PHENOMENON

2.1

INTRODUCTION

On the shores of an ocean, the water level rises and falls-a fluctuation that
occurs twice each day, that is, semidiurnal, or more precisely, twice each 24 h,
50min, and 28s-the apparent period of rotation of the moon. Primarily due
to the upward gravitational pull of the moon, the water level will gradually
rise until it reaches its highest point, termed high water and then fall untill it
reaches its lowest point, or low water, when it turns and rises again. The dif

ference between these two points is called the range of the tide.
Also, where there is a long bay, an estuary or a river mouth on the coast, the
water, when high, will flow inland into it and, when low, it will flow out again.
The inflow during the rise of the tide is known as the flood, and the outflow
during the fall of the tide is known as the ebb. Slack water occurs at the top
of the tide and at the bottom. Thus, there are two distinct movements that
are ordinarily included by the word tide: A vertical rise and fall in the level of
the water that is the tide proper, and its horizontal flow in the two directions,
ebb and flow, alternately, distinguished by the term tidal stream. It is impor
tant to distinguish clearly between these two distinct aspects. The direction
and velocity of the tidal stream at the site of a proposed power development
will have a decided influence on the design and construction of all permanent
works, as well as on the method and stages of construction.
As defined, the range of the tide is the difference in level between suc
cessive high and low waters. In any tidal power scheme it is the range of the
Elements of Tidal-Electric Engineering. By Robert H. Clark
Copyright 2007 the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Inc.
7

TIDAL PHENOMENON

tide that determines the potential head available for powering the turbines,
although the sluiceway capacity and operating characteristics of the develop
ment will have a bearing on the amount of this head that is effectively used.
The intimate relationship of the tides with the periodic movement of the
moon is well known, but the tidal phenomenon observed at different locations
is complex. Therefore, since the laws of the tidal cycle are of great importance
for the solution of the problem of tidal energy exploitation and utilization, the
basic concepts and terminology of tidal theory are discussed briefly here.
The amount of rise and fall of the tide is not the same everywhere; it
varies from almost nothing to a range of over 17 m in some locations. On
the other hand, in all parts of the world, the time of high water is not at the
same hour of the day but, on the average, it occurs about one hour later
from one day to the next and in a period of 14 to 15 days it comes around
to the same hour again. At every locality in every ocean there is also to be
found a well-marked variation in the range of the tide, which usually recurs
twice in the course of each month. This variation may be very different in
its character from region to region; for example, it may be a change in the
range of the tide from a large difference in level to a small difference, or
the two tides of the day are sometimes exactly equal in their range and
at another time one of the two is much greater than the other, alterna
tively. There are some localities where at certain times of the month the
tide becomes diurnal, that is, with only one high water and one low water
during the day, but the reason for such exceptions does not conflict with the
general principles. However, whatever the character of the variation may

be, the change always recurs in a period of either about 2 weeks or about a
month in every ocean.

2.2

OCEAN TIDES

The tide in the various oceans progresses through them as an undulation;

for example, the tide runs up the Atlantic Ocean as an undulation from
its southerly end between South America and Africa, to its northerly end
between Canada and Europe ( Dawson, 1920). The range of these oceanic
tides is usually not more than about 1 m.
The ocean tide is produced primarily by fluctuations in the resultant of the
several forces of gravity and of centrifrugal action caused by Earth's rotation
and by changes in the relative positions of earth, the moon, and the sun. Thus,
the force causing the tide at any point on Earth is substantially the resultant of
the attractive forces due to the moon and sun and the centrifugal force caused
by rotation of the Earth-moon system ( Dean, 1966). Because it is so much
nearer Earth than the sun, the moon exerts a much greater influence on the
tides than does the sun, despite its comparatively small size, since attractive
force is proportional to the inverse square of the distances between the bodies.
In theory, the solar tide is about 45 percent of the lunar, varying from about 38

TYPES OF TIDES

percent at perigee to about 52 percent at apogee (refer to Fig. 2.3). Hence, a

knowledge of the relative movements of the sun, moon, and Earth is necessary
for an understanding of the tides, and particularly of the variations in their
range that take place in a systematic manner over a long period of time.

2.3

TYPES OF TIDES

Every movement of the sun and moon has its effects on the tide but, in dif
ferent regions of the world, a particular movement of the moon may have a
dominating effect and others become of secondary importance. Moreover,
the relative influence of the sun and moon are different in different parts of
the world. Taking into account these variations, all tides may be grouped into
three principal types, according to the dominant feature they represent. These
three types are synodic, anomalistic, and declinational tides. Although one of
the variations may be dominant, the others are never entirely absent and may
be of sufficient magnitude to result in a mixed tide.
2.3.1

Synodic Tide

The synodic tide occurs when the dominant variation in the range of the tide
takes place twice a month; the range being greater at new and full moon and
less at the moon's quarters.
When Earth, sun, and moon are in the same straight line, which happens
about twice a month, the attractions of the moon and sun act together, and
the range of the tide is much greater than when the moon, Earth, and sun
are in quadrature. Thus, the time of the new moon and full moon produces
spring (or high) tides, and when the moon is at its quarters, neap (or low)
tides occur. These relationships are illustrated in Figs. 2.1 and 2.2. The time
from new moon to new moon is known as the synodic month. Because of the
moon's perturbations, that is, the irregularities in its movement due to the
sun's attraction, the exact length of the synodic month varies, but its average
value is 29.53 days.
2.3.2

Anomalistic Tide

The anomalistic tide results when the greatest variation in range accords with
the moon's distance and takes place once a month. (See Table 2.1.)
The path of the moon as it revolves around Earth is not circular but ellipti
cal. Moreover, Earth is not in the center of the ellipse, as might be supposed,
but is off center. Therefore, during each revolution of the moon around Earth,
there is one point, and one only, where the moon is nearest Earth. This is
known as perigee (Fig. 2.3). The point where the moon is farthest from Earth
is called apogee. The period of time from perigee to perigee is the anomalistic
month, which has an average length of 27.55 days.

10

TIDAL PHENOMENON

o
Figure 2.1

Full Moon
\

@V-;;2l
': ! I

Earth

Spring Tides

Origin of the tides.

:'-. --.....
{ii:

"Q

-----{
Thlrd Quarter

First Quarter

Earth

o New Moon
(

Sun
Spring Tide
Figure 2.2

Sun
Neap Tide
Conditions for spring and neap tides.

Although there do not appear to be any tides that are as purely of the
anomalistic type as those of the synodic type, there are regions where this
variation with the moon's distance is distinctly greater than the variation from
springs to neaps. This is the case in the Bay of Fundy as shown by the follow
ing table giving the variations at Saint John, New Brunswick, about half way

TYPES OF TIDES
TABLE 2.1

11

Comparison of Anomalistic and Synodic Effects

Saint John, N.B.
Range (m )

Description of Tide
At perigee: range at spring

Burntcoat Head

Difference

Range (m )

8.11

Difference

15.39

tides
At apogee: range at spring

6.07

2.04

12.25

1.59

11.82

3.14

tides
Mean spring range

7.09

Neap range at moon's

5.50

13.82
2.00

mean distance
Average range during mean

6.29

12.82

Source: From Dawson (1920).

Apogee

(diminished tides)

Perigee

(increased tides)
Figure 2.3

Anomalistic tidal variation.

along the bay, and at Burncoat Head in the upper reaches of the bay (refer
Fig. 16.7).
2.3.3

Declinational Tide

This type of tide results when the changes due to the moon's declination
(which makes the two tides of the day unequal in range) are so large and
obvious that all other features of the tide are obscured.
The position of the sun at its zenith varies from day to day. In the northern
hemisphere, it is higher in the summer than in the winter since the plane of
the equator does not coincide with the plane of Earth's orbit. This angular
position of the sun with respect to Earth's equator is called its declination. In
a precisely similar way, the position of the moon varies, resulting in the effects
illustrated in Fig. 2.4. The period of time that elapses between the successive
times that the sun crosses the equator in the same direction is, of course, about
one year, whereas for the moon, it is about one month or, more precisely, 27.32
days. This period is known as the tropical month.
In regions where the tides are dominated by the moon's declination, the
variations that result are greater than from any other movement of the moon
considered separately. When the sun and moon are on the equator, the two
tides of the day will be exactly equal in height. When they are not at the

12

TIDAL PHENOMENON

------------------{)
p
r------.

Semidiurnal

Diurnal

------

"._--+_ Diurnal Inequality

Figure 2.4

Effect of moon's declination.

appropriate declinations to balance their respective declinational influences,

there is a diurnal inequality.

2.4

PROPAGATION OF TIDES IN ESTUARIES

An estuary is small enough so as not to be subject to measurable tides on its

own account. When the tide leaves the open ocean and enters straits, inlets,
bays and, estuaries, it undergoes a change that is more closely related to the
laws of hydraulics and wave motion than to its astronomical aspects. An elabo
ration of the physical understanding of tidal flows in estuaries is presented by
Ippen and Harleman (1966).
Throughout the ocean, the tide is almost always a symmetrical undula
tion, having the same form as the long swell of the ocean; the summit of the
undulation causing high water and the trough causing low water. On entering
an estuary, the form of the undulation undergoes the same kind of modifica
tions as waves do in shallower water near the shore. The observed sea level is
raised and, depending upon the configuration of these inlets, the amplitude of
the tidal wave may be increased many times (the term tidal wave should not
be confused with the tsunami, a seismic phenomenon). Such a wave tends to
move along an estuary with a speed given by lid, where d = mean depth. To
illustrate this, if the mean depth of an estuary were SOm, then the wave length
L =wave period x speed =44,700 x 22.14 x 10-3 =900km (approx.). The period
of a semidiurnal ocean tide of 12 h and 2S min (12.42 h) is long enough to make
the wave length much longer than the physical length of an estuary. Although
most estuaries are shorter, one with a length that is about one-quarter the
wave length would invoke a resonance response so that the amplitude of the
tide could increase along the estuary by factors of four or more.

BARRAGE EFFECTS

13

For example, the overall resonant frequency of the Bay of Fundy is essential
to the production of the very high tidal amplitudes at the head of the bay (refer
to Fig. 7.3). The narrowing and shelving of the Bay of Fundy brings the whole
system from the Continental Shelf through the Gulf of Maine to the upper
reaches of the Bay of Fundy to near resonance with the semidiurnal tides.
From a comparison of the principal solar and lunar ecliptic tidal harmonics of
the Bay of Fundy/Gulf of Maine system with amplitudes in the North Atlantic
Ocean, it has been determined that the system behaves as if its natural period
were approximately 13 h. Thus, along the outer edges of George's Bank, the
oceanic tide has a mean range of about 1 m; at the mouth of the Bay of Fundy,
the tidal range has increased to about 3.5m (at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia), to
a mean range of about 13 m in Cobequid Bay and 10m in Cumberland Basin
(refer to Fig. 7.3). The tide at Cape Maringouin occurs about 40 min later than
at the mouth of the bay; within Minas Basin, the time of high water occurs
even 40min later than it does outside that basin.

2.5

CORIOLIS EFFECT

A body moving over Earth is deflected from a straight path relative to Earth's
surface because of Earth's rotation. In the northern hemisphere, the force
causing this deflection, known as the Coriolis force, is always to the right.
Thus, for example, the water in the Bay of Fundy tends to pile up earlier along
the Nova Scotia shoreline on the flood tide and thus has an influence on the
tidal range at a particular location.
The Coriolis force results from the conservation of angular momentum.
As a fluid stream moves north or south from the equator on the rotating
Earth, it moves nearer to Earth's axis and thus has an angular momentum
greater than that required. To conserve its angular momentum, its angular
velocity is increased, causing the stream to be deflected eastward until fric
tion and hydrostatic forces stabilize it. Similarly, as the stream moves toward
the equator, it moves away from the axis, requiring additional momentum
so it swings or slopes to the west. The term, 2wsin is known as the Coriolis
parameter, where w is the angular velocity of Earth's rotation about its axis
(7.27 x 10-5 rad/s) and is the latitude.

2.6

BARRAGE EFFECTS

The most important effect, from the point of view of tidal-electric engineer
ing, is that which a barrage or tidal development may have on the resonance
of an estuary. The barrage could increase the tides at the barrier because it
would bring the foreshortened estuary closer to resonance, or it could reduce
materially the tidal range by upsetting the natural resonant condition. Thus,
it is very important early in an investigation to be able to simulate the natural

14

TIDAL PHENOMENON

tidal regime and then to determine the effect on this regime by the placement
of a barrage at various locations within the estuary as well as by the operation
of the development.
The mathematical modeling of the tidal regime to determine the effects
of the construction and operation of a tidal-electric plant on that regime is
discussed in more detail in Chapter 7.