Gravity currents propagating up a slope.

• Author(s) / Creator(s)

  • Marleau, L. J.
  • Sutherland B.R.
  • Flynn, M.R.

• Bottom propagating gravity currents resulting from full- and partial-depth lock-release experiments are investigated as they approach and then propagate up a rising slope. Consistent with the prediction of a WKB-like theory, the gravity current front decelerates in a nearly uniform manner along the slope as 0.112g ′ s(D/H)(2 − D/H), in which g ′ is the reduced gravity, s is the slope, D is the initial lock-fluid height, and H is the ambient fluid height. The shape of the gravity current as it decelerates over relatively steep slopes is found to be self similar with a nearly linear decrease of the head height between the start of the slope and up to 80% of the distance to the nose. Some deviation from self-similar behaviour is found in cases with small s because of the comparatively large volume of fluid in the gravity current tail that flows downslope while the front continues to advance upwards.

• Date created

  2014

• Subjects / Keywords

  • Free surface
  • Viscosity
  • Flow instabilities
  • Electric measurements
  • Time series analysis

• Type of Item

  Article (Published)

• DOI

  https://doi.org/10.7939/R39G5GS9T

• License

  © 2014 L. J. Marleau et al. This version of this article is open access and can be downloaded and shared. The original author(s) and source must be cited.