The effects of a time-varying source upon the motion of a continuous saline underflow

FERNANDEZ, ROCIO; IMBERGER, JORG

Venecia, Italia

Congreso; XXXII Congreso Internacional de Hidraulica; 2007

IAHR

This paper describes a laboratory investigation of a continuous-fed gravity current moving down an inclined plane into a stratified ambient fluid; the source density decreasing linearly with time, initially larger and finally smaller than the bottom ambient density. Within the stratified flume the inflowing water was observed to follow both underflowing and intrusive flow regimes. Hence, as the density of the inflow reduced with time, the front of the underflow decelerated and its body was observed to split into multiple intrusions along the incline. These laboratory observations show that, even where the fluid input is continuous, underflows fed by an unsteady source may propagate with a decelerating front in an analogous way that particle-driven currents.