Author(s): Maria Rita Maggi; Giovanni Di Lollo; Claudia Adduce
Linked Author(s): Claudia Adduce, Maria Rita Maggi
Keywords: No Keywords
Abstract: Hydrostatic imbalance of two adjacent fluids with density differences associated with temperature, salinity or sediment concentration gradients often trigger the formation of gravity currents. Such phenomena play a pivotal role in various geophysical and engineering applications, impacting atmospheric, terrestrial, and subaqueous environments. After the influential analysis of Benjamin (1968) many studies examined gravity current flow over a horizontal surface in a uniform ambient. However, in natural environments, the passage of gravity current propagation is often not flat but is rather uneven and the dynamics of the dense flow is strongly controlled by topographic features. As a result, the problem of gravity currents propagating through channels obstructed by finite-size patches of obstacles has garnered increasing attention. Surprisingly, despite this growing interest, there has been relatively less emphasis on the experimental analysis of the mixing processes within these currents. In the present study, we investigate experimentally the evolution of bottom-propagating gravity currents in the presence of an array of submerged cylindrical obstacles, using an innovative image analysis technique based on light reflection to evaluate the instantaneous density fields.
Year: 2024