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Gravity currents in rotating, wedge-shaped, adverse channels

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Abstract

Results are presented from a series of parametric experimental and analytical studies of the behaviour of dense gravity currents along rotating, up-sloping, wedge-shaped channels. High resolution density profile measurements at fixed cross- and along-channel locations reveal the outflowing bottom gravity currents to adjust to quasi-steady, geostrophically-balanced conditions along the channels, with the outflow layer thickness and cross-channel interface slope shown to scale with the inlet Burger number for all experimental conditions tested. A general analytical solution to the classic rotating hydraulics problem has been developed under the assumption of inviscid, zero-potential-vorticity conditions to model dense water flow through a triangular constriction and thus simulate the vee-channel configurations under consideration. Predictions from this zero-PV model are shown to provide good overall quantitative agreement with experimental measurements obtained both under hydraulically-controlled conditions at the channel exit and for subcritical conditions generated along the channel length. Quantitative discrepancies between measurements and analytical predictions are attributed primarily to assumptions and limitations associated with the zero-PV modelling approach adopted, as well as the to the rapid adjustment in outflow characteristics as the channel exit is approached, as characterised by the along-channel variation in densimetric Froude number for the outflows.

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Acknowledgments

This work was supported by the Natural Environment Research Council (NERC) under the Strategic Ocean Funding Initiative (SOFI) programme. Collaborative research between Heriot-Watt, Dundee, Stockholm and Tallinn was supported through a Royal Society of Edinburgh International Exchange grant awarded to AJSC and a Distinguished Visiting Fellowship awarded to JL from The Royal Academy of Engineering (UK) tenable at the University of Dundee.

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Author notes

  1. A. J. S. Cuthbertson

    Present address: Institute of Infrastructure and Environment, Heriot Watt University, Edinburgh, EH14 4AS, UK

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Civil Engineering, University of Dundee, Dundee, DD1 4HN, UK

    A. J. S. Cuthbertson & P. A. Davies

  2. Department of Meteorology/Oceanography, Stockholm University, 10691 , Stockholm, Sweden

    P. Lundberg

  3. Department of Mechanics, Tallinn University of Technology, Ehitajate tee 5, 19086 , Tallinn, Estonia

    J. Laanearu

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  1. A. J. S. Cuthbertson
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  2. P. Lundberg
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  3. P. A. Davies
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  4. J. Laanearu
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Correspondence to A. J. S. Cuthbertson.

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Cuthbertson, A.J.S., Lundberg, P., Davies, P.A. et al. Gravity currents in rotating, wedge-shaped, adverse channels. Environ Fluid Mech 14, 1251–1273 (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-013-9285-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10652-013-9285-4

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