Inadequacy of fluvial energetics for describing gravity current autosuspension

Gravity currents, such as sediment-laden turbidity currents, are ubiquitous natural flows that are driven by a density difference. Turbidity currents have provided vital motivation to advance understanding of this class of flows because their enigmatic long run-out and driving mechanisms are not pro...

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Veröffentlicht in:Nature communications 2023-04, Vol.14 (1), p.2288-2288, Article 2288
Hauptverfasser: Fukuda, Sojiro, de Vet, Marijke G. W., Skevington, Edward W. G., Bastianon, Elena, Fernández, Roberto, Wu, Xuxu, McCaffrey, William D., Naruse, Hajime, Parsons, Daniel R., Dorrell, Robert M.
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:Gravity currents, such as sediment-laden turbidity currents, are ubiquitous natural flows that are driven by a density difference. Turbidity currents have provided vital motivation to advance understanding of this class of flows because their enigmatic long run-out and driving mechanisms are not properly understood. Extant models assume that material transport by gravity currents is dynamically similar to fluvial flows. Here, empirical research from different types of particle-driven gravity currents is integrated with our experimental data, to show that material transport is fundamentally different from fluvial systems. Contrary to current theory, buoyancy production is shown to have a non-linear dependence on available flow power, indicating an underestimation of the total kinetic energy lost from the mean flow. A revised energy budget directly implies that the mixing efficiency of gravity currents is enhanced. This study shows that the total energy loss of gravity currents has a non-linear dependence on the work required to keep sediment in suspension, highlighting the importance of large-scale mixing for the particulate transport of gravity currents.
ISSN:2041-1723
2041-1723
DOI:10.1038/s41467-023-37724-1