Abstract
Gravity currents with various contrasting densities play a role in mass transport in a number of geophysical situations. The ratio of the density of the current, ρc, to the density of the ambient fluid, ρa, can vary between 100 and 103. In this paper, we present a numerical method of simulating gravity currents for a wide range of ρc/ρa using a shallow-water model. In the model, the effects of varying ρc/ρa are taken into account via the front condition (i.e., factors describing the balance between the driving pressure and the ambient resistance pressure at the flow front). Previously, two types of numerical models have been proposed to solve the front condition. These are referred to here as the Boundary Condition (BC) model and the Artificial Bed (AB) model. The front condition is calculated as a boundary condition at each time step in the BC model, whereas it is calculated by setting a thin artificial bed ahead of the front in the AB model. We assessed the BC and AB models by comparing their numerical results with the analytical results for a simple case of homogeneous currents. The results from the BC model agree well with the analytical results when ρc/ρa≲102, but the model tends to overestimate the speed of the front position when rho _{mathrm {c}}/rho _{mathrm {a}}gtrsim 10^{2}. In contrast, the AB model generates good approximations of the analytical results for rho _{mathrm {c}}/rho _{mathrm {a}}gtrsim 10^{2}, given a sufficiently small artificial bed thickness, but fails to reproduce the analytical results when ρc/ρa≲102. Therefore, we propose a numerical method in which the BC model is used for currents with ρc/ρa≲102 and the AB model is used for currents with rho _{mathrm {c}}/rho _{mathrm {a}}gtrsim 10^{2}.
Highlights
Gravity currents are flows driven by density differences between the current and the ambient fluid
The purpose of this study is to develop a numerical model of gravity currents for a wide range of ρc/ρa based on a shallow-water model
For simple initial and boundary conditions, analytical solutions of the shallow-water model for propagating gravity currents are available for a wide range of ρc/ρa (Ungarish 2007), and these analytical solutions have been verified by experimental measurements and direct numerical simulations using the Navier–Stokes equation (Bonometti and Balachandar 2010; Ungarish 2007)
Summary
Gravity currents are flows driven by density differences between the current and the ambient fluid. The purpose of this study is to develop a numerical model of gravity currents for a wide range of ρc/ρa based on a shallow-water model. For simple initial and boundary conditions, analytical solutions of the shallow-water model for propagating gravity currents are available for a wide range of ρc/ρa (Ungarish 2007), and these analytical solutions have been verified by experimental measurements and direct numerical simulations using the Navier–Stokes equation (Bonometti and Balachandar 2010; Ungarish 2007). A numerical model that is applicable for complex initial and boundary conditions is highly desirable for simulations of gravity currents for a wide range of ρc/ρa
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