Flow Past Mound-Bearing Impact Craters: An Experimental Study

Diego Gundersen,Gianluca Blois,Kenneth T Christensen

doi:10.3390/fluids6060216

Diego Gundersen, Gianluca Blois + Show 1 more

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https://doi.org/10.3390/fluids6060216

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Abstract

An experimental investigation into the flow produced by mound-bearing impact craters is reported herein. Both an idealized crater and a scaled model of a real martian crater are examined. Measurements were performed using high-resolution planar particle image velocimetry (PIV) in a refractive-index matching (RIM) flow environment. Rendering the crater models optically invisible with this RIM approach provided unimpeded access to the flow around and within each crater model. Results showed that the mean flow within the idealized crater exhibits more structural complexity compared to its moundless counterpart. Second-order statistics highlighted regions of minimal and elevated turbulent stresses, the latter of which revealed a complex interaction between shear layers that are present at the upstream and downstream parts of the rim and the central mound. Periodic vortex shedding of quasi-spanwise vortices from the upstream rim was revealed by POD-filtered instantaneous flow fields. Vertical flapping of this shear layer resulted in vortices occasionally impinging on the inner wall of the downstream rim. Further, conditional averaging analysis suggested periodic lateral oscillations of wall-normal vortices within the crater rim region reminiscent of those observed for flow inside spherical dimples. These results have implications for intra- to extra-crater mass and momentum exchange, and for sediment transport processes. Lastly, experiments with the Gale Crater model showed both similarities with and differences from the primary flow features found for the idealized model.

Highlights

Some of the richest records of Mars’s evolution are preserved in the sedimentary strata deposited within depressed topographic features, mostly represented by impact craters [1,2,3]
Our results suggest that turbulence drives the exchange of fluid across the shear layer by creating preferential mass and momentum exchange paths connecting the intracrater and extracrater flows
An experimental study of flow responding to mounded craters is presented in this paper

Summary

Introduction

Some of the richest records of Mars’s evolution are preserved in the sedimentary strata deposited within depressed topographic features, mostly represented by impact craters [1,2,3]. Attention has shifted towards craters that have central sedimentary mounds [6]. Less common, these craters are considered key to paleo-environmental reconstruction studies, as a valuable rock record is thought to be preserved within the crater floors and within the strata forming these unique sedimentary features. One of the best documented and most well-known examples of these outcrops can be found within Gale Crater, a ∼150 km impact crater hosting a large sedimentary deposit, a ∼5 km tall sedimentary mound, Aeolis Mons, emerging at the center of the crater. Gale is believed to hold evidence of past and potentially current subsurface water presence on Mars, and as such, it is the target of an ongoing exploration by the NASA rover Curiosity [7,8]

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