TY - JOUR
T1 - Flow structure in sinuous submarine channels
T2 - Velocity and turbulence structure of an experimental submarine channel
AU - Keevil, Gareth M.
AU - Peakall, Jeff
AU - Best, James L.
AU - Amos, Kathryn J.
N1 - Funding Information:
This research was funded whilst GK was in receipt of a UK Natural Environment Research Council PhD studentship. Part of the work was funded by UK NERC grant NER/T/S/2000/01400 with Total as a LINK partner. The development of the UDVPs was funded through NERC grant GR3/10015. Development of the laboratory facilities was funded by NERC and a consortium of oil companies comprising Amerada Hess, BG, BHP, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, ExxonMobil, Total and Shell. We are grateful to Mat Roberts, Ransome Corney and Mark Franklin for their assistance with this work. Correspondence and requests for materials should be addressed to Gareth Keevil (e-mail: [email protected] ). We thank Bill Normark, Roger Slatt and journal editor David Piper for perceptive reviews that improved the manuscript.
PY - 2006/6/30
Y1 - 2006/6/30
N2 - Submarine channels have long been considered analogous to meandering fluvial channels due to their similar planform geometry, and this has given rise to strong analogies in terms of the fluid dynamics of these channel types. However, there is a paucity of direct measurements detailing the structure of velocity or sediment concentration, and nothing is known about the structure of secondary flow, within submarine channels. Within fluvial channels, secondary circulation has been shown to be an important control of erosion, deposition, lateral sediment transport and overall bend stability. This paper presents a series of experiments in which saline gravity currents flowed through a submerged, fixed-form, sinuous channel model. Ultrasonic Doppler velocity profiling provided high-resolution, three-dimensional visualisation of flow fields, thereby allowing the first quantitative visualisation of velocity profiles and secondary flows of a saline gravity current within a sinuous submarine channel. The same model was also used to measure the structure of flow within a subaerial channel, thereby providing a detailed comparison between a submarine and fluvial channel. The data reveal that secondary flow cells in submarine channels are best developed at bend apexes and that the basal component of the flow cell moves from the inside to the outside of the bend, in a reversed direction to that expected from models of fluvial bend flow. These results are of prime importance when assessing the validity of comparisons between submarine and fluvial channels, and the role of secondary flow cells in the migration and evolution of meander bends. This work demonstrates that the fundamental flow processes controlling the evolution and migration of submarine and fluvial channels may be very different, and suggest that the form and evolution of submarine channels may also show different properties to their fluvial counterparts.
AB - Submarine channels have long been considered analogous to meandering fluvial channels due to their similar planform geometry, and this has given rise to strong analogies in terms of the fluid dynamics of these channel types. However, there is a paucity of direct measurements detailing the structure of velocity or sediment concentration, and nothing is known about the structure of secondary flow, within submarine channels. Within fluvial channels, secondary circulation has been shown to be an important control of erosion, deposition, lateral sediment transport and overall bend stability. This paper presents a series of experiments in which saline gravity currents flowed through a submerged, fixed-form, sinuous channel model. Ultrasonic Doppler velocity profiling provided high-resolution, three-dimensional visualisation of flow fields, thereby allowing the first quantitative visualisation of velocity profiles and secondary flows of a saline gravity current within a sinuous submarine channel. The same model was also used to measure the structure of flow within a subaerial channel, thereby providing a detailed comparison between a submarine and fluvial channel. The data reveal that secondary flow cells in submarine channels are best developed at bend apexes and that the basal component of the flow cell moves from the inside to the outside of the bend, in a reversed direction to that expected from models of fluvial bend flow. These results are of prime importance when assessing the validity of comparisons between submarine and fluvial channels, and the role of secondary flow cells in the migration and evolution of meander bends. This work demonstrates that the fundamental flow processes controlling the evolution and migration of submarine and fluvial channels may be very different, and suggest that the form and evolution of submarine channels may also show different properties to their fluvial counterparts.
KW - gravity current
KW - physical model
KW - secondary flow
KW - submarine channels
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U2 - 10.1016/j.margeo.2006.03.010
DO - 10.1016/j.margeo.2006.03.010
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:33744513029
SN - 0025-3227
VL - 229
SP - 241
EP - 257
JO - Marine Geology
JF - Marine Geology
IS - 3-4
ER -