Book chapter
Gravity Currents Generated by Surface Cooling Over an Inclined Surface
Particulate Gravity Currents: Theory, Experiments, and Environmental Applications, pp.105-121
American Geographical Union
2026
DOI: 10.1002/9781394216727.ch7
Abstract
Summary
Three-dimensional numerical simulations are used to investigate the formation, evolution, and sediment entrainment capacity of planar, compositional gravity currents propagating over a long inclined surface. The gravity current is generated by surface cooling associated with the diurnal variation of the free-surface heat flux. Thermal convective plumes of cooler fluid act as a source of buoyancy during the initial stages of propagation of the current. Simulations conducted with different magnitudes of the sinusoidal heat flux and bottom slopes show that the gravity current head forms after 0.25–0.4 T (the period of the oscillatory heat flux). The time for the total buoyancy of the current to peak is largest for low bottom slopes and low magnitudes of heat flux; the current's front velocity is approximately constant after 0.5–0.7 T , and sediment entrainment capacity peaks at 0.25–0.3 T thereafter. Peak bed shear stresses do not generally occur beneath the head of the current, and sediment entrained beneath the downstream part of the tail is the largest contributor to the total flux of sediment. Besides the large bed shear stresses induced by the fast fluid in the gravity current, the interactions of convective plumes with the inclined surface generate energetic vortical eddies and circulatory motions that amplify the bed shear stress.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Gravity Currents Generated by Surface Cooling Over an Inclined Surface
- Creators
- Kyoungsik Chang - University of UlsanGeorge Constantinescu - University of Iowa
- Resource Type
- Book chapter
- Publication Details
- Particulate Gravity Currents: Theory, Experiments, and Environmental Applications, pp.105-121
- DOI
- 10.1002/9781394216727.ch7
- Publisher
- American Geographical Union; Hoboken, New Jersey
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2026
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9985033759202771
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