SPREADING OF TWO-DIMENSIONAL TURBIDITY INTRUSION

Abstract

The nose velocity and thickness of intrusive gravity currents were estimated by force balance between buoyancy and inertia forces or between buoyancy and viscous forces. This laminar model shows both the nose velocity and thickness of intrusion are constant in the buoyancy-inertia regime, and are varied in the buoyancy-viscous regime with time. To clarify the difference between the two regimes, we performed laboratory experiments using a channel filled with linearly stratified fluids. Under the low discharge, or buoyancy-viscous regime, the nose velocity and thickness of intrusion were dependent on the elapsed time and the shapes of intrusion head were very sharp.