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Ancey et al. 2006
Ancey, C., Cochard, S., Wiederseiner, S. and Rentschler, M. (2006). Front dynamics of supercritical non-Boussinesq gravity currents. Water Resources Research 42: doi: 10.1029/2005WR004593. issn: 0043-1397.

In this paper, we seek similarity solutions to the shallow water (Saint-Venant) equations for describing the motion of a non-Boussinesq, gravity-driven current in an inertial regime. The current is supplied in fluid by a source placed at the inlet of a horizontal plane. Gratton and Vigo (1994) found similarity solutions to the Saint-Venant equations when a Benjamin-like boundary condition was imposed at the front (i.e., nonzero flow depth); the Benjamin condition represents the resisting effect of the ambient fluid for a Boussinesq current (i.e., a small-density mismatch between the current and the surrounding fluid). In contrast, for non-Boussinesq currents the flow depth is expected to be zero at the front in absence of friction. In this paper, we show that the Saint-Venant equations also admit similarity solutions in the case of non-Boussinesq regimes provided that there is no shear in the vertical profile of the streamwise velocity field. In that case, the front takes the form of an acute wedge with a straight free boundary and is separated from the body by a bore.

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Abstract

Keywords
Hydrology, Floods, Nonlinear Geophysics, Nonlinear waves, shock waves, solitons (0689, 2487, 3280, 3285, 4275, 6934, 7851, 7852), Oceanography, Physical, Currents
Journal
Water Resources Research
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Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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