Author(s): Angelos Kokkinos; Panagiotis Prinos
Linked Author(s): Panagiotis Prinos
Keywords: Collision; Gravity currents; Lock-exchange; Large Eddy Simulation
Abstract: Gravity currents (GCs) are buoyancy driven flows in which hydrostatic pressure gradients due to concentration or temperature variation produce a primarily horizontal motion. These currents occur in a wide range of physical conditions such as sea breezes or oceanic fronts. Symmetric GCs collision, where counterflowing GCs are identical, and asymmetric GCs collision, caused by differences in density and/or height, have been investigated experimentally and numerically (Kokkinos & Prinos, 2023; Zhong et al., 2018). This study presents a new set of numerical results of colliding GCs in a lock-exchange setup, using Large-Eddy simulation (LES). Two counterflowing GCs with equal heights and densities but different volumes are considered, and their collision is investigated, focusing on the analysis of the dynamical features, such as the height and vertical velocity of the collided fluid, during collision, and the characteristics of the evolved bores during the post-collision phase.
Year: 2025