scholarly journals The Influence of Confining Topography Orientation on Experimental Turbidity Currents and Geological Implications

2021 ◽  
Vol 8 ◽  
Author(s):  
Euan L. Soutter ◽  
Daniel Bell ◽  
Zoë A. Cumberpatch ◽  
Ross A. Ferguson ◽  
Yvonne T. Spychala ◽  
...  

Turbidity currents distribute sediment across the seafloor, forming important archives of tectonic and climatic change on the Earth’s surface. Turbidity current deposition is affected by seafloor topography, therefore understanding the interaction of turbidity currents with topography increases our ability to interpret tectonic and climatic change from the stratigraphic record. Here, using Shields-scaled physical models of turbidity currents, we aim to better constrain the effect of confining topography on turbidity current deposition and erosion. The subaqueous topography consists of an erodible barrier orientated 1) parallel, 2) oblique and 3) perpendicular to the incoming flow. An unconfined control run generated a supercritical turbidity current that decelerated across the slope, forming a lobate deposit that thickened basinwards before abruptly thinning. Flow-parallel confinement resulted in erosion of the barrier by the flow, enhanced axial velocities, and generated a deposit that extended farther into the basin than when unconfined. Oblique confinement caused partial deflection and acceleration of the flow along the barrier, which resulted in a deposit that bifurcated around the barrier. Forced deceleration at the barrier resulted in thickened deposition on the slope. Frontal confinement resulted in onlap and lateral spreading at the barrier, along with erosion of the barrier and down-dip overspill that formed a deposit deeper in the basin. Acceleration down the back of the barrier by this overspill resulted in the generation of a plunge-pool at the foot of the barrier as the flow impacted the slope substrate. Observations from ancient and modern turbidity current systems can be explained by our physical models, such as: the deposition of thick sandstones upstream of topography, the deposition of thin sandstones high on confining slopes, and the complex variety of stacking patterns produced by confinement. These models also highlight the impact of flow criticality on confined turbidity currents, with topographically-forced transitions between supercritical and subcritical flow conditions suggested to impact the depositional patterns of these flows.

Water ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (12) ◽  
pp. 1698
Author(s):  
Abiola Abraham Adebiyi ◽  
Peng Hu

Debris flows tend to erode sediment from or deposit sediment on the bed, which changes their volume and, thus, in turn, affects their rheological properties. However, previous modeling studies on debris flows mostly ignore sediment erosion/deposition. Here, three models are presented: a debris model without bed deformation, which is similar to traditional models in that it does not consider sediment erosion/deposition but uses the Herschel–Bulkley formulation to describe the non-Newtonian nature; a debris model with bed deformation, which is better improved than the traditional model in that it considers sediment erosion/deposition; and a turbidity current model, which is further simplified from the debris model with bed deformation by ignoring the non-Newtonian nature. These models, formulated in the same modeling framework, are solved by a shock-capturing finite volume method. These models were firstly validated against three laboratory experiments, which indicated that the debris models with and without bed deformation with reasonably well-specified parameters can give satisfactory agreements with the measurements, whereas the turbidity current model overestimated the experimental result due to its lack of yield stress and dynamic viscosity. Moreover, a hypothetical field application was used to explain the difference between a turbidity current and debris flows with and without bed deformation. It was shown that debris flows and turbidity currents are capable of impacting the bed significantly. However, turbidity currents have thinner tails, less shear stress, and form horizontal deposits on the bed, while debris flows have a thicker tail, high shear stress, and form vertical deposits on the bed. Finally, sensitivity analyses were carried out to study the impact of sediment size, bed slope, concentration, and porosity on the deformation of the bed after debris flow where they all showed a positive correlation.


Author(s):  
Юрий Зубарев ◽  
Yuriy Zubarev ◽  
Александр Приемышев ◽  
Alexsandr Priyomyshev

Tool materials used for polymeric composite blank machining, kinds of tool material wear arising at machining these blanks, and also the impact of technological parameters upon tool wear are considered. The obtained results allow estimating the potentialities of physical models at polymeric composite blanks cutting.


Pharmaceutics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (7) ◽  
pp. 996
Author(s):  
Niels Lasse Martin ◽  
Ann Kathrin Schomberg ◽  
Jan Henrik Finke ◽  
Tim Gyung-min Abraham ◽  
Arno Kwade ◽  
...  

In pharmaceutical manufacturing, the utmost aim is reliably producing high quality products. Simulation approaches allow virtual experiments of processes in the planning phase and the implementation of digital twins in operation. The industrial processing of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs) into tablets requires the combination of discrete and continuous sub-processes with complex interdependencies regarding the material structures and characteristics. The API and excipients are mixed, granulated if required, and subsequently tableted. Thereby, the structure as well as the properties of the intermediate and final product are influenced by the raw materials, the parametrized processes and environmental conditions, which are subject to certain fluctuations. In this study, for the first time, an agent-based simulation model is presented, which enables the prediction, tracking, and tracing of resulting structures and properties of the intermediates of an industrial tableting process. Therefore, the methodology for the identification and development of product and process agents in an agent-based simulation is shown. Implemented physical models describe the impact of process parameters on material structures. The tablet production with a pilot scale rotary press is experimentally characterized to provide calibration and validation data. Finally, the simulation results, predicting the final structures, are compared to the experimental data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 69 (11-12) ◽  
pp. 1387-1399 ◽  
Author(s):  
Huan-Huan Chen ◽  
Yiquan Qi ◽  
Yuntao Wang ◽  
Fei Chai

Abstract Fourteen years (September 2002 to August 2016) of high-resolution satellite observations of sea surface temperature (SST) data are used to describe the frontal pattern and frontogenesis on the southeastern continental shelf of Brazil. The daily SST fronts are obtained using an edge-detection algorithm, and the monthly frontal probability (FP) is subsequently calculated. High SST FPs are mainly distributed along the coast and decrease with distance from the coastline. The results from empirical orthogonal function (EOF) decompositions reveal strong seasonal variability of the coastal SST FP with maximum (minimum) in the astral summer (winter). Wind plays an important role in driving the frontal activities, and high FPs are accompanied by strong alongshore wind stress and wind stress curl. This is particularly true during the summer, when the total transport induced by the alongshore component of upwelling-favorable winds and the wind stress curl reaches the annual maximum. The fronts are influenced by multiple factors other than wind forcing, such as the orientation of the coastline, the seafloor topography, and the meandering of the Brazil Current. As a result, there is a slight difference between the seasonality of the SST fronts and the wind, and their relationship was varying with spatial locations. The impact of the air-sea interaction is further investigated in the frontal zone, and large coupling coefficients are found between the crosswind (downwind) SST gradients and the wind stress curl (divergence). The analysis of the SST fronts and wind leads to a better understanding of the dynamics and frontogenesis off the southeastern continental shelf of Brazil, and the results can be used to further understand the air-sea coupling process at regional level.


2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel D. Parkinson ◽  
Simon W. Funke ◽  
Jon Hill ◽  
Matthew D. Piggott ◽  
Peter A. Allison

Abstract. Turbidity currents are one of the main drivers for sediment transport from the continental shelf to the deep ocean. The resulting sediment deposits can reach hundreds of kilometres into the ocean. Computer models that simulate turbidity currents and the resulting sediment deposit can help to understand their general behaviour. However, in order to recreate real-world scenarios, the challenge is to find the turbidity current parameters that reproduce the observations of sediment deposits. This paper demonstrates a solution to the inverse sediment transportation problem: for a known sedimentary deposit, the developed model reconstructs details about the turbidity current that produced these deposits. The reconstruction is constrained here by a shallow water sediment-laden density current model, which is discretised by the finite element method and an adaptive time-stepping scheme. The model is differentiated using the adjoint approach and an efficient gradient-based optimisation method is applied to identify turbidity parameters which minimise the misfit between modelled and observed field sediment deposits. The capabilities of this approach are demonstrated using measurements taken in the Miocene-age Marnoso Arenacea Formation (Italy). We find that whilst the model cannot match the deposit exactly due to limitations in the physical processes simulated, it provides valuable insights into the depositional processes and represents a significant advance in our toolset for interpreting turbidity current deposits.


2020 ◽  
Vol 8 (9) ◽  
pp. 728
Author(s):  
Said Alhaddad ◽  
Lynyrd de Wit ◽  
Robert Jan Labeur ◽  
Wim Uijttewaal

Breaching flow slides result in a turbidity current running over and directly interacting with the eroding, submarine slope surface, thereby promoting further sediment erosion. The investigation and understanding of this current are crucial, as it is the main parameter influencing the failure evolution and fate of sediment during the breaching phenomenon. In contrast to previous numerical studies dealing with this specific type of turbidity currents, we present a 3D numerical model that simulates the flow structure and hydrodynamics of breaching-generated turbidity currents. The turbulent behavior in the model is captured by large eddy simulation (LES). We present a set of numerical simulations that reproduce particular, previously published experimental results. Through these simulations, we show the validity, applicability, and advantage of the proposed numerical model for the investigation of the flow characteristics. The principal characteristics of the turbidity current are reproduced well, apart from the layer thickness. We also propose a breaching erosion model and validate it using the same series of experimental data. Quite good agreement is observed between the experimental data and the computed erosion rates. The numerical results confirm that breaching-generated turbidity currents are self-accelerating and indicate that they evolve in a self-similar manner.


2016 ◽  
Vol 258 ◽  
pp. 489-492
Author(s):  
Monika Manychova ◽  
Ondřej Fuciman ◽  
Lubos Pazdera

Prefabricated structures have brought quite a new quality into the design of building construction method, which in turn required deeper theoretical knowledge, replacing empirical approaches by theory, replacing idealized and often simplified models of structure behaviour by accurate material physical models and load models. High rigidity of prefabricated concrete structures and the resulting stress states, which are mainly due to the volume change effects (temperature, humidity), effects of the foundation base shape variations etc., are among the most frequent causes of failures, particularly of joints of building elements featuring insufficient yield and bearing capacity. Investigation of all prefabricated building types shows progressing joint armature corrosion, considerable impairment of welds, which should secure the positional reliability of façade slabs.The paper presents some results of our experimental study of the application potential of the impact-echo method to the non-destructive assessment of the present joint condition in prefabricated structures.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Yining Sun ◽  
Ji Li ◽  
Zhixian Cao ◽  
Alistair G.L. Borthwick

<p>For reservoirs built on a hyper-concentrated river, tributary inflow and sediment input may affect the formation and evolution of reservoir turbidity current, and accordingly bed morphology. However, the understanding of tributary effects on reservoir turbidity currents has remained poor. Here a series of laboratory-scale reservoir turbidity currents are investigated using a coupled 2D double layer-averaged shallow water hydro-sediment-morphodynamic model. It is shown that the tributary location may lead to distinctive effects on reservoir turbidity current. Clear-water flow from the tributary may cause the stable plunge point to migrate upstream, and reduce its front speed. Sediment-laden inflow from the tributary may increase the discharge, sediment concentration, and front speed of the turbidity current, and also cause the plunge point to migrate downstream when the tributary is located upstream of the plunge point. In contrast, if the tributary is located downstream of the plunge point, sediment-laden flow from the tributary causes the stable plunge point to migrate upstream, and while the tributary effects on discharge, sediment concentration, and front speed of the turbidity current are minor. A case study is presented as of the Guxian Reservoir (under planning) on the middle Yellow River, China. The present finding highlights the significance of tributary inflow and sediment input in the formation and propagation of reservoir turbidity current and also riverbed deformation. Appropriate account of tributary effects is warranted for long-term maintenance of reservoir capacity and maximum utilization of the reservoir.</p>


2022 ◽  
pp. 748-763
Author(s):  
Ashok K. Rathoure ◽  
Unnati Rajendrakumar Patel

Many studies in recent years have investigated the effects of climate change on the future of biodiversity. In this chapter, the authors first examined the different possible effects of climate change that can operate at individual, population, species, community, ecosystem, notably showing that species can respond to climate challenges by shifting their climatic change. Climate change is one of the most important global environmental challenges that affect all the natural ecosystems of the world. Due to the fragile environment, mountain ecosystems are the most vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Climatic change will affect vegetation, humans, animals, and ecosystem that will impact on biodiversity. Mountains have been recognized as important ecosystems by the Convention on Biological Diversity. Climate change will not only threaten the biodiversity, but also affect the socio-economic condition of the indigenous people of the state. Various activities like habitat loss, deforestation, and exploitation amplify the impact of climate change on biodiversity.


2020 ◽  
Vol 2020 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
Lifang Zhang ◽  
Jianmin Zhang ◽  
Yakun Guo ◽  
Yong Peng

In this study, the evolution process of the swallow-tailed flip bucket water nappe entering into the plunge pool is simulated by using the standard k-ε turbulence model and the volume-of-fluid method. The effects of the upstream opening width ratio and downstream bucket angle on the flow pattern, the unit discharge distribution, and the impact pressure distribution are studied. Based on the numerical results, the inner and outer jet trajectories are proposed by using the data. Results show that the longitudinal stretching length decreases with the increase of the upstream opening width ratio and increases with the increase of the downstream bucket angle. The water nappe enters the plunge pool in a long strip shape. Thus, the unit discharge distribution of water nappe entry is consistent with the pressure distribution at the plunge pool bottom. The upstream opening width ratio and downstream bucket angle should be chosen as their intermediate values in order to have a uniform discharge distribution and to reduce the pressure peak at the plunge pool floor, which is effectively to avoid instability and destruction of plunge pool floor.


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