Journal
JOURNAL OF FLUID MECHANICS
Volume 673, Issue -, Pages 132-146Publisher
CAMBRIDGE UNIV PRESS
DOI: 10.1017/S0022112010006208
Keywords
gravity currents
Categories
Funding
- Institut Universitaire de France
- CNES [793/CNES/00/8368]
- ESA [AO-99-083]
- Reseaux de Thematiques de Recherches Avancees
- Initial Training Network
- French Research National Agency (ANR) [ANR-08-PCO2-004-01]
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In a viscous lock-exchange gravity current, which describes the reciprocal exchange of two fluids of different densities in a horizontal channel, the front between two Newtonian fluids spreads as the square root of time. The resulting diffusion coefficient reflects the competition between the buoyancy-driving effect and the viscous damping, and depends on the geometry of the channel. This lock-exchange diffusion coefficient has already been computed for a porous medium, a two-dimensional (2D) Stokes flow between two parallel horizontal boundaries separated by a vertical height H and, recently, for a cylindrical tube. In the present paper, we calculate it, analytically, for a rectangular channel (horizontal thickness b and vertical height H) of any aspect ratio (H/b) and compare our results with experiments in horizontal rectangular channels for a wide range of aspect ratios (1/10 to 10). We also discuss the 2D Stokes-Darcy model for flows in Hele-Shaw cells and show that it leads to a rather good approximation, when an appropriate Brinkman correction is used.
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