Open AccessLaminar flow of fine sediment‐water mixtures
Author(s) -
Battaglia M.,
Borgia A.
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: solid earth
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.67
H-Index - 298
eISSN - 2156-2202
pISSN - 0148-0227
DOI - 10.1029/1999jb900418
Subject(s) - laminar flow , suspension (topology) , flow (mathematics) , mechanics , geology , sediment , isothermal flow , constitutive equation , geotechnical engineering , thermodynamics , materials science , open channel flow , physics , geomorphology , mathematics , homotopy , pure mathematics , finite element method
Flows of sediment‐water mixture (suspensions) are common superficial processes in nature. To investigate the possibility of predicting the behaviour of such flows, we study the free surface flow of a clay‐water suspension down a slope, which may represent a simple realistic model for the flow of some concentrated sediment‐water mixture in a natural environment. The hydrodynamic lubrication equations governing the flow are derived from the full Navier‐Stokes equations, including an appropriate tensorial expression for the constitutive equation of the suspension (a Herschel‐Bulkley fluid with a hysteresis in the yield strength). Results have been obtained for the free surface and length of an unsteady, laminar, isothermal flow of the suspension. The theory is in good agreement with laboratory experiments with fine clay suspensions.