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Dynamics of lava flow: Thickness growth characteristics of steady two‐dimensional flow
Author(s) -
Park Seung,
Iversen James D.
Publication year - 1984
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/gl011i007p00641
Subject(s) - lava , flow (mathematics) , mechanics , volumetric flow rate , yield (engineering) , geology , mass flow , growth rate , materials science , mass flow rate , isothermal flow , open channel flow , geometry , physics , mathematics , composite material , volcano , seismology
The thickness growth characteristics of flowing lava are investigated using a heat balance model and a two‐dimensional model for flow of a Bingham plastic fluid down an inclined plane. It is found that yield strength plays a crucial role in the thickening of a lava flow of given flow rate. To illustrate this point, downstream thickness profiles and yield strength distributions were calculated for flows with mass flow rates of 10 4 and 10 5 kg/m‐sec. Higher flow rates led to slow cooling rates which resulted in slow rate of increase of yield strength and thus greater flow lengths.