Sheet flow

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Sheet flow is described as overland flow that happens in a continuous sheet, characterized by relatively high frequency and low magnitude, and is limited to conditions of laminar flow. [1]

Contents

Mechanics of Sheet Flows

The concentration of particles usually spreads out in a straight line, and the Rouse distribution works in the water column above the sheet-flow layer where the particles are less concentrated. However, velocity distribution formulas are still being refined to accurately describe particle velocity profiles in steady or oscillatory sheet flows. [2]

Types of Sheet Flows

Discussion on various types of sheet flows including stagnation flows towards a shrinking sheet, laminar sheet-flow, and their stability and implications. These categories help in understanding the diverse forms and dynamics of sheet flows across different environments. [3]

Geological Significance

The role of sheet flows in shaping landscapes, including the formation of alluvial fans and deltas. The distinction between fans built by channelized fluvial and sheet flows and their geomorphological significance is highlighted. [4]

Challenges in Research

The complexities involved in studying sheet flows, including the need for advanced modeling techniques to accurately simulate flow dynamics and sediment transport mechanisms. The development and application of new models to describe fine sediment behavior in sheet flows are discussed, reflecting ongoing advancements in this field of research. [5]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Laminar flow</span> Flow where fluid particles follow smooth paths in layers

Laminar flow is the property of fluid particles in fluid dynamics to follow smooth paths in layers, with each layer moving smoothly past the adjacent layers with little or no mixing. At low velocities, the fluid tends to flow without lateral mixing, and adjacent layers slide past one another smoothly. There are no cross-currents perpendicular to the direction of flow, nor eddies or swirls of fluids. In laminar flow, the motion of the particles of the fluid is very orderly with particles close to a solid surface moving in straight lines parallel to that surface. Laminar flow is a flow regime characterized by high momentum diffusion and low momentum convection.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Drumlin</span> Elongated hill formed by glacial action

A drumlin, from the Irish word droimnín, first recorded in 1833, in the classical sense is an elongated hill in the shape of an inverted spoon or half-buried egg formed by glacial ice acting on underlying unconsolidated till or ground moraine. Assemblages of drumlins are referred to as fields or swarms; they can create a landscape which is often described as having a 'basket of eggs topography'.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alluvial fan</span> Fan-shaped deposit of sediment

An alluvial fan is an accumulation of sediments that fans outwards from a concentrated source of sediments, such as a narrow canyon emerging from an escarpment. They are characteristic of mountainous terrain in arid to semiarid climates, but are also found in more humid environments subject to intense rainfall and in areas of modern glaciation. They range in area from less than 1 square kilometer (0.4 sq mi) to almost 20,000 square kilometers (7,700 sq mi).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Fluvial sediment processes</span> Sediment processes associated with rivers and streams

In geography and geology, fluvial sediment processes or fluvial sediment transport are associated with rivers and streams and the deposits and landforms created by sediments. It can result in the formation of ripples and dunes, in fractal-shaped patterns of erosion, in complex patterns of natural river systems, and in the development of floodplains and the occurrence of flash floods. Sediment moved by water can be larger than sediment moved by air because water has both a higher density and viscosity. In typical rivers the largest carried sediment is of sand and gravel size, but larger floods can carry cobbles and even boulders. When the stream or rivers are associated with glaciers, ice sheets, or ice caps, the term glaciofluvial or fluvioglacial is used, as in periglacial flows and glacial lake outburst floods. Fluvial sediment processes include the motion of sediment and erosion or deposition on the river bed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stream bed</span> Channel bottom of a stream, river, or creek

A streambed or stream bed is the bottom of a stream or river (bathymetry) and is confined within a channel, or the banks of the waterway. Usually, the bed does not contain terrestrial (land) vegetation and instead supports different types of aquatic vegetation, depending on the type of streambed material and water velocity. Streambeds are what would be left once a stream is no longer in existence. The beds are usually well preserved even if they get buried because the banks and canyons made by the stream are typically hard, although soft sand and debris often fill the bed. Dry, buried streambeds can actually be underground water pockets. During times of rain, sandy streambeds can soak up and retain water, even during dry seasons, keeping the water table close enough to the surface to be obtainable by local people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Frazil ice</span> Collections of ice crystals in open water

Frazil ice is a collection of loose, randomly oriented ice crystals millimeter and sub-millimeter in size, with various shapes, e.g. elliptical disks, dendrites, needles and of an irregular nature. Frazil ice forms during the winter in open-water reaches of rivers as well as in lakes and reservoirs, where and when the water is in a turbulent state, which is, in turn, induced by the action of waves and currents. Turbulence causes the water column to become supercooled, as the heat exchange between the air and the water is such that the water temperature drops below its freezing point. The vertical mixing associated with that turbulence provides enough energy to overcome the crystals' buoyancy, thus keeping them from floating at the surface. Frazil ice also forms in oceans, where windy conditions, wave regimes and cold air also favor the establishment of a supercooled layer. Frazil ice can be found on the downwind side of leads and in polynyas. In these environments, that ice can eventually accumulate at the water surface into what is referred to as grease ice.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ice stream</span> A region of fast-moving ice within an ice sheet

An ice stream is a region of fast-moving ice within an ice sheet. It is a type of glacier, a body of ice that moves under its own weight. They can move upwards of 1,000 metres (3,300 ft) a year, and can be up to 50 kilometres (31 mi) in width, and hundreds of kilometers in length. They tend to be about 2 km (1.2 mi) deep at the thickest, and constitute the majority of the ice that leaves the sheet. In Antarctica, the ice streams account for approximately 90% of the sheet's mass loss per year, and approximately 50% of the mass loss in Greenland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">First flush</span> Initial surface runoff of a rainstorm

First flush is the initial surface runoff of a rainstorm. During this phase, water pollution entering storm drains in areas with high proportions of impervious surfaces is typically more concentrated compared to the remainder of the storm. Consequently, these high concentrations of urban runoff result in high levels of pollutants discharged from storm sewers to surface waters.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sorting (sediment)</span> Distribution of grain size of sediments

Sorting describes the distribution of grain size of sediments, either in unconsolidated deposits or in sedimentary rocks. The degree of sorting is determined by the range of grain sizes in a sediment deposit and is the result of various transport processes. This should not be confused with crystallite size, which refers to the individual size of a crystal in a solid. Crystallite is the building block of a grain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Sediment transport</span> Movement of solid particles, typically by gravity and fluid entrainment

Sediment transport is the movement of solid particles (sediment), typically due to a combination of gravity acting on the sediment, and the movement of the fluid in which the sediment is entrained. Sediment transport occurs in natural systems where the particles are clastic rocks, mud, or clay; the fluid is air, water, or ice; and the force of gravity acts to move the particles along the sloping surface on which they are resting. Sediment transport due to fluid motion occurs in rivers, oceans, lakes, seas, and other bodies of water due to currents and tides. Transport is also caused by glaciers as they flow, and on terrestrial surfaces under the influence of wind. Sediment transport due only to gravity can occur on sloping surfaces in general, including hillslopes, scarps, cliffs, and the continental shelf—continental slope boundary.

In fluid dynamics, the Darcy friction factor formulae are equations that allow the calculation of the Darcy friction factor, a dimensionless quantity used in the Darcy–Weisbach equation, for the description of friction losses in pipe flow as well as open-channel flow.

Wash load is similar to a suspended load, but wash load sediment never interacts with the bed load. All of the sediment in the wash load stays suspended in the water throughout the channel. Wash load refers to a river's ability to move sediment through a channel.

Acoustic Doppler velocimetry (ADV) is designed to record instantaneous velocity components at a single-point with a relatively high frequency. Measurements are performed by measuring the velocity of particles in a remote sampling volume based upon the Doppler shift effect.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Reynolds number</span> Ratio of inertial to viscous forces acting on a liquid

In fluid dynamics, the Reynolds number is a dimensionless quantity that helps predict fluid flow patterns in different situations by measuring the ratio between inertial and viscous forces. At low Reynolds numbers, flows tend to be dominated by laminar (sheet-like) flow, while at high Reynolds numbers, flows tend to be turbulent. The turbulence results from differences in the fluid's speed and direction, which may sometimes intersect or even move counter to the overall direction of the flow. These eddy currents begin to churn the flow, using up energy in the process, which for liquids increases the chances of cavitation.

Three components that are included in the load of a river system are the following: dissolved load, wash load and bed material load. The bed material load is the portion of the sediment that is transported by a stream that contains material derived from the bed. Bed material load typically consists of all of the bed load, and the proportion of the suspended load that is represented in the bed sediments. It generally consists of grains coarser than 0.062 mm with the principal source being the channel bed. Its importance lies in that its composition is that of the bed, and the material in transport can therefore be actively interchanged with the bed. For this reason, bed material load exerts a control on river channel morphology. Bed load and wash load together constitute the total load of sediment in a stream. The order in which the three components of load have been considered – dissolved, wash, bed material – can be thought of as progression: of increasingly slower transport velocities, so that the load peak lags further and further behind the flow peak during any event.

A mouth bar is an element of a deltaic system, which refers to the typically mid-channel deposition of the sediment transported by the river channel at the river mouth.

In geology, degradation refers to the lowering of a fluvial surface, such as a stream bed or floodplain, through erosional processes. Degradation is the opposite of aggradation. Degradation is characteristic of channel networks in which either bedrock erosion is taking place, or in systems that are sediment-starved and are therefore entraining more material than they are depositing. When a stream degrades, it leaves behind a fluvial terrace. This can be further classified as a strath terrace—a bedrock terrace that may have a thin mantle of alluvium—if the river is incising through bedrock. These terraces may be dated with methods such as cosmogenic radionuclide dating, OSL dating, and paleomagnetic dating to find when a river was at a particular level and how quickly it is downcutting.

Channel patterns are found in rivers, streams, and other bodies of water that transport water from one place to another. Systems of branching river channels dissect most of the sub-aerial landscape, each in a valley proportioned to its size. Whether formed by chance or necessity, by headward erosion or downslope convergence, whether inherited or newly formed. Depending on different geological factors such as weathering, erosion, depositional environment, and sediment type, different types of channel patterns can form.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Stream competency</span> Concept in hydrology

In hydrology stream competency, also known as stream competence, is a measure of the maximum size of particles a stream can transport. The particles are made up of grain sizes ranging from large to small and include boulders, rocks, pebbles, sand, silt, and clay. These particles make up the bed load of the stream. Stream competence was originally simplified by the “sixth-power-law,” which states the mass of a particle that can be moved is proportional to the velocity of the river raised to the sixth power. This refers to the stream bed velocity which is difficult to measure or estimate due to the many factors that cause slight variances in stream velocities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jørgen Fredsøe</span>

Jørgen Fredsøe (1947) is a Danish hydraulic engineer who is recognized for his contributions within bed form dynamics in rivers and the marine environment and coastal morphology including bars and beach undulations. Together with professor B. Mutlu Sumer he initiated the research on scour (erosion) in the seabed around coastal structures applying detailed hydrodynamic interpretations. He was born in Randers, Denmark.

References

  1. Hogg, Susan E. (1982). "Sheetfloods, sheetwash, sheetflow, or ... ?". Earth-Science Reviews. 18 (1): 59–76. Bibcode:1982ESRv...18...59H. doi:10.1016/0012-8252(82)90003-4. ISSN   0012-8252.
  2. crossref. "Chooser". chooser.crossref.org. doi:10.1144/gsl.sp.1990.053.01.03 . Retrieved 2024-03-17.
  3. Wang, C.Y. (2008). "Stagnation flow towards a shrinking sheet". International Journal of Non-Linear Mechanics. 43 (5): 377–382. doi:10.1016/j.ijnonlinmec.2007.12.021. ISSN   0020-7462.
  4. Parker, Gary; Paola, Chris; Whipple, Kelin X.; Mohrig, David (1998). "Alluvial Fans Formed by Channelized Fluvial and Sheet Flow. I: Theory". Journal of Hydraulic Engineering. 124 (10): 985–995. doi:10.1061/(ASCE)0733-9429(1998)124:10(985). ISSN   0733-9429.
  5. Uchida, Taro; Nishiguchi, Yuki; Niwa, Satoshi; Kubo, Takeshi; Gonda, Yutaka; Satofuka, Yoshifumi (2023). "How are fine sediments described in sediment sheet flow?". E3S Web of Conferences. 415: 01027. doi: 10.1051/e3sconf/202341501027 . ISSN   2267-1242.