Extended Shallow Water Models for Steady-State Gravity Currents

Turbidity currents have been observed to propagate for very long distances, longer than one would expect based on the current knowledge of mixing and evolution of gravity currents. Recent DNS simulations suggest that when in steady state the gravity current presents a much more stable interface, potentially reducing the mixing with ambient waters and hence being able to survive and propagate for longer distances. We report experiments that investigate gravity currents that have reached a statistically steady state and compare the results to DNS and extended shallow water models that track the profile evolution.