Gravity currents: a personal perspective

Huppert, Herbert E.

doi:10.1017/s002211200600930x

Cited by 195 publications

(122 citation statements)

References 80 publications

(108 reference statements)

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“…3 Turbidity currents are an important mechanism in nature and they play a crucial role in geological events with, for instance, the formation of topographical features such as channels, gullies, sediment waves, and levees. [4][5][6][7][8] They can develop when the fresh water of a river meets the salt water of the ocean with the ability to change the physical shape of the sea floor by eroding large areas and/or by depositing large amounts of sediment. They can also have a central role in the formation of hydrocarbon reservoirs 1,9 and they can impact the stability of submarine structures placed at the sea-floor like pipelines or submarine's cables.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-fidelity simulations of the lobe-and-cleft structures and the deposition map in particle-driven gravity currents

et al. 2015

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The evolution of a mono-disperse gravity current in the lock-exchange configuration is investigated by means of direct numerical simulations for various Reynolds numbers and settling velocities for the deposition. We limit our investigations to gravity currents over a flat bed in which density differences are small enough for the Boussinesq approximation to be valid. The concentration of particles is described in an Eulerian fashion by using a transport equation combined with the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. The most interesting results can be summarized as follows: (i) the settling velocity is affecting the streamwise vortices at the head of the current with a substantial reduction of their size when the settling velocity is increased; (ii) when the Reynolds number is increased the lobe-and-cleft structures are merging more frequently and earlier in time, suggesting a strong Reynolds number dependence for the spatio-temporal evolution of the head of the current; (iii) the temporal imprint of the lobe-and-cleft structures can be recovered from the deposition map, suggesting that the deposition pattern is defined purely and exclusively by the structures at the front of the current.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

High-fidelity simulations of the lobe-and-cleft structures and the deposition map in particle-driven gravity currents

et al. 2015

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“…Gravity currents propagating in porous media occur in a large variety of geophysical and industrial processes (Huppert 2006), including applications to CO 2 storage that have attracted much recent interest (Pacala & Socolow 2004;Metz et al 2005;Zheng et al 2010). Typically, the latter refers to injection of supercritical CO 2 into saline aquifers, where it is expected that, following injection, the lower-density CO 2 will migrate over more dense interstitial fluid.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluid drainage from the edge of a porous reservoir

et al. 2013

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We report theoretical and experimental studies to describe buoyancy-driven fluid drainage from a porous medium for configurations where the fluid drains from an edge. We first study homogeneous porous systems. To investigate the influence of heterogeneities, we consider the case where the permeability varies transverse to the flow direction, exemplified by a V-shaped Hele-Shaw cell. Finally, we analyse a model where both the permeability and the porosity vary transverse to the flow direction. In each case, a self-similar solution for the shape of these gravity currents is found and a power-law behaviour in time is derived for the mass remaining in the system. Laboratory experiments are conducted in homogeneous and V-shaped Hele-Shaw cells, and the measured profile shapes and the mass remaining in the cells agree well with our model predictions. Our study provides new insights into drainage processes such as may occur in a variety of natural and industrial activities, including the geological storage of carbon dioxide.

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“…Buoyancy-driven flows, or gravity currents, within porous media have been studied by numerous authors and recently reviewed by Huppert (2006) and Phillips (2009). In cases in which an impermeable barrier directs the flow, they quickly relax to spreading with a self-similar form.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The competition between gravity and flow focusing in two-layered porous media

2013

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The gravitationally driven flow of a dense fluid within a two-layered porous media is examined experimentally and theoretically. We find that in systems with two horizontal layers of differing permeability a competition between gravity driven flow and flow focusing along high-permeability routes can lead to two distinct flow regimes. When the lower layer is more permeable than the upper layer, gravity acts along highpermeability pathways and the flow is enhanced in the lower layer. Alternatively, when the upper layer is more permeable than the lower layer, we find that for a sufficiently small input flux the flow is confined to the lower layer. However, above a critical flux fluid preferentially spreads horizontally within the upper layer before ultimately draining back down into the lower layer. This later regime, in which the fluid overrides the low-permeability lower layer, is important because it enhances the mixing of the two fluids. We show that the critical flux which separates these two regimes can be characterized by a simple power law. Finally, we briefly discuss the relevance of this work to the geological sequestration of carbon dioxide and other industrial and natural flows in porous media.

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Gravity currents: a personal perspective

Cited by 195 publications

References 80 publications

High-fidelity simulations of the lobe-and-cleft structures and the deposition map in particle-driven gravity currents

High-fidelity simulations of the lobe-and-cleft structures and the deposition map in particle-driven gravity currents

Fluid drainage from the edge of a porous reservoir

The competition between gravity and flow focusing in two-layered porous media

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