Plastic models designed to produce large height-to-length ratio steady-state planar and axisymmetric (Radial) viscous liquid laminar flow gravity currents

• Autores: Harvey F. Blanck
• Localización: Journal of chemical education, ISSN 0021-9584, Vol. 89, Nº 2, 2012, págs. 234-238
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • Naturally occurring gravity currents include events such as air flowing through an open front door, a volcanic eruption's pyroclastic flow down a mountainside, and the spread of the Bhopal disaster's methyl isocyanate gas. Gravity currents typically have a small height-to-distance ratio. Plastic models were designed and constructed with a restricted horizontal liquid flow using a series of connected cells that produced high viscosity laminar liquid flow planar and radial gravity currents. Because these gravity currents had a large height-to-distance ratio, they were easy to observe. Incremental transfer equations were used in spreadsheets to calculate the expected gravity current profiles. The calculated profiles were in good agreement with the liquid heights in the model's cells at steady state. The steady-state profile for the planar viscous laminar flow gravity current was an x axis parabola.