Control of turbulent transport in supercritical currents by three families of hairpin vortices

Abstract

We elucidate the turbulent structure of supercritical gravity currents by means of highly resolved simulations that employ up to a billion grid points. Three families of hairpin vortices dominate the near-bed and interface layers of the current, with their generation mechanisms dictating their shape, orientation, and number density. The interaction of near-bed and lower-interface hairpins explains the weak inviscid lidlike behavior of the streamwise velocity maximum, while the upper-interface vortices are responsible for the substantially lower entrainment compared to turbulent wall jets.