1. THE ROLE OF EROSION AT THE HEAD OF SUSPENSION CURRENTS EXPERIMENT AND THEORY C.S. Carroll, B. Turnbull, M.Y. Louge and E.A. Cowen School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853
Suspension currents are sustained by entrainment of particles from the bed. Recent measurements show a narrow intense source of momentum within the head. We carry out a density perturbation to the underlying potential flow, test our results versus experiments and, by examining pressure gradients induced in the snowpack, calculate the failure depth based on the derived stresses.
Figure A illustrates the agreement between our density perturbation theory and water flume experiments.
Figure B is an enlarged view near the source showing velocity vectors in the avalanche rest frame of dense particle-laden fluid ejected from the snowpack and entrained into the powder cloud.
Separatrix
Ambient
Uniform Stream
Source
Fluid
Source A B