Turbid Density Currents in Reservoirs

ABSTRACT

Physical features of turbid density currents in reservoirs are touched on in the first part of this paper: the plunging of the muddy fluid, the unsteadiness of the density current, the characteristics of velocity and concentration of density currents, the density current over a submerged dam and the submerged muddy lake formed by the density current upstream from the dam site.

Besides the conditions for formation of density currents, the condition for maintenance of a density current that may vent sediment from a reservoir is discussed. The outflow silt discharge by a vented density current, calculated by a suggested approximate method, agrees fairly well, on the average, with measured values in the Guanting Reservoir and Lake Mead.