NEGATIVELY BUOYANT FLOW IN A DIVERGING CHANNEL.

Negatively buoyant (plunging) flow from a horizontal, constant width channel into a diverging channel has been studied in the laboratory. The study was undertaken to provide information on reservoir inflow and discharges onto beaches. The flow is a diffuser flow, and as a result, the boundary layer in a diffuser decelerates and thickens rapidly. In addition to being a diffuser flow, the flow studied is subjected to two other major effects. One of these is the shear stress on the channel bottom which causes the development of a boundary layer and vorticity in a vertical plane. The second is buoyancy which can strongly affect the distribution of flow in the diffuser. The paper discusses the experimental study, experimental facilities and variables, classification scheme, and experimental results.