Study of turbulent mixing processes at a mesoscale confluence through aerial drone imagery and eddy-resolved modelling
Bibliographic record
Abstract
The large-scale turbulent structures that develop at confluences fall into three main categories: vertically orientated (Kelvin-Helmholtz) vortices, large-scale secondary flow helical cells and smaller strongly coherent streamwise orientated vortices. The causal mechanisms of each class, how they interact with one another and their respective contributions to mixing is still unclear. Our investigation emphasises the role played by the instantaneous flow field in mixing at a mesoscale confluence (Mitis-Neigette, Quebec, Canada) by complementing aerial drone observations of turbulent suspended sediment mixing processes with results from a high-resolution eddy-resolved numerical simulation. The high velocity near-surface flow of the main channel (Mitis) separates at the crest of the scour hole before downwelling upon collision with the slower tributary (Neigette). Fed by incursions of lateral momentum of the Mitis, shear generated Kelvin-Helmholtz instabilities expand as they advect along the mixing-interface. As the instabilities shed, water from the deeper Neigette passes underneath the fast, over-topping Mitis, causing a large portion of the Neigette’s discharge to cross under the mixing-interface in a short distance. The remaining flow of the tributary crosses over inside large-scale lateral incursions farther downstream. The downwelling Mitis, upwelling Neigette and recirculatory cell interact to generate coherent streamwise vortical structures which assist in rapidly mixing the waters of the two rivers in the vicinity of the mixing-interface. Evidence of large-scale helical cells were not observed in the flow field. Results suggest that flow interaction with bathymetry, and both vertical and streamwise orientated coherent turbulent structures play important roles in mixing at confluences. Our findings strongly suggest that investigating mixing at confluences cannot be based solely on mean flow field variables as this approach can be misleading. Visualization of a confluence’s mixing processes as revealed by suspended sediment gradients captured in aerial drone imagery complemented with eddy-resolved numerical modelling of the underlying flow is a promising means to gain insights on the role of large-scale turbulent structures on mixing at confluences.
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How this classification was reachedexpand
Full frame machine prediction
Teacher imitationNot calibrated prevalence, not ground truth. Human validation pending. The Gemma side is a direct model label for every work in the frame, read from the title-only record. The Codex side is a classifier learned from the 10,348 direct Codex labels and calibrated to design-weighted sample rates; fields without enough sample support carry no Codex call. Candidate is the union of the two sides; consensus is their intersection. These outputs are machine_predicted_unvalidated and are not human labels.
Distilled classifier scores by category (both heads)
| Category | Codex | Gemma |
|---|---|---|
| Metaresearch | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (narrow) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Meta-epidemiology (broad) | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Bibliometrics | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Science and technology studies | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Scholarly communication | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Open science | 0.000 | 0.000 |
| Research integrity | 0.001 | 0.000 |
| Insufficient payload (model declined to judge) | 0.001 | 0.000 |
Machine scores (provisional)
The two teacher heads of the student model, read on this work. A score orders the frame for review; it never asserts a category, and the validation status ships verbatim with every row.
Baseline scores from an immature model (maturity gate not passed, 7 training rounds). Scores rank; they never assert a category.
score_only:v0-immature-baseline · verbatim from the scoring run: score_only means the number may rank works, and no category label ships from itClassification
machine, unvalidatedMachine predicted; a candidate call from one source (direct Gemma or distilled Codex), not a consensus.
How this classification was reached, model by model and score by score, is at the end of the page under "How this classification was reached".