Laurentide Ice Sheet outburst floods to the Gulf of Mexico have been mainly documented based on deep-sea cores, especially the megafloods, only during the last several interglacial episodes in the late Pleistocene. The paleoclimatic significance of giant sedimentary structures developed under unconfined Froude-supercritical turbidity currents in subaqueous settings is considerably under-examined. This research extensively documents >20-km-wide and 200-m-thick Plio-Pleistocene giant sediment waves for the first time on the northern Gulf of Mexico continental slope using 3D seismic data, which show waveform morphology in unprecedented detail. The results suggest that such large-scale bedforms were formed under sheet-like unconfined Froudesupercritical turbidity currents as cyclic steps, based on numerical and morphological analyses. Paleohydraulic reconstruction (e.g., flow velocity, discharge, and unit flux), in association with other evidence like geologic age, stable isotope records, and temporal rarity, points out that the responsible Froude-supercritical turbidity currents were most likely triggered by deglacial catastrophic outburst floods during the late Pliocene to early Pleistocene. These flooding events constitute, by far, the oldest record of the glacial outburst floods during the Quaternary Ice Age. The results propose that such pervasive occurrence of large-scale sediment waves are a proxy for catastrophic megaflood events

Discharge of brine wastewater produced from industrial plants into adjacent coastal water bodies is considered as a preferable and common method currently used in many offshore industrial plants. Therefore, it is important to carefully study the behavior of jets and their environmental impacts on water bodies close to the discharge points, especially when the density is different between the jets and the receiving water. The main goal of this study is to improve the understanding of the mixing behaviour of jet trajectories for positively (offset) and negatively (inclined) buoyant jets when density is considered a significant factor, and also to examine the accuracy of some RANS turbulence models and one type of artificial neural network in predicting jet trajectory behaviours. In the first part of this study, experiments using a PIV system for offset buoyant jets were conducted in order to study the effect of the density differences (due to salinity [nonthermal] or temperature [thermal]) between the discharge and the receiving water body on the jet behavior, and the results showed that the nonthermal jets behaved differently as compared to the thermal jets, even though the densimetric Froude numbers (Frd) and density differences (∆ρ) were similar. In addition, a Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) numerical model was performed using open-source CFD code (OpenFOAM) with a developed solver (modified form of the pisoFoam solver). The realizable k-ε model showed the best prediction among the models. Secondly, an extensive experimental study of an inclined dense jet for two angles (15°and 52°) was conducted to study the effect of these angles on the jets’ geometrical characteristics in the presence of a wide range of densimetric Froude numbers as well as with different discharge densities. More experimental data were obtained for these angles to be added to the previous data for the purpose of calibrating, validating, and comparing the various numerical models for future studies. The results of these experiments are used to evaluate the performance of a type of artificial neural network method called the group method of data handling (GMDH), and the GMDH results are then compared with existing analytical solutions in order to prove the accuracy of the GMDH method in simulating mixing behaviors in water bodies. Thirdly, a comprehensive study on predicting the geometrical characteristics of inclined negatively-buoyant jests using GMDH approach was conducted. The superiority of this model was demonstrated statistically by comparing to several previous analytical models. The results obtained from this study confirm that the GMDH model was highly accurate and was the best among others for predicting the geometrical characteristics of inclined negatively-buoyant jests.

In this study, the effects of submergence on local scour in a uniform cohesionless sediment bed by a plane turbulent wall jet and the resulting flow field were investigated experimentally. Here, submergence is defined as the ratio of the tailwater depth to the thickness of the jet at its origin. The main focus was to determine scour dimensions at an asymptotic state, examine whether there was similarity in the velocity profiles for the flow in the scour hole, and to determine the growth of the length scales and decay of the maximum velocity of the jet. Also examined were the relationships between the scales for the velocity field in the scour hole and the scour hole size.<p>In the experiments, the range of submergence was varied from 3-17.5, whereas the range of densimetric Froude number and the ratio of the boundary roughness to the gate opening (relative boundary roughness) were varied from 4.4-6.9 and 0.085-0.137 respectively. The velocity field in the scour hole at asymptotic state was measured using a SonTek 16-MHz MicroADV. Time development of the characteristic dimensions of the scour hole was also measured.<p>The dimensions of the scour hole were found to increase with increasing submergence for all experiments with a bed-jet flow regime. In the bed-jet flow regime, the jet remains near the bed throughout the scouring process. Further, the time development of the scour hole dimensions were observed to increase approximately linearly with the logarithm of time up to a certain time before the beginning of asymptotic state for experiments with either the bed-jet or surface-jet flow regimes.<p> The flow field results showed that the velocity profiles in the region of forward flow and the recirculating region above the jet were similar in shape up to about the location of the maximum scour depth. Relationships describing this velocity profile, including its velocity and length scales, were formulated. The decay rate of the maximum velocity, the growth of the jet half-width, and the boundary layer thickness were also studied. The decay and the growth rate of the jet length scales were found to be influenced by the submergence ratio, densimetric Froude number, and the relative boundary roughness.<p>Two distinct stages in the decay of the maximum streamwise velocity, with distance along the direction of flow, were observed for the jet flows having a bed-jet flow regime. The first stage of velocity decay was characterized by a curvilinear decay of velocity, which followed that of a wall jet on a smooth, rigid bed for streamwise distance approximately equal to 2L. For the surface-jet flow regime, the decay of velocity was observed to be similar to that of a free-jump on a smooth, rigid bed for a streamwise distance approximately equal to L. Here, L is defined as the streamwise distance measured from the end of the rigid apron to where the maximum streamwise velocity in the jet is half the velocity of the jet at the end of apron. The streamwise maximum velocity of the jet was then seen to increase in what was called the recovery zone.<p>A relationship for the streamwise decay of the maximum velocity within the scour hole is proposed. Moreover, other scales representing the flow inside the scour hole such as the streamwise distance from the end of the apron to where the streamwise maximum velocity starts to deviate from curvilinear to linear decay and the streamwise distance to where maximum streamwise velocity starts to increase are suggested. Some new results on the velocity distribution for the reverse flow for a bed-jet flow regime are also presented. Finally, some dimensionless empirical equations describing the relationship between the jet scales for the jet flow in a scour hole and the scour hole size are given.

In this study, the effects of submergence on local scour in a uniform cohesionless sediment bed by a plane turbulent wall jet and the resulting flow field were investigated experimentally. Here, submergence is defined as the ratio of the tailwater depth to the thickness of the jet at its origin. The main focus was to determine scour dimensions at an asymptotic state, examine whether there was similarity in the velocity profiles for the flow in the scour hole, and to determine the growth of the length scales and decay of the maximum velocity of the jet. Also examined were the relationships between the scales for the velocity field in the scour hole and the scour hole size.<p>In the experiments, the range of submergence was varied from 3-17.5, whereas the range of densimetric Froude number and the ratio of the boundary roughness to the gate opening (relative boundary roughness) were varied from 4.4-6.9 and 0.085-0.137 respectively. The velocity field in the scour hole at asymptotic state was measured using a SonTek 16-MHz MicroADV. Time development of the characteristic dimensions of the scour hole was also measured.<p>The dimensions of the scour hole were found to increase with increasing submergence for all experiments with a bed-jet flow regime. In the bed-jet flow regime, the jet remains near the bed throughout the scouring process. Further, the time development of the scour hole dimensions were observed to increase approximately linearly with the logarithm of time up to a certain time before the beginning of asymptotic state for experiments with either the bed-jet or surface-jet flow regimes.<p> The flow field results showed that the velocity profiles in the region of forward flow and the recirculating region above the jet were similar in shape up to about the location of the maximum scour depth. Relationships describing this velocity profile, including its velocity and length scales, were formulated. The decay rate of the maximum velocity, the growth of the jet half-width, and the boundary layer thickness were also studied. The decay and the growth rate of the jet length scales were found to be influenced by the submergence ratio, densimetric Froude number, and the relative boundary roughness.<p>Two distinct stages in the decay of the maximum streamwise velocity, with distance along the direction of flow, were observed for the jet flows having a bed-jet flow regime. The first stage of velocity decay was characterized by a curvilinear decay of velocity, which followed that of a wall jet on a smooth, rigid bed for streamwise distance approximately equal to 2L. For the surface-jet flow regime, the decay of velocity was observed to be similar to that of a free-jump on a smooth, rigid bed for a streamwise distance approximately equal to L. Here, L is defined as the streamwise distance measured from the end of the rigid apron to where the maximum streamwise velocity in the jet is half the velocity of the jet at the end of apron. The streamwise maximum velocity of the jet was then seen to increase in what was called the recovery zone.<p>A relationship for the streamwise decay of the maximum velocity within the scour hole is proposed. Moreover, other scales representing the flow inside the scour hole such as the streamwise distance from the end of the apron to where the streamwise maximum velocity starts to deviate from curvilinear to linear decay and the streamwise distance to where maximum streamwise velocity starts to increase are suggested. Some new results on the velocity distribution for the reverse flow for a bed-jet flow regime are also presented. Finally, some dimensionless empirical equations describing the relationship between the jet scales for the jet flow in a scour hole and the scour hole size are given.

The main goal of this study is to define the technique to be used to assess the aggradation (by bed load) and degradation (of sediments) of the recessed as well as non-recessed stilling basins of rectangular cross section; when the hydraulic jump occurs in the stilling basin where the submergence coefficient equals 1,05. It consists of two parts, theoretical and experimental. The theoretical part summarizes the related theory on a hydraulic jump, design of a stilling basin, an incipient motion of sediment, an assessment of silting and scouring of the stilling basin. The second part, the actual experiment, led to the determination of the critical values essential for the assessment. For the evaluation, the nondimensional shear stress and the densimetric Froude number were used.