Numerical simulation of the lock release gravity current in a linearly stratified environment

A numerical simulation was used to investigate the movement of a lock released gravity current into stratified environments. A multiphase model was applied to simulate this phenomenon by solving the RANS equations and the RNG kappa-epsilon turbulence equations. The computational cases together with initial and boundary conditions and the numerical scheme are described. The time-dependent gravity current evolution and the head velocity were analyzed. The good agreement between the simulated and measured results indicates that the numerical model can be successfully applied to investigate the complex gravity current process moving into stratified environments.