Dynamics of Flow at Concordant Gravel Bed River Confluences: Effects of Junction Angle and Momentum Flux Ratio

Abstract Although the dynamics of secondary flow at river confluences have received considerable attention, a lack of theoretical insight in exploratory field and experimental research has led to different conclusions about the mechanisms driving these dynamics. This study revisits the problem of secondary flow at confluences by examining responses of the flow to controllable variations in curvature of flow trajectories in a series of field‐based experiments. The experiments were performed in a physical model designed to eliminate the influence of bed morphology, while using a large width‐to‐depth ratio to enable proper identification of flow structures at different scales. The results show that no secondary flow is detectable in runs with parallel merging flows irrespective of the momentum ratio. In runs with converging channels the secondary flow is represented by large‐scale motions consisting either of a pair of counterrotating helixes or a single helix depending on the momentum ratio. Comparison of scaled measured and theoretically predicted vertical profiles of lateral velocity shows that the helical secondary flow is primarily driven by the curvature of flow trajectories. This study also indicates that small‐scale secondary motions that have the same sense of rotation as the large‐scale helixes may develop in the immediate margins of the mixing interface. Differing only slightly from the flow depth in size, they are manifested by local upwelling within the large‐scale secondary motions. Several reasons to believe that interactions of large‐scale motions with opposing sense of rotation drive these small‐scale secondary flow cells are discussed in the paper.