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Stability of the Interaction between Two Sand Dunes in an Idealized Laboratory Experiment.

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

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Authors

Bacik, Karol A 
Caulfield, Colm-Cille P 
Vriend, Nathalie M 

Abstract

Sand dunes, which arise spontaneously due to the dynamical interplay between a sedimentary interface and a fluid flow, are one of the most famous examples of emergence in a geological system. The large scale organization of a dune field is believed to be controlled by pairwise (either remote or direct) dune-dune interactions. Recent studies have shown that remote long-range feedback is closely related to the turbulent wake structure forming downstream of a dune. Here, we study the stability of an idealized two-dune system arising as a consequence of such remote, wake-induced interactions. The system is realized in a subaqueous quasi-2D laboratory experiment and the results are compared with a qualitative dynamical systems model. Despite its simplicity, the system exhibits rich dynamical behavior. In particular, we show that, depending on the parameter regime, the dune-dune feedback can either stabilize or destabilize the symmetric dune configuration, and we demonstrate the existence of an asymmetric attracting state coupling dunes of different sizes.

Description

Keywords

51 Physical Sciences

Journal Title

Phys Rev Lett

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0031-9007
1079-7114

Volume Title

127

Publisher

American Physical Society (APS)

Rights

All rights reserved
Sponsorship
PhD studentship from Schlumberger Cambridge Research, Royal Society University Research Fellowship URF/R1/191332