Free-surface behaviour of shallow turbulent flows

Over the last two decades, interest in the free-surface behaviour of gravity-driven shallow turbulent flows has increased considerably. It is believed that observation of free-surface behaviour can provide useful information about the hydrodynamic characteristics of the flow and enable remote retrieval of these characteristics to non-invasively and rapidly monitor river flows. At the current state the literature presents scattered knowledge and also exhibits non-uniformity in the terminology used. This paper is a review of the state-of-art of this area of research and was created with two objectives: to gather the information relevant to understand the linkages between the free-surface behaviour and underpinning hydrodynamic processes while using a uniform terminology, and to analyse the gaps in our knowledge of this critical topic.

Automated summary

In the last two decades, there has been a considerable increase in interest in the free-surface behaviour of gravity-driven shallow turbulent flows. Observing free-surface behaviour is believed to provide useful information about the hydrodynamic characteristics of the flow and enables remote monitoring of river flows. This paper reviews the state-of-art in this area, aiming to gather relevant information, use uniform terminology, and analyze gaps in knowledge about the linkages between free-surface behaviour and underlying hydrodynamic processes.