Hydraulic Jumps

Source: Alexander S Rattner and Mahdi Nabil; Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, The Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA

When liquid flows along an open channel at high velocity, the flow can become unstable, and slight disturbances can cause the liquid upper surface t...

A hydraulic jump is a phenomenon that occurs in fast-moving open flows when the flow becomes unstable. When a jump occurs, the height of the liquid surface increases abruptly resulting in an increased depth and decreased average flow velocity downstream. An important side effect of this phenomenon is that much of the kinetic energy in the upstre...