Laboratory Observations of Oscillatory Flow Over Sand Ripples

These datasets comprise of laboratory observations of oscillatory flows over mobile sand ripples. The data were collected in the Small-Oscillatory Flow Tunnel (S-OFT) in the Sediment Dynamics Laboratory at the U.S. Naval Research Laboratory, Stennis Space Center, Mississippi (MS), while Donya Frank-Gilchrist was a National Research Council post-doctoral fellow there. The flow tunnel has a 2-m long acrylic test section which was filled with coarse quartz sand. A piston and flywheel were used to drive the oscillatory flows, from which equilibrium sand ripples developed. The experimental setup comprised of three Photron cameras and a double-pulsed Litron Nd:YAG laser, synced and sampled at 100 hertz in double-framed mode. The fluid velocities were obtained through Particle Image Velocimetry processed with LaVision DaVis v.11 software. For further information regarding data collection and/or processing methods, refer to the associated journal articles by Frank-Gilchrist and others (2018, 2024).

Frank-Gilchrist, D.P., Palmsten, M.L., Penko, A.M., and Calantoni, J., 2024, Vortex Trapping of Suspended Sand Grains Over Ripples: Journal of Geophysical Research: Earth Surface, https://doi.org/10.1029/2023JF007620.

Frank-Gilchrist, D.P., Penko, A.M., and Calantoni, J., 2018, Investigation of sand ripple dynamics with combined particle image and tracking velocimetry: Journal of Atmospheric and Oceanic Technology, v. 35, art. 10, https://doi.org/10.1175/JTECH-D-18-0054.1.