The effect of surface topography on weakly nonlinear roll waves

The propagation of short waves in turbulent single layer flows forming on inclined surfaces has received considerable interest in the past. It is well known that such flows on flat surfaces are unstable if the Froude number of the unperturbed uniform state exceeds a critical value. In the initial linear stage disturbances grow exponentially with propagation distance but it has been shown that weakly nonlinear effects may limit the maximum wave amplitude under strictly periodic conditions leading in turn to a train of permanent roll waves. The present study investigates how the flow behaviour is affected if the slope of the bounding surface is no longer constant but changing slowly in the streamwise direction. (© 2006 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)