The Effects of Pulsating Flow on Eruption Column Dynamics

Abstract:

Pulsating flow, at frequencies ranging from 10^-2 to 10¹ Hz, has been recorded in explosive eruptions through video, thermal imagery, and infrasonic and seismic data. Such pulsating flow can be generated from instabilities in bubbly magma, and from granular instabilities in post-fragmentation conduit flow. Variable fluxes of gas and particles at the vent can alter entrainment conditions, and consequently affect eruption column stability. However, volcanic eruption models typically assume steady flow from the vent, and regime diagrams of eruption column stability are based on such steady flow assumptions. Using Eulerian-Eulerian multiphase numerical simulations of eruption columns with both steady and pulsating sources, we compared the relative behavior of steady and pulsed columns across a range of pulse frequencies and mass fluxes at the vent (mass flux is time-averaged for pulsating cases). Preliminary results suggest that pulsating flow increases air entrainment into the column relative to steady flow for otherwise constant eruption conditions, and that entrainment increases with decreasing pulse frequency. Increased entrainment at low frequency implies that low-frequency pulsed columns are more buoyant and potentially more stable than their steady counterparts, for a given mass flux. This effect disrupts the steady flow-based understanding of eruption column stability regimes and may be a factor to consider for future assessment of volcanic hazards and interpreting mass flux conditions from deposits.