Instability of Antidune Incipience under Low Submergence Conditions

Investigating the stability of river bedforms is essential for understanding their occurrence and evolution over time. Whereas the formation of ripples and dunes has been extensively studied [1, 2], little is known about antidune stability in the early stages. Our research aims to fill this gap by focusing on antidune incipience in gravel-bed streams under low submergence conditions. Based on Vesipa et al. (2014), who distinguished between convective and absolute instabilities of bedforms [3], we investigated the behavior of the antidunes in the early stages of their formation. We conducted experiments in a narrow flume and studied how key flow factors (e.g., the Froude number, relative submergence, and initial perturbation) affect antidune dynamics. By filming the bed evolution from the sidewall, we determined the antidune wavelength and amplitude as a function of space and time in order to provide empirical insights that complement the theoretical framework.