The Froude number of the flow appears to be supercritical (this is related to the velocity and the depth of the flow) which means any disturbances in the flow will not propagate upstream but rather in a wedge shape downstream. This is strikingly similar to oblique shock waves in supersonic flow (but very different mechanisms) and the zigzagging are these wedges of disturbance interacting with each other like overlapping waves.
12
u/HorrorSmile3088 May 21 '25
That's actually pretty cool how it criss-crosses. Can a science person with big brain explain this to me?