Almost 40 years ago, Killen (1968) published a PhD thesis that should have had a significant effect on the concepts of aerated flow in steep chutes and spillways. This thesis refuted the concept that the aerated flow is a well-mixed continuum of with a gradually increasing amount of air and a decreasing amount of water from the invert toward the water surface. Unfortunately, with a few exceptions the concept of a well-mixed continuum still persists to this day. Four exceptions are the PhD thesis by Cain (1978), a Monograph by Falvey (1980), a paper by Volkart et al. (1980), and the PhD thesis of Andre (2006). The two papers by Wilhelms and Gulliver in this Journal present a refreshing departure from the conventional description of self-aerated spillway flow. It should be noted that the excellent PhD thesis of Wilhelms (1997) and his collaboration with Gulliver came out of discussions with the originator of the idea, John Killen.
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