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Characterising entrainment in fountains and negatively buoyant jets

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  31 March 2022

L. Milton-McGurk*
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
N. Williamson
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
S.W. Armfield
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
M.P. Kirkpatrick
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace, Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, The University of Sydney, NSW 2006, Australia
*
†Email address for correspondence: liam.milton-mcgurk@sydney.edu.au

Abstract

Turbulent fountain flow consists of two distinct stages, the initial ‘negatively buoyant jet’ (NBJ) stage, and the fully developed ‘fountain’ stage. The present study investigates both stages of the flow using particle image velocimetry and planar laser-induced fluorescence, over a range of source Froude numbers, $10\lesssim Fr_o\lesssim 30$, and Reynolds numbers, $5500\lesssim Re_o\lesssim 7700$. While the velocity and buoyancy profiles in NBJs take similar Gaussian shapes over a wide range of axial locations, this was not observed in fountains. The changing profile shape is most evident in the outer flow (OF) region, while there is a degree of similarity in the inner flow (IF). Entrainment between IF and OF is shown to depend on the local Richardson number, $Ri$. The fountains are found to have a negative entrainment coefficient, $\alpha <0$, for the majority of their height, implying a net radial outflow of fluid from the IF to the OF. An alternative description of entrainment is considered, the ‘decomposed top-hat’ model, where the radial flow is separated into inflow and outflow components that are then estimated using the present experimental data. The inflow component was found to be proportional to the axial IF velocity, which is similar to the classical description of entrainment in pure jets/plumes, while the outflow depends on the local $Ri$. Entrainment in NBJs may also be described by this framework, which, despite not having an OF, is still subject to an $Ri$-dependent radial outflow.

Information

Type
JFM Papers
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BY
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2022. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1. Schematic diagram of a fully developed fountain.

Figure 1

Figure 2. Illustration of the tank used in the present experimental set-up.

Figure 2

Figure 3. A schematic representation of (a) a descending NBJ and (b) a fully developed fountain, alongside processed PIV/PLIF images showing the scalar concentration field with overlaid velocity vectors. The approximate region of interest is indicated by the $120\times 60\ {\rm mm}^{2}$ rectangle.

Figure 3

Table 1. Table summarising the experiments referred to in this study. All fountain experiments (F), and the $Fr_o=10$ and $20$ NBJs, were carried out for this investigation. The $Fr_o=30$ NBJ and the neutral jet (J), were carried out in Milton-McGurk et al. (2021). All experiments had $D=10$ mm.

Figure 4

Figure 4. Mean velocity profiles, $\bar {w}$, for a fully developed fountain, (a), and NBJ (Milton-McGurk et al.2021), (b), both with $Fr_o=30$, at a range of axial locations. The profiles are normalised by the local centreline value, $\bar {w}_c$, and half-width, $r_{1/2,w}$. The best-fit profile for a neutral jet (J) by Wang & Law (2002) is also shown as a reference.

Figure 5

Figure 5. Mean scalar profiles, $\bar {c}$, for a fully developed fountain, (a), and NBJ (Milton-McGurk et al.2021), (b), both with $Fr_o=30$, at a range of axial locations. The profiles are normalised by the local centreline value, $\bar {c}_c$, and half-width, $r_{1/2,c}$. The best-fit profile for a neutral jet by Wang & Law (2002) is also shown as a reference.

Figure 6

Figure 6. Profiles of the mean axial turbulence fluctuations, $\overline {w'^{2}}$, for a fully developed fountain, (a,c), and NBJ (Milton-McGurk et al.2021), (b,d), both with $Fr_o=30$. The profiles are normalised by the local centreline value, $\bar {w}_c^{2}$, and half-width, $r_{1/2,w}$, in (a,b), and by source velocity, $w_o^{2}$, and radius, $r_o$, in (c,d). The best-fit profile for a neutral jet by Wang & Law (2002) is also shown as a reference.

Figure 7

Figure 7. Profiles of the mean Reynolds stress, $\overline {w'u'}$, for a fully developed fountain, (a,c), and NBJ (Milton-McGurk et al.2021), (b,d), both with $Fr_o=30$. The profiles are normalised by the local centreline value, $\bar {w}_c^{2}$, and half-width, $r_{1/2,w}$, in (a,b), and by source velocity, $w_o^{2}$, and radius, $r_o$, in (c,d). The best-fit profile for a neutral jet by Wang & Law (2002) is also shown as a reference.

Figure 8

Figure 8. Profiles of the mean scalar fluctuations, $\sqrt {\overline {c'^{2}}}$, for a fully developed fountain, (a), and NBJ (Milton-McGurk et al.2021), (b), both with $Fr_o=30$. The profiles are normalised by the local centreline value, $\bar {c}_c$, and half-width, $r_{1/2,c}$. The best-fit profile for a neutral jet by Wang & Law (2002) is also shown as a reference.

Figure 9

Figure 9. Profiles of the mean axial turbulent flux, $\overline {w'c'}$, for a fully developed fountain, (a), and NBJ (Milton-McGurk et al.2021), (b), both with $Fr_o=30$. The profiles are normalised by the local product, $\bar {w}_c\bar {c}_c$, and half-width, $r_{1/2,c}$. The best-fit profile for a neutral jet by Wang & Law (2002) is also shown as a reference.

Figure 10

Figure 10. Profiles of the mean radial turbulent flux, $\overline {u'c'}$, for a fully developed fountain, (a), and NBJ (Milton-McGurk et al.2021), (b), both with $Fr_o=30$. The profiles are normalised by the local product, $\bar {w}_c\bar {c}_c$, and half-width, $r_{1/2,c}$. The best-fit profile for a neutral jet by Wang & Law (2002) is also shown as a reference.

Figure 11

Figure 11. Normalised (a) $\bar {w}$, and (b) $\bar {c}$, profiles in $Fr_o=30$ and $15$ fountains. The profiles correspond to axial locations where the local $Fr$ in both flows are approximately equal. Additionally, $\circ$ markers corresponding to radial location, $r_{io}$, and $\times$ markers corresponding to $r_d$, are shown on each profile.

Figure 12

Figure 12. Normalised (a) $\overline {w'u'}$, and (b) $\overline {u'c'}$, profiles in $Fr_o=30$ and $15$ fountains. The profiles correspond to axial locations where the local $Fr$ values in both flows are approximately equal. Additionally, $\circ$ markers corresponding to radial location, $r_{io}$, and $\times$ markers corresponding to $r_d$, are shown on each profile.

Figure 13

Figure 13. Normalised (a) $\overline {w'u'}$, and (b) $\overline {u'c'}$, profiles in $Fr_o=30$ (Milton-McGurk et al.2021) and $Fr_o=10$ (present study) NBJs. The profiles correspond to axial locations where the local $Fr$ values in both flows are approximately equal.

Figure 14

Figure 14. The decay of the mean centreline velocity, $w_o/\bar {w}_c$, plotted with $z/D$ in (a), and $\bar {w}_c/w_o$ plotted with $z/(DFr_o)$ in (b), for fountains and NBJs with $10\leqslant Fr_o\leqslant 30$, and a neutral jet. In (b), a vertical line corresponding to the steady-state height of a fountain as predicted by $z_{ss}/r_o=2.46\,Fr_o$ is also shown (Turner 1966; Burridge & Hunt 2012). Data for the $Fr_o=30$ NBJ and the neutral jet were obtained from Milton-McGurk et al. (2021), while the remaining NBJ and fountain data are from the present study.

Figure 15

Figure 15. The velocity half-width, $r_{1/2,w}$, for $10\leqslant Fr_o\leqslant 30$ fountains and NBJs, and a neutral jet. The radial location of the IF/OF boundary, $r_{io}$, is also shown for the $Fr_o=15$ and $30$ fountains. In (a), $r_{1/2,w}/D$ and $r_{io}/D$ are plotted against $z/D$, with vertical lines showing the locations of the steady-state rise height, $z_{ss}/D$, of the $Fr_o=15$ and $30$ fountains. In (b), an alternative normalisation is used, $r_{1/2,w}/(Fr_o\,D)$ and $r_{io}/(Fr_o\,D)$, plotted with $Fr$.

Figure 16

Figure 16. The entrainment coefficient, $\alpha$, plotted with local $Ri$ for the IF of an $Fr_o=30$ and $Fr_o=15$ fountain, and of an $Fr_o=30$ NBJ, as calculated using (7.16) and (7.20).

Figure 17

Figure 17. The entrainment coefficient, $\alpha _e$, plotted with local $Ri$ for the IF of an $Fr_o=30$ and $Fr_o=15$ fountain, and of an $Fr_o=30$ NBJ. Here, $\alpha _e=\hat {u}_e/\hat {w}_{if}$, corresponding to the decomposed top-hat model described by (8.5)–(8.7). The ‘standard’ entrainment coefficient for the neutral jet (J), $\alpha$, as reported in Milton-McGurk et al. (2020) using the same experimental set-up, is also shown as a reference. For neutral jets, $Ri=0$ everywhere so $\alpha$ is shown as a horizontal line for clarity.

Figure 18

Figure 18. The normalised radial outflow velocity, $\hat {u}_{out}/\hat {w}_{if}$, with respect to the decomposed top-hat model for $Fr_o=30$ and $Fr_o=15$ fountains, and an $Fr_o=30$ NBJ. Horizontal lines indicating average values of $\alpha _e$ from figure 17 are also shown.

Figure 19

Figure 19. The constant and $Ri$-dependent components of the entrainment coefficient of an $Fr_o=30$ NBJ from both the decomposed top-hat model ($\hat {\alpha }=\alpha _e-\hat {u}_{out}/\hat {w}$) and the full model ($\alpha =L_1+L_2$). Panel (a) shows the terms $L_1$ and $L_2$ as calculated using (8.14), while (b) uses (8.18). That is, (a) neglects the turbulence component of profile coefficients, $\delta _f$ and $\gamma _f$, while (b) includes them.

Figure 20

Figure 20. The constant and $Ri$-dependent components of the entrainment coefficient of a fully developed fountain from both the decomposed top-hat model ($\hat {\alpha }=\alpha _e-\hat {u}_{out}/\hat {w}$) and the full model ($\alpha =L_1+L_2$). Results for the $Fr_o=30$ fountain are shown in (a), and for the $Fr_o=15$ case in (b).

Figure 21

Figure 21. Predictions of the decomposed top-hat model described by (8.5)–(8.7) alongside experimental data for the $Fr_o=15$ and $30$ fountains. The velocity scale, $\hat {w}_{if}$, is given in (a), the radius scale, $\hat {r}_{if}$, in (b), and the buoyancy scale, $\hat {g}_{if}$, in (c), all normalised by source quantities.

Figure 22

Figure 22. The entrainment coefficient, $\alpha _e$, for (a) B1E2, (b) B2E1, and (c) B2E2, for $Fr_o=15$ and $30$ fountains under the decomposed top-hat model, as estimated from the present experimental data.

Figure 23

Table 2. Mean values of $\alpha _e$ for $Fr_o=15$ and $30$ fountains in the decomposed top-hat model for the alternative body-force and entrainment formulations, as estimated from the present experimental data.

Figure 24

Figure 23. The radial velocity outflow component, $\hat {u}_{out}$, for (a) B1E2, (b) B2E1, and (c) B2E2, for $Fr_o=15$ and $30$ fountains under the decomposed top-hat model, as estimated from the present experimental data. In each case, $\hat {u}_{out}$ is normalised so that it is consistent with the definition of $\alpha _e$.

Figure 25

Figure 24. The radial velocity outflow component, $\hat {u}_{out}$, normalised by the OF velocity, $\hat {w}_{of}$, for $Fr_o=15$ and $30$ fountains under the decomposed top-hat model.