Numerical study on flow developments for the rise of buoyant plumes in a stratified environment

A numerical technique for integrating the full Navier-Stokes and diffusion equations through an initial value problem has been used to investigate the time development of a line buoyant source issuing in a density-stratified environment. The basic physical features and some structures of the interactions of the motion at the intermediate mixing region are obtained. Results show that the stratification tends to inhibit the flow development of the buoyant source and to encourage the formation of a recirculatory vortex on the lower region near the source and the upper region.