Theoretical and experimental investigation of three-dimensional buoyant turbulent jets

This paper presents analytic solutions and experimental data for three-dimensional buoyant turbulent jets discharged horizontally from rectangular outlets into a quiescent fluid. Attention is focused on the mean flow and thermal characteristics of the jet such as centerline velocity and temperature decay and jet trajectory. The theoretical treatment is based on integral formulation of the conservation laws using the entrainment concept for closure. Assumed velocity and temperature profiles, appropriate to various regions of the jet, are used to generate sets of simultaneous ordinary differential equations which are solved numerically. Experimental data for rectangular outlets of four aspect ratios is obtained at various Froude numbers.