The diffusion of turbulent buoyant jets

It is pointed out that the cooling water discharge from a power plant into a large body of water, the thermally loaded condenser discharge from the condenser of a moving ship, and the high-temperature gas issuing from a stack or gas turbine exhaust are all buoyant momentum jets. The present study is concerned with a single, fully turbulent, circular buoyant jet, discharged into a surrounding ambient of the same fluid. The characteristics of circular discharges are examined, and a review of modeling schemes and experimental studies is conducted. Attention is given to properties and ambient stratification modeling, a general formulation, comparative calculations regarding the simplest entrainment models and later entrainment models, comparative calculations involving jets in unstratified flowing ambients, the effects of ambient stratifications, and dimensionless variables.