Large-eddy simulation of starting buoyant jets

A series of Large Eddy Simulations (LES) are performed to investigate the penetration of starting buoyant jets. The LES code is first validated by comparing simulation results with existing experimental data for both steady and starting pure jets and lazy plumes. The centerline decay and the growth...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Law, Adrian Wing-Keung, Adams, E. Eric, Fringer, Oliver B., Wang, Ruoqian
Other Authors: Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering
Format: Article
Language:en_US
Published: Springer-Verlag 2014
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/85660
https://orcid.org/0000-0002-5577-683X
Description
Summary:A series of Large Eddy Simulations (LES) are performed to investigate the penetration of starting buoyant jets. The LES code is first validated by comparing simulation results with existing experimental data for both steady and starting pure jets and lazy plumes. The centerline decay and the growth rate of the velocity and concentration fields for steady jets and plumes, as well as the simulated transient penetration rate of a starting pure jet and a starting lazy plume, are found to compare well with the experiments. After validation, the LES code is used to study the penetration of starting buoyant jets with three different Reynolds numbers from 2000 to 3000, and with a wide range of buoyancy fluxes from pure jets to lazy plumes. The penetration rate is found to increase with an increasing buoyancy flux. It is also observed that, in the initial Period of Flow Development, the two penetrative mechanisms driven by the initial buoyancy and momentum fluxes are uncoupled; therefore the total penetration rate can be resolved as the linear addition of these two effects. A fitting equation is proposed to predict the penetration rate by combining the two independent mechanisms.