Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 April 2006
A slow moving flow in a duct emerging into a quiescent negatively buoyant environment may separate from its inner wall prior to the lip. Buoyancy accelerates the flow, curving the streamlines within the duct away from the walls. The resulting deceleration at the wall may be sufficient to provoke separation. The problem of the location of this separation point in a two-dimensional channel is studied. A potential-flow model is examined first to explore the large-Reynolds-number behaviour. The form of the potential-flow description in the vicinity of the assumed location of separation is characterized by the presence of a square-root singularity in the pressure gradient at the wall. This permits use of the ideas of viscous-inviscid interaction, proposed by Sychev (1972), to determine the separation location as a function of Froude and Reynolds numbers. Results obtained in the high-Reynoldsnumber limit show that the channel flow separates at shorter distances from the entrance as Froude number is reduced.