Published online by Cambridge University Press: 26 April 2006
A thermally stratified internal hydraulic jump in a fresh water ambient, which has a temperature equal to or greater than 4 °C, is investigated theoretically and experimentally. The thermal jump solutions obtained using a nonlinear buoyancy function are compared with the density jump solutions obtained using a linear buoyancy function. The study reveals considerable difference between thermal and density jump behaviour in a range of temperature above 4 °C. The error of treating a thermal jump as a density jump is found to increase with Froude number and temperature difference and decrease with ambient temperature. Thermal jump-experiments are conducted at ambient water temperatures of 4 °C and 16 °C. The two sets of experiments have identical Froude number, Reynolds number and temperature difference. Experimental observations compare favourably with the thermal jump theory. The analysis of temperature fluctuations suggests that ambient temperature is also modifying the internal mixing characteristics of thermal jumps.