Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-q99xh Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-18T21:27:10.721Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

A vertical buoyant jet with high momentum in a long ventilated tunnel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

S. J. Barnett
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Silver Street, Cambridge CB3 9EW, UK

Abstract

In this paper the flow resulting from the release of buoyant material within a long tunnel is investigated. The source fluid is discharged through a nozzle of small radius with sufficiently high flow rate to ensure that the axial lengthscale of the buoyant jet (subsequently called the ‘jet-length’) is several times the depth of the tunnel, d. The ends of the tunnel may be either open or closed and a number of ventilation points may exist along it. Consideration of a source with high momentum is an important development in confined jet flow models, as most previous models have assumed that the source has little or no initial momentum. It is found that circulation cells are driven near to the source and that the concentration within them increases to a steady-state maximum. At a distance of about 2.5d from the source the buoyancy forces are then sufficiently strong to drive a two-layered stratified counterflow. The steady-state conservation equations are analysed in order to calculate the mean flow variables. The flow past a ventilation point and the characteristics of the secondary outflow are derived, enabling the calculation of the total number of vents needed to vent the buoyant layer. The time dependence of the mean concentration in the circulation cell near to the source is also deduced. This could be used to calculate time-dependent solutions for the other mean flow variables. All of the theoretical results are compared with experimental measurements.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1993 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Andreopoulos, J., Praturi, A. & Rodi, W. 1986 Experiments on vertical plane buoyant jets in shallow water. J. Fluid Mech. 168, 305336.Google Scholar
Baines, W. D. & Turner, J. S. 1969 Turbulent buoyant convection from a source in a confined region. J. Fluid Mech. 37, 5180.Google Scholar
Barnett, S. J. 1991 The dynamics of buoyant releases in confined spaces. PhD thesis, University of Cambridge.
Benjamin, T. B. 1968 Gravity currents and related phenomena. J. Fluid Mech. 31, 209248.Google Scholar
Ellison, T. H. & Turner, J. S. 1959 Turbulent entrainment in stratified flows. J. Fluid Mech. 6, 423448.Google Scholar
Jirka, G. H. & Harleman, D. R. F. 1979 Stability and mixing of a vertical plane buoyant jet in confined depth. J. Fluid Mech. 94, 275304.Google Scholar
Lee, H.-W. 1980 Stability and mixing of a round buoyant discharge in shallow water. In 2nd Intl Symp. on Stratified Flows, Trondheim, Norway (ed. T. Carstens & T. McClimans), pp. 881897. Trondheim: Tapier.
Linden, P. F., Lane-Serff, G. F. & Smeed, D. A. 1990 Emptying filling boxes: the fluid mechanics of natural ventilation. J. Fluid Mech. 212, 309335.Google Scholar
Moncrieff, M. W. & So, D. W. K. 1989 A hydrodynamical theory of conservative bounded density currents. J. Fluid Mech. 198, 177197.Google Scholar
Turner, J. S. 1973 Buoyancy Effects in Fluids. Cambridge University Press.
Wilkinson, D. L. & Wood, I. R. 1971 A rapidly varied flow phenomenon in a two-layer flow. J. Fluid Mech. 47, 241256.Google Scholar