The standing hydraulic jump: theory, computations and comparisons with experiments

Abstract

In this theoretical and computational study of the flow of a liquid layer, under the influence of surface tension and gravity most notably, the nonlinear equations governing an interaction between viscous effects and the effects of surface tension, gravity and streamline curvature for the limit of large Reynolds numbers are derived. The aim is to make a comparison between the predictions of this theory and the experiments of Craiket al.on the axisymmetric hydraulic jump. Such a jump is commonly encountered in the everyday context of the initial filling of a kitchen sink, for example, and it is found in the present work that initially all the effects listed above can play a primary role in practice in the local jump phenomenon. As a first step here, the flow of the layer over a small obstacle is considered. It is seen that as surface tension becomes increasingly significant the upstream influence becomes more wave-like. Second, calculations and analysis of the nonlinear free interaction are presented and show wave-like behaviour upstream, followed downstream by a depth profile not unlike that in the typical hydraulic jump. The effects of gravity dominate those of surface tension downstream. Finally, comparisons are made with the experiments and show fair quantitative agreement, supporting the present proposition that these hydraulic jumps are caused by boundary-layer separation due to a viscous–inviscid interaction forced by downstream boundary conditions on, in this case, a fully developed, high-Froude-number liquid layer.