Abstract
Understanding the influence of ambient currents and jet discharge characteristics on warm polluted outfall performance is crucial for mitigating the ecological impact of effluents discharged from a diffuser in a confluence region. To this end, laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) experiments were conducted to investigate the combined effects of jet strength and nozzle location on the mixing of a positive or neutral jet issuing into a plane perpendicular to the crossflows. The trajectory and mixing within a channel junction of surface crossflow jets is investigated. Two different nozzle discharge locations and velocities were studied to assess the 3D jet trajectory and concentration distribution. The investigations revealed that a jet issued into the main channel mixes more effectively with wider dispersion compared with a jet issued in the tributary. This is due to the shear layer in the main channel, which restricts the jet in tributary to a narrower width, limiting its ability to mix effectively with ambient water.