Numerical Simulation of Vertical Forced Plume in a Crossflow of Stably Stratified Fluid

Abstract

In this study, an investigation using a three-dimensional numerical model, which treats conservation of mass, momentum, and salinity simultaneously, was carried out to study the character of a vertical forced plume in a uniform cross-stream of stably linear stratified environment. A k-ε turbulence model was used to simulate the turbulent phenomena and close the solving problem. The performance of the three-dimensional model is evaluated by comparison of the numerical results with some available experimental measurements. Results indicate that the numerical computation simulates satisfactorily the plume behavior in a stratified crossflow. The secondary vortex pairs in the cross section induced by the primary one change as the plume flows downstream. This denotes the transformation of entrainment mechanism in stratified crossflow.