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Procedia Engineering 162 (2016) 120 – 127

International Conference on Efficient & Sustainable Water Systems Management toward Worth
Living Development, 2nd EWaS 2016

The Behaviour of a Turbulent Buoyant Jet into Flowing

Environment
Evangelos Keramarisa,*, George Pechlivanidisb
a
University of Thessaly, Department of Civil Enginnering, Pedion Areos, 38334, Volos, Greece
b
Alexander Technological Educational Institute of Thessaloniki, Department of Civil Engineering T.E., Sinds, 57400, Thessaloniki, Greece

Abstract

In this study the mean axial velocity at the centreline of a buoyant jet which is discharged vertically upwards from a source, into
flowing environment inside a denser ambient fluid (water), in an open channel, is investigated. The presence of a buoyant jet is
studied experimentally using a 2DParticle Image Velocimetry (PIV).
For this reason individual experiments were conducted. Salt water is used as the ambient fluid and fresh water as the jet fluid.
Experiments were made for flowing ambient fluid. For the flow visualization of the buoyant jet, the water, was dyed with either
rhodamin (red color) or fluorescein (green color), aiming to the best appearance of the buoyant jet field.The velocity fields of the
buoyant jet were determined analysing 200 pairs of photographs in each experiment. These fields were used to quantify the different
behaviour of the buoyant jet into flowing environment.
Results show that the presence of salt water can affect the flow dynamics with different way into flowing environment. The present
findings are discussed and compared with other experimental data in similar conditions reported in the literature. These findings
from experimental data analysis should be useful for the verification of numerical models.

© 2016
© 2016Published by Elsevier
The Authors. Ltd. This
Published is an openLtd.
by Elsevier access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility ofthe organizing committee of the EWaS2 International Conference on Efficient & Sustainable
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the EWaS2 International Conference on Efficient & Sustainable
Water Systems Management toward Worth Living Development.
Water Systems Management toward Worth Living Development
Keywords:PIV measurements; Buoyant jet; Mean axial velocity;Flow visualization;

* Corresponding author. Tel.: +00302421074140

E-mail address:ekeramaris@civ.uth.gr

1877-7058 © 2016 Published by Elsevier Ltd. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Peer-review under responsibility of the organizing committee of the EWaS2 International Conference on Efficient & Sustainable Water Systems
Management toward Worth Living Development
doi:10.1016/j.proeng.2016.11.027
 Evangelos Keramaris and George Pechlivanidis / Procedia Engineering 162 (2016) 120 – 127 121

1. Introduction

Flows of buoyant jets are very common.Turbulent buoyant jets and plumes have been studied theoretically and
experimentally by using both fresh and salt water ([1], [2]). [3] describes in detail the use of the integral method in
buoyant-jet flows and its applicability limits; he and his co-workers have formulated and validated the Corjet integral
model, which has been incorporated in the Cormix model [4]. In the study of [5] the integral momentum and tracer
equations for the mean motion with the turbulence contribution in momentum and tracer fluxes are integrated on the
centreline of either plane or round buoyant jets, using suitable assumptions for the spreading coefficients and a closing
function, and unified first- and second-order solutions are derived in the entire buoyancy range for mean axial
velocities and mean concentrations. Comparisons to experimental data in the literature validate the model and show
that second-order solutions deviate less than first-order solutions.
[6]proposean integral model predicting the mean flow and mixing properties of inclined plane and round turbulent
buoyant jets in a motionless environment of uniform density. The results predicted are compared with experimental
data available in the literature, and the accuracy obtained is more than satisfactory.
There are many experimental data available in the literature regarding buoyant jets in a quiescent ambient
environment, but there aren’t many experimental data available in the literature regarding buoyant jets into flowing
ambient environment. In the study of [7] the turbulence of vertical round buoyant jets in a cross flow was investigated.
For this reason experiments were conducted for the calculation of velocity distribution, shear stresses and temperature
field. Measurements were taken for the horizontal channel using an Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter (ADV) and they
are analyzed with the help of software ExploreV. Results show that the velocity vectors around the buoyant jet have
a rapid and turbulence behaviour. Also the behaviour of buoyant jet isn’t a result only from different density between
buoyant jet and environment but it is related with parameters such as wave length Ȝ and wave widthİ. [8] based on
experimental observations on gas-phase horizontal laminar jets with positive and negative buoyancy, when the Froude
number was less than 1, have challenged this seemingly sound proposition.
For the experimental investigation of buoyant jets and plumes recent efforts have introduced the Particle Image
Velocimetry (PIV) technology. [9]investigated experimentally the turbulent characteristics of open-channel flow
using a PIV.[10]performed experiments to study the turbulent characteristics of the flow in an open channel with
horizontal and inclined impermeable beds using a two-dimensional (2D) Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). Also,[11])
were carried out experiments to investigate the influence of transition from vegetation to gravel bed and vice versa in
open channels. For the simulation of the two porous beds (grass-like vegetation and gravel bed) were used to represent
the permeable bed. Finally,[12] assessed the effects of turbulent flow on the velocity distribution in an open channel
in a half-separated (impermeable and permeable) bed using a 2-D PIV.
In this study, the mean axial velocity at the centreline of a buoyant jet which is discharged vertically upwards from
a source, into flowing environment inside a denser ambient fluid (water), in an open channel, is investigated
experimentally using a PIV. Salt water is used as the ambient fluid and fresh water as the jet fluid. Results show that
the presence of salt water can affect the flow dynamics with different way into flowing environment in comparison
with buoyant jets in a quiescent environment.

2. Experimental Procedure-Measurements

In total, twelve (12) experiments were carried out in an open channel of the Hydraulics Lab. The channel was 6.5m
long, 7.5cm wide and 25cm deep.The buoyant jet was discharged vertically upwards from a tank with fresh water in
salt water. The velocity of the buoyant jet was measured at 7130 points of the jet centerline for a horizontal channel
bed. These fields were used to quantify the behaviour of the buoyant jet with fresh water of density ȡ0 = 1.000 gr/cm3
and with different salt water densities (ȡa=1.010, 1.015, 1.020 gr/cm3). The initial velocity of the buoyant jet was kept
constant and equal to 0.07m/s. Also, the water depth of the open channel was kept constant and equal to 0.10m. The
velocity of the open channel ranged between 0.059 and 0.122m/s.The source, which supplies the buoyant jet with
fresh water, was fixed at 5cm over the channel bottom.For the flow visualization of the buoyant jet, the water, was
dyed with either rhodamin (red color) or fluorescein (green color), aiming to the best appearance of the buoyant jet
field.The experimental set-up is showed in figure 1. The characteristics of the experiments are presented in Table 1.
122 Evangelos Keramaris and George Pechlivanidis / Procedia Engineering 162 (2016) 120 – 127

Fig. 1. Experimental set-up (open channel)

Table1. Characteristics of the experiment

Experiment Velocity (m/s) Salinity (‰)
1 0.059 10
2 0.092 10
3 0.108 10
4 0.122 10
5 0.059 15
6 0.092 15
7 0.108 15
8 0.122 15
9 0.059 20
10 0.092 20
11 0.108 20
12 0.122 20

Measurements of the turbulent buoyant jet velocity distribution into flowing environment were taken at the
centreline of the horizontal channel using a 2-D Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV). The width of the channel is only
7.5 cm but does not influence the magnitude of the velocities. [13] carried out experiments to investigate the impact
of lateral walls on the velocity profile in an open channel with the width of 7.5 cm. Results from these experiments
showed that the lateral walls influence the velocities only in a distance of 0.4 cm from the walls. This result indicates
that the wall does not influence the instantaneous velocities in the central area of the channel in which the velocity
measurements are usually conducted. The impact of the lateral walls on the flow dynamics in the rest of the channel
is negligible.
The PIV system used for the measurement of the velocity distribution in the flow domain consists of a twin pulsed
Nd: Yag lasers (532 nm wavelength, 300 mjoule/pulse at 10 Hz), a cross correlation 8 bit 1K x 1K CCD camera
(Kodak MEGAPLUS ES 1.0), a synchronizer, a computer, an image acquisition system and a PIV analysis software
 Evangelos Keramaris and George Pechlivanidis / Procedia Engineering 162 (2016) 120 – 127 123

(Insight 3G). The laser beams were combined and formed a 1-mm wide sheet by using semi-cylindrical optics. The
camera image size creates a 1600 x 1192 pixel array and the dimension of the velocity field was kept to 120 x 110
mm for all the experiments. This means that the resolution of the captured images was typically 13.33 pixel/mm,
whilst the pixel length was 0.075 mm/pixel. The laser was installed above the open channel at a distance of 50 cm
from the water free surface, while the camera viewed from an orthogonal direction. Twin images were recorded with
a temporal interval of 1.5 ms. In total, 200 pairs of images were captured per experiment. The plane photographs were
divided into interrogation spots measuring 16 x 32 pixels (1.2 x 2.4 mm). The fluid is generally seeded with tracer
particles that, for the purposes of PIV, are generally assumed to follow the flowdynamics[14]. These particles have a
size of about 10 ȝm in clean water.The motion of the seeding particles is used to calculate the velocity vectors of the
flow. The distance between two neighbour velocity vectors is 1.5 mm. From the velocity field we can find the profile
of the flow at each vertical direction or the mean space profile in the area. PIVs use the particle concentration method
to identify individual particles in an image and follow their flow [15]. The experimental uncertainty of the measured
velocity with this technique is approximately ± 2%.

3. Results

The mean rate of the motion of 200 different time positions was taken. The impact of the maximum velocity for
different mean velocities of the environmental water can be assessed by comparing results from figures 2, 3 and 4.
From the figures 2 and 3it is obvious that the turbulent buoyant jet is influenced from the magnitude of the
maximum mean velocity. As the mean velocity increases from 0.059 m/s to 0.122 m/s the curve of the buoyant jet is
decreased for the same salinity (10 and 15‰). This is due to the fact that the increase of mean velocity “pushes” to
the right the buoyant jet and this fact decrease the curve.
However, in the first figure 4a of figure 4 only in the first figure with the lower maximum mean velocity of 0.059
m/s it is obvious the shape of the turbulent jet. In the other cases (figures 4b, 4c and 4d) the increase of the mean
velocity has as result the drift of the turbulent jet from the flowing environment.
Also the increase of the salt water density results into areduction of the velocity rate, due to the increase of the
buoyant forces. The velocity reduction with the increase of the salt water densityis attributed to wall effects. The
nozzle of the buoyant jet generates large eddies of about the same size, which rise up as spheres in a bounded
environment. Another reason of the velocity reduction is the proximity to the water surface, because, as the buoyant
jet approaches the water surface, its vertical velocity tends to zero and horizontal velocities are developed due to
continuity conservation.

-10 u=0.059 m/sec density=1.0% -10 u=0.092 m/sec density=1.0%

y=-0.01517x 2+3.646x-258 y=-0.01024x 2+2.427x-203.8
-20 -20
2
r =0.9917 r2=0.9976
-30 -30

-40 -40
y mm
y mm

-50 -50

-60 -60

-70 -70

-80 -80

-90 -90
20 40 60 80 100 120 20 40 60 80 100 120
x mm x mm
124 Evangelos Keramaris and George Pechlivanidis / Procedia Engineering 162 (2016) 120 – 127

-10 u=0.108 m/sec density=1.0% -10 u=0.122 m/sec density=1.0%

y=-0.009968x 2+2.326x-199.3 y=-0.008678x 2+2052x-188
-20 r2=0.9967 -20 r2=0.9952

-30 -30

-40 -40
y mm

y mm
-50 -50

-60 -60

-70 -70

-80 -80

-90 -90
20 40 60 80 100 120 20 40 60 80 100 120
x mm x mm

-10

-20

-30

-40
u=0.059 m/sec
y mm

-50
u=0.122 m/sec
u=0.108 m/sec

-60
u=0.092 m/sec

-70

-80

-90

20 40 60 80 100 120
x mm

Fig. 2. Buoyant jet with salinity (10‰) and for initial velocity (a) u0=0.059 m/s, (b) u0=0.092 m/s, (c) u0=0.108 m/s and (d) u0=0.122 m/s

u=0.059 m/sec density=1.5% u=0.092 m/sec density=1.5%

-10
-10 y=(-30.15x+525)/(x-18.09) y=(-54.79x+461.6)/(x-19.96)
2
r =0.996
-20 r2=0.9962
-20

-30
-30

-40
-40
y mm
y mm

-50
-50

-60
-60

-70
-70

-80
-80

-90
-90
20 40 60 80 100 120
20 40 60 80 100 120
x mm x mm
 Evangelos Keramaris and George Pechlivanidis / Procedia Engineering 162 (2016) 120 – 127 125

u=0.108 m/sec density=1.5% u=0.122 m/sec density=1.5%

-10
y=(-56.58x+364)/(x-18.33)
-10
y=(-59.89x+290.3)/(x-16.54)
r2=0.9961
-20 -20 r2=0.9981

-30 -30

-40 -40

y mm
y mm

-50 -50

-60 -60

-70 -70

-80 -80

-90 -90
20 40 60 80 100 120 20 40 60 80 100 120
x mm x mm

-10

-20

-30

-40
y mm

u=0.059 m/sec
-50

u=0.122 m/sec
-60 u=0.108 m/sec

u=0.092 m/sec

-70

-80

-90

20 40 60 80 100 120
x mm

Fig. 3. Buoyant jet with salinity (15‰) and for initial velocity (a) u0=0.059 m/s, (b) u0=0.092 m/s, (c) u0=0.108 m/s and (d) u0=0.122 m/s

-10 u=0.059 m/sec density=2.0% -10 u=0.092 m/sec density=2.0%

y=(-16.29x-2119)/(x-4.908)
-20 r2=0.9962 -20

-30 -30

-40 -40
y mm
y mm

-50 -50

-60 -60

-70 -70

-80 -80

-90 -90
20 40 60 80 100 120 20 40 60 80 100 120
x mm x mm
126 Evangelos Keramaris and George Pechlivanidis / Procedia Engineering 162 (2016) 120 – 127

u=0.108 m/sec density=2.0% u=0.122m/sec density=2.0%

-10 -10

-20 -20

-30 -30

-40 -40

y mm
y mm

-50 -50

-60 -60

-70 -70

-80 -80

-90 -90
20 40 60 80 100 120 20 40 60 80 100 120
x mm x mm

Fig. 4. Buoyant jet with salinity (20‰) and for initial velocity (a) u0=0.059 m/s, (b) u0=0.092 m/s, (c) u0=0.108 m/s and (d) u0=0.122 m/s

4. Conclusions

The flow dynamics andthe mean axial velocity at the centreline of a buoyant jet which is discharged vertically
upwards from a source, into flowing environment inside a denser ambient fluid (water), in an open channel, is
investigated. Flow dynamics are influenced by the properties of the jet and the confined ambient fluid, i.e. salinity and
initial mean velocity. The main conclusions of this study are:

x As the mean velocity increases the curve of the buoyant jet is decreased. This is due to the fact that the increase of
mean velocity “pushes” to the right the buoyant jet and this fact decrease the curve.
x As the mean velocity increases from 0.059 m/s to 0.122 m/s the curve of the buoyant jet is decreased for the same
salinity (10 and 15‰). However, in the first figure 4a of figure 4 only in the first figure with the lower maximum
mean velocity of 0.059 m/s it is obvious the shape of the turbulent jet. In the other cases (figures 4b, 4c and 4d) the
increase of the mean velocity has as result the drift of the turbulent jet from the flowing environment.
x The increase of the salt water density results into a reduction of the velocity rate, due to the increase of the buoyant
forces.

References

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 Evangelos Keramaris and George Pechlivanidis / Procedia Engineering 162 (2016) 120 – 127 127

[13] E. Keramaris, G. Pechlivanidis, I. Pechlivanidis, G. Samaras, The impact of lateral walls on the velocity profile in an open channel using the
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