Publication Date:
2022-05-26
Description:
Author Posting. © Cambridge University Press, 2014. This article is posted here by permission of Cambridge University Press for personal use, not for redistribution. The definitive version was published in Journal of Fluid Mechanics 752 (2014): R2, doi:10.1017/jfm.2014.389.
Description:
A model of the total volume flux and entrainment occurring in two coalescing axisymmetric turbulent plumes is developed and compared with laboratory experiments. The dynamical evolution of the two plumes is divided into three regions. In region 1, where the plumes are separate, the entrainment in each plume is unaffected by the other plume, although the two plumes are drawn together due to the entrainment of ambient fluid between them. In region 2 the two plumes touch each other but are not yet merged. In this region the total entrainment is a function of both the dynamics of the touching plumes and the reduced surface area through which entrainment occurs. In region 3 the two plumes are merged and the entrainment is equivalent to that in a single plume. We find that the total volume flux after the two plumes touch and before they merge increases linearly with distance from the sources, and can be expressed as a function of the known total volume fluxes at the touching and merging heights. Finally, we define an ‘effective’ entrainment constant, αeff, as the value of α needed to obtain the same total volume flux in two independent plumes as that occurring in two coalescing plumes. The definition of αeff allows us to find a single expression for the development of the total volume flux in the three different dynamical regions. This single expression will simplify the representation of coalescing plumes in more complex models, such as in large-scale geophysical convection, in which plume dynamics are not resolved. Experiments show that the model provides an accurate measure of the total volume flux in the two coalescing plumes as they evolve through the three regions.
Description:
The authors gratefully acknowledge the National Science Foundation (grant
OCE-0824636) and the Office of Naval Research (grant N00014-09-1-0844) for their
support of the 2013 WHOI Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Summer School where this
project was initiated. Support to C.C. was given by the National Science Foundation
project OCE-1130008.
Description:
2015-07-11
Keywords:
Mixing
;
Plumes/thermals
;
Turbulent mixing
Repository Name:
Woods Hole Open Access Server
Type:
Article
Format:
application/pdf
