Boundary-layer analysis of the thermal bar

Abstract

The thermal bar, a descending plane plume of fluid at the temperature of maximum density (3.98° C in water), is analysed as a laminar free-convection boundary layer, following the example of Kuiken & Rotem (1971) for the plume above a line source of heat. Numerical integration of the similarity form of the boundary-layer equations yields values of the vertical velocity and temperature gradient on the centre line and the horizontal velocity induced outside the thermal bar as functions of Prandtl number σ. The asymptotic behaviour of these parameters for both large and small σ is also obtained; in these cases, the thermal bar has a two-layer structure, and the method of matched asymptotic expansions is used. For the intermediate case σ= 1, an analytical calculation using approximate velocity and temperature profiles in the integrated boundary-layer equations yields good agreement with the numerical results. The applicability of the results to naturally occurring thermal bars (e. g. in lakes) is limited, but the laminar-flow analysis is likely to relate more closely to the phenomenon on a laboratory scale.