Buoyant Rectangular Surface Thermal Plumes

Abstract

A near-field integral model of a buoyant surface thermal plume entering a crossflow is developed which includes the effects of buoyancy through the empirical assumption that the slope of the plume thermocline is proportional to the local plume depth times the local plume excess temperature and inversely proportional to the initial plume internal Froude number, Fr o. The model is compared with laboratory data taken by Kuhlman and Prahl (1974), and field data taken by Frigo and Frye (1972). Data generally agree well with the model using single values of the empirical constants in the theory, varying only the initial internal Froude number, Fr o, and the crossflow-to-initia1-plume-velocity ratio, R, to match the data values. Matching is achieved for distances along the plume center line of approximately 20 initial plume widths for the laboratory data and 50 widths for the field data.