Analysis of a turbulent buoyant confined jet modeled using realizable k-ε model

Abstract

Through this paper, analyses of components of the unheated/heated turbulent confined jet are introduced and some models to describe them are developed. Turbulence realizable k-ε model is used to model the turbulence of this problem. Numerical simulations of 2D axisymmetric vertical hot water confined jet into a cylindrical tank have been done. Solutions are obtained for unsteady flow while velocity, pressure, temperature and turbulence distributions inside the water tank are analyzed. For seeking verification, an experiment was conducted for measuring of the temperature of the same system, and comparison between the measured and simulated temperature shows a good agreement. Using the simulated results, some models are developed to describe axial velocity, centerline velocity, radial velocity, dynamic pressure, mass flux, momentum flux and buoyancy flux for both unheated (non-buoyant) and heated (buoyant) jet. Finally, the dynamics of the heated jet in terms of the plume function which is a universal quantity and the source parameter are studied and therefore the maximum velocity can be predicted theoretically. © 2010 Springer-Verlag.