MODELING THE EFFECTS OF WAVE ON MIXING ENHANCEMENT OF SUBMERGED BUOYANT JETS

Abstract

A Lagrangian model is developed for predicting a turbulent buoyant jet discharged into wave-induced flow environments. Two entrainment coefficients are involved in the model: one describing the shear entrainment identical with that of traditional models for jets into stagnant ambient fluids while the other describing the forced entrainment due to wave-induced velocity assumed as constant herein. Model predictions are compared with experiments of buoyant jets into ambient water with shallow water wave conditions, and the agreement is very good. The present model is also validated for the limited case of zero ambient velocity. It is revealed that the waves may significantly increase the dilution achieved by the ocean outfalls. Taking into account of the wave effects on the jet mixing would make the outfall design easy to satisfy the environmental standard with lower costs than otherwise.