Deposition from Particle-Laden, Plane, Turbulent, Buoyant Jets

Laboratory and computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model studies with turbulent, plane, particle-laden buoyant jets discharged horizontally into a quiescent ambient fluid have demonstrated that the presence of particles has no significant influence upon the buoyant jet trajectories over a wide range of forcing conditions and source concentrations of 0.1% or less. Bed deposition distributions show a large initial maximum close to the source, indicative of a dominant, localized particle fall-out from the buoyant jet margins. Beyond this near-source region, the distributions show a gradual decrease in particle deposition with increasing distance from the source, as a result of particle fall-out from the spreading surface layer generated by the buoyant jet impinging on the free surface of the receiving waters. In both cases, the deposition distributions scale well with the nondimensional settling parameter $w_s∕b_0^{1∕3}$ and the source Froude number ${\mathsf{F}}_0$ . CFD simulations show good agreement with the laboratory data, particularly for deposition distributions downstream of the source. Additionally, the simulations indicate clearly that the receiving water boundaries can produce significant secondary return flows through fluid displacement by the spreading surface gravity current and its subsequent reflection.