Large eddy simulations of a buoyant plume above a heated horizontal cylinder at intermediate Rayleigh numbers

The results show a considerable difference between the numerical and experimental results. Plume center vertical velocity is highly overpredicted compared to the experimental data. The computed half-width about 1.5 y/D downstream the cylinder is comparable to the experimental data, however, 3.5 y/D downstream cylinder, the half-width is only about half that of the experimental data. The half-width growth rate measured in the experiments remain higher than the computed growth rate throughout the domain of interest.