Numerical modeling of a buoyant round jet under regular waves

This paper presents a numerical study on the kinematics of buoyant round jets in a wave environment. A buoyant round jet was horizontally discharged at the mid-depth in regular waves using three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with the standard κ−ε turbulence model. Three kinds of effluent with various densities were used for the jets. The numerical results were compared with the experimental data, with reasonable agreement observed. The mechanism of the jet oscillation under different wave-to-jet momentum ratios was presented. The effects of relative water depth, the ratio of the wave height to the water depth, and buoyancy on jet diffusion were considered. Among them, the ratio of the wave height to the water depth appears to be the most important factor on jet diffusion processes under the conditions being considered. Finally, the variations of the jet cross-sectional profiles in the potential core region and the near field region were studied.