Solution

ID: past-exam-of-the-mathematics-course-of-the-university-of-cambridge/2004/iii/paper-75/6/a/solution

The Batchelor entrainment hypothesis assumes that the mean ambient inflow normal to the edge of a turbulent turbulent plume is proportional to its representative axial velocity, . With top-hat plume model fields and circumference , the added volume per height is . It is an integral turbulent mixing closure; it does not assert that every instantaneous eddy has the same inward speed. Use constant positive , uniform resting ambient, Boussinesq approximation, negligible drag and no buoyancy loss.
Since , . Eliminate between the volume and momentum balances:
The zero-source-flux condition gives , the pure plume balance. Substitution in and integration gives
Recovering the top-hat fields from , and yields
The paper's ratio is therefore
This is the constant inverse-normalized ratio used here, not the catalog's normalized plume balance parameter, which is one for a pure plume. The zero-flux point source is a limiting similarity origin: the speed and density anomaly diverge there, so a physically finite source must regularize the near field. The expressions are valid in the region where the Boussinesq approximation and turbulent closure apply.

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