Boussinesq point-source plume Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
A steady top-hat plume model supplied with kinematic buoyancy flux but zero source volume flux and momentum flux has
The Batchelor entrainment hypothesis and momentum balance yield these constants. Its Froude number satisfies . The Boussinesq approximation requires and therefore fails at the ideal point source itself.
Forced plume Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
A forced plume has both imposed momentum flux and positive buoyancy flux. Its near-source region behaves like a jet, while its far field approaches a pure plume. The crossover is measured by a jet length.
Inclined forced plume 2026-10-05
An inclined forced plume curves upward under buoyancy. In a stationary homogeneous ambient, its horizontal momentum flux is conserved and its vertical momentum flux increases. For kinematic plume fluxes, and , where and the derivative is with respect to centreline arc length.
Jet length 2026-10-05
For source kinematic momentum flux and buoyancy flux , dimensional analysis gives . Under constant Batchelor entrainment, the actual turning length also contains an entrainment coefficient factor of order .
Kinematic plume fluxes Created 2026-10-05 Updated 2026-10-06
Dividing the mass flux, momentum flux, and density-weighted buoyancy flux by ambient mass density gives the kinematic fluxes , , and . This convention makes dimensional similarity solutions independent of the arbitrary ambient density unit.
The invariant future mass-shell measure is , up to fixed normalization factors absorbed in . Its relation to the Lorentz-invariant phase-space measure follows by integrating over in a local orthonormal tetrad. A particle carries four-momentum and crosses a local spatial surface with velocity . Integrating the associated momentum flux gives the displayed stress-energy tensor. For photons, and .
For a turbulent plume in a homogeneous ambient of density , define actual sectional mass flux, momentum flux and density-weighted buoyancy flux by , and . With non-Boussinesq Batchelor entrainment , their balances are
Here is sectional mass, is sectional density-deficit buoyancy, and the entrained ambient initially has zero vertical momentum. The last equation follows by subtracting mass conservation from times volume conservation. Scase, Caulfield, Dalziel and Hunt's time-dependent plume model derives the equivalent system with the common factor suppressed.