Use and constant entrainment parameter . The printed integrals are normalized by , so a top-hat plume model has , and ; the physical area is still . Keeping this normalization avoids spurious factors of in the flux equations.
Eliminate height between the two flux balances. The plume flux-balance invariant follows from
so
For positive fluxes, both and increase. In particular , so as . Therefore , whatever the finite source imbalance, and . Integrating gives the attracting similarity solution
This proves attraction to pure plume similarity for physical positive source fluxes. Sources with a vanishing initial volume or momentum flux enter the positive regime immediately and can be obtained by the corresponding limiting solutions; a point buoyancy source has the same similarity form with zero virtual-origin offset. The statement assumes positive buoyancy flux: a jet with is a different asymptotic problem.
Define the plume balance parameter
Pure plume balance means at each height, or equivalently : momentum, buoyancy and entrainment have their similarity relation, even when the source has finite radius. A forced plume has , meaning excess momentum relative to this balance; a lazy plume has , meaning insufficient momentum. The invariant ensures that the sign of the imbalance is preserved while . In particular, a strictly positive source remains pure at every height precisely when
For this source the exact solution is the same similarity form with replaced by . Writing ,
Thus the radius growth of an axisymmetric pure plume is and the plume virtual origin lies at , with . Equivalently, in terms of top-hat source properties, pure plume balance is .
For the stated source-to-source geometry, the relevant horizontal distance is . Consequently the edge criterion is , rather than the radius at which two expanding edges first touch. Since ,
Here . A positive merging height requires ; equality puts it at the source, while an already wider source satisfies the geometric condition from the start. The no-interaction premise extrapolates independent plumes even though their edges would first touch earlier, when each radius is .
Use with and to get . The individual plume properties at the specified height are therefore
The source volume flux affects the height through the virtual origin, but it does not affect these properties at a prescribed radius in an exactly pure plume.
For the stipulated merger of two equal pure plumes, the new radius is . This factor is outside , as required by the area. Since speed and reduced gravity are held fixed, the merged fluxes are , and . Their balance parameter is
The immediate combined plume is lazy. The same result follows from : enlarging the radius at fixed increases this parameter.
At fixed , the radius required for pure plume balance is
That is half the stipulated combined area . This fixed-speed pure-plume merger and flux conservation comparison exposes the limitation of demanding immediate pure balance with unchanged speed and reduced gravity: reducing the area to this value would also halve all three merged fluxes. A conservative merger must instead adjust its properties and begin out of pure balance. Under the given constant-entrainment equations, the resulting lazy plume subsequently approaches the attracting similarity solution with total buoyancy flux .
An acoustic analogy is an exact rearrangement of the fluid equations into a chosen linear propagation operator acting on an acoustic variable, with everything left over placed on the right as effective forcing. The rearrangement becomes a sound-prediction method only after a reference medium, boundary conditions and approximations to the forcing are specified. In particular, a right-hand-side term need not represent independently generated sound.
Use Einstein summation convention and write . Differentiating the continuity equation in time and taking the divergence of the momentum equation eliminates :
Set and . Since , the constant has zero Laplacian. The prescribed reference mass density and reference speed of sound are independent of time, so
Combining the two identities gives
Only conservation of mass and conservation of momentum have been used; no equation of state or energy equation was needed. Spatial variation of creates no omitted derivative in this identity, because it multiplies a time derivative. The double divergence of the momentum flux tensor has the structure of an acoustic quadrupole.
For a localized flow, choose the reference fields to match the stationary surrounding medium: and outside the flow, with chosen so there. A uniform surrounding fluid permits ambient constant mass density and adiabatic sound speed, giving the familiar homogeneous wave equation. A nonuniform surrounding fluid calls for its actual stationary reference profiles, extended sensibly through the flow region. This makes the acoustic variable vanish in the unperturbed exterior and minimizes artificial contrast terms. In a uniform isentropic exterior the leading acoustic relation also makes vanish to first order. In a stratified exterior, propagation and entropy-advection effects can remain in , as the next part demonstrates.
Apply volume conservation, mass conservation and vertical momentum flux balance to a slice of the triangular-profile line plume. Ambient ingestion contributes of volume and of mass per unit height and source length. The ambient is quiescent, so it supplies no leading vertical momentum. The integrated driving force is the stored buoyancy . Using the quantities from part (a), the non-Boussinesq triangular-profile line-plume balances are
Together with Batchelor entrainment, these are three equations for . They neglect viscous boundary stresses and streamwise pressure-force corrections within the integral-plume approximation.
Multiplying volume conservation by and subtracting times mass conservation cancels the ambient sources exactly, giving
This is buoyancy conservation in the homogeneous ambient; it is a consequence of the first two balances, not an additional independent equation.
Now take the Boussinesq approximation in inertia and entrainment, retaining the small density deficit in buoyancy. Then , and . Consequently
The mass source is . Substitution into the mass conservation, momentum and buoyancy balances gives the unsteady Boussinesq triangular-profile line-plume balances
These use density-weighted mass and momentum fluxes. Removing from some flux definitions while retaining it in the source would mix incompatible conventions.
Use the steady Boussinesq top-hat plume in a stratified ambient, with negligible ambient vertical momentum and no externally added heat or particles. The Batchelor entrainment hypothesis supplies inward velocity across circumference . Volume conservation gives , and , hence
The momentum flux increases by the integrated buoyancy force. Writing , the force per reference density and per is . Since and , this gives
For the buoyancy flux, entrained material has the local environmental mass density. Let be the plume's averaged density. Its scalar mass conservation is . Since , differentiating cancels both entrainment terms and gives
In stable density stratification, and a rising plume loses buoyancy flux. These are kinematic fluxes with the common factor removed, so no additional factor of belongs in the three differential equations.
Define . The buoyancy frequency definition gives . The powers in a plume similarity in power-law stratification satisfy
Solving gives
A rising positive-buoyancy turbulent plume entrains, so ; its momentum flux increases, so ; its buoyancy flux decreases in the stable ambient, so . With positive coefficients, this requires , and . The strongest restrictions are
In this interval , and .
Coefficient matching makes the positive similarity solution explicit:
so
It is an ideal scaling for , often a far-field description. As , the prescribed ambient stratification and this model's buoyancy flux are singular; a finite physical source would require a regularized near-source region.
Use a local orthonormal tetrad and units in which the speed of light is one. A particle has four-momentum and moves with velocity . Thus its energy density contributes , its momentum density contributes , and its momentum flux contributes . Integrating the phase-space distribution function gives the kinetic stress-energy tensor. The measure is the future mass-shell Lorentz-invariant phase-space measure, so the same expression transforms as a spacetime stress-energy tensor; fixed state-counting or polarization factors are understood to be included in .
Define . The photon momentum measure is , so every component of the kinetic stress-energy tensor has a radial factor . An isotropic background has and . Hence
This radiation pressure equation of state requires isotropy and masslessness, not a thermal spectrum.
The distribution perturbation is . Assume finite energy density and endpoint behavior at zero and infinity, as for the Planck photon distribution. Integration by parts then gives
Consequently the perturbed energy density and momentum density are
Since , the photon angular temperature moments give and .
The sign of anisotropic stress must be specified. Direct kinetic integration gives the conventional trace-free spatial stress . The PDF uses the opposite sign, , equivalently . With that convention, all requested moments are
Taking the spatial trace also gives
The angular temperature description assumes is independent of photon energy; independent spectral distortions would require additional energy-dependent moments.
Use a two-sided top-hat line plume with full width , upward speed , and reduced gravity uniform across the plume. Fluxes are measured per unit span along the line source: the volume flux is , the kinematic momentum flux is , and the buoyancy flux is . If the inward edge speed is , where is the entrainment coefficient, the two exposed edges give
These are the volume conservation, momentum conservation, and buoyancy flux balances for a Boussinesq approximation plume in an unstratified ambient. Entrained ambient fluid supplies neither vertical momentum nor reference buoyancy.
A pure plume has no persistent source length scale. Since a line-source has dimensions , dimensional analysis gives constant , , and . Substituting constant into and the momentum balance determines the coefficients:
Thus and when width is full width and velocity and buoyancy have top-hat profiles. If width means half-width, instead. Other prescribed profile shapes change these numerical factors; the linear growth laws remain the same. The point-source in Question 1 has different dimensions, so its law must not be used here.
Let be local contaminant concentration and let be horizontally integrated plume concentration. Its conserved amount per unit span is . The dilute contaminant is a passive scalar; the maintained plume is unaffected by its impulsive release. A one-dimensional effective transport closure takes the integrated scalar flux to be
The constant advective speed and the eddy diffusivity scaling follow from the line-plume scales. The entrainment coefficient alone does not determine the scalar dispersion coefficient: this Fickian closure for the integrated variable is an additional modelling assumption. Mass conservation then gives the displayed transport equation in the PDF. With this effective closure and advective speed chosen as , ; if , then , with independent dimensionless mixing coefficient .
There is a second possible closure convention. If one instead applies local diffusive flux to horizontally averaged plume concentration , its integrated diffusive flux is . For , the total scalar flux is then . The same printed equation is obtained with , rather than . Thus the printed and should be regarded as effective coefficients unless the averaging and closure conventions are specified; no equality between and the velocity prefactor is universal.
Assume , , an initial impulse at the origin, no further contaminant input, and zero endpoint scalar flux for . For a similarity solution, put
Substituting into the advection-diffusion equation gives
Decay at infinity makes the integrated constant zero. Hence , and normalization with the gamma function gives . The resulting gamma impulse solution for linearly increasing diffusivity is
Its integral over is . Its flux is , which vanishes at both endpoints for . The scale shrinks to zero as , so the normalized solution has weak convergence of probability measures to the required unit source impulse. The mass at the boundary is a full unit impulse on the half-line, not half of a whole-line impulse.
For the integrated quantity, , and consequently
This verifies the printed location for horizontally integrated plume concentration. It is a maximum because the derivative changes from positive to negative there. The normalized profile is a gamma distribution with shape : its expected value is and its variance is , so neither the mean position nor the spread should be mistaken for the modal position.
The PDF changes from “integral” to “averaged” concentration in its final request. A genuine horizontally averaged plume concentration divides by the growing width , and is therefore
It is normalized by , not by . When , its interior maximum is
When it decreases from a finite boundary supremum; when it is singular at the ideal point source and has no positive interior maximum. A finite source regularizes that singularity. Thus the final printed maximum is correct for the integrated variable , or for an “average” using a fixed reference width, but is not generally the maximum of the local mean . Both quantities have been given rather than silently identifying them. If , the smooth similarity formula is replaced by the advected impulse ; positive eddy diffusivity is essential to the gamma profile.
Take the current to be dilute, vertically well mixed and Boussinesq approximation, with constant channel width , a horizontal absorbing bed, negligible ambient fluid entrainment, negligible bed friction, and no resuspension. The shallow-water approximation neglects vertical inertia and gives hydrostatic pressure. Particle loss alters reduced gravity but does not alter the leading-order carrier-fluid volume or inertia; otherwise additional mass and momentum terms would be necessary. The current occupies depth , has depth-uniform speed , and has particle volume fraction , with and constant .
Volume conservation of a short channel segment gives . Its suspended particle amount per unit bed area is , and the downward particle deposition flux is . Thus , which becomes on multiplying by .
At vertical coordinate above the bed, excess hydrostatic pressure divided by reference mass density is . Integrating across the depth gives the depth-integrated force flux . The horizontal momentum per unit bed area is and the advected kinematic momentum flux is . The resulting variable-buoyancy shallow water equations are
The derivative of the pressure term acts on both and ; treating reduced gravity as horizontally constant while particles settle would lose part of the force.
For a steady interior, let denote volume flux per unit width. Then the particle balance is a first-order linear differential equation,
Here , is constant, and deposited particles are not returned to the current. In particular the decay length is for , and the cancellation of depth follows from : dilution and transit time compensate in the deposition balance.
The steady momentum equation also gives
The inlet depth selects . Depth and speed at every downstream position are determined by the continuous positive root of a polynomial in
This implicit expression also makes clear why the inlet condition is needed: there are generally two possible positive depths.
The depth branches of a steady depositing gravity current are distinguished by the Froude number . Differentiating the momentum invariant, and using the exponential decay of reduced gravity, gives
For , supercritical flow has and decreasing depth, with and as . Subcritical flow has and increasing depth, with . This indefinitely deepening branch eventually violates the assumed shallow or confined-channel geometry. Hence the depth does not universally decrease: that conclusion needs a supercritical inlet.
For fixed , has its unique minimum at , with . The two positive roots when lie below and above . Since decreases downstream while is constant, an initially strict branch remains separate from the other branch and cannot cross a critical point. A critical inlet with has no finite depth derivative: at the first differentiated equation would equate zero to a positive value. It requires a singular entrance adjustment or physics beyond this steady model. If , both reduced gravity and the continuous depth branch are constant. These steady solutions describe the supplied current interior, not a moving finite-release front.
For two particle populations, write and , allowing different constant particle-density conversion factors. The bidisperse particle-laden gravity current equations are
For the steady case,
Thus the depth is obtained from the same cubic polynomial invariant with the sum of the two exponentially decreasing reduced gravity contributions.
The local deposit consists of the two particle deposition fluxes and . For a positive total deposition rate, the bidisperse gravity-current deposition fraction by particle volume is
If the particles have a common material density, this is also their local mass fraction. If they have common , it can be written in the source's buoyancy notation as
For unequal replace each by . The exponent sign matters: with both populations present and , the faster-settling population has decreasing local deposit fraction downstream, since . Equal positive settling speeds give a constant fraction. A nonsettling population contributes no deposit; if the entire local deposition rate is zero the deposit fraction is undefined.
If “fraction of particles” means number fraction rather than particle-volume or mass fraction, let be a single particle's volume in population . The correct weights are then , so
Settling speeds alone do not determine without particle properties and a drag law. Finally, if the intended deposit is cumulative over the bed from to , rather than local at , integrating particle deposition flux gives the species volumes per unit channel width . The cumulative particle-volume fraction is
For both , its limit at infinity is the incoming particle-volume fraction, whereas its limit as is the local deposition fraction at the inlet. Local sorting and the cumulative inventory are different observables.
Work in the shock frame, assume a calorically perfect gas with fixed specific-heat ratio , and neglect magnetic stresses and body forces across the thin shock. The internal energy per unit mass is , and the specific enthalpy is . Integrating the local conservation laws across a thin stationary control volume makes the mass flux , momentum flux , and energy flux continuous. Hence the Rankine-Hugoniot conditions for a perfect gas are
Multiplication of the last equality by gives continuity of the stated energy flux. These express that mass, momentum and energy cannot accumulate in an infinitesimally thin steady shock, although entropy production occurs on the physical compression branch. The same constant in the polytropic equation of state must therefore not be imposed on both sides. For flow from to , both signed velocities are negative; the flux equations and ratios remain valid.
In the Strong-shock Rankine-Hugoniot conditions, tends to zero. Put . The first two flux balances give and to leading order. The energy balance becomes
Discarding the unchanged-state root gives the compressive shock compression ratio and the required limits:
It is important to fix the mass flux convention. With literal mass units and the corresponding density-weighted buoyancy flux, the Boussinesq approximation and circular top-hat plume model give
Replacing by in inertial fluxes is the Boussinesq approximation; the density difference is retained in the buoyancy flux. Define the kinematic plume fluxes
If the symbols instead denote the customary kinematic fluxes, simply omit the factors in all conversions below. Keeping the two conventions consistent is essential for the jet length and dimensional prefactors.
The Batchelor entrainment hypothesis prescribes inward edge velocity
The constant entrainment coefficient relates ambient inflow to the local axial velocity. A centreline segment of arc length entrains volume . Hence, setting ,
The buoyancy flux is conserved because the homogeneous entrained ambient has zero density deficit, and mixing has no buoyancy source or sink. The imposed zero source mass flux with nonzero source momentum flux is a singular point-source idealization, not a finite-radius nozzle with zero emitted fluid. Indeed and the plume reduced gravity diverge as with nonzero source fluxes. The Boussinesq approximation cannot remain valid arbitrarily close to that point. The top-hat plume model is applied outside the unresolved source region.
For a neutrally buoyant horizontal turbulent round jet, a segment's horizontal momentum flux changes only if an external horizontal force or ambient momentum input exists. Neither is present, so
Positive buoyancy adds a vertical force, not a horizontal one. Therefore remains true for an inclined forced plume even when ; in general .
The net upward force on a segment is . Since and , vertical momentum balance gives
In kinematic plume fluxes, the equations are , , where . The centreline geometry satisfies
For , beyond the source, and an initially nonvertical turbulent round jet pointing right, increases and the centreline turns toward the vertical. The magnitude of momentum flux is not conserved once the tangent has a vertical component.