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.
Put and under the literal mass convention. Their dimensions are and . Dimensional analysis gives
The jet length compares source momentum with buoyancy. The region near the source behaves as a turbulent round jet; sufficiently far away, the forced plume behaves like a pure plume. With the constant entrainment coefficient retained explicitly, substantial turning occurs over a length of order , where . Statements involving or normally hold this dimensionless coefficient fixed.
Near the point source, and the Batchelor entrainment hypothesis gives . Therefore
Integrating the centreline tangent gives
To leading order the centreline is a straight turbulent round jet at its source inclination. For the horizontal source, the first curvature is the horizontal forced-plume trajectory
For a vertical source, , the trajectory stays vertical rather than developing this cubic transverse displacement. If , there is no finite buoyancy-induced jet length and the turbulent round jet remains straight.
For a horizontal source, throughout. Far downstream , so the kinematic plume fluxes obey the vertical pure plume equations to leading order,
Set and with . Matching exponents and coefficients gives and . Consequently
and the requested literal mass and density-weighted buoyancy fluxes are
to leading order. The radius is and the axial velocity decreases as .
The centreline becomes nearly vertical but retains finite horizontal drift:
Since , there is a finite positive geometric deficit , and . The equivalent vertical plume virtual origin is therefore located at
For the horizontal point-source forced plume, the virtual source is downstream and below the actual source. The horizontal turbulent round jet first entrains substantial ambient fluid while rising only a little. Thus at the height where it turns upward it already has a finite radius and volume flux; an equivalent pure plume must have begun rising from below to acquire these. The turning displacement, entrained radius divided by its far-field spreading angle, and virtual vertical depth all scale as
At fixed entrainment coefficient this is simply . The arclength origin should not be interpreted as a physical height: the curved near field supplies the additional shift . The numerical constants depend on the chosen top-hat plume model and entrainment coefficient; scaling does not fix them.
Figure 1.
A horizontal forced plume and its far-field virtual origin
.
The inclined forced plume bends from a cubic near-field trajectory toward a vertical asymptote. Dashed far-field spreading lines extrapolate to the equivalent plume virtual origin; the marked location is obtained from the integral model for this illustration, not a universal numerical prediction.
Turbulent round jet 2026-10-05
A circular turbulent round jet supplied with kinematic momentum flux but negligible buoyancy flux conserves . A top-hat plume model and constant Batchelor entrainment give . From a point source with zero volume flux, , radius , and axial velocity .