ONSET OF CIRCULATION DUE TO BUOYANT JET IN A TWO-LAYER STRATIFIED MEDIUM.

A buoyant jet encountering a two-layered, density stratified medium is studied here. As the buoyant plume reaches the density interface, it peels off, penetrates through, or does both, depending on the flow parameters. The phenomenon indicates the onset of the natural circulation patterns in an enclosure. The purpose of this experimental study was to examine what flow parameters govern the plume's behavior and to develop an empirical correlation for predicting the plume's movement by means of the salt water analog method. Using image processing on videotaped flow patterns from twenty-nine runs, the ratio of mass penetrating the layer interface to mass introduced in the jet source was estimated and correlated to variables representing the buoyant jet and the stratified medium.