Numerical simulation of thermal buoyant wall jets

Abstract

The main focus of this study is on the near field flow and mixing characteristics of the thermal wall jets. A numerical study of the buoyant wall jets discharged from submerged outfalls from cooling systems of power plants has hence been conducted. The effects of different RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes) turbulence models have been investigated. The standard k-ε, RNG k-ε, realizable k-ε and SST k-ω turbulence models have been applied in this study. A finite volume method with structured grid was used to simulate the flow and temperature fields. The results of temperature and velocity fields are compared to both existing experimental and numerical data. It is found that the realizable k-ε performs the best among the four investigated turbulence models. According to the results from different simulations, relationships and comparative graphs are presented which are helpful for a better understanding of buoyant wall jets.