Numerical investigation of the behaviour of jets in a wave environment

ABSTRACT

This paper presents the application of a weakly compressible smoothed particle hydrodynamics model to study plane jets propagating into a still ambient and into a flow field of regular waves. The present study includes a comparative investigation of the main fluid mechanics characteristics in cases of jet discharged either in still water or transversally to regular wave trains characterized by different periods. Concerning jets in a wave environment, the present study shows the existence of the following three different regions of the jet-wave field starting from the nozzle in the intermediate water: the nearest region to the nozzle where the jet motion dominates the wave motion; the intermediate region, where the horizontal velocity component of wave motion dominates the jet centreline velocity decay; and the nearest region to the free surface where the wave period dominates the jet motion. The present study shows the differences found numerically between each flow region.

Keywords:

• Jets
• jet–wave interaction
• physical modelling
• smoothed particle hydrodynamics models
• wave