Effects of Froude, Reynolds, and Weber numbers on an air-entraining vortex

Abstract

The present study highlights the need for using both the kinematic and dynamic similarities in scaled models of the critical submergence of vertical vortices at intake structures. A semi-theoretical approach, which is based on the principle of flow continuity, is used in combination with published experimental data. The present study shows that only the kinematic similarity is needed to model the ratio of the critical submergence to the diameter of the intake. For intakes that have an identical ratio of the intake velocity to the velocity at the critical spherical sink surface (CSSS), the ratio of the critical submergence to the diameter of the intake is identical regardless of the flow and the geometrical conditions. The new finding is that dynamic similarity is not required for the prediction of the ratio of the critical submergence to the intake diameter, provided that the ratio of the intake velocity to the velocity at the CSSS is kept the same.

Keywords:

• Air-entrainment
• critical submergence
• intake
• submergence
• vortex

Acknowledgements

The writers thank Prof. K.G. Ranga Raju of the University of Roorkee, India, from whom the writers obtained the test results of Jain (1977) by private communication on 19 April 1996 as stated in the study by Kocabaş and Yıldırım (2002).