The use of fluent CFD for the investigation of plume formation

Abstract

Thermal plumes have been under study since 1937 when Zeldovich first investigated them and classified them into two different types of flows, namely laminar flows and turbulent flows. After Zeldovich published his work a number of studies have also been performed which mainly look into the velocity and temperature profiles of the plumes under different conditions. The investigations of plumes have till now been limited to one material (air) and also having a velocity at the source. The work done here involves the investigation of plume formation in a number of different situations, such as the source velocity being zero and also when instead of having a medium which is air having a medium which is water, all this was done after validation of the work with that done previously of Farrugia. However the results obtained were all compared to the equations given by Shabbir and George, Rousse and Yih in their respective papers. The method of investigation was using CFD and although the initial choice of software was openFOAM®, due to problems with the software Fluent® was used for the full investigation.