Fully rough submerged plane wall-jets

Abstract

This study presents the turbulent flow field in submerged plane wall-jets on horizontal fully rough walls detected by a Vectrino velocimeter. For the comparison between the fully rough and smooth submerged wall-jets, the smooth submerged wall-jet case was also revisited. The two-dimensional Reynolds averaged boundary layer equations of a steady turbulent flow are analyzed to determine the velocity and Reynolds shear stress profiles in the fully developed zone of smooth and fully rough submerged wall-jets. The response of the turbulent flow characteristics in submerged wall-jets to wall roughness is examined from the point of view of similarity characteristics, growth of the length scale, and decay of the velocity and turbulence characteristics scales; and compared with the response of those to smooth and transitionally rough walls. The significant observation is that with an appropriate scaling, the velocity, Reynolds shear stress and turbulence intensities in the fully developed zone of fully rough submerged wall-jets are reasonably similar. The rate of decay of jet-velocity on fully rough walls is greater than that on smooth wall, but it is less than that on transitionally rough walls due to the presence of roughness sub-layer on the fully rough walls. Analysis of the third-order moments of velocity fluctuations reveals that the jet-layer is associated with the arrival of low-speed fluid parcel causing an effect of retardation; while the inner-layer of circulatory flow is associated with the arrival of high-speed fluid parcel causing an effect of acceleration. Wall roughness influences the peak values (both positive and negative) of the third-order moments increasing them significantly. Thus, on fully rough walls, the arrival processes of low- and high-speed fluid parcels become stronger in the jet-layer and the inner-layer of circulatory flow, respectively. Also, the peak values of streamwise and vertical flux of turbulent kinetic energy increase significantly in the presence of fully rough walls.