A visual study in the near field of turbulent jets and implications for estimating accidental discharges

A series of dye flow visualization experiments are carried out in water to study the visible flow features in the near field of turbulent jets and to assess their usefulness in estimating the discharge rate of a turbulent jet in a homogeneous medium. The jet Reynolds numbers are 0.3–2.2 × 10⁵. The large eddies at the core of the flow and the smaller eddies at the edge show disparate, independent length scales. Their convection speeds are more than an order of magnitude apart. Discharge rate estimates based on large-scale core features are useful. However, their reliability depends on a priori knowledge of the state of the bulk flow upstream of the discharge location. A useful method for estimating discharge rates based on the small-scale outer edge features is not obvious.