The Asymptotic Behaviour of a Curved Line Source Plume within an Enclosure

A line source of heat is situated in an enclosure with inletsand an outlet for the contained fluid. The convection plumeformed must take a curved shape because of the asymmetry ofthe enclosure. We show how boundary-layer theory can be usedto find this shape in the case where the plume's deflectionis small. Two effects govern the shape of the curve; a buoyancyeffect and an inertial effect due to the bounding walls. Bysolving the outer potential flow problem, both effects can beincluded in the model. Finally, a stability analysis is carriedout for steady plumes which shows that any steady solution withan inflection point, as well as several other solutions, isunstable. A comparison is made with previous work which doesnot include all these effects, and with some experimental results.