Some observations of a large, burning jet in crossflow

Some results are presented on the temporal evolution of a large jet in crossflow consisting of the burning plume from an unabated oil well discharge. The volume rendering approach is used whereby several sequential x-y images of the jet are stacked in time, t, to produce an object in x-y-t space which can be used to conveniently examine the jet dynamics. Similar to earlier findings for free jets, the burning jet in crossflow is seen to consist of a series of large-scale organized structures which convect downstream leading to a quasiperiodic flame tip burnout. The wake region however is seen to be much less organized. Most surprising is the constant speed of the burning structures as they progress from the jet to crossflow direction. It therefore appears that an underlying organization exists in the jet in crossflow, in spite of its relatively complex, three-dimensional structure.