Observations of dispersion of entrained fluid in the self-preserving region of a turbulent jet

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Abstract
Ambient fluid of a submerged water jet was continuously tagged with fluorescent dye at a point outside the turbulent region (at 33 jet nozzle diameters from the jet exit). This made it possible to follow the tagged entrained fluid to 73 jet diameters downstream of the exit, a distance unattainable by other methods. The dispersion of the tagged fluid in a plane containing the jet axis and the tagging source was observed and recorded using photography and simple digital image-processing techniques. Most of the entrainment activity appeared to be the result of engulfment by the large-scale structures over an axial distance of ± 1.7B from the source where B is the half-peak velocity radius. The entrained fluid crossed the jet centreline within a downstream distance of Δx = 1.5B.Downstream of the entrainment region, the spread rate of the tagged entrained fluid was close to that of the turbulent jet fluid. However, the peak mean concentration of the tagged entrained fluid was located near the r/x = 0.1 line closest to the tagging source and shifted very slowly towards the jet centreline. A self-preserving distribution of the mean concentration appears to have been approached after a distance of 6B downstream from the tagging source but further verification is needed owing to experimental uncertainties.A small fraction of the tagged entrained fluid was found on the side of the jet remote from the tagging source. On rare occurrences, tagged entrained fluid was observed at the interface most remote from the source.