Velocity Statistics of Plane Self-Preserving Buoyant Turbulent Adiabatic Wall Plumes

Measurements of the velocity properties of plane buoyant turbulent adiabatic wall plumes (adiabatic wall plumes) are described, emphasizing conditions far from the source where self-preserving behavior is approximated. The experiments involved helium/air mixtures rising along a smooth, plane, and vertical wall. Mean and fluctuating streamwise and cross-stream velocities were measured using laser velocimetry. Self-preserving behavior was observed 92–156 source widths from the source, yielding smaller normalized plume widths and larger near-wall mean velocities than observations within the flow development region nearer to the source. Unlike earlier observations of concentration fluctuation intensities, which are unusually large due to effects of streamwise buoyant instabilities, velocity fluctuation intensities were comparable to values observed in nonbuoyant turbulent wall jets. The entrainment properties of the present flows approximated self-preserving behavior in spite of continued development of the wall boundary layer. Measurements of temporal power spectra and temporal and spatial integral scales of velocity fluctuations are also reported. [S0022-1481(00)00504-1]