Numerical Simulation of Turbulent Fountains with Negative Buoyancy

This paper investigates the flow dynamics of a turbulent fountain with negative buoyancy using a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model, developed using OpenFOAM (R) and calibrated against laboratory experiments. The simulations effectively replicate the geometry and buoyancy fluxes of the fountain, showing a fairly good agreement between the numerical and experimental velocity fields. These simulations are then used to investigate momentum and buoyancy fluxes for various source fluid densities. We find a dominant out-upward momentum transfer in the body of the fountain, while it is mainly out-downward below the inlet section. Furthermore, the vertical flux is almost twice the radial flux, while the tangential components are negligible on the inner side of the fountain. For small density differences between the fountain and the surrounding environment, we find a greater diffusion of the source fluid, while both the vertical and radial salt fluxes increase with increasing density of the fountain. The data generated serve as a significant resource for the development of future CFD models.