Effects of bed obstacles on the behaviour of inclined dense jets

ABSTRACT Coral reefs around the discharge areas of desalination plants have effects on the distribution and dilution of discharged saline jet. In the present study, effects of bed obstacles with different heights on the behaviour of inclined negatively buoyant jets (INBJs), including dilution and spatial characteristics, are experimentally investigated using the light attenuation (LA) optical method. Present experiments show that as the confinement induced by the bed and obstacle intensifies, the maximum normalized jet centreline dilution decreases up to 40%. As the jet approaches the obstacle, spreading along the inner and outer edges of the jet increases. The present results also show that upstream of the maximum height point, the jet is not considerably sensitive to the bed obstacle since the momentum dominates the jet behaviour. However, the jet dilution in regions downstream the maximum height point reduces when the obstacle is present.