Qian Wen

Key Lab of Education Ministry for Power

Machinery and Engineering,
School of Mechanical Engineering,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
800 Dongchuan Road,
Shanghai 200240, China

Hyun Dong Kim

School of Mechanical Engineering,
Pusan National University,
Busan 609-735, South Korea

Ying Zheng Liu

Key Lab of Education Ministry for
Power Machinery and Engineering,
School of Mechanical Engineering,
Shanghai Jiao Tong University,
800 Dongchuan Road,
Shanghai 200240, China

Kyung Chun Kim1

School of Mechanical Engineering,
Pusan National University,
Busan 609-735, South Korea
e-mail: kckim@pusan.ac.kr

Structure Analysis of a Low

Reynolds Number Turbulent
Submerged Jet Interacting
With a Free Surface
In this study, the spatial structures of a submerged turbulent jet interacting with a free
surface were investigated experimentally. The jet axis was located at three different
depths (H/D 2, H/D 4 and H/D 6) beneath the free surface and the Reynolds number was fixed as 3480. Laser-induced fluorescence technique was used for qualitative visualization and the time-resolved particle image velocimetry technique was used for the
quantitative measurements. The dynamics of the flow structures were examined further
using the proper orthogonal decomposition analysis technique. The results revealed that
the dynamic characteristics of large-scale turbulent motions were significantly different
with the submerged depths. In case of H/D 2, the dominant spatial structures displayed
a surface vibration induced reverse flow along the boundary, and its subsequent deflection changed the flow structures in the horizontal center plane. The violent free surface
vibration caused an unsteady up-and-down motion of the flow structures and had a
squeeze effect on the flow structures. In case of H/D 4, the upwelling motion of some
vortices in the jet and their subsequently downward entrainment motion significantly
changed the dominant spatial structures both in the vertical and horizontal central
planes. When the jet was fully attached to the free surface, the vortical structures underwent a merging and restructuring process due to the vertical confinement of the free surface. In case of H/D 6, the dominant spatial structures both in the vertical and
horizontal central planes showed an approximately symmetric pattern, indicating that the
dominant structures were not changed by the free surface. After attached to the free surface, the jet did not undergo a merging and restructuring process as shown in case of
H/D 4. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4027620]
Keywords: submerged turbulent jet, free surface, time-resolved PIV, POD, dynamic
structures

Introduction

A submerged jet interacting with a free surface occurs in many

industrial areas such as discharging wastewater into a shallow
body of water or a jetlike stream coming into a water reservoir,
where an understanding of the turbulent structure is essential for
optimizing the discharge characteristics. In addition, the recent
advances in remote sensing technology are expected to allow
worldwide monitoring of maritime traffic in the future. Techniques such as the synthetic aperture radar are capable of detecting
the free surface disturbances created by a ships turbulent wake
[1,2]. Therefore, the understanding of the behavior of turbulent jet
adjacent to a free surface is of considerable interest to the remote
detection of the ships wake since this flow configuration incorporates many of the vortical interactions encountered in the turbulent
ship wake problem. On the other hand, due to the great complexity and variety of the phenomena observed, there is a lack of
understanding of the nature of the interaction of turbulent jet flow
with a free surface. Thus far, an experimental study on a submerged jet interacting with a free surface is needed to obtain a
comprehensive understanding of this problem.
An early experimental investigation of the interaction of a submerged jet with the free surface was conducted by Evans [3]. He
revealed the calming effect on surface waves caused by the surface currents produced by the jet. Although Evans did not examine the turbulent flow structures in detail, he showed that when the
1
Corresponding author.
Contributed by the Fluids Engineering Division of ASME for publication in the
JOURNAL OF FLUIDS ENGINEERING. Manuscript received June 15, 2013; final manuscript
received May 4, 2014; published online July 24, 2014. Assoc. Editor: Peter Vorobieff.

Journal of Fluids Engineering

waves and surface currents move in the same direction, the wave
amplitude is decreased but the wavelength is increased. Rajaratnam and Humphries [4] examined the scaling behavior of the
mean flow field of turbulent, nonbuoyant surface jets, and Rajaratnam and Subramanyan [5] investigated the behavior of planar
buoyant surface jets. Swean et al. [6] reported the measurements
of the mean velocities and turbulent fluctuations in a twodimensional turbulent jet at a free surface. They found that the
growth rates of the length and velocity scales resemble more
closely those observed in wall jets than those in free jets. The
work by Bernal and Kwon [7] on the vortex-ring problem provided the first convincing evidence that a vortex tube will disconnect in the vicinity of the surface and reconnect to the surface, and
subsequent important studies of Gharib and Weigand [8] on the
interaction of a vortex ring with a free surface presented a clear
picture of the stages that were involved in the early disconnection
and subsequent connection process.
Anthony and Willmarth [9] examined the mean velocity field
and Reynolds stress tensor of a turbulent jet issuing from a circular nozzle beneath and parallel to the free surface using a threecomponent laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV). They reported that
the turbulent fluctuations normal to the free surface were diminished, whereas those parallel to the surface were enhanced. They
also reported the existence of a flow outward, away from the jet
axis in a thin layer near the surface. Based on the flow visualization results, they showed that this outward flow or surface
current consisted mainly of vortical structures ejected from the
jet. Within the surface current, turbulent mixing was reduced
greatly. Madnia and Bernal [10] examined the same flow over a
wide range of Reynolds and Froude numbers using flow

C 2014 by ASME
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visualization and single-component hot-film measurements. Using

the shadowgraph method, they reported that significant surface
disturbances occurred, where the large-scale structures in the jet
first interact with the free surface. These surface disturbances form
approximately planar waves with a symmetrical pattern. They also
noted the appearance of dark circular features in the shadowgraph
images, which they attributed to vortex line reconnection processes.
Walker et al. [11] examined the Reynolds number and Froude number effects on the lateral surface currents, jet spreading rates, turbulence kinetic energy redistribution and other phenomena in detail,
and Walker [12] subsequently determined the origin of the surface
current. Tsai and Yue [13] and Sarpkaya [14] concentrated on the
damping and modification of turbulence by surfactants.
More recently, Judd et al. [15] examined the thermal signature
of a low Reynolds number surface jet using high resolution infrared methods. In their experiments, the temperature of the fluid
issuing from the jet was higher than the fluid in the water tank.
Shinneeb et al. [16] examined the coherent structures in shallow
water jets using the particle image velocimetry (PIV). Tian et al.
[17] compared the characteristics of a round turbulent jet in the vicinity of a free surface with a free jet. They compared the mean
velocity, turbulent intensity, Reynolds shear stress and other statistical variables of the surface jet and free jet.

Previous studies were limited to the mean characteristics of the

interaction of a jet with a free surface and few works were conducted with appropriate time and space resolution. The work by
Bernal and Kwon [7] and later by Gharib and Weigand [8] presented the dynamic interaction process of the simple vortex ring
with a free surface. Kim et al. [18] demonstrated that the free surface sloshing motion interacted with bubble driven liquid flow
increased turbulent kinetic energy and turbulent mixing substantially in their time-resolved PIV measurement and proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis. But until now, the dynamic
interaction process of a submerged turbulent jet with a free surface did not reported as the authors aware of and detailed experimental data with appropriate time and space resolution is highly
needed. Toward this end, the present study examined the characteristics of the interactions of jet flow with a free surface, and analyzed the large-scale dynamic structures using time-resolved PIV
and POD techniques. Laser-induced fluorescence visualizations
were also used to obtain a first-hand look at the most interesting
and intuitive flow changes associated with the interaction of the
submerged jet with the free surface. In the present investigation,
we examined the interaction of the submerged jet with the free
surface for three different depths of the jet below the surface to
obtain a comprehensive understanding of this problem.

Fig. 1 Schematic diagram of the experimental setup and measurement section.

(a) Experimental setup and coordinate system and (b) measurement section of the
time-resolved PIV.

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Experimental Setup

2.1 Experimental Apparatus. The experiments were carried

out in a recirculating system. Figure 1(a) shows a schematic diagram of the facility. The facility consisted of a free-surface tank,
an overhead reservoir tank, a pump and associated piping and control valves. The free-surface tank, 600 mm long, 600 mm wide and
400 mm deep, was constructed from acrylic and raised 800 mm
above the laboratory floor to provide optical access through the
bottom of the tank. A sluice gate was placed at one end of the facility to maintain a constant water depth in the tank. A stainless
steel circular pipe was machined and mounted on the side of the
tank opposite the sluice gate, and used as a jet nozzle in this study.
The pipe has an inner diameter of 4 mm (external diameter of
5 mm) and a length of 280 mm (70 D). The flow at the exit was
fully developed at this length-diameter ratio. An acrylic attachment on the left side of the tank was used to avoid the cantilever
effect of the pipe. In this study, the axis of the jet was placed at a
constant depth but the height of the sluice gate was variable. In
this condition, we can change the submerged depths of the jet.
The jet was supplied from an overhead reservoir tank under the
action of gravity, and the reservoir was maintained at constant
head using a pump and two sluice gates. Three different depths
(H 2 D, 4 D, and 6 D) of the jet below the surface were examined to obtain a comprehensive understanding of the depth effect.
The Reynolds number based on the jet diameter and the nozzle
exit velocity was kept 3480 in all experiments. Therefore, the submerged jet studied in this work was a low Reynolds number turbulent flow. In Fig. 1(a), the origin of the coordinate system was at
the center of the nozzle exit and x was the axial direction along
the flow direction. The surface-normal direction was denoted as
the z axis, positive upward. The transverse, or horizontal, coordinate was y and the positive direction was defined using the right
hand rule.
2.2 Flow Visualization and Time-Resolved PIV. For flow
visualizations, LIF technique using Rhodamine B was used to
obtain a qualitative understanding of the subsurface interaction.
The maximum excitation wavelength of the Rhodamine B was
approximately 555 nm, and its emission wavelength was approximately 580 nm. A laser beam, 5 mm in diameter, originating from
a 532-nm 3 -W CW laser, was passed through a spherical lens and
a cylindrical lens, and turned into a thin laser sheet (1 mm in
thickness). The laser plane was oriented in the vertical central
plane of the jet. A 12 bit high-speed complementary metal oxide
semiconductor (CMOS) camera (Full resolution: 1024  1024
pixels, Photron, Fastcam SA1.1) was used with a 545 nm longpass optical filter mounted on its lens.
The velocity fields were measured using a typical twodimensional time-resolved PIV system. The PIV measurements
were carried out along the centerline of the jet in the vertical plane
(x-z) as well as in the horizontal plane (x-y). Figure 1(b) shows
the field-of-view of the time-resolved PIV measurement regions.
In case of H/D 2, two overlapping fields-of-view (FOV1 and
FOV2), each measuring a length of approximately 12D, were chosen to obtain the time-resolved PIV measurements in the vertical
center plane. In cases of H/D 4 and H/D 6, three overlapping
fields-of-view (FOV1, FOV2, and FOV3) were chosen in the vertical center plane since the interaction of the jet with the free surface occurred in the far field as the depths increased. On the other
hand, the field-of-view was same in the horizontal central plane
for each depth. This study was interested in those dynamic structures in the regions where significant interactions occur. For this
reason, the measurement sections included the significant interaction region as well as a certain distance before the interaction
occurred, instead of starting from the nozzle exit. The measurement section in the vertical central plane began from X/D 6
downstream of the jet exit. On the other hand, the measurement
section in the horizontal plane began from X/D 16 and covered
a region of 13 D. In the present time-resolved PIV experiments,
Journal of Fluids Engineering

the high-speed camera and the laser system were the same as that
used in LIF. The tap water in the facility was seeded with 10 lm
hollow glass spheres with a density of 1.04 kg/m3. The camera
was operated at 1024  752 pixels, 1024  896 pixels and
1024  1024 pixels in the vertical central plane for the case of H/
D 2, H/D 4 and H/D 6, respectively. The region we chose in
the surface-normal (z) direction was wide enough to contain the
jet boundary for each case. The framing rate was 4000 Hz for each
case in the vertical plane. At each field-of-view in the vertical
plane of the case H/D 2, 14,000 image frames were acquired
and stored in the cameras internal memory (16 GB) successively.
The ensemble size of each field-of-view in the vertical plane of
the case H/D 4 was 12,000 and a corresponding size of 10,800
for the case of H/D 6. On the other hand, the camera was operated at 1024  1024 pixels with the same framing rate in the horizontal central plane for all the experiments and 10,000 image
frames were acquired successively for each field-of-view. The
interrogation window size was 24  24 pixels with 50% overlap,
which yielded a measurement grid of velocity vectors with a spacing of 0.57 mm  0.57 mm in the vertical central plane for all the
cases and a spacing of 0.61 mm  0.61 mm in the horizontal central plane for all the cases. The standard cross correlation algorithm, in combination with window offset [19], sub-pixel

Fig. 2 LIF images. (a) A region covered X/D 5 1329 for H/D 5 2,
(b) A region covered X/D 5 2137 for H/D 5 4, and (c) a region
covered X/D 5 2137 for H/D 5 6.

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Fig. 3 Normalized mean streamwise velocity contour and vector profiles, Uc is the
centerline velocity at the respective X/D location. (a) H/D 5 2, (b) H/D 5 4, and (c) H/
D 5 6.

Fig. 4 Vertical profiles (on the vertical central plane) of the

streamwise mean velocity at X/D 5 28. The vertical dashed line
indicates the position of the jet centerline.

recognition by Gaussian fitting [20] and sub-region distortion, was

used to improve the signal-to-noise ratio.

Results and Discussions

3.1 Flow Visualization. Prior to the detailed structure analysis of the jet interacting with the free surface, a first-hand look at
the most interesting and intuitive flow changes were gained from
the laser-induced fluorescence visualizations. Figure 2 shows the
LIF results. In each figure, the flow moved from left to right, and
the red line represented the free surface. The resolution of these
three images is same but the area shown in the image is different
because the jet attachment occurred in the far field in the case of
H/D 4 and H/D 6. In case of H/D 2, shown in Fig. 2(a), the
101104-4 / Vol. 136, OCTOBER 2014

jet approached the free surface in the near-field and subsequently

the significant interaction happened, resulting in large-amplitude
free surface vibration. The large-amplitude downward motion had
a squeeze effect on the subsurface jet flow and pushed the fluid
away. Due to the great complexity of the interaction process and
the propagation of the surface waves, the free surface does not
oscillate in a harmonic manner. The free surface oscillated with a
large-amplitude in the region where initial interaction happened
and the surface deformation decreased as the downstream distance
increased. Figure 2(b) shows the LIF results of H/D 4. The
vibration amplitude reduced obviously in this case compared to
the case H/D 2. In this case, the free surface oscillated with a
small-amplitude. From Fig. 2(b), one can recognize some vortical
structures were stretched as the jet boundary interacting with the
free-surface. Due to the confinement in the vertical direction, different vortical structures began to merge with each other to form
larger structures in the far field. The turbulence in the far field
could be restructured and quasi-two-dimensionalized by the free
surface (faster damping of the vertical component of turbulence).
Moreover, the merging of vortices shifts the size distribution
towards larger structures and may give rise to a reverse energy
cascade [14]. Figure 2(c) shows a nearly symmetric pattern, but
the shear vortices in the jet boundary will be rebounded by the
mirrorlike free surface in the very far-field and its subsequently
entrainment motion may have some effect on the main flow. In
this case, the free surface behaves as an imperfect mirror with
some unsteady oscillation caused by the weak impingement of the
shear vortices in the jet boundary and some small shed turbulent
patches.
3.2 Time-Resolved PIV Measurements. A preliminary
impression of the interaction characteristics of a submerged jet
with a free surface was gained by examining the time-averaged
flow pattern. Figure 3 shows the normalized mean streamwise velocity contour and vector profiles in the vertical central plane,
where Uc is the centerline velocity at the respective X/D location
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Table 1 POD information

Vertical central plane
POD domain
H/D 2
H/D 4
H/D 6

X/D  1626
Part I X/D  1626
Part II X/D  26.536.5
Part I X/D  1626
Part II X/D  26.536.5

Horizontal central plane

Acquisition time

POD domain

Acquisition time

2.7 s

X/D  1626
X/D  1626
X/D  1626

2.5 s
2.5 s
2.5 s

Part I 2.7 s
Part I 2.7 s

Part II 2.7 s
Part II 2.7 s

Fig. 5 First four eigenmodes of H/D 5 2 on the vertical central plane. (a) 1st mode,
(b) 2nd mode, (c) 3rd mode, and (d) 4th mode.

Fig. 6 A dynamic plot of the instantaneous flow field reconstructed by the first
four eigenmodes (H/D 5 2 vertical central plane)

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Fig. 7 First four eigenmodes of H/D 5 2 on the horizontal central plane. (a) 1st
mode, (b) 2nd mode, (c) 3rd mode, and (d) 4th mode.

Fig. 8 A dynamic plot of the instantaneous flow field reconstructed by the first
four eigenmodes (H/D 5 2 horizontal central plane)

and the field-of-views were merged to obtain a continuous flow

field visually. The axial length of the laminar or transitional
region before the turbulent flow in the case of H/D 2 was shorter
than the results in other two cases, as shown in Fig. 3. The violent
101104-6 / Vol. 136, OCTOBER 2014

free surface vibration in the initial strong interaction region and

its subsequently upstream and downstream propagation increased
the instability of the jet flow in the near field, which can be used
to explain the earlier spreading in the case of H/D 2. The salient
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Fig. 9 First four eigenmodes of H/D 5 4 (Part I) on the vertical central plane. (a) 1st mode, (b)
2nd mode, (c) 3rd mode, and (d) 4th mode.

Fig. 10 First four eigenmodes of H/D 5 4 (Part II) on the vertical central plane. (a) 1st mode, (b)
2nd mode, (c) 3rd mode, and (d) 4th mode.

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Fig. 11 A dynamic plot of the instantaneous flow field reconstructed by the first four
eigenmodes (H/D 5 4 vertical central plane, Part I)

Fig. 12 A dynamic plot of the instantaneous flow field reconstructed by the first four
eigenmodes (H/D 5 4 vertical central plane, Part II)

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Fig. 13 First four eigenmodes of H/D 5 4 on the horizontal central plane. (a) 1st mode, (b) 2nd
mode, (c) 3rd mode, and (d) 4th mode.

Fig. 14 A dynamic plot of the instantaneous flow field reconstructed by the first
four eigenmodes (H/D 5 4 horizontal central plane)

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Fig. 15 First four eigenmodes of H/D 5 6 (Part I) on the vertical central plane. (a) 1st mode, (b)
2nd mode, (c) 3rd mode, and (d) 4th mode.

feature of the time-averaged field was the vector profiles began to

shift to the free surface and the maximum velocity was no longer
located at y/d 0, but moved toward the free surface rapidly as
the depths decreased. This behavior of the surface jet was consistent with the results reported by Anthony and Willmarth [9]. In
order to better illustrate this point, the profile of the streamwise
mean velocity in the vertical central plane at X/D 28 is shown
in Fig. 4. In the case of H/D 2, the jet flow already attached to
the free surface and was developed at X/D 28, so the velocity
profile showed an obvious shift to the free surface and the maximum velocity was located towards the free surface. In the case of
H/D 4, the jet flow attached to the free surface and was developing at X/D 28. Though the maximum mean streamwise velocity
across the profile was almost located at the jet centerline, the magnitude of the velocity profile in the portion close to the free surface was higher than that of the lower portion of the jet. In the
deepest case, the jet flow was about to attach to the surface at this
location, the velocity profile showed a similar trend as shown in
the profile of H/D 4, but the velocity profile in this case spread a
little faster.

3.3 POD Analysis. Dynamic information of the flow field

can be explained effectively by the POD, from which the relative
energy distribution is acquired. Using the POD technique proposed by Lumley et al. [21], the flow field can be decomposed
into the optimal orthogonal spatial modes and optimal orthogonal
temporal modes. Before showing the POD results, the POD
method used in the present study is briefly introduced. The general
goal of POD is to find the optimal representation of the field
101104-10 / Vol. 136, OCTOBER 2014

realizations, which leads to a Fredholm integral equation of the

so-called classical POD,

(1)
Rx; x0 /x0 dx0 k/ x
Here, R(x, x0 ) is the two-point correlation matrix of realizations of
the random field,
Rx; x0 < u xu  x0 >

(2)

The operator <> and * denotes ensemble average and complex

conjugate, respectively. The eigenvalue kn of Eq. (1) has a finite
set of eigenfunctions /n x (n 1,N) (N is the number of grid
points of each flow realization), which are then used to reconstruct
the original flow field. To reduce the computational effort
involved in solving the above-mentioned eigenvalue problem, the
snapshot POD method [22] was adopted in present study to process the PIV data.
Table 1 gives the detailed information of the present POD analysis. The time interval between two snapshots was 1/2000 s for
each case. An acquisition time of 2.7 s was chosen, corresponding
to a number of snapshots N1 5400 in the vertical plane for all
cases. On the other hand, an acquisition time of 2.5 s was chosen,
corresponding to a number of snapshots N1 5000 in the horizontal plane for all cases. The ensemble size of the POD analysis was
tested to be sufficient for providing statistically converged results.
Figure 5 shows the first four spatial modes in the vertical plane, at
H/D 2. They represent the dynamics of large-scale motion in the
free surface jet flow. The first spatial mode in Fig. 5(a) contains
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Fig. 16 First four eigenmodes of H/D 5 6 (Part II) on the vertical central plane. (a) 1st mode, (b)
2nd mode, (c) 3rd mode, and (d) 4th mode.

the largest turbulent kinetic energy and shows the spreading and
entrainment trend, which is the intrinsic feature in a jet flow. The
upward spreading motion of the jet flow and the subsequently
impingement caused the violent free surface vibration in the nearfield. In the far-field, the portion close to the free surface showed
a weak reverse flow trend, indicating the surface push away
effect on the jet flow due to the free surface vibration in this
region. When the reverse flow met the main spreading flow, its
flow direction was changed and began to move downward and
eventually was merged into a stream with the main spreading flow
in the lower portion of the jet. The second spatial mode in
Fig. 5(b) is highly correlated with the first spatial mode and shows
the same large-scale structures, except for a shift in phase. The
most important feature of the third mode in Fig. 5(c) is that a large
clockwise vortex appears at the left side free surface, which can
be attributed to the formation of the secondary vortex in the region
where the free surface was strongly distorted [8]. The fourth spatial mode shows the long-narrow elliptical structures near the surface, indicating a squeeze effect of the surface boundary on the
flow structures.
Journal of Fluids Engineering

To better reveal the evolution of dominant structures in the vertical plane, a dynamic plot of the instantaneous fluctuating flow
field reconstructed by the first four eigenmodes is shown in Fig. 6.
The four reconstructed flow fields revealed a typical interaction
process of the large-scale structures in the surface jet with the free
surface and contained different free surface boundary conditions.
For better understand the interaction process, the original PIV
boundary image was also shown together with the corresponding
reconstructed field. In Fig. 6(a), the free surface has violent vibration and a pair of valley and peak can be identified easily. The salient feature of the reconstructed fluctuating flow fields is the
strong downward reverse flow just beneath the surface depression
region in the near field. The strong free surface downward motion
pushed the surrounding fluid away and gave rise to the downward
reverse flow trend, and subsequently it encountered with the main
jet flow and forced the main flow to change its direction. In addition, a small vortex was induced due to the changing of main flow
direction. In Fig. 6(b), the valley and peak identified in Fig. 6(a)
were transferred to downstream and a new peak appeared at the
left side due to the convection of the large-scale structures. The
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Fig. 17 A dynamic plot of the instantaneous flow field reconstructed by the first
four eigenmodes (H/D 5 6 vertical central plane, Part I)

downward reverse flow was also transferred to downstream but

the strength was reduced due to the reduction of surface vibration
energy. Consequently, the changing of the main flow direction
was not so obvious compared to the results in Fig. 6(a) and the
induced vortex became larger. As the convection proceeding, the
valley and peaks were transferred further downstream and the amplitude of the surface vibration decreased obviously in Fig. 6(c).
Due to the rapidly decreasing of surface vibration energy, the free
surface downward motion caused reverse flow became weaker
and its flow direction was changed by the main jet flow and began
to move downward and eventually was merged into a stream with
the main spreading flow in the lower portion of the jet. In
Fig. 6(c), the jet flow in the near-field kept its flow direction and
showed a spreading trend, causing the surface elevation. The main
flow direction in Fig. 6(d) was approximate parallel to the streamwise direction since the free surface behaved as a flat surface at
this moment and consequently the upward spreading was limited
compared to the situation revealed in Fig. 6(c). The initial induced
vortex in Fig. 6(a) developed into a long-narrow vortex in
Fig. 6(d). The four reconstructed fluctuating flow fields possess
varying degree free surface deformations, demonstrating that the
free surface oscillates in an unpredictable nonharmonic pattern.
Figure 7 shows the first four dominant spatial modes in the horizontal central plane, at H/D 2. The jet spreading and entrainment motion was not obvious in the first spatial mode, only could
be identified in a short distance at the left side. From the preceding
discussion it was clear that the large-scale surface-parallel structures moved up-and-down randomly due to the violent free surface oscillation and consequently destroyed the normal jet
spreading motion in the horizontal central plane. Moreover, the
reverse flow which was revealed in the first spatial mode in the
101104-12 / Vol. 136, OCTOBER 2014

vertical plane and its subsequently downward motion also

changed the structures in the horizontal central plane. The second
spatial mode in Fig. 7(b) shows the similar large-scale structures
as is shown in Fig. 7(a) with a phase difference. Figures 7(c) and
7(d) show the third and fourth eigenmodes, which reveal that the
large-scale structures become smaller. Figure 8 shows a dynamic
plot of the instantaneous fluctuating flow field reconstructed by
the first four eigenmodes in the horizontal planes. Unlike the
results in the vertical central plane, the convection of the largescale structures showed the discontinuities compared to the results
in the vertical plane. Because the surface-parallel structures in the
vertical plane have random up-and-down motion and frequently
destroy the structures in the horizontal central plane, the vortical
structures will disappear from the horizontal central plane and
show the discontinuities during the convection.
Figure 9 shows the first four spatial modes in the vertical plane,
at H/D 4 (Part I). In Fig. 9(a), a large counterclockwise vortex
was found near the free surface and it had a weak push-down
effect on the jet flow in the near-field. The surface jet has an
upwelling trend due to the effect of the free surface, so some shear
vortex rise up, are rebounded by the free surface, entrain the surrounding fluid and eventually affect the main flow. The first spatial mode revealed a weak interaction process of the rebounding
structures with the main flow. On the other hand, when the rising
structures have a relatively high energy, they will entrain the surrounding structures rapidly and become very large rotating vortex
and strongly affect the flow structures. The second spatial mode in
Fig. 9(b) represented a strong interaction process of large-scale
structures with the main flow. The most remarkable feature in
Fig. 9(b) was a very large vortex appears near the free surface and
span to the lower portion of the jet. Due to its existence, the
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Fig. 18 A dynamic plot of the instantaneous flow field reconstructed by the first four eigenmodes (H/D 5 6 vertical central plane, Part II)

topology of the flow field was totally changed. The third spatial
mode in Fig. 9(c) was correlated with the second mode with a
phase difference. The large-scale structures became smaller in the
fourth spatial mode and several small-scale vortices were
observed in the far-field.
Figure 10 shows the first four spatial modes in the far-field in
the vertical plane, at H/D 4 (Part II). The jet flow in this region
was fully attached to the free surface. A large vortex across the
whole upper half of the jet was observed in Fig. 10(a), indicating
that the first spatial mode was related to the merging and restructured process of the vortical structures. The second spatial mode
showed the similar large-scale structures and was also related to
the merging process. We conjectured that turbulence field might
be restructured and quasi-two-dimensionalized by the free surface
(faster damping of the vertical component of turbulence). In addition, the merging of like-sign vortices shifted the size distribution
towards larger structures and gave rise to a reverse energy cascade
[14]. The vortical structures in the third and fourth modes in
Figs. 10(c) and 10(d) became smaller compared to the first two
modes.
Journal of Fluids Engineering

Figure 11 shows a dynamic plot of the flow field reconstructed

by the first four eigenmodes in the vertical plane (Part I, H/D 4).
The four reconstructed instantaneous flow fields revealed the
interaction process of the rebounding structures with the main
flow. In Fig. 11(a), a weak vortex was forming since the rising
vortex entrained the surrounding fluids and this developing vortex
had a weak effect on the main flow at this moment. In Fig. 11(b),
the vortex became larger and began to entrain the fluids in the
main flow due to the confinement in the vertical direction. As a
result, the main flow direction was significantly altered. As the
convection proceeding, this rebounding vortex became even larger
and span across the whole upper portion of the jet, as is shown in
Fig. 11(c). The portion above the jet centerline was rolled up and
the lower portion of the jet was pushed down. As the large vortex
transferred to the far-field, it began to stretch as is shown in Fig.
11(d). The main flow continuously rolled up and pushed up the
vortex, resulting in the stretching and deformation of the vortex at
the free surface. The procedures described above occur frequently
in the surface jet and sometimes the initial upwelling vortex contains relatively high energy, which will totally change the
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Fig. 19 First four eigenmodes of H/D 5 6 on the horizontal central plane. (a) 1st mode, (b) 2nd
mode, (c) 3rd mode, and (d) 4th mode.

topology of the flow field in a short time. Figure 12 shows the convection of large-scale structures in the far-field (Part II, H/D 4).
Figure 12(a) shows two large-scale vortices, making a counterrotating vortex pair. In Fig. 12(b), the counter-rotating vortex pair
was transferred to downstream and a new counterclockwise vortex
appeared at the left side. As the convection proceeding, a new
clockwise vortex was developing at the left side. In Fig. 12(d), the
former counter-rotating vortex pair disappeared from the field of
view and a new vortex pair appeared at the same position. Two
features of the large-scale vortex must be mentioned here, the size
and the orientation. The size of the vortex spans across the whole
upper half and the vortices are orientated almost in a line, indicating that there is a merging and restructured process during the
interaction of the jet flow with the free surface.
As discussed above, the upwelling motion of the surface jet and
the subsequent large surface-parallel vortex revealed in Figs. 9
and 11 totally changed the flow structures in the vertical plane
(Part I). Therefore there must be a corresponding change of the topology of the flow field in the horizontal central plane. Figure 13
shows the first four spatial modes in the horizontal central plane,
at H/D 4. In Fig. 13(a), the first spatial mode was separated into
two parts. Two large vortices appeared at the right side, making a
counter-rotating vortex pair. The left side showed the jet spreading motion. If we think of the surface-parallel vortex revealed in
Figs. 9 and 11, then it is easy to understand that the spatial structures in Fig. 13(a) is associated with the rotating motion of the
large-scale surface-parallel vortex. The large rebounding vortex,
shown in Fig. 11, passed through the horizontal central plane and
separated the flow structures. The second and third spatial mode
in Figs. 13(b) and 13(c) both show a very large vortex, which is
associated with the entrainment motion of the large-scale surfaceparallel vortex. The size of vortical structure became smaller in
the fourth spatial mode.
101104-14 / Vol. 136, OCTOBER 2014

To clarify how the surface-parallel vortex affects the flow field

in the horizontal central plane, a dynamic plot of the reconstructed
field is given in Fig. 14. In Fig. 14(a), we conjectured that a
surface-parallel vortex reached the horizontal central plane. The
arrival of the vortex pushed away the fluid in the near-field and
compelled the jet to change the direction of propagation. Moreover, the entrainment motion of the surface-parallel vortex
induced two large vortices at the right side. In Fig. 14(b), the
strength of the surface-parallel vortex increased and the vortex
passed through the horizontal plane, resulting in a reverse flow
along the jet centerline in the near-field. As the convection proceeding, the induced structures and the reverse flow were transferred downstream, shown in Fig. 14(c). In Fig. 14(d), the surfaceparallel vortex may begin to stretch and its effect on the horizontal
central plane reduced. The preceding reverse flow merged into the
spreading flow and the large vortex began to tilt at the right side.
Figure 15 depicts the first four spatial modes in the vertical
plane, at H/D 6 (Part I). The first spatial mode showed an
approximately symmetric spreading pattern since the free surface
effect in this region was weak at this depth. The second spatial
mode was also related to the large-scale motion in the jet flow.
The third and fourth spatial modes showed the well-organized
vortical structures, but the size of these structures became smaller
compared to the first two modes. Figure 16 shows the first four
spatial modes in the far-field in the vertical plane, at H/D 6 (Part
II). Unlike the H/D 4 case, the jet at this depth did not fully
attach to the free surface and, therefore, the eigenmodes showed
the different spatial structures. The first spatial mode in Fig. 16(a)
showed a large vortex across the jet centerline. The second spatial
mode displayed two large vortices, one was located near the centerline and the other one appeared in the upper half. Another salient feature of the second spatial mode was the reverse flow at the
right side. The notable feature in the third spatial mode was a
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Fig. 20 A dynamic plot of the instantaneous flow field reconstructed by the first
four eigenmodes (H/D 5 6 horizontal central plane)

large counterclockwise vortex near the surface at the right

side, which is associated with the shear vortex entrainment
motion. The relatively large shear vortex in the far-field was
rebounded by the mirrorlike free surface, then entrained the surrounding fluids and eventually merged into large structures. The
fourth spatial mode showed two large vortex as well as several
small vortices.
Figure 17 shows a dynamic plot of the reconstructed flow field
in the vertical central plane (Part I, H/D 6). Unlike the dynamic
plot shown in Figs. 6 and 11, Fig. 17 did not show the evolution
of a certain interaction process with very short time interval. The
four instantaneous flow fields chosen in Fig. 17 ensured that the
flow field structures shown in Fig. 17(a) reappeared in Fig. 17(d).
The free surface in this region did not show an obvious effect on
the jet flow. Figures 17(a), 17(c), and 17(d) show an approximately symmetric pattern and Fig. 17(b) shows several organized
vortices. Figure 18 shows a dynamic plot of the reconstructed
flow field in the vertical central plane in the far-field (Part II, H/
D 6). The four instantaneous flow fields depicted the convection
of the large-scale structures. Unlike the results in Fig. 12, where
the merging and restructured process occurred in the upper half
due to the relative strong interaction, the vortex were not orientated in a line in this case and were distributed obliquely.
Figure 19 displays the first four spatial modes in the horizontal
plane, at H/D 6. Unlike the spatial modes shown in Figs. 7 and
13, the first spatial mode in Fig. 19(a) showed the symmetric pattern, indicating that the dominant flow structures in the horizontal
central plane were not changed at this depth. The second spatial
mode in Fig. 19(b) also showed the symmetric pattern which is
related to the large-scale motion. Figures 19(c) and 19(d) show
the third and fourth spatial mode which revealed that the largescale structure became smaller throughout the turbulent energycascading process. Figure 20 shows a dynamic plot of the reconstructed flow field in the horizontal central plane at H/D 6. The
four instantaneous reconstructed flow fields showed the approximately symmetric flow pattern, demonstrating the flow structures
were not changed by the free surface in this region.
Journal of Fluids Engineering

Conclusions

Dynamic structures in the free-surface jet flows were examined

using the time-resolved PIV technique and Laser-induced fluorescence technique at three different depths. The measured flow field
was later decomposed by the time-resolved POD technique, which
exposed the large-scale structures buried in the surface jet. Even
though the time-averaged mean flow fields show similar flow patterns for all depths, the dynamic characteristics of large-scale turbulent motions are significantly different with respect to the
different depths. The major conclusions of the study are summarized below:
In the case of H/D 2, dynamic structures in the vertical
and horizontal central planes were investigated in the
region of X/D  1626, where the surface jet was already
fully attached to the free surface and strongly deformed
the free surface. The large-scale turbulent motions are
changed in the vertical central plane as well as in the horizontal central plane. In the vertical central plane, the first
two spatial modes depict the surface vibration induced
reverse flow along the boundary, and its subsequent
deflection will change the flow structures in the horizontal
central plane. Due to the strongly free surface distortion in
the near-field, the secondary vortex may appear in this
region. The long-narrow structures in the fourth spatial
mode shows the squeeze effect of the free surface on the
large-scale structures. The convection of large-scale structures reveals that the flow structures have up-and-down
motion due to the violent free surface vibration. The topology of the flow field in the horizontal central plane is
totally changed by the unsteady up-and-down motion of
the surface-parallel structures and the abovementioned
surface vibration induced reverse flow. The time-averaged
flow field shows an obvious upwelling motion and the
maximum velocity is located towards the free surface.
(ii) In the case of H/D 4, dynamic structures in the vertical
plane were investigated in two regions. In Part I, though

(i)

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the time-averaged flow field shows that the jet reached the
free surface at around X/D 24, the large-scale turbulent
motions are significantly changed, which is associated
with the upwelling motion of some vortices in the jet and
their subsequently downward entrainment due to the confinement in the vertical plane. In Part II, the jet is fully
attached to the free surface, and the vortical structures
undergo a merging and restructured process in the upper
half of the jet. In the horizontal central plane, dynamic
structures in the same streamwise region as Part I in the
vertical plane were investigated. The flow structures are
also changed due to the abovementioned vortex in part I in
the vertical plane.
(iii) In the case of H/D 6, dynamic structures in the same
streamwise regions as H/D 4 were investigated. In Part
I, the dominant structures are not significantly changed
and show an approximately symmetric pattern. The dominant structures in the corresponding horizontal central
plane also show an approximately symmetric pattern. In
Part II, the jet does not undergo a merging and restructured
process as shown in the case of H/D 4, because the distance from jet axis to the free surface increased and the
interaction became weaker. The rebounding vortex also
shows the downward entrainment motion but does not significantly change the dominant structures.

Acknowledgment
This study was supported by the National Research Foundation
of Korea (NRF) Grant funded by the Korea Government (MSIP)
through GCRC-SOP (No. 2011-0030013) and KETEP
(No. 20112010100030-12-2-300) and a Grant (No. 51176108) from
the National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC).

Nomenclature
D
FOV
H
L
LDV
LIF
PIV
POD
Uc
X

nozzle diameter
field-of-view
depth to jet axis
length of pipe
laser Doppler velocimetry
laser induced fluorescence
particle image velocimetry
proper orthogonal decomposition
local centerline velocity
streamwise coordinate

101104-16 / Vol. 136, OCTOBER 2014

Y transverse coordinate
Z vertical coordinate

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