A laminar jet in a rotating fluid

Abstract

A solution is presented of the asymptotic flow due to a point source of momentum in a uniformly rotating unbounded environment. Under the condition that the relative swirl velocity of the jet is small compared with the ambient swirl velocity, the equations of motion reduce to a set of linear equations. These equations are expressed in terms of similarity variables and a single ordinary differential equation is derived in terms of the similarity stream function. The profiles of the flow are calculated numerically.The jet is shown to have a narrow viscous core whose thickness increases with distance z from the virtual source of momentum as (, where v is the kinematic viscosity and Ω the ambient angular velocity.