Laboratory measurements of a jet discharged into waves

This paper concerns the near-field characteristics of a jet discharged into a regular wave field. A new laboratory investigation is presented and the measured data ensemble-averaged with respect to the phase of the wave motion. Comparisons with data describing an identical jet discharged into a steady crossflow suggest that under some circumstances the wave-induced ambient fluid flow may be approximated by a sequence of quasi-steady currents. Further comparisons with a modified integral solution, based on a formulation proposed by Lee and Cheung (1990) , are shown to be in reasonable agreement. However, if the orientation of the jet (relative to the wave motion) is such that at some phases of the wave cycle the jet experiences an opposing or counter flow, there is evidence to suggest that a new mixing mechanism becomes significant. This leads to asymmetric jet profiles which cannot be modelled by a simplistic integral model.