Such remarkable sensitivity to persistence may also explain
the difference in observed behavior between the vertical jet and
the vertical plume, two flows superficially similar. While the
impinging jet yields the persistent value of a[1/2, the
impinging plume yields the nonpersistent value of a[3/2
(Baines 1975; Kumagai 1984). The explanation may be the
subtle difference observed in the corresponding unstratified
flows. The self-similar plume is sufficiently nonsteady that pure
ambient fluid penetrates to the plume centerline, even at Sc1.
This is not true for the jet (Dai et al. 1994, 1995; Mungal et al.
1991; Yoda et al. 1994). Therefore the impinging plume
fluctuates somewhat more than the impinging vertical jet,
evidently enough to reduce the plume persistence number to
unity. |