Experimental and numerical analysis of pollutant dispersion from a chimney

Particle image velocimetry (PIV) is used to extract and characterize the underlying organized motions, i.e. coherent structures, within the near-wake region of a turbulent round jet discharged perpendicularly from a chimney into a crossflow. This flow has been found to be quite complex owing to its three-dimensional nature and the interactions between several flow regions. Analyses of the underlying coherent structures, which play an important role in the physics of the flow, are still rare and mostly based on flow-visualization techniques. Using a PIV technique, we examined the wake regions of the chimney and plume at levels near the top of the chimney. The complex geometry of these structures in the wake of the plume as well as their interaction with the plume as it bends over after emission is discussed. In this paper we describe the Kelvin–Helmholtz vortex structures, the downwash phenomena and the effect of the height of the chimney. Extensive wind tunnel experimental results are presented and compared with numerical simulation. A good level of agreement was found between the results of flow visualization and numerical simulation.