About the validity of turbulence models for the computational fluid dynamics of a non-isothermal developing plane jet in aiding mixed convection regime

A comparative study between experiments and numerical simulations in the developingzone of a non-isothermal plane vertical jet is presented. Low velocity airflow, in aiding mixedconvection regime, discharging from a large rectangular nozzle in a quiescent medium at a highertemperature is considered (Re = 4220).The "Reynolds-Averaged" Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) are solved with two codes, the CFD code Fluent and the Aquilon code, including different turbulence models. While the two numerical codes give quite similar results, large discrepancies are observed between simulations and experiments, showing that developing regions of jets in mixed convection regime are not yet correctly described by usual turbulence models.