Abstract
In this paper, the similarity form is developed of a hydrogen-air buoyant jet 'forced plume' resulting from an unignited small-scale hydrogen leakage in the air. As the domain temperature is assumed to be constant and therefore the density of the mixture is a function of the concentration only, the hydrogen-air mixture is assumed to be of a linear mixing type. The rate of entrainment is assumed to be a function of the plume centerline velocity and the ratio of the mean plume and ambient densities. The local rate of entrainment may be considered to be consisted of two components; one is the component of entrainment due to jet momentum while the other is the component of entrainment due to buoyancy. Consequently, the entrainment coefficient is taken as a variable not constant. The density will be considered as a variable in all terms of the equations of continuity, momentum and concentration. The integral models of the mass, momentum and concentration fluxes are obtained. Non-dimensional transformations known as similarity transformations and used to transform the integral model to a set of ordinary differential equations called similarity equations which are solved numerically. Under various values of Froude number, the hydrogen centerline mass fraction, jet width and centerline velocity are introduced and compared with published experimental results for a slow leak vertical hydrogen jet. (C) 2009 International Association for Hydrogen Energy. Published by Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.