The shape and behaviour of a horizontal buoyant jet adjacent to a surface*

We investigate the incompressible turbulent buoyant jet formed when fluid is steadily ejected horizontally from a circular source into a quiescent environment of uniform density. As our primary focus, we introduce a horizontal boundary. For sufficiently large source-boundary separations, the buoyant jet is `free' to rise under the action of the buoyancy force. For smaller source-boundary separations, the jet attaches and `clings' to the boundary before, further downstream, pulling away from the boundary. Based on measurements of saline jets in freshwater we deduce the conditions required for a jet to cling. We present data for the variation in volume flux, flow envelope and centreline for both `clinging' and `free' jets. For source Froude numbers $\textrm{fr}_{0} \geq 12$ the data collapses when scaled, identifying universal behaviours for both clinging jets and for free jets.