Bifurcation in a buoyant horizontal laminar jet

The trajectory of a laminar buoyant jet discharged horizontally has been studied. The experimental observations were based on the injection of pure water into a brine solution. Under certain conditions the jet has been found to undergo bifurcation. The bifurcation of the jet occurs in a limited domain of Grashof number and Reynolds number. The regions in which the bifurcation occurs has been mapped in the Reynolds number-Grashof number plane. There are three regions where bifurcation does not occur. The various mechanisms that prevent bifurcation have been proposed.