Includes bibliographical references (pages 203-207).

The temperature distribution in the water body due to a discharge of waste heat from a thermal-electrical plant is a function of the hydrodynamic variables of the discharge and the receiving water body. The temperature distribution can be described in terms of a surface jet discharging at some initial angle to the ambient flow and being deflected downstream by the momentum of the ambient velocity. It is assumed that in the vicinity of the surface jet, heat loss to the atmosphere is negligible. It is concluded that the application of the two dimensional surface jet model is dependent on the velocity ratio and the initial angle of discharge, and the value of the initial Richardson number, as low as 0.22. Both laboratory and field data are used for verification of the model which has been developed. Laboratory data is used to evaluate the two needed cooefficients, a drag coefficient and an entrainment coefficient, as well as the length of the zone of flow establishment and the angle at the end of that zone. The drag coefficient and characteristics of the establishment zone are found to be functions of the velocity ratio (ambient velocity/jet velocity), while the entrainment coefficient is primarily a function of geometry.