Streamwise dispersion in a turbulent open channel flow across all time regimes

Dispersion in turbulent flows is of broad interest in engineering and environmental processes, particularly for rivers, lakes and oceanic water bodies. Based on our streamwise dispersion model grounded in a Lagrangian perspective of convection–diffusion dynamics (Guan & Chen, 2024, J. Fluid Mech. , vol. 980, A33), this work presents a comprehensive solution that consistently unifies dispersion across the Reynolds number spectrum, bridging laminar and turbulent regimes. The streamwise dispersion mechanism is general across time scales, yet its statistical behaviour cannot be fully described using conventional coarse-grained moments averaged over cross-sections. While classical drift–diffusion models that are effective for long-time asymptotics fail to capture the turbulent dynamics of the pre-asymptotic phase, our analytical model enables a complete spatio-temporal characterisation of concentration, and reveals how local statistics evolve towards their asymptotic, coarse-grained limits. Through asymptotic expansions and eigenfunction analysis, we quantify the time-dependent behaviour of phenomenological dispersion coefficients, and distinguish between local and mean statistics, which diverge significantly during the pre-asymptotic phase. The early regime exhibits robust features, including an overshoot in local dispersivity, asymmetric long tails in mean concentration, and island-shaped solute accumulation near the free surface. Three regimes are identified in the evolution of the local concentration: (i) an initially uniform line source, (ii) a transitional logarithmic profile shaped by vertical shear, and (iii) an emergent Gaussian dispersion regime approaching vertical uniformity. Comparisons of both local and mean concentration demonstrate quantitative agreement with finite difference and Monte Carlo simulations across all regimes. These findings clarify the interplay between shear and turbulent diffusion, laying a foundation for addressing more intricate and physically significant transport problems.