The hydrodynamic phenomena occurring inside the enclosed downcomer section of a plunging jet bubble column are described in the study. The gas entrainment rate for a plunging liquid jet was found to consist of two components, namely the gas trapped within the effective jet diameter at the point of impact, and the gas contained within the film between the jet and induction trumpet surface at the point of rupture. Entrainment within the effective jet diameter has been examined by McCarthy (1972). In this study, a model was supported by the experimental results, provided the film attained a region of constant thickness. When the induction trumpet was ruptured prior to a constant film thickness being reached, the measured rate of filmwise entrainment was higher than the prediction. Filmwise entrainment was found to be initiated once a critical velocity along the surface of the induction trumpet was reached. The critical velocity was a function only of the liquid physical properties and was independent of the jet conditions and downcomer diameter. The velocity of the free surface of the induction trumpet was obtained from the velocity profile for the recirculating eddy generated by the confined plunging liquid jet. The jet angle used to describe the expansion of the submerged jet inside the downcomer was predicted from the radial diffusion of jet momentum into the recirculation eddy. The model was able to predict the jet angle when it was assumed that the radial diffusion of jet momentum was a function of the Euler number based on the jet velocity and absolute pressure in the headspace at the top of the downcomer. The model was also developed to predict the maximum stable bubble diameter generated within the submerged jet volume, where the energy dissipation attributed to bubble breakup was given by the energy mixing loss derived for the throat section of a liquid-jet-gas-pump. Good agreement was found between the measured and predicted maximum bubble diameter values. The average experimental Sauter mean/maximum diameter ratio was found to be 0.61, which was similar to that for other bubble generation devices. It was found that for turbulent liquid conditions in the uniform two-phase flow region, a transition from bubble to churn-turbulent flow occurred at a gas void fraction of approximately 0.2 when the gas drift-flux was zero. Under laminar liquid flow, this transition took place at a gas void fraction above 0.3. For the bubbly flow regime the Distribution parameter Co used by Zuber and Findlay (1965) to describe the velocity and gas void fraction profile, was found to be a function of the liquid Reynolds number. For laminar liquid flow, values of Co greater than unity were obtained. As the liquid Reynolds number was increased it was found that Co decreased, until a constant value of unity was obtained for fully turbulent flow. For the churn-turbulent regime it was found that the gas void fraction measurements for all of the experimental runs could be collapsed onto a single curve when a modified gas void fraction was plotted against the gas-to-liquid volumetric flow ratio. The modified gas void fraction included a correction factor to account for the difference in the bubble slip velocity between the experimental runs. The experimental results also indicated that the value of the constant in the gas void fraction correction factor was different for laminar and turbulent flow. Prior to bubble coalescence, it was found that the experimental drift-flux curves could be predicted from the measured bubble diameter, using the separated flow model development by Ishii and Zuber (1979). After the onset of coalescence the drift flux measurements departed from the original drift-flux curves at a rate which increased linearly with increasing gas void fraction. It was found that the slope of the line fitted to the coalesced region of the drift-flux curves increased with increasing liquid Reynolds number and reached a constant value under fully turbulent flow conditions. The model developed, together with the implications of the experimental results, are discussed with regard to optimising the design of an industrial plunging jet bubble column. / PhD Doctorate