Characteristic modes and evolution processes of shear-layer vortices in an elevated transverse jet

Abstract

Characteristics and evolution processes of the traveling coherent flow structure in the shear layer of an elevated round jet in crossflow are studied experimentally in an open-loop wind tunnel. Streak pictures of the smoke flow patterns illuminated by the laser-light sheet in the median and horizontal planes are recorded with a high speed digital camera. Time histories of the instantaneous velocity of the vortical flows in the shear layer are digitized by a hot-wire anemometer through a high-speed data acquisition system. By analyzing the streak pictures of the smoke flow visualization, five characteristic flow structures, mixing-layer type vortices, backward-rolling vortices, forward-rolling vortices, swing-induced mushroom vortices, and jet-type vortices, are identified in the shear layer evolving from the up-wind edge of the jet exit. The behaviors and mechanisms of the vortical flow structure in the bent shear layer are prominently distinct in different flow regimes. The frequency characteristics, Strouhal number, power-spectrum density functions, autocorrelation coefficient, as well as the time and length scales of the coherent structure and the Lagrangian integral scales are obtained by processing the measured instantaneous velocity data. The Strouhal number is found to decay exponentially with the increase of the jet-to-crossflow momentum flux ratio. The autocorrelation coefficients provide the information for calculating the statistical time scales of the coherent structure and the integral time scales of turbulence fluctuations. The corresponding length scales of the vortical structure and the integral length scales of turbulence in the shear layer are therefore obtained and discussed.