Direct numerical simulation of a mixing layer downstream a thick splitter plate

Abstract

In this numerical study, the flow obtained behind a trailing edge separating two streams of different velocities is studied by means of direct numerical simulation. The main originality of this work is that the splitter plate itself is included in the computational domain using an immersed boundary method. The influence of the trailing-edge shape is considered through the analysis of the destabilizing mechanisms and their resulting effect on the spatial development of the flow. The streamwise evolution of the different flows is found to be very different for each of the configurations considered, both in terms of mean quantities and flow dynamics. Present results suggest that the wake component, which dominates the flow close to the trailing edge, is still influential further downstream, as already observed in pure wake flows but only conjectured in mixing layer. A detailed analysis of the vortex dynamics is proposed using instantaneous visualizations, statistical/stability analysis considerations, and proper orthogonal decomposition in order to better understand how the transition regime from the wake to the mixing layer occurs and why it can influence the self-similarity, in a region where no wake influence can be locally detected.