Investigation of the microstructure a turbulent jet in a wake

Abstract

The study of the characteristics of the turbulence in the boundary layer and in free jets is one of the most important problems of the aerodynamics of viscous fluids. The accumulation of information on the pulsation characteristics of jet flows and the establishment of the corresponding governing laws may serve to verify the basic hypotheses of the semiempirical theories of turbulence, and also for the development of more advanced computational methods. In many cases the measurement of the pulsation characteristics of turbulent jets is of practical interest. The studies made up till now [1–5] of the microstructure of turbulent flow in the primary region of submerged axisymmetric jets have made it possible to obtain several interesting results. In particular, in addition to the average velocity profiles, hot-wire anemometric equipment has been used to measure the normal and tangential Reynolds stresses and also the intermittency factor in cross sections of the jet, the distribution of the intensity of the longitudinal and lateral velocity pulsations along the axis, the correlation coefficients and the corresponding integral turbulence scales, etc. These measurements have made it possible to draw several important conclusions on the mechanism of turbulent exchange, on the order of the terms omitted in the equation of motion, and on the semiempirical theories of turbulence [6–9]. The common deficiency of the studies mentioned above is that near the boundary of a submerged jet, where the average velocity is practically equal to zero, the intensity of the pulsations is so great that it makes the reliability of the results obtained by means of the hotwire anemometer questionable. In this connection Townsend [6] indicated the advisability of studying the microstructure of a turbulent jet issuing into a low-velocity ambient flow. The present study had as its objective the investigation of the microstructure of the primary region of an axisymmetric jet in a wake flow over quite a broad range of the flow ratio parameter m=uδ/u0;here u0 is the average velocity at the nozzle exit, uδ is the velocity of the ambient stream. For various values of the parameter m in the primary region of the jet measurements were made of the profiles of the three components of the pulsation velocity and the Reynolds shear stresses, and also the values of the average velocity and two components of the pulsation velocity at a large number of points on the jet axis. The measured profiles of the Reynolds shear stresses were compared with the corresponding profiles calculated on the basis of the boundary layer equations from the experimentally determined average velocity profiles. For two values of the parameter m, in one of the sections of the jet measurements were made of the correlation coefficients of the longitudinal components of the pulsation velocity and the variation across the jet of the integral turbulence scale was determined. The results obtained give an idea of the influence of the parameter m on the characteristics of the turbulent jet in an ambient stream.