Spectrum of a passive scalar in stretched grid turbulence at low Reynolds numbers

Abstract

Approximately homogeneous isotropic turbulence is obtained by stretching a wind-tunnel grid flow with a 1.36:1 contraction. The flow is mildly heated so that temperature serves as a passive scalar. For three different grids, the dissipation rates and spectra of velocity and temperature fluctuations are obtained from simultaneous hot-wire and cold-wire measurements. The dissipation rates follow a power-law decay. Comparison with an unstretched grid flow shows that the contraction improves the isotropy and reduces the effect of grid shape on the decay exponents. At low Reynolds numbers, there is a significant scaling range for the temperature spectrum but not for the velocity spectrum. With stretching, the temperature spectrum shows a wider scaling range, and that the scaling range exponent is closer to 5/3. The scaling exponent for the temperature spectrum (mθ) is represented by a power-law function of Reynolds number, and it approaches 5/3 faster than that for the velocity spectrum (mu). Results show that the ratio between the velocity and temperature scaling range exponents, (5/3+mu)/mθ, is about 1.98.