Measurements of small-scale statistics and probability density functions in passively heated shear flow.

Abstract

This study is an experimental investigation consisting of two parts. In the first part, the fine structure of uniformly sheared turbulence was investigated within the framework of Kolmogorov's (1941) similarity hypotheses. The second part, consisted of the study of the scalar mixing in uniformly sheared turbulence with an imposed mean scalar gradient, with the emphasis on measurements relevant to the probability density function formulation and on scalar derivative statistics. The velocity fine structure was invoked from statistics of the streamwise and transverse derivatives of the streamwise velocity as well as velocity differences and structure functions, measured with hot wire anemometry for turbulence Reynolds numbers, Relambda, in the range between 140 and 660. The streamwise derivative skewness and flatness agreed with previously reported results in that they increased with increasing Relambda with the flatness increasing at a higher rate. The skewness of the transverse derivative decreased with increasing Relambda, and the flatness of this derivative increased with Relambda but a lower rate than the streamwise derivative flatness. The high order (up to sixth) transverse structure functions of the streamwise velocity showed the same trends as the corresponding streamwise structure functions. In the second pan of tins experimental study, an army of heated ribbons was introduced into the flow to produce a constant mean temperature gradient, such that the temperature acted as a passive scalar. The Re lambda in this study varied from 184 to 253. Cold wire thermometry and hot wire anemometry were used for simultaneous measurements of temperature and velocity. The scalar pdf was found to be nearly Gaussian. Various tests of joint statistics of the scalar and its rate of destruction revealed that the scalar dissipation rate was essentially independent of the scalar value. The measured joint statistics of the scalar and the velocity suggested that they were nearly jointly normal and that the normalized conditioned expectations varied linearly with the scalar with slopes corresponding to the scalar-velocity correlation coefficients. Finally, the measured streamwise and transverse scalar derivatives and differences revealed that the scalar fine structure was intermittent not only in the dissipative range, but in the inertial range as well.