Mixing and entrainment in the near field of turbulent round jets

In this work, a methodology based on the analysis of single-camera, double-pulse PIV images is described and validated as a tool to characterize fiber-dispersed turbulent flows in large-scale facilities. The methodology consists of image pre-treatment (intensity adjustment, median filtering, threshold binarization and object identification by a recursive connection algorithm) and object-based phase discrimination used to generate two independent snapshots from one single image, one for the dispersed phase and one for the seeding. Snapshots are then processed to calculate the flow field using standard PIV techniques and to calculate fiber concentration and orientation statistics using an object-fitting procedure. The algorithm is tuned and validated by means of artificially generated images and proven to be robust against identified sources of error. The methodology is applied to experimental data collected from a fiber suspension in a turbulent pipe flow. Results show good qualitative agreement with experimental data from the literature and with in-house numerical data.     

Heat and mass transfer in a system of plane turbulent jets with diffusion combustion

We consider turbulent motion of premixed chemically active gases in an infinite system of plane turbulent jets in the presence of diffusive combustion. The proposed calculation method permits determining the distribution of all the parameters in the mixing zone, including the longitudinal pressure. Numerical examples of the calculation of hydrogen combustion in air are presented.The study of heat and mass transfer in jet flows presents major difficulties at the present time. Therefore all the existing methods for calculating jet flows with heat and mass transfer and chemical processes [1–5] are based on an extension of the known semiempirical theories of free turbulence to the more complex cases of flow with chemical reactions. The present study is no exception in this sense; it covers an investigation of the motion in an infinite system of plane turbulent jets with diffusive combustion.     

Mixing and coherent vortices in turbulent coaxial jets

Direct numerical simulations associated with mixing in constant-density round coaxial jets are performed. They are validated by comparison against laboratory experiments. The mixing process is studied by seeding a passive tracer first in the outer annular jet, then in the inner jet. We demonstrate the important role played by coherent vortices in the mixing mechanisms. The turbulent mixing exhibits an intermittent character as a consequence of fluid ejections caused by the counter-rotating streamwise vortices. We quantify also the domination of the outer jet and show that the fluid issuing from the central jet remains confined. To cite this article: G. Balarac, M. Si-Ameur, C. R. Mecanique 333 (2005).     

Experimental investigation of turbulent entrainment in an annulus with moving sidewalls

The establishment of a turbulent mixed layer in a two-layer stratified shear flow, and the rate of entrainment into that layer were studied experimentally in a modified annulus. The modification of the conventional annulus was made by replacing the upper rotating screen with inner rotating sidewalls, extending over the upper half of the channel, so that the flow in the upper layer was nearly uniform and almost laminar, while the bottom layer was quiescent. Vertical density profile measurements were conducted using single electrode conductivity probes. The flow was visualized during the various stages of the experiment using the hydrogen bubble technique.After the start of the sidewalls rotation, the upper layer accelerates from rest, and consequently a transition process is taking place during which the initial density interface between the two layers is developed into a turbulent mixed layer. This turbulent layer is bounded by two sharp interfaces, each separating it from an outer non-turbulent zone. The generation of this five-layer structure seemed to be dominated by instabilities activated by the velocity difference between the upper and lower layer.Once a turbulent mixed layer is formed, entrainment of nonturbulent fluid into that layer is taking place causing its thickness to increase continuously. Depending on the overall Richardson number, based on the channel width, the slope of the entrainment law curve was found to have two different values, each indicating the dominance of a different source of turbulent energy production. For relatively low Richardson numbers, the slope is close to -1.8, implying that the velocity shear across each interface contributes significantly to the entrainment. On the other hand, for larger Richardson numbers the slope is about -1.25, in agreement with previous results of shear-free entrainment experiments.The measured velocity profiles indicate that as long as the mixed layer is not too thick, the radial inhomogeneities are small and the flow may be considered as nearly one-dimensional. It seems, therefore, that for the understanding of entrainment processes occurring in realistic stratified flows, the modified annulus is a more reliable tool than the conventional one.     

Air entrainment in two-dimensional turbulent shear flows with partially developed inflow conditions

In plunging jet flows and at hydraulic jumps, large quantities of air are entrained at the intersection of the impinging flow and the receiving body of water. The air bubbles are entrained into a turbulent shear layer and strong interactions take place between the air bubble advection/diffusion process and the momentum shear region. New air-water flow experiments were conducted with two free shear layer flows: a vertical supported jet and a horizontal hydraulic jump. The inflows were partially developed boundary layers, characterized by the presence of a velocity potential core next to the entrapment point. In both cases, the distributions of air concentration exhibit a Gaussian distribution profile with an exponential longitudinal decay of the maximum air content. Interestingly, the location of the maximum air content and the half-value band width are identical for both flow situations, i.e. independent of buoyancy effects.     

Coherent structures and wavepackets in subsonic transitional turbulent jets

A large eddy simulation (LES) is performed for two subsonic jets with a Reynolds number of Re = 105, which have different core temperatures, i.e., the cold and hot jet. The far-field overall sound pressure levels (OASPL) and noise spectra are well validated against previous exper-imental results. It is found that the OASPL is raised by heating at shallow angles. The most energetic coherent struc-tures are extracted with specified frequencies using the filter based on the frequency domain variant of the snapshot method of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD). The m = 0, 1 modes have high coherence of near-field pres-sure for both jets, while the coherence of m = 0 modes is enhanced greatly by heating. Based on the coherent struc-tures, spatial wavepackets are educed and the characteristics of growth, saturation and decay are analyzed and compared between the two jets in detail. The results show that heat-ing would enhance the linear growth rate for high frequency components, and nonlinear growth rates for low frequency components in general, which are responsible for higher OASPL in the hot jet. The far-field sound generated by wavepackets is computed using the Kirchhoff extrapolation, which matches well with that of LES at shallow angles. This indicates that the wavepackets associated with coherent structures are dominant sound sources in forced transitional turbulent jets. Additionally, the present POD method is proven to be a robust tool to extract the salient features of the wavepackets in turbulent flows.     

Mixing enhancement in axisymmetric turbulent isothermal and buoyant jets

Measurements of the velocity and concentration in axisymmetric, turbulent, isothermal and buoyant jets have been performed with laser-Doppler velocimetry and planar and point laser-induced fluorescence to quantify the mixing enhancement achieved by periodic forcing when the jet exit has a fully-developed turbulent pipe flow, a situation less well-studied than the case of laminar initial conditions. It was found that forcing at Strouhal numbers around 0.6 enhances mixing in the developing region of the jet and this enhancement increased with increasing amplitude of excitation, consistent with results of initially-laminar jets. The initial turbulence intensity did not have any effect, but an increase in the initial lengthscale of the turbulence, controlled by a perforated plate inside the nozzle, caused faster mixing. In agreement with previous experiments, the initial conditions of the jet did not affect the far-field rate of decay, but the jet-fluid concentration there was significantly reduced by forcing due to the increased mixing during the early stages of development, an effect that can be described by a smaller virtual origin in decay laws of jet decay. These results are independent of the Froude number because the initial conditions have an influence only in the early stages where the flow is still momentum dominated.List of Symbols A normalised excitation amplitude, defined by A = u'/U ₀ - D nozzle diameter - f jet-fluid concentration - F mean f - f r.m.s. f - Fd Froude number, defined by Fd=U ₀ ² /(gDT ₀) - g acceleration of gravity - I fluorescent intensity - I _inc incident light intensity - I _ref light intensity of the reference flow - K decay constant - L _hf concentration halfwidth - M mixing enhancement, defined by U _cl/U _cl,st=0 at x/D=5 - r radial coordinate - Re Reynolds number, defined by Re=U ₀ D/v - [Rh] concentration of Rhodamine B - St Strouhal number, defined by St=D/U ₀ - T ₀ temperature of jet fluid - T temperature of outer fluid - T ₀ temperature difference (= T ₀–, T ) - u r.m.s. axial velocity - u r.m.s. of the sinusoidal velocity fluctuation due to forcing - U mean axial velocity - U _cl mean axial centreline velocity - U _cl,st=0 mean axial centreline velocity for an unforced jet - U _max U at the centre of the nozzle exit - U ₀ bulk velocity at nozzle exit - x streamwise coordinate - X ₀ virtual origin Greek coefficient of thermal expansion - kinematic viscosity of the jet fluid - forcing frequency The experiments described here have been performed together with Mr. J. Sakakibara. Acknowledgments are also due to Prof. H. Longmire, of the University of Minnesota, for helpful discussions on forcing. This work was done while E.M. visitied Keio University with the financial assistance of TEPCO.     

Impact pressures of turbulent high-velocity jets plunging in pools with flat bottom

Dynamic pressures created by the impact of high-velocity turbulent jets plunging in a water pool with flat bottom were investigated. Pressure fluctuations were sampled at 1 kHz at the jet outlet and at the pool bottom using piezo-resistive pressure transducers, jet velocities of up to 30 m/s and pool depth to jet diameter ratios from 2.8 to 11.4. The high-velocity jets entrain air in the pool in conditions similar to prototype applications at water release structures of dams. The intermittent character of plunge pool flows was investigated for shallow and deep pools, based on high order moments and time correlations. Maximum intermittency was observed for pool depths at 5.6 jet diameters, which approximate the core development length. Wall pressure skewness was shown to allow identifying the zone of influence of downward and upward moving currents.     

Hopf bifurcation in annular liquid jets with mass transfer

A numerical study of Hopf bifuractions in annular liquid jets with mass transfer is presented. The study is based on the asymptotic equations which govern the dynamics of inviscid, incompressible, thin, annular liquid jets and on equilibrium conditions for mass transfer at the jet's inner and outer interfaces. It is shown that the amplitude of the time-periodic motion that results from the Hopf bifurcation increases whereas its frequency decreases as the solubility ratio is increased.     

Motion and heat and mass transfer in a disperse admixture in turbulent nonisothermal jets of a gas and a low-temperature plasma

The motion and heat and mass transfer of particles of a disperse admixture in nonisothermal jets of a gas and a low-temperature plasma are simulated with allowance for the migration mechanism of particle motion actuated by the turbophoresis force and the influence of turbulent fluctuations of the jet flow velocity on heat and mass transfer of the particle. The temperature distribution inside the particle at each time step is found by solving the equation of unsteady heat conduction. The laws of scattering of the admixture and the laws of melting and evaporation of an individual particle are studied, depending on the injection velocity and on the method of particle insertion into the jet flow. The calculated results are compared with data obtained with ignored influence of turbulent fluctuations on the motion and heat and mass transfer of the disperse phase. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 49, No. 3, pp. 95–108, May–June, 2008.     

Forced convection of turbulent flow in triangular ducts with different angles and surface roughnesses

The experimental investigations were consisting of two parts. The first part was carried out to study the effect of corner geometry on the steady-state forced convection inside horizontal isosceles triangular ducts with sharp corners. The electrically-heated triangular duct was used to simulate the triangular passage of a plate-fin compact heat exchanger. The isosceles triangular ducts were manufactured with duralumin, and fabricated with the same length of 2.4 m and hydraulic diameter of 0.44 m, but five different apex angles (i.e. θ _a =15^∘,30^∘, 40^∘,60^∘, and 90^∘) respectively. The investigation was performed under turbulent flow condition covering a wide range of Reynolds number (i.e. 7000≤Re _D ≤20000). It was found that the best thermal performance is achieved with the apex angle of 60^∘. The second part was performed to investigate the effect of surface roughness on the forced convection of the same system. Horizontal equilateral triangular ducts with an apex angle of 60^∘ were fabricated with the same length and hydraulic diameter, but different average surface roughnesses of 1.2 m,3.0 m and 11.5 m respectively. It was concluded that the duct with a higher surface roughness will have a better heat transfer performance. Non-dimensional expressions for the determination of the heat transfer coefficient of the triangular ducts with different apex angles and surface roughnesses were also developed. Received on 15 December 1997     

Scalar turbulence model investigation with variable turbulent Prandtl number in heated jets and diffusion flames

Traditional turbulence models using constant turbulent Prandtl number fail to predict the experimentally observed anisotropies in the thermal eddy diffusivity and thermal turbulent intensity fields. Accurate predictions depend strongly on the turbulence model employed. Consequently, the objective of this paper is to assess the performance of turbulence model with variable turbulent Prandtl number in predicting of thermal and scalar fields quantities. The model is applied to axisymmetric turbulent round jet with variable density and in turbulent hydrogen diffusion flames using the flamelet concept. The k − ɛ turbulence model is used in conjunction with thermal field; the model involves solving supplemental scalar equations for the temperature variance and its dissipation rate. The model predictions are compared with available experimental data for the purpose of validating model. In reacting cases, velocity and scalar (including temperature and mass fractions) predictions agree relatively well in the near field of the investigated diluted hydrogen flames.     

An experimental and numerical study into turbulent condensing steam jets in air

 Temperatures, velocities, and droplet sizes are measured in turbulent condensing steam jets produced by a facial sauna, for varying nozzle diameters and varying initial velocities (Re=3,600–9,200). The release of latent heat due to droplet condensation causes the temperature in the two-phase jet to be significantly higher than in a single-phase jet. At some distance from the nozzle, droplets reach a maximum size and start to evaporate again, which results in a change in sign of latent heat release. The distance of maximum size is determined from droplet size measurements. The experimental results are compared with semi-analytical expressions and with a fully coupled numerical model of the turbulent condensing steam jet. The increase in centreline temperature due to droplet condensation is successfully predicted. Received: 5 April 2000 / Accepted: 15 November 2000     

Simulating air entrainment and vortex dynamics in a hydraulic jump

The air entrainment characteristics of three separate Froude number hydraulic jumps are investigated numerically using an unsteady RANS, realizable k–ε turbulence model, with a Volume of Fluid treatment for the free surface. Mean velocity profiles, average void fraction, and Sauter mean diameter compare favorably with experimental data reported in literature. In all simulations, time-averaged void fraction profiles show good agreement with experimental values in the turbulent shear layer and an accurate representation of interfacial aeration at the free surface. Sauter mean diameter is well represented in the shear layer, and free surface entrainment results indicate bubble size remains relatively unchanged throughout the depth of the jump. Several different grid resolutions are tested in the simulations. Significant improvements in void fraction and bubble size comparison are seen when the diameter to grid size ratio of the largest bubbles in the shear layer surpasses eight. A three-dimensional simulation is carried out for one Froude number jump, showing an improvement in the prediction of entrained air and bubble size compared with two-dimensional results at a substantial increase in computation time. An analysis of three-dimensional vorticity shows a complex interaction between spanwise and streamwise vortical structures and entrained air bubbles. The jump is similar to a turbulent mixing layer, constrained by the free surface, with vortex pairing and subsequent fluctuations in free surface elevation. Downstream fluctuations of the toe are associated with a roll up of the primary spanwise vortex, fluctuations of the free surface, and counter-rotating streamwise vortex pairs. The action of these flow structures is likely responsible for the improvement in three-dimensional results.     

Isothermal mass transfer in annular liquid jets with Sievert's solubility law

Summary A study of isothermal gas absorption by underpressurized, axisymmetric, thin, inviscid, incompressible, annular liquid jets which form enclosed volumes, where hazardous wastes may be burned, is presented. The study considers the nonlinear dynamical coupling between the fluid dynamics of, and the gases enclosed by, the annular liquid jet. It assumes equilibrium conditions at the interfaces, and employs Sievert's solubility law to determine the gas concentration at the gas-liquid interfaces. Both steady-state and transient conditions are considered. Under steady-state conditions, the fluid dynamics and mass transfer phenomena are uncoupled, and the rate of generation of combustion gases is equal to the mass absorption rate by the liquid. The transient behaviour of the annular jet is determined from initial conditions corresponding to steady-state operation, once there is no gas generation by the combustion of hazardous wastes. It is shown that, for most of the conditions considered in this paper, there is no leakage of gaseous combustion products through the jet's outer interface, and that the amount of gases dissolved in the liquid at the nozzle exit and the solubility ratio play a paramount role in determining the mass fluxes of hazardous combustion products at the annular jet's interfaces.The research reported in this paper was supported by Project PB91-0767 from the C.I.C.Y.T. of spain.     

Flow and mixing characteristics of pulsed confined opposed jets in turbulent flow regime

A numerical study is performed on a two-dimensional confined opposed-jet configuration to gain basic understanding of the flow and mixing characteristics of pulsed turbulent opposed-jet streams. The sinusoidal pulsating flows with different temperature are imposed at opposed-jet inlets, which are mixed with each other in a confined flow channel. The current mathematical model taking the effect of temperature-dependent thermo-physical properties of fluid into account can present a good prediction for opposed-jet streams compared with experimental data. The numerical results indicate that introduction of temperature difference between opposed jet flows can lead to an asymmetric flow field immediately after jet impact, and the sinusoidal flow pulsations can effectively enhance mixing rate of opposed jets. Parameter studies are conducted for optimization of pulsed opposed jets. The effect of Reynolds number and flow pulsation as well as the configuration geometry on the mixing performance are discussed in detail. Examination of the flow and thermal field shows that the mixing rate is highly dependent on the vortex-induced mixing and residence time of jet fluid in the exit channel.     

Experiments on entrainment in an annulus with and without velocity gradient across the density interface

The entrainment process in a two layer density stratified fluid column was studied experimentally by imposing external shear stress on one or both layers. The experiments have been conducted in an annular tank containing two water layers of different salt concentration and the shear stress was applied by means of rotating screens. The following quantities were measured: the screen velocity (which was kept constant during each experiment), the stress at the upper screen, and vertical profiles of circumferential velocity and density at different radial locations. When equal stress was imposed at the surface of the upper layer and at the bottom of the lower layer, entrainment took place from the two sides of the density interface at equal rate so that the interface was stationary in the central position between the two screens and there was no velocity gradient across the interface. The dependence of the entrainment coefficient on Richardson number obtained in these experiments was similar in form to that obtained in the shear-free experiments with an oscillating grid (e.g. Nokes 1988). When a shear stress was applied at the upper surface only, the upper layer depth increased with time and a velocity gradient existed at the interface. The influence of the interfacial velocity gradient on the entrainment rate was studied by comparing the rates obtained with and without this velocity gradient. The entrainment rates were approximately the same for high values of the Richardson number while at low Richardson number the entrainment rate was much larger when a velocity gradient existed across the interface. The main results of this work are as follows:

1. Despite the curved geometry of the annular system, the dependence of the entrainment coefficient on Richardson number for shear-free interface experiments was found to be similar in form to that obtained for oscillating grid experiments.
2. The entrainment across the interface is due to turbulent energy generated at some distance from the interface by an external source (i.e. shear stress induced by a screen) and due to turbulence produced locally at the interface by a velocity gradient. The relative contribution of each turbulence source to the total entrainment was found to depend on the stability of the interface.