Curved Turbulent Mixing Layer

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
The radial pressure gradient in combination with either a positive or negative radial gradient of angular momentum makes possible the realization of two dynamically different flows. When the angular momentum gradient is positive, the flow is stable; when it is negative, the flow is unstable. Mean velocity, turbulence intensity, and shear correlation measurements were made in both cases. The one‐dimensional streamwise energy spectra of the lateral and transverse turbulent velocities were also measured. The turbulent energy balances for both cases reveal that the dominant terms are the production of turbulent energy and its spacial transport by the turbulent velocities. The effect of the centripetal acceleration field is to inhibit the spectral transport of turbulent energy in the unstable case. The dissipation rates are an order of magnitude greater than the dissipation rates in the unstable case. The one‐dimensional streamwise energy spectra display a (‐5/3) dependence almost two decades long in the unstable case and one decade long in the stable case. Furthermore, the spectra reveal that the constant in the Kolmogorov form of the spectrum is not universal and that it depends on the ratio of the rate of production to the rate of dissipation of turbulent energy. In this study this ratio ranged from 1.5–27, and the values of the Kolmogorov constant varied from 0.4–2.4.

This publication has 2 references indexed in Scilit: