Imaging of Turbulent Buoyant Jet Mixing Available to Purchase

This paper presents quantitative imaging measurements of jet fluid mole fraction fields in turbulent buoyant jets of helium issuing into air. The measurements use planar laser Rayleigh scattering. Signal levels are low, necessitating a novel approach to background subtraction in the signal processing. The jet flows considered are classified as momentum-driven, meaning that buoyancy effects are presumed to be confined to the small scales of the flow. We focus here on the near-nozzle, developing region of the jet, which is of particular interest to flows with combustion. The results suggest that buoyancy affects the details of the evolution of the mixing field even while the mean field maintains scaling properties consistent with non-buoyant jets. Specifically, the mean jet fluid mole fraction profiles show a sharper jet/ambient fluid interface relative to non-buoyant jets. The mole fraction fluctuations within the jet are also weaker than those reported in non-buoyant jets. These results will inform ongoing efforts to model the mixing process in flows with density differences, such as combustion systems.