Experimental Investigation of Unstably Stratified Buoyant Wakes

A water channel has been used as a statistically steady experiment to investigate the development of a buoyant plane wake. Parallel streams of hot and cold water are initially separated by a splitter plate and are oriented to create an unstable stratification. At the end of the splitter plate, the two streams are allowed to mix and a buoyancy-driven mixing layer develops. The continuous, unstable stratification inside the developing mixing layer provides the necessary environment to study the buoyant wake. Downstream a cylinder was placed at the center of the mixing layer. As a result the dynamic flows of the plane wake and buoyancy-driven mixing layer interact. Particle image velocimetry and a high-resolution thermocouple system have been used to measure the response of the plane wake to buoyancy driven turbulence. Velocity and density measurements are used as a basis from which we describe the transition, and return to equilibrium, of the buoyancy-driven mixing layer. Visual observation of the wake does not show the usual vortex street associated with a cylinder wake, but the effect of the wake is apparent in the measured vertical velocity fluctuations. An expected peak in velocity fluctuations in the wake is found, however the decay of vertical velocity fluctuations occurs at a reduced rate due to vertical momentum transport into the wake region from buoyancy-driven turbulence. Therefore for wakes where buoyancy is driving the motion, a remarkably fast recovery of a buoyancy-driven Rayleigh-Taylor mixing in the wake region is found.