A study of turbulence and scalar mixing in a wall-jet using direct numerical simulation

Sammanfattning: Direct numerical simulation is used to study the dynamics and mixing in a turbulent plane wall-jet. The investigation is undertaken in order to extend the knowledge base of the influence of the wall on turbulent dynamics and mixing. The mixing statistics produced can also be used to evaluate and develop models for mixing and combustion. In order to perform the simulations, a numerical code was developed. The code employs compact finite difference schemes, of high order, for spatial integration, and a low-storage Runge-Kutta method for the temporal integration. In the simulations performed the inlet based Reynolds and Mach numbers of the wall jet were Re = 2000 and M=0.5, respectively. Above the jet a constant coflow of 10% of the inlet jet velocity was applied. A passive scalar was added at the inlet of the jet, in a non-premixed manner, enabling an investigation of the wall-jet mixing as well as the dynamics. The mean development and the respective self-similarity of the inner and outer shear layers were studied. Comparisons of properties in the shear layers of different character were performed by applying inner and outer scaling. The characteristics of the wall-jet was compared to what has been observed in other canonical shear flows. In the inner part of the jet, 0 ? y+ ? 13, the wall-jet was found to closely resemble a zero pressure gradient boundary layer. The outer layer was found to resemble a free plane jet. The downstream growth rate of the scalar was approximately equal to that of the streamwise velocity, in terms of the growth rate of the half-width. The scalar fluxes in the streamwise and wall-normal direction were found to be of comparable magnitude.