The use of a contraction to improve the isotropy of grid-generated turbulence

Abstract

It is found that when the average kinetic energies of normal velocity components in decaying, grid-generated turbulence are equilibrated by a symmetric contraction of the wind tunnel, this equality can persist downstream. A second result is further confirmation of the fact that the best power-law fit to the inverse turbulent energy during the early part of decay is near (x–x1)1·25, for both rod grids and disk grids. The Kolmogorov decay law $\sim (t - t_1)^{\frac{10}{7}}$ is re-derived by a spectral method which is essentially equivalent to the original. Finally, a crude theoretical estimate of component energies in the straight duct after a weak contraction seems to support the experiments.