The turbulent mixing layer with an asymmetrical distribution of temperature

Abstract

An experimental programme has been carried out to examine the spread of heat as a passive scalar contaminant in a turbulent shear flow. The situation involves a slightly heated two-dimensional jet expanding into a quiescent medium on one side and a uniform stream with velocity equal to that of the warm jet on the other. Thus the developed flow is a typical mixing layer with an asymmetric mean temperature profile superimposed on it. Measurements of the mean and fluctuating velocity and temperature fields show the existence of a region where the production of temperature fluctuations is negative. Spectral analysis in this zone indicates a separation of large and small wavenumber components of the cospectrum into two regimes. The sign of the high-frequency portion is consistent with gradient-transport concepts while the low-frequency component is of opposite sign. From this it is inferred that the large eddies are mainly responsible for the negative production. A mathematical model has been developed to describe the transport within this region.