Mixing of two thermal fields emitted from line sources in turbulent channel flow

Abstract

The interaction of two passive scalars (both temperature in air) emitted from concentrated line sources in fully developed high-aspect-ratio turbulent channel flow is studied. The thermal fields are measured using cold-wire thermometry in a flow with a Reynolds number (Uh/ν) of 10200.The transverse total root-mean-square (RMS) temperature profiles are a function of the separation distance between the line sources (d/h), their average wall-normal position (ysav/h), and the downstream location (x/h), measured relative to the line sources. Similarly, profiles of the non-dimensional form of the scalar covariance, the correlation coefficient (ρ), are a function of the same parameters and quantify the mixing of the two scalars.The transverse profiles of the correlation coefficient are generally largest at the edges of the thermal plume and smallest in its core. When the line sources are not symmetrically located about the channel centreline, the minimum in the correlation coefficient transverse profiles drifts towards the (closer) channel wall. For source locations that are equidistant from the channel centreline, the minimum correlation coefficient occurs at the centreline, due to the underlying symmetry of this geometry. The initial downstream evolution of the correlation coefficient depends significantly on d/h, similar to that in homogeneous turbulence. However, there is always a dependence on ysav/h, which increases in importance as both the downstream distance is increased and the wall is approached. Lastly, the correlation coefficient profiles tend towards positive values in the limit of large downstream distances (relative to the source separation), though further measurements farther downstream are required to confirm the exact value(s) of their asymptotic limit(s).Spectral analysis of the cospectra and coherency spectra indicates that the large scales evolve more rapidly than the small ones. Furthermore, the fast evolution of the large scales was most evident when the sources were located close to the wall. This presumably derives from the large-scale nature of turbulence production, which is strong in the near-wall region.