The turbulent concentration field of a methane jet

Abstract

Detailed measurements of turbulent concentration parameters in a round free methane jet up to 70 diameters downstream from the jet source are described. The concentration changes were obtained using a Raman spectrometer designed for the measurement of a methane vibrational transition function, and processed using a photon correlator. Mean and fluctuating concentration levels are given, together with the concentration probability density distribution.A theory for interpreting the statistical aspects of the signal is presented and results are compared with other data from the literature on jets of uniform and non-uniform density. It is shown that the intensity of concentration fluctuations has an asymptotic value of 28·5% in the far field region of the jet. One interesting feature of the data is the deviation from Gaussian statistics along the jet centre-line.