Turbulence Structure of Vertical Adiabatic Wall Plumes

Abstract

Weakly buoyant turbulent adiabatic wall plumes along vertical surfaces were studied. Instantaneous velocities and concentrations were measured using laser-Doppler anemometry and laser-induced fluorescence, Earlier work reported mean properties and their comparison with predictions of simplified mixing-length and k–ε–g turbulence models. Velocity and concentration fluctuations and their correlations are reported in the present paper. The results show considerable deficiencies in the simplified models concerning turbulence properties, e.g., anisotropy of turbulence properties, lack of coincidence of maximum velocity and zero Reynolds stress points, and variability of the turbulence Prandtl/Schmidt number. Density/velocity correlations were found which provide a means of estimating differences between Reynolds and Favre averages, effects of turbulence fluxes on conserved quantities, and effects of buoyancy/turbulence interactions on turbulence properties.