Engineering Commons^™

Turbulence, Entrainment And Low-Order Description Of A Transitional Variable-Density Jet, Bianca Viggiano, Tamara S. Dib, N. Ali, L. G. Mastin, Raúl Bayoán Cal, S. A. Solovitz

Mechanical and Materials Engineering Faculty Publications and Presentations

Geophysical flows occur over a large range of scales, with Reynolds numbers and Richardson numbers varying over several orders of magnitude. For this study, jets of different densities were ejected vertically into a large ambient region, considering conditions relevant to some geophysical phenomena. Using particle image velocimetry, the velocity fields were measured for three different gases exhausting into air – specifically helium, air and argon. Measurements focused on both the jet core and the entrained ambient. Experiments considered relatively low Reynolds numbers from approximately 1500 to 10 000 with Richardson numbers near 0.001 in magnitude. These included a variety of …