Physics Commons^™

Similarity-Based Constitutive Relations For Local Mass Fluxes In Incompressible Mixing Layers, John D. Ramshaw

Physics Faculty Publications and Presentations

The local concentrations of the two fluids within a mixing layer produced by an interfacial instability are determined by their individual continuity equations. Solution of these equations requires constitutive relations for the local mass fluxes of the two fluids. We derive explicit analytical expressions for these fluxes in planar incompressible mixing layers characterized by a single integral length scale h(t), which is presumed to be provided by a suitable mix or turbulence model. Elementary scaling arguments imply that in mixing layers of this type, the mean volume fraction profile α(x,t) depends on x and t only through the similarity variable …