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Direct Numerical Simulation Of Incompressible Spatially Developing Turbulent Mixing Layers, Juan Diego Colmenares Fernandez

Mechanical Engineering ETDs

Turbulent mixing layers are a canonical free shear flow in which two parallel fluid streams of different velocities mix at their interface. Understanding spatial development of a turbulent mixing layer is essential for various engineering applications. However, multiple factors affect physics of this flow, making it difficult to reproduce results in experiments and simulations. The current study investigates sensitivity of direct numerical simulation (DNS) of such a flow to computational parameters. In particular, effects of the computational domain dimensions, grid refinement, thickness of the splitter plate, and the laminar boundary layer characteristics at the splitter plate trailing edge are considered. …