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Small-scale transition in a plane mixing layer

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 April 2006

Lein-Saing Huang  and
Chih-Ming Ho
Lein-Saing Huang
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA. Present address: NASA-Langley Research Center, Hampton, VA 23665, USA.
Chih-Ming Ho
Affiliation:
Department of Aerospace Engineering, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089, USA.
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Abstract

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the’ generation process of random small-scale turbulence in an originally laminar mixing layer. The evolutions of the two types of deterministic structures, the spanwise and streamwise vortices, were first clarified in order to determine their roles in the transition process. A scaling rule for the streamwise distance from the trailing edge of the splitter plate to the vortex merging position was found for various velocity ratios. After this streamwise lengthscale was determined, it became clear that the spanwise wavelength of the streamwise vortices doubled after the merging of the spanwise structures which nominally doubled streamwise wavelengths. The most interesting finding was that the random small-scale eddies were produced by the interactions between the merging spanwise structures and the streamwise vortices.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 210 , January 1990 , pp. 475 - 500
Copyright
© 1990 Cambridge University Press

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