Investigations into the nature of the large structures in a two-dimensional shear layer were carried out using laser Doppler velocimetry in the GALCIT free-surface water tunnel. By simultaneous measurements of velocity at two points outside the turbulent region, above and below the shear layer, it was possible to measure the strength (total circulation) and location of the vorticity center of the large structures. It was found that structures not in the process of pairing convect downstream with the center of their cores close to the ray y/x along which the mean velocity is given by Um = lh(U 1 + U 1 ) . The determined value of the mean circulation is consistent with the independent measurements of the mean spacing between the structures. Results indicate that if the large structure vorticity distribution is elliptical, the inclination angle of its axis of symmetry with respect to the now direction is small.
An improved photodetection system for high resolution laser-Rayleigh scattering measurements has been developed that utilizes a solid state detector coupled to a custom-designed, lownoise, transimpedance amplifier. The resulting system, based on a PIN photodiode is less expensive, inherently safer, less delicate and, depending on the detected light level, may exhibit higher signal-tonoise ratios than photodetection systems based on photomultiplier tubes. The frequency response of the system was designed to be uniform (3% peak variation) from DC to nearly 100 kHz. Concentration fluctuation spectra of a high scattering cross-section label [jet fluid) gas discharging into a density-matched, low scattering crosssection quiescent reservoir gas were measured using this system. Spectral signal-to-noise ratios as high as 7 decades were achieved under some conditions in parts of the spectrum.
Geometrical optics ray-tracing is used to derive schlieren and shadowgraph images from large-eddy simulation (LES) data of a jet in supersonic crossflow and to compare with experimental data. Including the components of the optical system that forms the image in the simulation is found to be important. The technique produces images that replicate flow physics more faithfully than straight-line path integration and other techniques, and more efficiently than physical-optics techniques. Applications of these simulated images are demonstrated in supersonic flows. Time-correlated pairs of shadowgraph images taken from the LES using this technique are used in conjunction with an image-correlation velocimetry technique to compare the estimated convection velocity field in the LES to that of experiments of the same flow. Agreement between the two is good with a maximum variance of 5% by some metrics. This technique can aid in the validation of LES results, allowing quantitative comparison between experiment and simulation, and to extract information unattainable by experiment alone. Comparisons of simulated and experimental jet penetration into the supersonic freestream are also made.
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