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Entrainment and mixing of water droplets across a shearless turbulent interface with and without gravitational effects

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  26 January 2011

S. GERASHCHENKO ,
G. GOOD  and
Z. WARHAFT
S. GERASHCHENKO
Affiliation:
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA and International Collaboration for Turbulence Research
G. GOOD
Affiliation:
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA and International Collaboration for Turbulence Research
Z. WARHAFT*
Affiliation:
Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14853, USA and International Collaboration for Turbulence Research
*
†Email address for correspondence: zw16@cornell.edu
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Abstract

We describe experiments of the entrainment and mixing of water (sub-Kolmogorov scale) droplets across a turbulent–non-turbulent interface (TNI) as well a turbulent–turbulent interface (TTI) in shearless grid turbulence, over a time scale in which evaporation is insignificant. The flow is produced by means of a splitter plate with an active grid and water sprays on one side and screens or an active grid on the other side. The Taylor microscale Reλ on the turbulent side is 275 and the average dissipation scale Stokes number, Stη ≈ 0.2, and based on the integral scale, Stl ≈ 0.003. By changing the orientation of the grid system, gravitational effects may be excluded or included. We show that in the absence of gravity, for the Stokes number range studied (0.06 ≤ Stη ≤ 1.33), the droplet distribution does not change across the interface. With gravity, the larger drops are selectively mixed and this is more pronounced for the TNI than for the TTI. The particle concentration distribution is an error function for the TTI but departs significantly for the TNI due to the intermittency in the flow. In terms of particle concentration, the entrainment is most efficient for the TTI with gravity. The results are related to droplet entrainment in clouds.

JFM classification

Drops and Bubbles: Drops Turbulent Flows: Intermittency
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 668 , 10 February 2011 , pp. 293 - 303
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2011

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References

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