An experiment generates a specified mean strained rate turbulent flow: Dynamics of particles

Abstract

This study aimed to simulate straining turbulent flow empirically, having direct similarities with vast naturally occurring flows and engineering applications. The flow was generated in 100 < Re < 500 and seeded with passive and inertial particles. Lagrangian particle tracking and particle image velocimetry were employed to extract the dynamics of particle statistics and flow features, respectively. The studies for axisymmetric straining turbulent flow reported that the strain rate, flow geometry, and gravity affect particle statistics. To practically investigate mentioned effects in the literature, we present the behavior of both passive and inertial particles from the novel experiment conducted on initially homogeneous turbulence undergoing a sudden axisymmetric expansion. We represent the result with two different mean strains and Reynolds–Taylor microscales. However, this study, in contrast to the previous studies, considers the fields of inertial particles in the presence of gravity. The result discloses that the novel designed and conducted experiments simulated the flow satisfactorily. Then, the particle behavior in such flow showed the effectiveness of the flow distortion on particle dynamics such as velocity root mean square and Reynolds stress. Straining turbulence flow is subject to many industrial applications and physics studies, such as stagnation points, external flow around an airfoil, internal flow in changeable cross section pipe, expansion in the engine mixing chamber, and leading edge erosion. This study’s conclusion could apply constructively to these areas.