Comparative study of turbulent mixing in jet in cross-flow configurations using LES

Mixing processes in turbulent fluid motion are of fundamental interest in many situations in engineering practice. Due to its practical importance in a vast number of applications, the generic configuration of the jet in cross-flow has been studied extensively in the past. Recently, the question has received a lot of attention, whether the unsteady behavior of the jet in cross-flow can be influenced by either active or passive means in order to control and enhance the mixing process. In the present paper, we use the large eddy simulation (LES) methodology to investigate how turbulent mixing can be enhanced by varying the angle between the jet and the oncoming cross-flow. After validating the computations against measurements by Andreopoulos and Rodi, we analyze qualitatively and quantitatively the mixing process for three configurations with different angles. It is shown that the inclination influences the characteristics of vortical structures and secondary motion which in turn have an effect on the mixing process. Besides a PDF of the passive scalar and a scalar energy spectrum, a mixedness parameter is used to provide information with respect to the quality and rate of mixing. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.