Homogeneous turbulence generated by multi-scale grids

Abstract

We investigate wind tunnel turbulence generated by a conventional and two multi-scale grids. The conventional and multi-scale grids were all designed to produce turbulence with the same integral scale, so that a direct comparison could be made between the different flows. The decay of the turbulent energy was mapped in detail from a distance from the grid less than one mesh width, down to distances of the order of 200 meshes using a combination of laser doppler and hot wire anemometry tools. The turbulent decay rate behind our multi-scale grids was found to be virtually identical to that behind the equivalent conventional grid after the initial transition had been completed. In particular, all flows exhibit a power-law decay of energy, u2 ∼ t-n, where n is very close to the classical Saffman exponent of n = 6/5 in the far field. Our results are at odds with some other experiments performed on multi-scale grids, where significantly higher energy decay exponents have been reported.