Three-dimensional visualization of destruction events of turbulent momentum transfer in a plane jet

Abstract

Destruction events of momentum transfer as represented by the Reynolds (shear) stress via the pressure-rate-of-strain interaction in a plane jet are investigated using direct numerical simulation data. To obtain three-dimensional pictures of the turbulent structures, pseudo-three-dimensional data are constructed on the basis of Taylor's frozen hypothesis from time series of the relevant quantities. The coherent motion in the plane jet is extracted by means of conditional sampling analogous to variable-interval time averaging. We obtain a large-scale coherent structure consisting of horseshoelike vortices and a Kármán-vortex-like very large spanwise vortex street. Furthermore, we find that the active Reynolds stress destruction is localized around the large-scale coherent vortex structure. However, the coherent structure itself does not contribute to the Reynolds stress destruction, but the remaining incoherent motions do. For the significant pressure-rate-of-strain events in the incoherent motion, we display invariant maps of the velocity gradient tensor and the principal axes of strain to facilitate a discussion of the consistency of the numerical results with an illustration by Hinze [Turbulence, 2nd ed. (McGraw-Hill, 1975), pp. 325-328] and with our own experimental results [Takahashi et al., "Experimental investigation on destruction of Reynolds stress in a plane jet," Exp. Fluids 60, 46 (2019)]. Consequently, the present results suggest that the illustration of the Reynolds stress destruction by Hinze is not completely applicable to a plane jet.