Rayleigh Light Scattering for Concentration Measurements in Turbulent Flows

Despite intensive research over a number of years, an understanding of scalar mixing in turbulent flows remains elusive. An understanding is required because turbulent mixing has a pivotal role in a wide variety of natural and technologically important processes. As an example, the mixing and transport of pollutants in the atmosphere and in bodies of water are often dependent on turbulent mixing processes. Turbulent mixing is also central to turbulent combustion which underlies most hydrocarbon energy use in modern societies as well as in unwanted fire behavior. Development of models for combusting flows is therefore crucial, however, an understanding of scalar mixing is required before useful models of turbulent mixing and, ultimately, turbulent combustion can be developed. An important subset of turbulent flows is axisymmetric turbulent jets and plumes because they are relatively simple to generate, and because the provide an appropriate test bed for the development of general theories of turbulent mixing which can be applied to more complex geometries and flows. This paper focuses on a number of experimental techniques which have been developed at the National Institute of Standards and Development for measuring concentration in binary axisymmetric turbulent jets. In order to demonstrate the value of these diagnostics, some of the more important results from earlier and on-going investigations are summarized. Topics addressed include the similarity behavior of variable density axisymmetric jets, the behavior of absolutely unstable axisymmetric helium jets, and the role of large scale structures and scalar dissipation in these flows.