The Simulation of Mixing Layers Driven by Compound Buoyancy and Shear

Abstract

Fully developed compound shear and buoyancy driven mixing layers are predicted using a k-ε turbulence model. Such mixing layers present an exchange of equilibrium in mixing flows. The k-ε buoyancy constant Cε3 = 0.91, defined in this study for buoyancy unstable mixing layers, is based on an approximate self-similar analysis and an accurate numerical solution. One-dimensional transient and two-dimensional steady calculations are presented for buoyancy driven mixing in a uniform flow field. Two-dimensional steady calculations are presented for compound shear and buoyancy driven mixing. The computed results for buoyancy alone and compound shear and buoyancy mixing compare well with measured data. Adding shear to an unstable buoyancy mixing layer does not increase the mixing growth rate compared with that from buoyancy alone. The nonmechanistic k-ε model which balances energy generation and dissipation using constants from canonical shear and buoyancy studies predicts the suppression of the compound mixing width. Experimental observations suggest that a reduction in growth rate results from unequal stream velocities that skew and stretch the normally vertical buoyancy plumes producing a reduced mixing envelope width.