A novel tethered-sphere add-on to enhance grid turbulence

• Published in: Experiments in fluids 2011-09, Vol.51 (3), p.579-585
• Main Authors: Vonlanthen, Richard, Monkewitz, Peter A.
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Decay; Engineering; Engineering Fluid Dynamics; Engineering Thermodynamics; Exact sciences and technology; Fluid dynamics; Fluid flow; Fluid- and Aerodynamics; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Heat and Mass Transfer; Instrumentation for fluid dynamics; Isotropic turbulence; homogeneous turbulence; Physics; Pressure drop; Research Article; Spectra; Turbulence; Turbulent flow; Turbulent flows, convection, and heat transfer
• ISSN: 0723-4864; 1432-1114
• DOI: 10.1007/s00348-011-1070-x

The new turbulence generator consists of a standard uniform grid with tethered spheres attached to its nodes and is capable of producing approximately twice the turbulence energy per unit pressure drop coefficient C p than the same bare grid without the spheres. At the same time, the Reynolds number Re λ based on the Taylor microscale is also amplified by a factor of roughly 2, and the turbulence anisotropy is reduced to a constant level of 10% at all downstream distances without further flow conditioning after the grid. The new grid’s simple design makes it suitable for a variety of fluid-flow facilities, in particular smaller water tunnels. Its performance in comparison with the plain grid is documented by measurements of the streamwise decay of turbulence energy and velocity spectra in the Re λ range of 50–100.