J.C. Elicer-Cortés

Experimental study of transition to turbulence of a round thermal plume by ultrasound scattering

Abstract In this study, we carried out the characterization of the transition to turbulence of a thermal pure plume by using ultrasound scattering. For this, the position, amplitude and broadening of the scattering peak are analyzed. The technique is based upon the scattering of an ultrasound wave coupling with an unstable flow. The coupling between the acoustic mode with both vorticity and entropy modes is derived from non-linear terms of Navier–Stokes and energy equations. When the scattering mechanism occurs, the characteristic length scale of the flow structure under observation is comparable with the wavelength of incoming sound. Thus, the flow can be probed at different length scales by only changing the frequency of incoming sound. The thermal plume rises from a heated disk immersed into a quiescent medium and can reach transition and fully turbulent regimes. Criteria allowing the identification of both the beginning and the end of transition are derived from the results. The characteristics of the scattering process show evidence that allows us to discern the beginning of transition. The analysis of the amplitude of the scattering peak revealed a homogeneous behavior and led us to think of a possible principle of similarity. The evolution of both thermal and velocity fluctuations has made it possible to establish the limits of both the beginning and the end of transition, in terms of local Grashof number Gr z and position of the measurement zone z/D . The limits for transition reported in this work are comparable in its magnitude order with those of the literature. It was verified that thermal and velocity transition are phenomena that begin and finish almost simultaneously.

Ultrasound scattering from a turbulent round thermal pure plume

Abstract This research work brings about additional contribution to validate the ultrasound scattering technique as a nonintrusive probe in the Fourier space for measurements performed in unsteady flows. In particular, this work reports experimental evidence of scattering from a turbulent thermal plume utilized as a testing flow. This technique is based upon the scattering of an ultrasound wave hitting and interacting with an unstable flow. The coupling among the acoustic mode with vorticity and entropy modes is derived from nonlinear terms of Navier–Stokes and energy equations. Scattering mechanism occurs when characteristic length scales of flows are comparable with wavelength of sound. Thus, it is possible to probe the flow at different length scales by changing the incoming frequency. The results allow verifying some theoretical predictions, such as the existence of a nonscattering angle. It was also observed, that both the phase and the Doppler shift of the Fouriers signal are linear, respectively, with respect to the time and the frequency of the incident wave. The Doppler shift allowed us to determine the advection velocity and has proved to be sensitive to the direction of the wave vector, to the scattering angle and also, we show that it is possible to have both positive and negative angles. The advection velocity increases with temperature and its values are coherent with those obtained with traditional techniques. Broadening and Doppler shift of the scattering signal allowed us to define the turbulence intensity, whose values are in agreement with those found in thermal plumes, where well-known techniques are currently used. This study has shown that the turbulence intensity increases weakly with temperature, nevertheless it seems more sensitive to the size of the structure under observation.