Longitudinal and transverse structure functions in a turbulent round jet: effect of initial conditions and Reynolds number

Abstract

The difference between scaling exponents of longitudinal and transverse velocity structure functions in the far-field of a round jet is found to depend on the anisotropy of the flow. The effect of the large-scale anisotropy is assessed by considering different initial conditions at the jet nozzle, and hence different ratios of the longitudinal to transverse rms velocities. The effect of the Taylor microscale Reynolds number on the small scale anisotropy is also considered. Both effects account, to a large extent, for the observed difference between longitudinal and transverse exponents and the disagreement between previously published results of different authors. This disagreement also depends on the method used to determine the inertial range. An empirical description of the overall behaviour of the structure functions provides reasonable estimates for the longitudinal and transverse exponents, accounting reasonably well for the anisotropy of both large- and small-scale motions.