17th International Symposium on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics

Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2014

3D Flow Dynamics in a Turbulent Slot Jet: Time-resolved Tomographic

PIV Measurements

Maxim V. Shestakov1,*, Mikhail P. Tokarev1, Dmitri M. Markovich1,2

1: Kutateladze Institute of Thermophysics, Siberian Branch of Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk, Russia
2: Novosibirsk State University, Novosibirsk, Russia
* correspondent author: mvsh@itp.nsc.ru

Abstract We experimentally investigated 3D structure and evolution of a quasi-two-dimensional turbulent jet in a

narrow channel. This work focuses on characteristics of 3D vortex structures in the flow. We investigated development
of the secondary flows downstream, their interaction with each other and evolution into large-scale quasi-2D vortices.
The time-resolved tomographic PIV technique (with repetition rate up to 25 kHz for 1 Mpx CMOS cameras) was used
to measure subsequent 3D velocity distributions. We analyzed two different nozzle width (d) to depth (h) ratios 1 and
2.5. The analysis showed that the secondary flows existed up to 7.5h from the nozzle exit. The 3D structures were
generated near the corners of the nozzle and grew downstream under a stretch. Then, decelerated vortexes united into
bigger agglomerates. The analyzed behavior of the secondary structures in the slot jet configuration are useful for
understanding development of large-scale quasi-2D vortex structures in other shear flows in confined spaces.

1. Introduction

Quasi-2D turbulent jet flows are widely spread in nature and industry. Many practical applications and
developing devices assume the jets to be spreading in narrow gaps: geothermal engineering, modern mini-
channel chemical processors, cooling systems, etc. Modeling of filtration processes and development of
optimal methods for raw oil extraction also require comprehensive information on structure of such flows.
Presently, many researchers are interested in micro and mini jets in a confined space. Small-scale technical
systems are of an interest because they are more efficient and economical than large-scale devices.
Jet in a slot channel has a number of features, which significantly distinguish it from free jets and flows in
channels. The presence of the bounding surfaces leads to different characteristic scales. Development of
Kelvin-Helmholtz vortices is accompanied with a strong influence of wall friction, which leads to the
existence of a variety of fundamentally different regimes: from classical Hele-Shaw regimes up to developed
turbulent flows that manifest some features of 2D turbulence. The jet included small-scale 3D turbulence,
with a maximum scale of the order of a channel depth, and quasi-2D large-scale flow with the characteristic
scales greater than the channel depth (Bilsky et al. 2007, Bilsky et al. 2012). The features of such flows
allow us to investigate the properties of quasi-2D turbulence and the mechanisms of dynamical interaction
between large-scale 2D structures and small-scale 3D turbulence in a laboratory.
Heskestad (1965) showed that the jets in confined channels cannot be described by 2D flow equations.
Secondary flows, which lead to a significant three-dimensional flow, are formed near the bounding planes
inside the jet shear layer. Foss and Jones (1968) studied features of the bounded two-dimensional jets. They
showed that the flat bounded jet is not a superposition of two flows: a boundary layer and a two-dimensional
jet. Based on measured velocity distributions in a cross section, Foss and Jones (1968) proposed a model for
secondary flows. Later, Holdeman and Foss (1975) provided support for this model by hot-wire velocity
measurements and via direct vorticity strength measurements by a small mechanical turbine.
The model assumes that the secondary flows arise from the curvature of the wall-normal vortex tube, which
is formed after the edge of the nozzle. The vortex tube is similar to that formed at the onset of the free
rectangular jets, but the presence of bounding surfaces leads to the generation of longitudinal vorticity since
the tube bends near the bounding surfaces. The bending of the vortex tube is directly related to its curvature
that arises due to the zero velocity at the wall and strong velocity gradient near the wall. Thus, the secondary
flows are caused by the longitudinal vorticity.
However, data obtained by local methods do not give a complete picture of the flow and do not provide

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 17th International Symposium on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics
Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2014

comprehensive information on the three-dimensional structures. Thus, it is necessary to use modern 3D

velocimetry techniques, for example, tomographic PIV (Scarano 2013). Our previous research (Bilsky et al.
2012) was done using a 2D PIV measurement system with the repetition rate at 1 kHz. It allowed us to
obtain dynamics and the temporal spectra of streamwise velocity fluctuations at a far zone of the slot jet.
However, we were unable to resolve the near field due to limitations of the spatial and temporal resolution.
Several recent papers (Violato and Scarano, 2011; Violato et al., 2012; Ianiro et al., 2012) describe high-
speed tomographic PIV measurements in circular and chevron jets. Currently, no such experimental data for
confined jets are available. The present paper investigates the dynamics of three-dimensional vortices in a
turbulent slot jet using time-resolved tomographic PIV. The repetition rate up to 25 kHz allows us to analyze
the flow behavior in the near field of the jet, where the secondary flows are developed. The aim of this work
is to combine the benefits of time-resolved and volumetric measurements to analyze the complex behavior
and structure of turbulent jets in bounded geometry.

2. Experimental setup

The experimental setup consisted of a closed hydrodynamic contour, including a tank, a pump, flow meter,
and measurement section. The measurement section was a narrow channel formed by two plates made of
organic glass (size: 307x270 mm2, thickness: 20 mm), located at a distance h = 4 mm from each other. The
data were acquired for the Reynolds numbers of Re = hU0/ν = 18 000, where U0 is the bulk flow velocity.
The flow was seeded with 50 µm polyamide particles. The rectangular/square nozzle without contraction was
formed by two flat inserts placed between the glass plates (see figure 1). The nozzle widths were d = 4, 10
mm. Two thousands of 3D velocity snapshots were obtained for each regime and were further used to
calculate statistical flow characteristics. Measurements were carried out in three slightly overlapped zones at
tree distances from the edge of the nozzle 4h, 12h and 20h.

Fig. 1. Experimental setup for time-resolved Tomo-PIV measurements in a turbulent slot jet

The measurement system consisted of a high-repetition Nd: YAG laser (Photonix DM-532-100 with 10 mJ
at 10 kHz), four high speed CMOS cameras (Photron FASTCAM SA5 with resolution of 1024×1024 px of
12 bit images at 7 kHz), and synchronizing device Berkeley Nucleonics BNC 575. The thickness of the laser
sheet was 4 mm. We used SIGMA AF 105 mm f/2.8 EX DG MACRO lenses for the optical setup. The size
of the measurement area was 60×60 mm2. We used two overlapped areas to cover the near, middle zones of
the jet.

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Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2014

A precise Edmund Optics 50×50 mm2 plane calibration target with reference circles on the Cartesian grid
with a 1 mm step between the circles was used. A precise traverse system was used to shift the cameras
relative to the calibration target (fixed inside the slot) for the volumetric calibration. The cameras were
equipped with 3D printed Scheimpflug adapters to align the focal plane to the sensor plane. We arranged the
cameras in corners of a square with viewing angles equal to 30 degrees in the horizontal and vertical planes.

2. Data processing

We used home-made “ActualFlow” software to process the acquired data. A self-calibration procedure was
done prior to the tomographic reconstruction. It was performed in three steps. The final average disparity
was below 0.05 px and the maximum corrected disparity was equal to 4 px. Also before the reconstruction
step, the recorded projections were preprocessed by subtracting the minimum statistical intensity (for each
pixel).
The reconstructed 3D object was of 1024×1024×128 voxels. The physical size of a voxel was approximately
equal to 0.065×0.065×0.065 mm3. The volume particle concentration was close to 8.5 parts/mm3. The image
density at this concentration upon the registered projections was 0.04 ppp. The tomographic reconstruction
was done by the implementation of the SMART and MENT (Bilsky et al. 2013) algorithms. Correlation
analysis was performed using the iterative multigrid algorithm with continuous interrogation box shifting.
The total number of iterations was four: two steps were performed with a resolution of 32×64×32 voxels and
two extra iterations with a final resolution of 16×32×16 voxels. The grid-overlapping factor was set to 75%;
therefore, the final correlation domain size for the calculation of a single velocity vector was 1×2×1 mm3
with a half size distance between neighbor vectors.

3. Results

Figure 2 demonstrates a complex 3D pattern of the instantaneous velocity field. Large-scale quasi-two
dimensional vortex structures, formed in the mixing layers, produce flows across the channel.

Fig. 2. Distribution of the instantaneous wall-normal velocity component and the velocity vector field at the central
plane of the jet at z = 0. Note, that the scalar field is partially transparent and vectors with negative vz are slightly
shaded. Left and right pictures correspond to the square nozzle and the rectangular nozzle cases.

Figure 2 shows these flows in the distribution of the wall-normal component of the instantaneous velocity. It
can be seen that the flows across the channel correlate with the large-scale vortex motion shown with the
velocity vector field.

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Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2014

Fig. 3. Instantaneous secondary vortexes across the slot by the streamwise vorticity component (blue and red) and Q3D
criterion solid surfaces (yellow) for three serial instant velocity fields (∆t = 80 us between neighboring velocity fields,
12.5 kHz). The measurement volume corresponds to the square nozzle case in the first zone.

We obtained evidence and dynamics of the instant 3D secondary vortexes across the slot. In Figure 3 they
are presented by the streamwise vorticity component and Q criterion with the three consecutive snapshots.
Figure 3 shows that streamwise vortices are formed and begin to dominate downstream flow. In the previous
study (Bilsky et al. 2012) the structure of the instant 3D secondary vortexes was extracted from the limited
mode POD reconstruction. It was not clearly seen up on the original 3D velocity distributions due to the
excessive measurement noise.

Fig. 4. Secondary flows as red and blue surfaces of the mean streamwise vorticity component (|Wy| = 0.3). Semi-
transparent yellow surface corresponds to the mean streamwise velocity component. Left and right pictures correspond
to the square nozzle and the rectangular nozzle cases.
The mean structure of the flow in the near field of the jet is presented in Figure 4. The jet core decays along

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 17th International Symposium on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics
Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2014

the vertical coordinate velocity gradients near the walls can be seen on the cross-stream plane. Four counter
rotating vortex structures, originating from the rectangular nozzle corners, are also clearly visible. In Figure
3 they are showed with the isosurfaces of the streamwise vorticity component calculated for the mean
velocity field. They vanish at 7.5h for the considered Reynolds number.

0.25

0.2
i = 999

0.15

a2i/(2 2)0.5
0.1

0.05
i = 330

-0
1 10 100 1000
i
Fig 5. Normalized eigenvalues versus the POD mode number for the third zone and the rectangular nozzle (a) and the
scatter plot of POD correlation coefficients of two the most energetic modes for the obtained 3D velocity distributions.

Fig 6. Two most energetic POD modes (47.1% of total TKE energy) downstream of the jet with the square nozzle.
Solid surfaces and color maps at z = 0 present y and x component of 3D basis functions. Every third vector is plotted.

Additionally we analyzed behavior of the jet flow downstream from 15h to 28h. In this region the effect of
jet meandering was observed. The result of the POD decomposition from 1000 snapshots with the two 3D
basis functions corresponded to the two most energetic modes is presented in the Figure 5 and 6. They look
like a quasi-2D large-scale vortex structure spatially shifted in y direction between two modes. First mode
had 24.9% of total TKE and second mode corresponded to the 22.2% of total energy. Below in the Figure 7
the real instantaneous 3D velocity fields are presented with the maximum correlation between them and first
POD mode on the left and second POD mode on the right hand side.

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 17th International Symposium on Applications of Laser Techniques to Fluid Mechanics
Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2014

Fig. 7. An example of real 3D velocity fields with the maximum impact from the first POD mode (left) and the second
POD mode (right) for the jet with the square nozzle. Solid surfaces and color maps at z = 0 present 3D distribution of
the streamwise velocity component. Time distance between two snapshots is 33 ms.

0.1 0.1
Eii Eii

0.01 0.01
-5/3
-3
0.001 0.001

0.0001 0.0001

1E-005 1E-005 -5/3

Eww Eww
Evv Evv
1E-006 1E-006 Euu
Euu

1E-007 1E-007

10 100 1000 10000 10 100 1000 10000

f (Hz) f (Hz)
Fig. 8. Temporal spectra of velocity fluctuations in the shear layer (x = h/2, y = 4h) at the central plane (z = 0) for the
first (x = h/2, y = 4h) (left ) and the third (x = h, y = 20h) (right) zone from the edge of the nozzle Re = 18 000.

The temporal spectra of velocity fluctuations for each of the three components of velocity are presented in
Figure 8. The temporal spectra for vx and vy – components of velocity had the slope «-3» indicating large –
scale velocity fluctuations. However the spectrum for vz – component of velocity fluctuations had the typical
3D turbulent slope «-5/3» .

4. Conclusions

We used a high speed tomographic PIV system in order to investigate the spatial-temporal 3D structure of a
quasi-2D turbulent jet. Experiments were carried out for the turbulent jet flowing into a slot channel. The
study was done for Reynolds number 18 000 and two different rectangular nozzles with the square and
rectangular cross section.
Three dimensional instantaneous velocity fields and Q – criterion value distribution showed that in the jet
shear layer Kelvin-Helmholtz instability is formed. These structures are influenced by the transversal and
longitudinal velocity gradient. They form streamwise vortices in consequence of three dimensional
interactions with each other.
The streamwise vortices formed by Kelvin-Helmholtz vortex structures have which was shown by the wall-

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Lisbon, Portugal, 07-10 July, 2014

normal velocity component distribution. The streamwise vortices make a contribution to secondary flows
formation. Region of existence and influence of secondary flows ends where streamwise vortices break and
large-scale vortex structures are formed and develop. The main mechanism of quasi-2D large-scale vortex
structures formation is a development of a jet sinusoidal instability. With the growth of the linear size of
quasi-2D vortex structures the maximum of the turbulent kinetic energy spectrum shifts to the long-wave
area. The main contribution to the long-wave area of the turbulent kinetic energy spectrum is made with the
wall-parallel velocity components.
We used POD decomposition for analysis of the measured 3D velocity snapshots in the measurement
volume at the distance 20h from the nozzle edge. Results of analysis showed strong domination of sinusoidal
instability in this region.

Acknowledgements

The authors acknowledge support by President of Russian Federation via Leading Schools grant (NS-
5984.2014.8), RFBR (grant No 13-08-01356) and RFBR (grant No 14-08-31504 mol-a).

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