Effect of Inlet Conditions on Scalar Statistics in Pipe Mixing

Abstract

Recent experimental validation of theoretical and numerical predictions regarding scalar variance decay in a pipe have revealed that the traditional plug-flow reactor picture of pipe flow omits key physical mechanisms. In particular, the far-field decay exhibits a power law rather than exponential decay. These observations are examined by performing a set of experiments where the manner in which the scalar constituents are introduced into the pipe is varied. Significant differences are noted in the behavior of the variance decay until the very far field is reached, where an invariant power-law form emerges.