Characteristics of Turbulent Three-Dimensional Wall Jets

Three-dimensional turbulent wall jet was investigated using a particle image velocimetry technique. Three Reynolds numbers based on the jet exit velocity and diameter of 5000, 10,000, and 20,000 were studied. Profiles of the mean velocities, turbulence intensities, and Reynolds shear stresses as well as two-point velocity correlations and proper orthogonal decomposition analyses were used to document the salient features of the wall jets. The decay and spread rates are independent of Reynolds numbers in the self-similar region. The estimated values of 1.15, 0.054, and 0.255 for the decay rate, wall-normal spread rate, and lateral spread rate, respectively, are within the range of values reported in the literature. The two-point correlation analysis showed that the inclination of the streamwise velocity correlation contours in the inner layer is 11±3 deg in the wall region, which is similar to those of canonical turbulent boundary layers. The results from the proper orthogonal decomposition indicate that low-order modes contribute more to the turbulence statistics in the self-similar region than in the developing region. The Reynolds shear stresses are the biggest benefactors of the low-order mode contribution while the wall-normal turbulence intensities are the least.