POD analysis of oscillating grid turbulence in water and shear thinning polymer solution

Oscillating grids are frequently used with water and Newtonian fluids to generate controlled turbulence and mixing. Yet, their use with shear thinning fluids still requires experimental characterization. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) is applied to PIV measurements of the flow generated by an oscillating grid in water and a shear thinning dilute polymer solution (DPS) of xanthan gum. The aims are to investigate the ability of POD to isolate periodic flow structures, and to use it to describe the effects of the shear thinning property. A dominance of the low order POD modes is evidenced in DPS. The methods applied in blade stirred tanks to identify oscillatory motion fail here. However, a strong mode coupling in the grid swept region is observed, determined by the working fluid and by an underlying chaotic nature of the flow. Possibilities of reconstructing turbulence properties using high order modes are discussed.