Anisotropic pressure correlation spectra in turbulent shear flow
AbstractWe measured the correlation spectrum ${\hat {Q} }_{p} (\mathbi{k})$ of pressure fluctuations in a driving mixing layer with a Taylor-scale Reynolds number ${R}_{\lambda } $ up to ${\simeq }700$ by a newly developed pressure probe with spatial and temporal resolutions that are sufficient to analyse inertial-subrange statistics. The influence of the mean velocity gradient tensor ${S}_{ij} $ in the mixing layer, which is almost constant near its centreline, is studied using an idea similar to that underlying the linear response theory developed in statistical mechanics for systems at or near thermal equilibrium. If we write the spectrum ${\hat {Q} }_{p} (\mathbi{k})$ as ${\hat {Q} }_{p} (\mathbi{k})= { \hat {Q} }_{p}^{(0)} (\mathbi{k})+ \mrm{\Delta} {\hat {Q} }_{p} (\mathbi{k})$, where ${ \hat {Q} }_{p}^{(0)} (\mathbi{k})$ is the isotropic Kolmogorov spectrum in the absence of mean shear, then for small ${S}_{ij} $ the deviation $ \mrm{\Delta} {\hat {Q} }_{p} (\mathbi{k})$ due to the shear is approximately linear and is determined by a few non-dimensional universal constants in addition to ${S}_{ij} $, $k$ and the mean energy dissipation rate. We also measured the pressure–velocity and velocity–velocity correlation spectra. Deviations from isotropy due to shear are shown to be approximately proportional to ${S}_{ij} $ at large ${R}_{\lambda } $.