A comparison among various theories for turbulent, reacting, planar mixing layers

The planar, turbulent, mixing layer was analyzed for both nonreacting, variable density flows and reacting flows. A coordinate transform was employed to remove the singularity at the mixing layer edge, which appears when the laminar diffusivity is neglected where the turbulent diffusivity goes to zero. An iterative quazilinearized implicit finite difference scheme was used to solve the governing set of equations. For the nonreacting flows similarity solutions were obtained. Comparisons were made among the computational results and with existing experimental data. The major differences between the models and types of averaging were in the predicted spreading parameter. For reacting flow, two different approaches to the calculation of the ignition length were analyzed. In both approaches several different kinetic models were employed. Comparisons among the models indicated significant sensitivity to the form of averaging and the choice of kinetic remodeling with a lesser sensitivity to the choice of turbulence modeling.