Chemically reacting turbulent shear layers with significant heat release

The effects of heat release on turbulent mixing processes are fundamental to an understanding of many combustion situations in engineering. Insight into the structure of turbulent shear flows has prompted many questions regarding the role of rapid, large density changes during the mixing process. In order to answer these questions, an experimental study is conducted of a simple plane shear layer, taking into account the reaction of ozone and nitric oxide of concentrations high enough to cause temperature rises of several hundred degrees centigrade. The reaction O3 + NO yields NO2 + O2 was chosen because it is very fast, spontaneous, unidirectional, and highly exothermic. It is found that the entrainment flux of free stream fluid into the turbulent region is decreased with increasing heat release by an amount very closely compensating for the volume expansion within the layer.