TY - JOUR
T1 - Dispersion and deformation of molecular patterns written in turbulent air
AU - Van De Water, Willem
AU - Dam, Nico
AU - Calzavarini, Enrico
PY - 2024
Y1 - 2024
N2 - Molecular tagging is used to study the dispersion and deformation of patterns written in turbulent air. The writing is done by fusing O2 and N2 molecules into NO in the focus of a strong ultraviolet laser beam. By crossing several of these laser beams, patterns that have both small and large scales can be painted. The patterns are visualized a while later by inducing fluorescence of the NO molecules with a second UV laser and registering the image. The width of the lines that make the pattern is approximately 50μm, a few times the Kolmogorov length η, the smallest length scale in turbulence, while the largest size of the patterns (≈4mm) is inside the inertial range of the used turbulent jet flow. At small scales molecular clouds disperse under the joint action of molecular diffusion and turbulence. The experiments reveal this highly nontrivial interaction. At inertial-range scales (≈200η) we verify the Batchelor dispersion of objects whose size is inside the inertial range. Patterns are compressible objects and spontaneously develop concentration fluctuations. We show for the first time the nontrivial statistical properties of these fluctuations. Finally, we use the information in written and deformed lines to quantify turbulent intermittency, obtaining results that agree with the established scaling anomaly of velocity structure functions.
AB - Molecular tagging is used to study the dispersion and deformation of patterns written in turbulent air. The writing is done by fusing O2 and N2 molecules into NO in the focus of a strong ultraviolet laser beam. By crossing several of these laser beams, patterns that have both small and large scales can be painted. The patterns are visualized a while later by inducing fluorescence of the NO molecules with a second UV laser and registering the image. The width of the lines that make the pattern is approximately 50μm, a few times the Kolmogorov length η, the smallest length scale in turbulence, while the largest size of the patterns (≈4mm) is inside the inertial range of the used turbulent jet flow. At small scales molecular clouds disperse under the joint action of molecular diffusion and turbulence. The experiments reveal this highly nontrivial interaction. At inertial-range scales (≈200η) we verify the Batchelor dispersion of objects whose size is inside the inertial range. Patterns are compressible objects and spontaneously develop concentration fluctuations. We show for the first time the nontrivial statistical properties of these fluctuations. Finally, we use the information in written and deformed lines to quantify turbulent intermittency, obtaining results that agree with the established scaling anomaly of velocity structure functions.
UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85182737277&partnerID=8YFLogxK
U2 - 10.1103/PhysRevFluids.9.014502
DO - 10.1103/PhysRevFluids.9.014502
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85182737277
SN - 2469-990X
VL - 9
JO - Physical Review Fluids
JF - Physical Review Fluids
IS - 1
M1 - 014502
ER -