On separated shear layers and the fractal geometry of turbulent scalar interfaces at large Reynolds numbers

This work explores fractal geometrical properties of scalar turbulent interfaces derived from experimental two-dimensional spatial images of the scalar field in separated shear layers at large Reynolds numbers. The resolution of the data captures the upper three decades of scales enabling examination of multiscale geometrical properties ranging from the largest energy-containing scales to inertial scales. The data show a -5/3 spectral exponent over a wide range of scales corresponding to the inertial range in fully developed turbulent flows. For the fractal aspects, we utilize two methods as it is known that different methods may lead to different fractal aspects. We use the recently developed method for fractal analysis known as the Multiscale-Minima Meshless (M 3 ) method because it does not require the use of grids. We also use the conventional box-counting approach as it has been frequently employed in various past studies. The outer scalar interfaces are identified on the basis of the probability density function (p.d.f.) of the scalar field. For the outer interfaces, the M 3 method shows strong scale dependence of the generalized fractal dimension with approximately linear variation of the dimension as a function of logarithmic scale, for interface-fitting reference areas, but there is evidence of a plateau near a dimension D∼1.3 for larger reference areas. The conventional box-counting approach shows evidence of a plateau with a constant dimension also of D ∼1.3, for the same reference areas. In both methods, the observed plateau dimension value agrees with other studies in different flow geometries. Scalar threshold effects are also examined and show that the internal scalar interfaces exhibit qualitatively similar behaviour to the outer interfaces. The overall range of box-counting fractal dimension values exhibited by outer and internal interfaces is D∼1.2-1.4. The present findings show that the fractal aspects of scalar interfaces in separated shear layers at large Reynolds number with -5/3 spectral behaviour can depend on the method used for evaluating the dimension and on the reference area. These findings as well as the utilities and distinctions of these two different definitions of the dimension are discussed in the context of multiscale modelling of mixing and the interfacial geometry.