Turbulence measurements in a grid mixing tank

An experiment is described in which a laser-Doppler anemometer was used to measure the spatial decay of turbulence generated by a vertically oscillating grid. In addition to being of theoretical interest, these measurements are necessary for scaling results from mixed-layer entrainment experiments. The main result of the present experiments is the determination of the variation of the length and velocity scales of the grid-induced motion as a function of distance from the grid. The results confirm previous reports that the turbulent kinetic energy (actually, the mean square fluctuating velocity) decreases approximately with the inverse square of the distance from the grid. Power spectra are calculated for the velocity signal and these, along with the raw data, are used to analyze the development of fluid motion with increasing distance from the grid. It is shown that true turbulence is not obtained for depths less than about two mesh spacings from the grid. Problems with background noise in the laser signal are also discussed.