Turbulence in a reacting contact surface

Abstract

Turbulent features in a shock tube's contact surface with the reversible reaction 2NO2 to N2O4 are explored. Turbulent densities and velocities show an overall power-law dependence in the fluctuation spectra. At fixed reactant percentages, turbulence increases with increasing Reynolds number. At fixed Reynolds numbers, increasing the reactant percentages causes a reduction in turbulence and an increase in the relative strength of discrete high-frequency components in the density fluctuation spectra. The reliability of conventional chemical modeling for this system apparently decreases with increasing turbulence in a manner suggestive of reaction rate distortion, consistent with theoretical speculation.