Conditional statistics of passive-scalar mixing in a confined wake flow.

Experimental results for conditional statistics in a confined turbulent wake were compared to the linear model and the transported probability density function (PDF) model for predicting the velocity conditioned on scalar mixture fraction and to a linear model for predicting the scalar mixture fraction conditioned on velocity. For velocity conditioned on scalar mixture fraction, the linear model was found to accurately predict the conditional transverse velocity, but for the conditional streamwise velocity, agreement between the experiments and the linear model was poor. The transverse conditional velocity was accurately predicted by the transported PDF model, but for the streamwise conditional velocity, a modified transported PDF model that incorporated two components of the scalar diffusivity tensor had to be used. Finally, it was found that a linear model for predicting the fluctuating scalar conditioned on velocity performed poorly due to the strongly non-Gaussian scalar PDF at the downstream locations investigated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]