Turbulent/non-turbulent interface in polymer-laden jets

We present an experimental study on the effects of polymer additives on the turbulent/nonturbulent interface (TNTI) in a fully developed round water jet. The Reynolds number based on the jet diameter is fixed at Re = 7075. The Weissenberg number Wi ranges from 24 to 86. We employ time-resolved simultaneous particle image velocimetry and laser-induced fluorescence measurements to investigate the local entrainment and engulfment process along the TNTI in two regimes: entrainment transition and enhancement regimes. In polymer-laden jets, the TNTI fluctuates more intermittently in the radial direction and more ambient fluid can be engulfed into the turbulent region due to the augmented large scale motion. Though the contribution of engulfment to the total flux increases with Wi, engulfment is still not the major contribution to the entrainment in polymer-laden jets. We further show that the local entrainment velocity is increased in both regimes compared with the pure water jet, due to two contributions: polymer elastic stress and the more intermittent character of the TNTI. In the entrainment transition regime, we observe smaller fractal dimension and shorter length of TNTI compared with the Newtonian case, consistent with previous numerical simulations (Abreu et al. J. Fluid Mech. vol. 934, 2022, A36); whereas those in the enhancement regime remain largely unchanged. The difference between the two regimes results from the fact that the jet flow decays in the streamwise direction. In the entrainment transition regime, turbulence intensity is strong enough to significantly stretch the polymers, resulting in a smoother TNTI in the inertial range. However, in the entrainment enhancement regime, the polymer's feedback is not strong enough to alter the fractal dimension due to the low elasticity. The above mentioned differences of entrainment velocity and TNTI in the entrainment reduction/transition and enhancement regimes also explain the reduced and enhanced spreading rate of the viscoelastic jet observed in previous numerical simulations and experiments (Guimarães et al. J. Fluid Mech. 2020, vol. 899, A11; Peng et al. Phys. Fluids, 2023, vol. 35, 045110).