Investigation of the influence of the Reynolds number on a plane jet using direct numerical simulation

Free jets represent a benchmark for research into the physics of turbulent fluid flow and are furthermore of great interest for many engineering applications. In the present work we investigate the influence of the Reynolds number on the evolution of a plane jet. The effect on the global jet characteristics, as well as on some spectral properties, is particularly addressed. A strong influence on the jet evolution is found for Re⩽6000, but also that the jet is close to a converged state for higher Reynolds numbers. Although it is believed that the jet reaches a universal self-similar state, there was early evidence that the inflow conditions can have a downstream effect on the development of the turbulent flow field. Therefore some results, concerning the influence of inflow boundary conditions on the simulations, are also reported.