Planar Lagrangian transport and scalar-gradient organization in a turbulent reacting shear layer

Physics > Fluid Dynamics [Submitted on 18 Jun 2026] Title:Planar Lagrangian transport and scalar-gradient organization in a turbulent reacting shear layer View PDF HTML (experimental)Abstract:We analyze planar Lagrangian transport and scalar-gradient organization in a supersonic, reacting hydrogen-air temporal mixing layer using time-resolved mid-plane data from a three-dimensional direct numerical simulation. The analysis combines forward/backward finite-time Lyapunov exponent (FTLE) fields, operational FTLE-ridge skeletons, Cauchy-Green deformation measures, shear-LCS metrics, and planar hyperbolic geodesic-LCS extraction to examine how finite-time stretching structures the reacting shear layer. The time-resolved FTLE ridges identify repelling and attracting finite-time transport skeletons in the constrained two-dimensional slice, from which ridge geometry, intersection occupancy, persistence, and scalar-conditioned transport are quantified. Hyperbolic geodesic LCS are extracted from Cauchy-Green tensors reconstructed from planar flow maps as strainlines seeded at high-$\lambda_{\max}$ normal maxima, providing a variational counterpart to the operational FTLE-ridge skeleton. We then relate the transport skeleton to temperature, mixture fraction, and a reaction intermediate. The results show localized forward/backward ridge overlap, strong scalar-gradient enrichment, finite-time geodesic LCS that occupy the same high-strain transport skeleton, residual direction-dependent separation from a time- and cross-stream-stratified null model, and scalar-response lags that remain compact relative to decorrelation and FTLE-integration scales. Together, these results provide a transport-oriented characterization of coherent structures and their role in mid-plane mixing within a compressible reacting shear flow. Submission history From: Sriram Kalathoor [view email][v1] Thu, 18 Jun 2026 15:18:01 UTC (11,636 KB) Current browse context: physics.flu-dyn Change to browse by: References & Citations Loading... Bibliographic and Citation Tools Bibliographic Explorer (What is the Explorer?) Connected Papers (What is Connected Papers?) Litmaps (What is Litmaps?) scite Smart Citations (What are Smart Citations?) Code, Data and Media Associated with this Article alphaXiv (What is alphaXiv?) CatalyzeX Code Finder for Papers (What is CatalyzeX?) DagsHub (What is DagsHub?) Gotit.pub (What is GotitPub?) Hugging Face (What is Huggingface?) ScienceCast (What is ScienceCast?) Demos Recommenders and Search Tools Influence Flower (What are Influence Flowers?) CORE Recommender (What is CORE?) arXivLabs: experimental projects with community collaborators arXivLabs is a framework that allows collaborators to develop and share new arXiv features directly on our website. Both individuals and organizations that work with arXivLabs have embraced and accepted our values of openness, community, excellence, and user data privacy. arXiv is committed to these values and only works with partners that adhere to them. Have an idea for a project that will add value for arXiv's community? Learn more about arXivLabs.