It was suggested by Lau, Fisher & Puchs (1972) that the basic structure of a ‘turbulent’ round jet might consist, essentially, of an axial array of fairly evenly spaced vortices moving downstream in the mixing region of the jet. The present experimental study is an attempt to establish this hypothesis on a sound footing. The problem which was posed was first to find proof of the existence of a fairly regular pattern in the mixing region, and second to extract detailed information on the component parts of this pattern to identify the nature of the structure.

Hot-wire signals in the mixing layer are known to possess a predominance of spikes. In the region closer to the high velocity side of the layer, these spikes tend to be downward ones whilst in the opposite region, they are upward. These spikes have been attributed to the entrainment mechanism in the mixing layer and had been thought to be random. A closer study of time-history curves of these hotwire signals suggests that they might not be as random as would appear at first glance. A probability analysis was conducted of the time intervals between the successive downward spikes in the u′ signals, and it was found that indeed the highest probability occurred when the time interval corresponded to a frequency equal to the vortex passing frequency.

A time-domain averaging (or eduction) technique was used to try to identify the nature of the flow structure using the spikes to trigger the eduction process. On the basis of these results it would seem that the suggestion of a vortex street is well founded. Furthermore, it appears that, as the individual vortices in the street move downstream, they are continuously transporting fluid masses across the mixing layer, and it is this effect which is producing the Reynolds stresses in the mixing layer, and causing the spikes in the u’ signals in this region.