Event-level compression--chemistry coupling in a supersonic reacting temporal mixing layer

Abstract

Compression and heat release interact intermittently in high-speed reacting shear layers, and whole-field averages can obscure their coupling. We examine this coupling in a supersonic reacting hydrogen--air temporal mixing layer using time-resolved mid-plane slices from a three-dimensional direct numerical simulation. A fixed dilatation threshold identifies connected compression events, and exothermic heat release and mixture-fraction-gradient activity are then conditioned on the evolving event population. The record separates into startup ($t^*<5$), transition ($5\le t^*<20$), and developed ($t^*\ge 20$) regimes, with the developed regime carrying the persistent compression--chemistry interaction. In this regime, compression appears as a population of intermittent events with no single structure dominating the field. Stronger exothermic response is associated with larger maximum-event area, larger event count, greater compression--heat-release overlap, and smaller distance from compression to the most exothermic regions. Scalar-gradient amplification peaks near zero lag relative to compression-area excursions, whereas the strongest exothermic response precedes peak compression coverage by $Δt^*\approx -0.85$. These results show that compression organizes chemistry most clearly through event population, overlap, proximity, and lag, providing an event-level description of compression--chemistry coupling in an open supersonic reacting shear layer.