Effect of the shear parameter on velocity-gradient statistics in homogeneous turbulent shear flow

2011 ◽  
Vol 678 ◽  
pp. 14-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
JUAN C. ISAZA ◽  
LANCE R. COLLINS
Keyword(s):  
Reynolds Number ◽  
Shear Flow ◽  
Scaling Laws ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Strain Tensor ◽  
Turbulent Shear ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Turbulent Shear Flow ◽  
Velocity Statistics ◽  
Shear Parameter

The effect of the shear parameter on the small-scale velocity statistics in an homogeneous turbulent shear flow is investigated using direct numerical simulations (DNSs) of the incompressible Navier–Stokes equations on a 5123 grid. We use a novel pseudo-spectral algorithm that allows us to set the initial value of the shear parameter in the range 3–30 without the shortcomings of previous numerical approaches. We find that the tails of the probability distribution function of components of the vorticity vector and rate-of-strain tensor are progressively distorted with increasing shear parameter. Furthermore, we show that the shear parameter has a direct effect on the structure of the vorticity field, which manifests through changes in its alignment with the eigenvectors of the rate-of-strain tensor. We also find that increasing the shear parameter causes the main contribution to enstrophy production to shift from the nonlinear terms to the rapid terms (terms that are proportional to the mean shear) due to the aforementioned changes in the alignment. We attempt to explain these trends using viscous rapid distortion theory; however, while the theory does capture some effects of the shear parameter, it fails to predict the correct dependence on Reynolds number. Comparisons with recent experiments are also shown. The trends predicted by the DNS and the experiments are in good agreement. Moreover, the prefactors in the Reynolds number scaling laws for the skewness and flatness of the longitudinal velocity derivative are shown to have a statistically significant dependence on the shear parameter.

Computations of Ship Stern and Wake Flow and Comparisons with Experiment

1990 ◽  
Vol 34 (03) ◽  
pp. 179-193
Author(s):  
V. C. Patel ◽  
H. C. Chen ◽  
S. Ju
Keyword(s):  
Experimental Data ◽  
Shear Flow ◽  
Numerical Method ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Ship Hull ◽  
Wake Flow ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Turbulent Shear ◽  
Turbulent Shear Flow ◽  
Navier Stokes Equations

A numerical method for the solution of the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations has been employed to study the turbulent shear flow over the stern and in the wake of a ship hull. Detailed comparisons are made between the numerical results and available experimental data to show that most of the important overall features of such flows can now be predicted with considerable accuracy.

Bounds for turbulent shear flow

1970 ◽  
Vol 41 (1) ◽  
pp. 219-240 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. H. Busse
Keyword(s):  
Shear Flow ◽  
Turbulent Flow ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Equations Of Motion ◽  
Variational Problems ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Turbulent Shear ◽  
Turbulent Shear Flow ◽  
Navier Stokes Equations ◽  
Experimental Values

Bounds on the transport of momentum in turbulent shear flow are derived by variational methods. In particular, variational problems for the turbulent regimes of plane Couette flow, channel flow, and pipe flow are considered. The Euler equations resemble the basic Navier–Stokes equations of motion in many respects and may serve as model equations for turbulence. Moreover, the comparison of the upper bound with the experimental values of turbulent momentum transport shows a rather close similarity. The same fact holds with respect to other properties when the observed turbulent flow is compared with the structure of the extremalizing solution of the variational problem. It is suggested that the instability of the sublayer adjacent to the walls is responsible for the tendency of the physically realized turbulent flow to approach the properties of the extremalizing vector field.

The dimension of attractors underlying periodic turbulent Poiseuille flow

1992 ◽  
Vol 242 ◽  
pp. 1-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Keefe ◽  
Parviz Moin ◽  
John Kim
Keyword(s):  
Reynolds Number ◽  
Lower Bound ◽  
Poiseuille Flow ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Coarse Grained ◽  
Turbulent Shear ◽  
Global Dynamics ◽  
Computational Domain ◽  
Turbulent Shear Flow ◽  
Attractor Dimension

Using a coarse grained (16 × 33 × 8) numerical simulation, a lower bound on the Lyapunov dimension, Dλ, of the attractor underlying turbulent, periodic Poiseuille flow at a pressure-gradient Reynolds number of 3200 has been calculated to be approximately 352. These results were obtained on a spatial domain with streamwise and spanwise periods of 1.6π, and correspond to a wall-unit Reynolds number of 80. Comparison of Lyapunov exponent spectra from this and a higher-resolution (16 × 33 × 16) simulation on the same domain shows these spectra to have a universal shape when properly scaled. Using these scaling properties, and a partial exponent spectrum from a still higher-resolution (32 × 33 × 32) simulation, we argue that the actual dimension of the attractor underlying motion on the given computational domain is approximately 780. The medium resolution calculation establishes this dimension as a strong lower bound on this computational domain, while the partial exponent spectrum calculated at highest resolution provides some evidence that the attractor dimension in fully resolved turbulence is unlikely to be substantially larger. These calculations suggest that this periodic turbulent shear flow is deterministic chaos, and that a strange attractor does underly solutions to the Navier–Stokes equations in such flows. However, the magnitude of the dimension measured invalidates any notion that the global dynamics of such turbulence can be attributed to the interaction of a few degrees of freedom. Dynamical systems theory has provided the first measurement of the complexity of fully developed turbulence; the answer has been found to be dauntingly high.

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