A description of turbulent wall-flow vorticity consistent with mean dynamics

2013 ◽  
Vol 737 ◽  
pp. 176-204 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Klewicki

AbstractA depiction of the mean and fluctuating vorticity structure in turbulent wall flows is presented and described within the context of the self-similar properties admitted by the mean dynamical equation. Data from a relatively wide range of numerical and physical experiments are used to explore and clarify the structure postulated. The mean vorticity indicator for the onset of the four-layer regime of the mean dynamics is revealed. With increasing Reynolds number, the mean vorticity is shown to segregate into two increasingly well-defined domains. Half of the mean vorticity concentrates into a near-wall region of width (relative to the overall flow width) that diminishes proportionally to the inverse square root of Reynolds number. The remainder of the mean vorticity is spread, with diminishing amplitude, over an outer domain that approaches the overall flow width at high Reynolds number. Vorticity stretching and reorientation are surmised to be the characteristic mechanisms accounting for the inner domain behaviour of both the mean and fluctuating vorticity. Vorticity dispersion via advective transport is surmised to be the characteristic mechanism in the outer domain. In this domain, the fluctuating enstrophy approaches that of the instantaneous enstrophy with increasing Reynolds number. This underpins an emerging self-similarity between the mean and r.m.s. vorticity in the domain where the mean velocity profile is logarithmic. The Reynolds number dependence of a number of properties associated with the vorticity field is explored and quantified. The study closes with brief account of the combined vortical and mean dynamical structure of turbulent wall flows.

2017 ◽  
Vol 812 ◽  
pp. 1189-1212 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. Bonetti ◽  
G. Manoli ◽  
C. Manes ◽  
A. Porporato ◽  
G. G. Katul

Manning’s empirical formula in conjunction with Strickler’s scaling is widely used to predict the bulk velocity$V$from the hydraulic radius$R_{h}$, the roughness size$r$and the slope of the energy grade line$S$in uniform channel and pipe flows at high bulk Reynolds numbers. Despite their importance in science and engineering, both Manning’s and Strickler’s formulations have waited for decades before finding a theoretical explanation. This was provided, for the first time, by Gioia & Bombardelli (Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 88, 2002, 014501), labelled as GB02, using phenomenological arguments. Perhaps their most remarkable finding was the link between the Strickler and the Kolmogorov scaling exponents, the latter pertaining to velocity fluctuations in the inertial subrange of the turbulence spectrum and presumed to be universal. In this work, the GB02 analysis is first revisited, showing that GB02 employed severalad hocscaling assumptions for the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate and, although implicitly, for the mean velocity gradient adjacent to the roughness elements. The similarity constants arising from the GB02 scaling assumptions were presumed to be independent of$r/R_{h}$, which is inconsistent with well-known flow properties in the near-wall region of turbulent wall flows. Because of the dependence of these similarity constants on$r/R_{h}$, this existing theory requires the validity of the Strickler scaling to cancel the dependence of these constants on$r/R_{h}$so as to arrive at the Strickler scaling and Manning’s formula. Here, the GB02 approach is corroborated using a co-spectral budget (CSB) model for the wall shear stress formulated at the cross-over between the roughness sublayer and the log region. Assuming a simplified shape for the spectrum of the vertical velocity$w$, the proposed CSB model (subject to another simplifying assumption that production is balanced by pressure–velocity interaction) allows Manning’s formula to be derived. To substantiate this approach, numerical solutions to the CSB over the entire flow depth using different spectral shapes for$w$are carried out for a wide range of$r/R_{h}$. The results from this analysis support the simplifying hypotheses used to derive Manning’s equation. The derived equation provides a formulation for$n$that agrees with reported values in the literature over seven decades of$r$variations. While none of the investigated spectral shapes allows the recovery of the Strickler scaling, the numerical solutions of the CSB reproduce the Nikuradse data in the fully rough regime, thereby confirming that the Strickler scaling represents only an approximate fit for the friction factor for granular roughness.


2010 ◽  
Vol 654 ◽  
pp. 473-500 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ö. ERTUNÇ ◽  
N. ÖZYILMAZ ◽  
H. LIENHART ◽  
F. DURST ◽  
K. BERONOV

Homogeneity of turbulence generated by static grids is investigated with the help of hot-wire measurements in a wind-tunnel and direct numerical simulations based on the Lattice Bolztmann method. It is shown experimentally that Reynolds stresses and their anisotropy do not become homogeneous downstream of the grid, independent of the mesh Reynolds number for a grid porosity of 64%, which is higher than the lowest porosities suggested in the literature to realize homogeneous turbulence downstream of the grid. In order to validate the experimental observations and elucidate possible reasons for the inhomogeneity, direct numerical simulations have been performed over a wide range of grid porosity at a constant mesh Reynolds number. It is found from the simulations that the turbulence wake behind the symmetric grids is only homogeneous in its mean velocity but is inhomogeneous when turbulence quantities are considered, whereas the mean velocity field becomes inhomogeneous in the wake of a slightly non-uniform grid. The simulations are further analysed by evaluating the terms in the transport equation of the kinetic energy of turbulence to provide an explanation for the persistence of the inhomogeneity of Reynolds stresses far downstream of the grid. It is shown that the early homogenization of the mean velocity field hinders the homogenization of the turbulence field.


2015 ◽  
Vol 771 ◽  
pp. 303-326 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Vallikivi ◽  
B. Ganapathisubramani ◽  
A. J. Smits

One-dimensional energy spectra in flat plate zero pressure gradient boundary layers and pipe flows are examined over a wide range of Reynolds numbers ($2600\leqslant \mathit{Re}_{{\it\tau}}\leqslant 72\,500$). The spectra show excellent collapse with Kolmogorov scaling at high wavenumbers for both flows at all Reynolds numbers. The peaks associated with the large-scale motions (LSMs) and superstructures (SS) in boundary layers behave as they do in pipe flows, with some minor differences. The location of the outer spectral peak, associated with SS or very large-scale motions (VLSMs) in the turbulent wall region, displays only a weak dependence on Reynolds number, and it occurs at the same wall-normal distance where the variances establish a logarithmic behaviour and where the amplitude modulation coefficient has a zero value. The results suggest that with increasing Reynolds number the energy is largely confined to a thin wall layer that continues to diminish in physical extent. The outer-scaled wavelength of the outer spectral peak appears to decrease with increasing Reynolds number. However, there is still significant energy content in wavelengths associated with the SS and VLSMs. The location of the outer spectral peak appears to mark the start of a plateau that is consistent with a $k_{x}^{-1}$ slope in the spectrum and the logarithmic variation in the variances. This $k_{x}^{-1}$ region seems to occur when there is sufficient scale separation between the locations of the outer spectral peak and the outer edge of the log region. It does not require full similarity between outer and wall-normal scaling on the wavenumber. The extent of $k_{x}^{-1}$ region depends on the wavelength of the outer spectral peak (${\it\lambda}_{OSP}$), which appears to emerge as a new length scale for the log region. Finally, based on the observations from the spectra together with the statistics presented in Vallikivi et al. (J. Fluid Mech., 2015 (submitted)), five distinct wall-normal layers are identified in turbulent wall flows.


Volume 1 ◽  
2004 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. T. Christensen ◽  
Y. Wu

Stereo particle-image velocimetry (PIV) has become a widely-used method for studying complex flows because it allows one to acquire instantaneous, three-component velocity data on a planar domain with high spatial resolution. However, the accuracy of such measurements must be carefully evaluated before stereo PIV data can be faithfully used in the development of sophisticated turbulence models, assessment of appropriate computational boundary conditions, and in the validation of advanced computations. To this end, the accuracy of stereo PIV is assessed directly in an actual turbulent environment: two-dimensional turbulent channel flow. This flow is a challenging test of stereo PIV because the turbulent velocity fluctuations are quite small compared to the mean (typically less than ten percent of the mean velocity) and strong velocity gradients exist in the near-wall region. Measurements are made in the streamwise–wall-normal plane along the channel’s spanwise centerline using both stereoscopic and conventional 2-D PIV. A large ensemble of statistically independent velocity realizations are acquired with each method at a friction Reynolds number Reτ = u*h/ν = 934. Single-point statistics are computed from the experimental data and compared to statistics determined from a direct numerical simulation (DNS) of turbulent channel flow at a nearly-identical friction Reynolds number of 940 [5]. Excellent agreement is found in the outer region of the flow (y/h > 0.15, where h is the half-height of the channel). For y/h < 0.15, both the conventional and stereo PIV results differ from the DNS data. These differences are most-likely a manifestation of errors associated with strong velocity gradients and intense turbulent events present in this region of the flow.


2013 ◽  
Vol 718 ◽  
pp. 596-621 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. Klewicki

AbstractThis study investigates how and why dynamical self-similarities emerge with increasing Reynolds number within the canonical wall flows beyond the transitional regime. An overarching aim is to advance a mechanistically coherent description of turbulent wall-flow dynamics that is mathematically tractable and grounded in the mean dynamical equations. As revealed by the analysis of Fife, Klewicki & Wei (J. Discrete Continuous Dyn. Syst.A, vol. 24, 2009, pp. 781–807), the equations that respectively describe the mean dynamics of turbulent channel, pipe and boundary layer flows formally admit invariant forms. These expose an underlying self-similar structure. In all cases, two kinds of dynamical self-similarity are shown to exist on an internal domain that, for all Reynolds numbers, extends from$O(\nu / {u}_{\tau } )$to$O(\delta )$, where$\nu $is the kinematic viscosity,${u}_{\tau } $is the friction velocity and$\delta $is the half-channel height, pipe radius, or boundary layer thickness. The simpler of the two self-similarities is operative on a large outer portion of the relevant domain. This self-similarity leads to an explicit analytical closure of the mean momentum equation. This self-similarity also underlies the emergence of a logarithmic mean velocity profile. A more complicated kind a self-similarity emerges asymptotically over a smaller domain closer to the wall. The simpler self-similarity allows the mean dynamical equation to be written as a closed system of nonlinear ordinary differential equations that, like the similarity solution for the laminar flat-plate boundary layer, can be numerically integrated. The resulting similarity solutions are demonstrated to exhibit nearly exact agreement with direct numerical simulations over the solution domain specified by the theory. At the Reynolds numbers investigated, the outer similarity solution is shown to be operative over a domain that encompasses${\sim }40\hspace{0.167em} \% $of the overall width of the flow. Other properties predicted by the theory are also shown to be well supported by existing data.


1979 ◽  
Vol 44 (3) ◽  
pp. 700-710 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ivan Fořt ◽  
Hans-Otto Möckel ◽  
Jan Drbohlav ◽  
Miroslav Hrach

Profiles of the mean velocity have been analyzed in the stream streaking from the region of rotating standard six-blade disc turbine impeller. The profiles were obtained experimentally using a hot film thermoanemometer probe. The results of the analysis is the determination of the effect of relative size of the impeller and vessel and the kinematic viscosity of the charge on three parameters of the axial profile of the mean velocity in the examined stream. No significant change of the parameter of width of the examined stream and the momentum flux in the stream has been found in the range of parameters d/D ##m <0.25; 0.50> and the Reynolds number for mixing ReM ##m <2.90 . 101; 1 . 105>. However, a significant influence has been found of ReM (at negligible effect of d/D) on the size of the hypothetical source of motion - the radius of the tangential cylindrical jet - a. The proposed phenomenological model of the turbulent stream in region of turbine impeller has been found adequate for values of ReM exceeding 1.0 . 103.


2021 ◽  
Vol 933 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xi Chen ◽  
Katepalli R. Sreenivasan

The dominant paradigm in turbulent wall flows is that the mean velocity near the wall, when scaled on wall variables, is independent of the friction Reynolds number $Re_\tau$ . This paradigm faces challenges when applied to fluctuations but has received serious attention only recently. Here, by extending our earlier work (Chen & Sreenivasan, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 908, 2021, p. R3) we present a promising perspective, and support it with data, that fluctuations displaying non-zero wall values, or near-wall peaks, are bounded for large values of $Re_\tau$ , owing to the natural constraint that the dissipation rate is bounded. Specifically, $\varPhi _\infty - \varPhi = C_\varPhi \,Re_\tau ^{-1/4},$ where $\varPhi$ represents the maximum value of any of the following quantities: energy dissipation rate, turbulent diffusion, fluctuations of pressure, streamwise and spanwise velocities, squares of vorticity components, and the wall values of pressure and shear stresses; the subscript $\infty$ denotes the bounded asymptotic value of $\varPhi$ , and the coefficient $C_\varPhi$ depends on $\varPhi$ but not on $Re_\tau$ . Moreover, there exists a scaling law for the maximum value in the wall-normal direction of high-order moments, of the form $\langle \varphi ^{2q}\rangle ^{{1}/{q}}_{max}= \alpha _q-\beta _q\,Re^{-1/4}_\tau$ , where $\varphi$ represents the streamwise or spanwise velocity fluctuation, and $\alpha _q$ and $\beta _q$ are independent of $Re_\tau$ . Excellent agreement with available data is observed. A stochastic process for which the random variable has the form just mentioned, referred to here as the ‘linear $q$ -norm Gaussian’, is proposed to explain the observed linear dependence of $\alpha _q$ on $q$ .


2018 ◽  
Vol 857 ◽  
pp. 345-373 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Gatti ◽  
Andrea Cimarelli ◽  
Yosuke Hasegawa ◽  
Bettina Frohnapfel ◽  
Maurizio Quadrio

This paper addresses the integral energy fluxes in natural and controlled turbulent channel flows, where active skin-friction drag reduction techniques allow a more efficient use of the available power. We study whether the increased efficiency shows any general trend in how energy is dissipated by the mean velocity field (mean dissipation) and by the fluctuating velocity field (turbulent dissipation). Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of different control strategies are performed at constant power input (CPI), so that at statistical equilibrium, each flow (either uncontrolled or controlled by different means) has the same power input, hence the same global energy flux and, by definition, the same total energy dissipation rate. The simulations reveal that changes in mean and turbulent energy dissipation rates can be of either sign in a successfully controlled flow. A quantitative description of these changes is made possible by a new decomposition of the total dissipation, stemming from an extended Reynolds decomposition, where the mean velocity is split into a laminar component and a deviation from it. Thanks to the analytical expressions of the laminar quantities, exact relationships are derived that link the achieved flow rate increase and all energy fluxes in the flow system with two wall-normal integrals of the Reynolds shear stress and the Reynolds number. The dependence of the energy fluxes on the Reynolds number is elucidated with a simple model in which the control-dependent changes of the Reynolds shear stress are accounted for via a modification of the mean velocity profile. The physical meaning of the energy fluxes stemming from the new decomposition unveils their inter-relations and connection to flow control, so that a clear target for flow control can be identified.


2011 ◽  
Vol 687 ◽  
pp. 141-170 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Manes ◽  
D. Poggi ◽  
L. Ridolfi

AbstractThis paper presents an experimental study devoted to investigating the effects of permeability on wall turbulence. Velocity measurements were performed by means of laser Doppler anemometry in open channel flows over walls characterized by a wide range of permeability. Previous studies proposed that the von Kármán coefficient associated with mean velocity profiles over permeable walls is significantly lower than the standard values reported for flows over smooth and rough walls. Furthermore, it was observed that turbulent flows over permeable walls do not fully respect the widely accepted paradigm of outer-layer similarity. Our data suggest that both anomalies can be explained as an effect of poor inner–outer scale separation if the depth of shear penetration within the permeable wall is considered as the representative length scale of the inner layer. We observed that with increasing permeability, the near-wall structure progressively evolves towards a more organized state until it reaches the condition of a perturbed mixing layer where the shear instability of the inflectional mean velocity profile dictates the scale of the dominant eddies. In our experiments such shear instability eddies were detected only over the wall with the highest permeability. In contrast attached eddies were present over all the other wall conditions. On the basis of these findings, we argue that the near-wall structure of turbulent flows over permeable walls is regulated by a competing mechanism between attached and shear instability eddies. We also argue that the ratio between the shear penetration depth and the boundary layer thickness quantifies the ratio between such eddy scales and, therefore, can be used as a diagnostic parameter to assess which eddy structure dominates the near-wall region for different wall permeability and flow conditions.


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