Skin-friction generation by attached eddies in turbulent channel flow

2016 ◽  
Vol 808 ◽  
pp. 511-538 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matteo de Giovanetti ◽  
Yongyun Hwang ◽  
Haecheon Choi

Despite a growing body of recent evidence on the hierarchical organization of the self-similar energy-containing motions in the form of Townsend’s attached eddies in wall-bounded turbulent flows, their role in turbulent skin-friction generation is currently not well understood. In this paper, the contribution of each of these self-similar energy-containing motions to turbulent skin friction is explored up to $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}\simeq 4000$. Three different approaches are employed to quantify the skin-friction generation by the motions, the spanwise length scale of which is smaller than a given cutoff wavelength: (i) FIK (Fukagata, Iwamoto, Kasagi) identity in combination with the spanwise wavenumber spectra of the Reynolds shear stress; (ii) confinement of the spanwise computational domain; (iii) artificial damping of the motions to be examined. The near-wall motions are found to continuously reduce their role in skin-friction generation on increasing the Reynolds number, consistent with the previous finding at low Reynolds numbers. The largest structures given in the form of very-large-scale and large-scale motions are also found to be of limited importance: due to a non-trivial scale interaction process, their complete removal yields only a 5–8 % skin-friction reduction at all of the Reynolds numbers considered, although they are found to be responsible for 20–30 % of total skin friction at $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}\simeq 2000$. Application of all the three approaches consistently reveals that the largest amount of skin friction is generated by the self-similar motions populating the logarithmic region. It is further shown that the contribution of these motions to turbulent skin friction gradually increases with the Reynolds number, and that these coherent structures are eventually responsible for most of turbulent skin-friction generation at sufficiently high Reynolds numbers.

1990 ◽  
Vol 217 ◽  
pp. 299-330 ◽  
Author(s):  
Werner J. A. Dahm ◽  
Paul E. Dimotakis

We present results from an experimental investigation of turbulent transport and molecular mixing of a Sc [Gt ] 1 conserved scalar in the fully developed self-similar far field of a steady, axisymmetric, momentum-driven, free turbulent jet issuing into a quiescent medium. Our experiments cover the axial range from the jet exit to 350 diameters downstream, and span the range of Reynolds numbers from 1500 to 20000. Flow visualizations of the scalar concentration field directly verify the presence of an underlying characteristic large-scale organization in the jet far field essentially consistent with a simplified conceptual picture proposed in an earlier study (Dahm & Dimotakis 1987). High-resolution imaging measurements of successive instantaneous scalar concentration profiles in the jet support the presence of such a large-scale organization and provide details of its implications for mixing. These results also establish the proper similarity scaling for the mean concentration in the jet far field and give the scaling constant on the jet centreline as 5.4. We also present conserved scalar concentration p.d.f.s throughout the jet far field, and introduce a chemical reaction method for measuring the p.d.f.s with potentially molecular resolution. The amount of unmixed ambient fluid that reaches the jet centreline is found to decrease with increasing Reynolds number over the range investigated. The distribution of mixed fluid compositions in the concentration p.d.f. also appears to change over this range of Reynolds numbers, indicating that some aspects of large Schmidt number mixing in the jet far field have not yet become Reynolds number independent.


2019 ◽  
Vol 871 ◽  
pp. 377-400 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Baidya ◽  
W. J. Baars ◽  
S. Zimmerman ◽  
M. Samie ◽  
R. J. Hearst ◽  
...  

Streamwise velocity and wall-shear stress are acquired simultaneously with a hot-wire and an array of azimuthal/spanwise-spaced skin friction sensors in large-scale pipe and boundary layer flow facilities at high Reynolds numbers. These allow for a correlation analysis on a per-scale basis between the velocity and reference skin friction signals to reveal which velocity-based turbulent motions are stochastically coherent with turbulent skin friction. In the logarithmic region, the wall-attached structures in both the pipe and boundary layers show evidence of self-similarity, and the range of scales over which the self-similarity is observed decreases with an increasing azimuthal/spanwise offset between the velocity and the reference skin friction signals. The present empirical observations support the existence of a self-similar range of wall-attached turbulence, which in turn are used to extend the model of Baarset al.(J. Fluid Mech., vol. 823, p. R2) to include the azimuthal/spanwise trends. Furthermore, the region where the self-similarity is observed correspond with the wall height where the mean momentum equation formally admits a self-similar invariant form, and simultaneously where the mean and variance profiles of the streamwise velocity exhibit logarithmic dependence. The experimental observations suggest that the self-similar wall-attached structures follow an aspect ratio of$7:1:1$in the streamwise, spanwise and wall-normal directions, respectively.


2019 ◽  
Vol 875 ◽  
pp. 44-70 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karin Blackman ◽  
Laurent Perret ◽  
Romain Mathis

Urban-type rough-wall boundary layers developing over staggered cube arrays with plan area packing density, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{p}$, of 6.25 %, 25 % or 44.4 % have been studied at two Reynolds numbers within a wind tunnel using hot-wire anemometry (HWA). A fixed HWA probe is used to capture the outer-layer flow while a second moving probe is used to capture the inner-layer flow at 13 wall-normal positions between $1.25h$ and $4h$ where $h$ is the height of the roughness elements. The synchronized two-point HWA measurements are used to extract the near-canopy large-scale signal using spectral linear stochastic estimation and a predictive model is calibrated in each of the six measurement configurations. Analysis of the predictive model coefficients demonstrates that the canopy geometry has a significant influence on both the superposition and amplitude modulation. The universal signal, the signal that exists in the absence of any large-scale influence, is also modified as a result of local canopy geometry suggesting that although the nonlinear interactions within urban-type rough-wall boundary layers can be modelled using the predictive model as proposed by Mathis et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 681, 2011, pp. 537–566), the model must be however calibrated for each type of canopy flow regime. The Reynolds number does not significantly affect any of the model coefficients, at least over the limited range of Reynolds numbers studied here. Finally, the predictive model is validated using a prediction of the near-canopy signal at a higher Reynolds number and a prediction using reference signals measured in different canopy geometries to run the model. Statistics up to the fourth order and spectra are accurately reproduced demonstrating the capability of the predictive model in an urban-type rough-wall boundary layer.


2019 ◽  
Vol 862 ◽  
pp. 1029-1059 ◽  
Author(s):  
Qiang Yang ◽  
Ashley P. Willis ◽  
Yongyun Hwang

A new set of exact coherent states in the form of a travelling wave is reported in plane channel flow. They are continued over a range in $Re$ from approximately $2600$ up to $30\,000$, an order of magnitude higher than those discovered in the transitional regime. This particular type of exact coherent states is found to be gradually more localised in the near-wall region on increasing the Reynolds number. As larger spanwise sizes $L_{z}^{+}$ are considered, these exact coherent states appear via a saddle-node bifurcation with a spanwise size of $L_{z}^{+}\simeq 50$ and their phase speed is found to be $c^{+}\simeq 11$ at all the Reynolds numbers considered. Computation of the eigenspectra shows that the time scale of the exact coherent states is given by $h/U_{cl}$ in channel flow at all Reynolds numbers, and it becomes equivalent to the viscous inner time scale for the exact coherent states in the limit of $Re\rightarrow \infty$. The exact coherent states at several different spanwise sizes are further continued to a higher Reynolds number, $Re=55\,000$, using the eddy-viscosity approach (Hwang & Cossu, Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 105, 2010, 044505). It is found that the continued exact coherent states at different sizes are self-similar at the given Reynolds number. These observations suggest that, on increasing Reynolds number, new sets of self-sustaining coherent structures are born in the near-wall region. Near this onset, these structures scale in inner units, forming the near-wall self-sustaining structures. With further increase of Reynolds number, the structures that emerged at lower Reynolds numbers subsequently evolve into the self-sustaining structures in the logarithmic region at different length scales, forming a hierarchy of self-similar coherent structures as hypothesised by Townsend (i.e. attached eddy hypothesis). Finally, the energetics of turbulent flow is discussed for a consistent extension of these dynamical systems notions to high Reynolds numbers.


2010 ◽  
Vol 132 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
N. J. Fiala ◽  
J. D. Johnson ◽  
F. E. Ames

A letterbox trailing edge configuration is formed by adding flow partitions to a gill slot or pressure side cutback. Letterbox partitions are a common trailing edge configuration for vanes and blades, and the aerodynamics of these configurations are consequently of interest. Exit surveys detailing total pressure loss, turning angle, and secondary velocities have been acquired for a vane with letterbox partitions in a large-scale low speed cascade facility. These measurements are compared with exit surveys of both the base (solid) and gill slot vane configurations. Exit surveys have been taken over a four to one range in chord Reynolds numbers (500,000, 1,000,000, and 2,000,000) based on exit conditions and for low (0.7%), grid (8.5%), and aerocombustor (13.5%) turbulence conditions with varying blowing rate (50%, 100%, 150%, and 200% design flow). Exit loss, angle, and secondary velocity measurements were acquired in the facility using a five-hole cone probe at a measuring station representing an axial chord spacing of 0.25 from the vane trailing edge plane. Differences between losses with the base vane, gill slot vane, and letterbox vane for a given turbulence condition and Reynolds number are compared providing evidence of coolant ejection losses, and losses due to the separation off the exit slot lip and partitions. Additionally, differences in the level of losses, distribution of losses, and secondary flow vectors are presented for the different turbulence conditions at the different Reynolds numbers. The letterbox configuration has been found to have slightly reduced losses at a given flow rate compared with the gill slot. However, the letterbox requires an increased pressure drop for the same ejection flow. The present paper together with a related paper (2008, “Letterbox Trailing Edge Heat Transfer—Effects of Blowing Rate, Reynolds Number, and External Turbulence on Heat Transfer and Film Cooling Effectiveness,” ASME, Paper No. GT2008-50474), which documents letterbox heat transfer, is intended to provide designers with aerodynamic loss and heat transfer information needed for design evaluation and comparison with competing trailing edge designs.


2007 ◽  
Vol 591 ◽  
pp. 145-154 ◽  
Author(s):  
OSCAR FLORES ◽  
JAVIER JIMÉNEZ ◽  
JUAN C. DEL ÁLAMO

The vortex clusters in the turbulent outer region of rough- and smooth-walled channels, and their associated velocity structures, are compared using data from numerical experiments at friction Reynolds numbers Reτ ≤ 674. The results indicate that the roughness of the wall does not affect their properties, particularly the existence of wall-detached and wall-attached populations, and the self-similar size distribution of the latter. The average flow field conditioned to the attached clusters reveals similar conical structures of low streamwise velocity for the rough- and smooth-walled cases, which eventually grow into the global modes previously identified from spectral analysis. We conclude that the vortex clusters of the turbulent outer region either originate away from the wall, or quickly forget their origin, in agreement with Townsend's similarity hypothesis.


Author(s):  
N. J. Fiala ◽  
J. D. Johnson ◽  
F. E. Ames

A letterbox trailing edge configuration is formed by adding flow partitions to a gill slot or pressure side cutback. Letterbox partitions are a common trailing edge configuration for vanes and blades and the aerodynamics of these configurations are consequently of interest. Exit surveys detailing total pressure loss, turning angle, and secondary velocities have been acquired for a vane with letterbox partitions in a large scale low speed cascade facility. These measurements are compared with exit surveys of both the base (solid) and gill slot vane configurations. Exit surveys have been taken over a four to one range in chord Reynolds numbers (500,000, 1,000,000, and 2,000,000) based on exit conditions and for low (0.7%), grid (8.5%), and aero-combustor (13.5%) turbulence conditions with varying blowing rate (50%, 100%, 150%, and 200% design flow). Exit loss, angle, and secondary velocity measurements were acquired in the facility using a five-hole cone probe at a measuring station representing an axial chord spacing of 0.25 from the vane trailing edge plane. Differences between losses with the base vane, gill slot vane and letterbox vane for a given turbulence condition and Reynolds number are compared providing evidence of coolant ejection losses and losses due to the separation off the exit slot lip and partitions. Additionally, differences in the level of losses, distribution of losses, and secondary flow vectors are presented for the different turbulence conditions at the different Reynolds numbers. The letterbox configuration has been found to have slightly reduced losses at a given flow rate compared with the gill slot. However, the letterbox requires an increased pressure drop for the same ejection flow. The present paper together with a related paper [1], which documents letterbox heat transfer, is intended to provide designers with aerodynamic loss and heat transfer information needed for design evaluation and comparison with competing trailing edge designs.


2016 ◽  
Vol 791 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xiaozhou He ◽  
Eberhard Bodenschatz ◽  
Guenter Ahlers

We present measurements of the orientation ${\it\theta}_{0}$ and temperature amplitude ${\it\delta}$ of the large-scale circulation in a cylindrical sample of turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection (RBC) with aspect ratio ${\it\Gamma}\equiv D/L=1.00$ ($D$ and $L$ are the diameter and height respectively) and for the Prandtl number $Pr\simeq 0.8$. The results for ${\it\theta}_{0}$ revealed a preferred orientation with up-flow in the west, consistent with a broken azimuthal invariance due to the Earth’s Coriolis force (see Brown & Ahlers (Phys. Fluids, vol. 18, 2006, 125108)). They yielded the azimuthal diffusivity $D_{{\it\theta}}$ and a corresponding Reynolds number $Re_{{\it\theta}}$ for Rayleigh numbers over the range $2\times 10^{12}\lesssim Ra\lesssim 1.5\times 10^{14}$. In the classical state ($Ra\lesssim 2\times 10^{13}$) the results were consistent with the measurements by Brown & Ahlers (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 568, 2006, pp. 351–386) for $Ra\lesssim 10^{11}$ and $Pr=4.38$, which gave $Re_{{\it\theta}}\propto Ra^{0.28}$, and with the Prandtl-number dependence $Re_{{\it\theta}}\propto Pr^{-1.2}$ as found previously also for the velocity-fluctuation Reynolds number $Re_{V}$ (He et al., New J. Phys., vol. 17, 2015, 063028). At larger $Ra$ the data for $Re_{{\it\theta}}(Ra)$ revealed a transition to a new state, known as the ‘ultimate’ state, which was first seen in the Nusselt number $Nu(Ra)$ and in $Re_{V}(Ra)$ at $Ra_{1}^{\ast }\simeq 2\times 10^{13}$ and $Ra_{2}^{\ast }\simeq 8\times 10^{13}$. In the ultimate state we found $Re_{{\it\theta}}\propto Ra^{0.40\pm 0.03}$. Recently, Skrbek & Urban (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 785, 2015, pp. 270–282) claimed that non-Oberbeck–Boussinesq effects on the Nusselt and Reynolds numbers of turbulent RBC may have been interpreted erroneously as a transition to a new state. We demonstrate that their reasoning is incorrect and that the transition observed in the Göttingen experiments and discussed in the present paper is indeed to a new state of RBC referred to as ‘ultimate’.


2013 ◽  
Vol 734 ◽  
pp. 275-316 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rashad Moarref ◽  
Ati S. Sharma ◽  
Joel A. Tropp ◽  
Beverley J. McKeon

AbstractWe study the Reynolds-number scaling and the geometric self-similarity of a gain-based, low-rank approximation to turbulent channel flows, determined by the resolvent formulation of McKeon & Sharma (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 658, 2010, pp. 336–382), in order to obtain a description of the streamwise turbulence intensity from direct consideration of the Navier–Stokes equations. Under this formulation, the velocity field is decomposed into propagating waves (with single streamwise and spanwise wavelengths and wave speed) whose wall-normal shapes are determined from the principal singular function of the corresponding resolvent operator. Using the accepted scalings of the mean velocity in wall-bounded turbulent flows, we establish that the resolvent operator admits three classes of wave parameters that induce universal behaviour with Reynolds number in the low-rank model, and which are consistent with scalings proposed throughout the wall turbulence literature. In addition, it is shown that a necessary condition for geometrically self-similar resolvent modes is the presence of a logarithmic turbulent mean velocity. Under the practical assumption that the mean velocity consists of a logarithmic region, we identify the scalings that constitute hierarchies of self-similar modes that are parameterized by the critical wall-normal location where the speed of the mode equals the local turbulent mean velocity. For the rank-1 model subject to broadband forcing, the integrated streamwise energy density takes a universal form which is consistent with the dominant near-wall turbulent motions. When the shape of the forcing is optimized to enforce matching with results from direct numerical simulations at low turbulent Reynolds numbers, further similarity appears. Representation of these weight functions using similarity laws enables prediction of the Reynolds number and wall-normal variations of the streamwise energy intensity at high Reynolds numbers (${Re}_{\tau } \approx 1{0}^{3} {\unicode{x2013}} 1{0}^{10} $). Results from this low-rank model of the Navier–Stokes equations compare favourably with experimental results in the literature.


Author(s):  
W. J. Baars ◽  
N. Hutchins ◽  
I. Marusic

Small-scale velocity fluctuations in turbulent boundary layers are often coupled with the larger-scale motions. Studying the nature and extent of this scale interaction allows for a statistically representative description of the small scales over a time scale of the larger, coherent scales. In this study, we consider temporal data from hot-wire anemometry at Reynolds numbers ranging from Re τ ≈2800 to 22 800, in order to reveal how the scale interaction varies with Reynolds number. Large-scale conditional views of the representative amplitude and frequency of the small-scale turbulence, relative to the large-scale features, complement the existing consensus on large-scale modulation of the small-scale dynamics in the near-wall region. Modulation is a type of scale interaction, where the amplitude of the small-scale fluctuations is continuously proportional to the near-wall footprint of the large-scale velocity fluctuations. Aside from this amplitude modulation phenomenon, we reveal the influence of the large-scale motions on the characteristic frequency of the small scales, known as frequency modulation. From the wall-normal trends in the conditional averages of the small-scale properties, it is revealed how the near-wall modulation transitions to an intermittent-type scale arrangement in the log-region. On average, the amplitude of the small-scale velocity fluctuations only deviates from its mean value in a confined temporal domain, the duration of which is fixed in terms of the local Taylor time scale. These concentrated temporal regions are centred on the internal shear layers of the large-scale uniform momentum zones, which exhibit regions of positive and negative streamwise velocity fluctuations. With an increasing scale separation at high Reynolds numbers, this interaction pattern encompasses the features found in studies on internal shear layers and concentrated vorticity fluctuations in high-Reynolds-number wall turbulence. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Toward the development of high-fidelity models of wall turbulence at large Reynolds number’.


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