On the time scales and structure of Lagrangian intermittency in homogeneous isotropic turbulence

2019 ◽  
Vol 867 ◽  
pp. 438-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Watteaux ◽  
G. Sardina ◽  
L. Brandt ◽  
D. Iudicone

We present a study of Lagrangian intermittency and its characteristic time scales. Using the concepts of flying and diving residence times above and below a given threshold in the magnitude of turbulence quantities, we infer the time spectra of the Lagrangian temporal fluctuations of dissipation, acceleration and enstrophy by means of a direct numerical simulation in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. We then relate these time scales, first, to the presence of extreme events in turbulence and, second, to the local flow characteristics. Analyses confirm the existence in turbulent quantities of holes mirroring bursts, both of which are at the core of what constitutes Lagrangian intermittency. It is shown that holes are associated with quiescent laminar regions of the flow. Moreover, Lagrangian holes occur over few Kolmogorov time scales while Lagrangian bursts happen over longer periods scaling with the global decorrelation time scale, hence showing that loss of the history of the turbulence quantities along particle trajectories in turbulence is not continuous. Such a characteristic partially explains why current Lagrangian stochastic models fail at reproducing our results. More generally, the Lagrangian dataset of residence times shown here represents another manner for qualifying the accuracy of models. We also deliver a theoretical approximation of mean residence times, which highlights the importance of the correlation between turbulence quantities and their time derivatives in setting temporal statistics. Finally, whether in a hole or a burst, the straining structure along particle trajectories always evolves self-similarly (in a statistical sense) from shearless two-dimensional to shear bi-axial configurations. We speculate that this latter configuration represents the optimum manner to dissipate locally the available energy.

Author(s):  
Savvas S. Xanthos ◽  
Yiannis Andreopoulos

The interaction of traveling expansion waves with grid-generated turbulence was investigated in a large-scale shock tube research facility. The incident shock and the induced flow behind it passed through a rectangular grid, which generated a nearly homogeneous and nearly isotropic turbulent flow. As the shock wave exited the open end of the shock tube, a system of expansion waves was generated which traveled upstream and interacted with the grid-generated turbulence; a type of interaction free from streamline curvature effects, which cause additional effects on turbulence. In this experiment, wall pressure, total pressure and velocity were measured indicating a clear reduction in fluctuations. The incoming flow at Mach number 0.46 was expanded to a flow with Mach number 0.77 by an applied mean shear of 100 s−1. Although the strength of the generated expansion waves was mild, the effect on damping fluctuations on turbulence was clear. A reduction of in the level of total pressure fluctuations by 20 per cent was detected in the present experiments.


2021 ◽  
Vol 62 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Morsy ◽  
J. Yang

Abstract Particle image velocimetry (PIV) has become a popular non-intrusive tool for measuring various types of flows. However, when measuring three-dimensional flows with two-dimensional (2D) PIV, there are some uncertainties in the measured velocity field due to out-of-plane motion, which might alter turbulence statistics and distort the overall flow characteristics. In the present study, three different turbulence models are employed and compared. Mean and fluctuating fields obtained by three-dimensional computational fluid dynamics modeling are compared to experimental data. Turbulence statistics such as integral length scale, Taylor microscale, Kolmogorov scale, turbulence kinetic energy, dissipation rate, and velocity correlations are calculated at different experimental conditions (i.e., pressure, temperature, fan speed, etc.). A reasonably isotropic and homogeneous turbulence with large turbulence intensities is achieved in the central region extending to almost 45 mm radius. This radius decreases with increasing the initial pressure. The influence of the third dimension velocity component on the measured characteristics is negligible. This is a result of the axisymmetric features of the flow pattern in the current vessel. The results prove that the present vessel can be conveniently adopted for several turbulent combustion studies including mainly the determination of turbulent burning velocity for gaseous premixed flames in nearly homogeneous isotropic turbulence. Graphic abstract


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Moustafa Abdel-Maksoud ◽  
Volker Müller ◽  
Tao Xing ◽  
Serge Toxopeus ◽  
Frederick Stern ◽  
...  

Investigations of flow characteristics around ship hulls at large drift angle are very important for understanding the motion behavior of ships during maneuvers. At large drift angles, the flow is dominated by strong vortical structures and complex three-dimensional separations. An accurate prediction of these flow structures is still a challenge for modern computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solvers. Hull forms with high block coefficients are blunt and have strong curvatures, which leads to large area flow separations over smooth surfaces. These areas are sensitive to the relative angle between the flow and the ship motion direction. The paper is concerned with a collaborative computational study of the flow behavior around a double model of KVLCC2 at 30 degrees drift angle and Fr=0 condition, including analysis of numerical methods, turbulence modeling and grid resolution, and their effects on the mean flow and separation onset as well as formation of the vortical structures. This research is an outcome of a multi-year collaboration of five research partners from four countries. The overall approach adopted for the present study combines the advantages of CFD and EFD with the ultimate goal of capturing the salient details of the flow around the bluff hull form. The experiments were performed at the low - speed wind tunnel of the Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH). The main features of the global and local flow were captured in the experimental study. To determine the global flow characteristics, two different flow visualization techniques were used. The first one is a smoke test, which allows the visualization of vortex structures in vicinity of the ship model. The second test is a classic oil film method, which yields the direction of the limiting wall streamlines on the surface of the model. The analysis of the experimental results helped identify the separation zones on the ship model. To resolve the local flow-fields, LDA and PIV measurements were carried out in a selected number of measuring sections. Subsequently, the EFD and CFD results for the global and local flow structures were compared and analyzed. The numerical simulations were carried out by 5 institutions: Iowa Institute of Hydraulic Research of the University of Iowa (IIHR), USA, Maritime Research Institute Netherlands (MARIN), The Netherlands, Hamburg University of Technology (TUHH), Germany, Naval Surface Warfare Center, Carderock Division (NSWCCD) West Bethesda, USA and Swedish Defense Research Agency (FOI), Sweden. For the comparison with the experimental results, seven submissions of steady and unsteady CFD results are included in the present study. The participating codes include CFDShip-Iowa, ReFRESCO, FreSCo+, Edge, OpenFOAM (FOI) and NavyFoam. The size of the computational grids varies between 11 and 202 million control volumes or nodes. The influence of turbulence modeling on the predicted flow is studied by a wide variety of models such as isotropic eddy viscosity models of k-w family, Explicit Algebraic Reynolds Stress Model (EARSM), hybrid RANS-LES (DES), and LES. Despite notable differences in the grid resolutions, numerical methods, and turbulence models, the global features of the flow are closely captured by the computations. Noticeable differences among the computations are found in the details of the local flow such as the vortex strength and the location and extent of the flow separations.


Author(s):  
Mark Pinsky ◽  
Eshkol Eytan ◽  
Ilan Koren ◽  
Orit Altaratz ◽  
Alexander Khain

AbstractAtmospheric motions in clouds and cloud surrounding have a wide range of scales, from several kilometers to centimeters. These motions have different impacts on cloud dynamics and microphysics. Larger-scale motions (hereafter referred to as convective motions) are responsible for mass transport over distances comparable with cloud scale, while motions of smaller scales (hereafter referred to as turbulent motions) are stochastic and responsible for mixing and cloud dilution. This distinction substantially simplifies the analysis of dynamic and microphysical processes in clouds. The present research is Part 1 of the study aimed at describing the method for separating the motion scale into a convective component and a turbulent component. An idealized flow is constructed, which is a sum of an initially prescribed field of the convective velocity with updrafts in the cloud core and downdrafts outside the core, and a stochastic turbulent velocity field obeying the turbulent properties, including the -5/3 law and the 2/3 structure function law. A wavelet method is developed allowing separation of the velocity field into the convective and turbulent components, with parameter values being in a good agreement with those prescribed initially. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated by an example of a vertical velocity field of a cumulus cloud simulated using SAM with bin-microphysics and resolution of 10 m. It is shown that vertical velocity in clouds indeed can be represented as a sum of convective velocity (forming zone of cloud updrafts and subsiding shell) and a stochastic velocity obeying laws of homogeneous and isotropic turbulence.


2013 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 189-206 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. D. Erdbrink ◽  
V. V. Krzhizhanovskaya ◽  
P. M. A. Sloot

We combine non-hydrostatic flow simulations of the free surface with a discharge model based on elementary gate flow equations for decision support in the operation of hydraulic structure gates. A water level-based gate control used in most of today's general practice does not take into account the fact that gate operation scenarios producing similar total discharged volumes and similar water levels may have different local flow characteristics. Accurate and timely prediction of local flow conditions around hydraulic gates is important for several aspects of structure management: ecology, scour, flow-induced gate vibrations and waterway navigation. The modelling approach is described and tested for a multi-gate sluice structure regulating discharge from a river to the sea. The number of opened gates is varied and the discharge is stabilized with automated control by varying gate openings. The free-surface model was validated for discharge showing a correlation coefficient of 0.994 compared to experimental data. Additionally, we show the analysis of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) results for evaluating bed stability and gate vibrations.


Author(s):  
G. K. Batchelor

A new and fruitful theory of turbulent motion was published in 1941 by A. N. Kolmogoroff. It does not seem to be as widely known outside the U.S.S.R. as its importance warrants, and the present paper therefore describes the theory in some detail before presenting a number of extensions and making a comparison of experimental results with some of the theoretical predictions.Kolmogoroff's basic notion is that at high Reynolds number all kinds of turbulent motion, of arbitrary mean-flow characteristics, show a similar structure if attention is confined to the smallest eddies. The motion due to these eddies of limited size is conceived to be isotropic and statistically steady. Within this range of eddies we recognize two limiting processes. The influence of viscosity on the larger eddies of the range is negligible if the Reynolds number is large enough, so that their motion is determined entirely by the amount of energy which they are continually passing on to smaller eddies. This quantity of energy is the local mean energy dissipation due to turbulence. On the other hand, the smaller eddies of the range dissipate through the action of viscosity a considerable proportion of the energy which they receive, and the motion of the very smallest eddies is entirely laminar. The analytical expression of this physical picture is that the motion due to eddies less than a certain limiting size in an arbitrary field of turbulence is determined uniquely by two quantities, the viscosity and the local mean energy dissipation per unit mass of the fluid.The mathematical method of describing the motion due to eddies of a particular size is to construct correlations between the differences of parallel-velocity components at two points at an appropriate distance apart. Kinematical results analogous to those for turbulence which is isotropic in the ordinary sense are obtained, and then the scalar functions occurring in the expressions for the correlations are determined by dimensional analysis. The consequences of the theory in the case of turbulence which possesses ordinary isotropy are analysed and various predictions are made. One of these, namely that dimensionless ratios of moments of the probability distribution of the rate of extension of the fluid in any direction are universal constants, is confirmed by recent experiments, so far as the second and third moments are concerned. In several other cases it can be said that relations predicted by the theory have the correct form, but further experiments at Reynolds numbers higher than those hitherto used will be required before the theory can be regarded as fully confirmed. If valid, Kolmogoroff's theory of locally isotropic turbulence will provide a powerful tool for the analysis of problems of non-uniform turbulent flow, and for the determination of statistical characteristics of space and time derivatives of quantities influenced by the turbulence.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document