Viscoelastic properties of fine-grained incompressible turbulence

1968 ◽  
Vol 33 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
S. C. Crow

A number of shear-flow phenomena can be explained qualitatively if turbulence is regarded as a continuous viscoelastic medium with respect to its action on a mean field. Conditions are sought under which the analogy is quantitative, and it is found that the turbulence must be fine-grained and the mean field weak. For geometrical convenience the turbulence is assumed to be nearly homogeneous and isotropic so that body forces are required to maintain it. The turbulence is found to respond initially to an arbitrary deformation as an elastic medium, in which Reynolds stress is linearly proportional to strain. Three processes that cause the resulting Reynolds stress to relax are distinguished: viscous diffusion, body-force agitation and non-linear scrambling. It is argued that, regardless of which process dominates, Reynolds stress evolves in a continuously changing mean field according to a viscoelastic constitutive law, relating stress to deformation history by means of a scalar memory function. The argument is carried through analytically for weak turbulence, in which non-linear scrambling is negligible, and the memory function is computed in terms of the wave-number-frequency spectrum of the background turbulence. In the course of the analysis, a new type of Reynolds stress arises related to the passage of the turbulence through its sustaining environment of body forces. It is found that the mean field must be surprisingly weak for this ‘translation stress’ to be negligible. Applications of the viscoelasticity theory of turbulent shear flow are discussed in which body forces and therefore translation stress are absent.

2002 ◽  
Vol 458 ◽  
pp. 229-267 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. A. C. TEIXEIRA ◽  
S. E. BELCHER

A rapid-distortion model is developed to investigate the interaction of weak turbulence with a monochromatic irrotational surface water wave. The model is applicable when the orbital velocity of the wave is larger than the turbulence intensity, and when the slope of the wave is sufficiently high that the straining of the turbulence by the wave dominates over the straining of the turbulence by itself. The turbulence suffers two distortions. Firstly, vorticity in the turbulence is modulated by the wave orbital motions, which leads to the streamwise Reynolds stress attaining maxima at the wave crests and minima at the wave troughs; the Reynolds stress normal to the free surface develops minima at the wave crests and maxima at the troughs. Secondly, over several wave cycles the Stokes drift associated with the wave tilts vertical vorticity into the horizontal direction, subsequently stretching it into elongated streamwise vortices, which come to dominate the flow. These results are shown to be strikingly different from turbulence distorted by a mean shear flow, when ‘streaky structures’ of high and low streamwise velocity fluctuations develop. It is shown that, in the case of distortion by a mean shear flow, the tendency for the mean shear to produce streamwise vortices by distortion of the turbulent vorticity is largely cancelled by a distortion of the mean vorticity by the turbulent fluctuations. This latter process is absent in distortion by Stokes drift, since there is then no mean vorticity.The components of the Reynolds stress and the integral length scales computed from turbulence distorted by Stokes drift show the same behaviour as in the simulations of Langmuir turbulence reported by McWilliams, Sullivan & Moeng (1997). Hence we suggest that turbulent vorticity in the upper ocean, such as produced by breaking waves, may help to provide the initial seeds for Langmuir circulations, thereby complementing the shear-flow instability mechanism developed by Craik & Leibovich (1976).The tilting of the vertical vorticity into the horizontal by the Stokes drift tends also to produce a shear stress that does work against the mean straining associated with the wave orbital motions. The turbulent kinetic energy then increases at the expense of energy in the wave. Hence the wave decays. An expression for the wave attenuation rate is obtained by scaling the equation for the wave energy, and is found to be broadly consistent with available laboratory data.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Thibault Bonnemain ◽  
Thierry Gobron ◽  
Denis Ullmo

Mean Field Games provide a powerful framework to analyze the dynamics of a large number of controlled agents in interaction. Here we consider such systems when the interactions between agents result in a negative coordination and analyze the behavior of the associated system of coupled PDEs using the now well established correspondence with the non linear Schrödinger equation. We focus on the long optimization time limit and on configurations such that the game we consider goes through different regimes in which the relative importance of disorder, interactions between agents and external potential vary, which makes possible to get insights on the role of the forward-backward structure of the Mean Field Game equations in relation with the way these various regimes are connected.


1992 ◽  
Vol 241 ◽  
pp. 503-523 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. Tritton

We consider turbulent shear flows in a rotating fluid, with the rotation axis parallel or antiparallel to the mean flow vorticity. It is already known that rotation such that the shear becomes cyclonic is stabilizing (with reference to the non-rotating case), whereas the opposite rotation is destabilizing for low rotation rates and restabilizing for higher. The arguments leading to and quantifying these statement are heuristic. Their status and limitations require clarification. Also, it is useful to formulate them in ways that permit direct comparison of the underlying concepts with experimental data.An extension of a displaced particle analysis, given by Tritton & Davies (1981) indicates changes with the rotation rate of the orientation of the motion directly generated by the shear/Coriolis instability occurring in the destabilized range.The ‘simplified Reynolds stress equations scheme’, proposed by Johnston, Halleen & Lezius (1972), has been reformulated in terms of two angles, representing the orientation of the principal axes of the Reynolds stress tensor (αa) and the orientation of the Reynolds stress generating processes (αb), that are approximately equal according to the scheme. The scheme necessarily fails at large rotation rates because of internal inconsistency, additional to the fact that it is inapplicable to two-dimensional turbulence. However, it has a wide range of potential applicability, which may be tested with experimental data. αa and αb have been evaluated from numerical data for homogeneous shear flow (Bertoglio 1982) and laboratory data for a wake (Witt & Joubert 1985) and a free shear layer (Bidokhti & Tritton 1992). The trends with varying rotation rate are notably similar for the three cases. There is a significant range of near equality of αa and αb. An extension of the scheme, allowing for evolution of the flow, relates to the observation of energy transfer from the turbulence to the mean flow.


1979 ◽  
Vol 93 (3) ◽  
pp. 501-513 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. N. Gence ◽  
J. Mathieu

A grid-generated turbulence is subjected to a pure plane strain and the principal axes of the Reynolds stress tensor become those of the strain. This ‘oriented’ homogeneous turbulence is then submitted to a new strain the principal axes of which have a different orientation. We show that in such a situation it is possible to observe a transfer of energy from the fluctuating motion to the mean one. Such transfer is necessarily associated with a forced decay of the anisotropy of the motion. A detailed analysis of the reorientation of the principal axes of the Reynolds stress tensor in the frame of those of the second strain gives an explanation of the evolution of the principal axes of the Reynolds stress tensor in a shear flow.


1967 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-144 ◽  
Author(s):  
O. M. Phillips

A mechanism is proposed for the manner in which the turbulent components support Reynolds stress in turbulent shear flow. This involves a generalization of Miles's mechanism in which each of the turbulent components interacts with the mean flow to produce an increment of Reynolds stress at the ‘matched layer’ of that particular component. The summation over all the turbulent components leads to an expression for the gradient of the Reynolds stress τ(z) in the turbulence\[ \frac{d\tau}{dz} = {\cal A}\Theta\overline{w^2}\frac{d^2U}{dz^2}, \]where${\cal A}$is a number, Θ the convected integral time scale of thew-velocity fluctuations andU(z) the mean velocity profile. This is consistent with a number of experimental results, and measurements on the mixing layer of a jet indicate thatA= 0·24 in this case. In other flows, it would be expected to be of the same order, though its precise value may vary somewhat from one to another.


1963 ◽  
Vol 16 (2) ◽  
pp. 209-227 ◽  
Author(s):  
John W. Miles

Small disturbances relative to a horizontally stratified shear flow are considered on the assumptions that the velocity and density gradients in the undisturbed flow are non-negative and possess analytic continuations into a complex velocity plane. It is shown that the existence of a singular neutral mode (for which the wave speed is equal to the mean speed at some point in the flow) implies the existence of a contiguous, unstable mode in a wave-number (α), Richardson-number (J) plane. Explicit results are obtained for the rate of growth of nearly neutral disturbances relative to Hølmboe's shear flow, in which the velocity and the logarithm of the density are proportional to tanh (y/h). The neutral curve for this configuration, J = J0(α), is shown to be single-valued. Finally, it is shown that a relatively simple generalization of Hølmboe's density profile leads to a configuration having multiple-valued neutral curves, such that increasing J may be destabilizing for some range (s) of α.


2021 ◽  
Vol 5 ◽  
pp. 50-65
Author(s):  
Wei Sun ◽  
Liping Xu

In this paper, an investigation into the effect of explicit non-linear turbulence modelling on anisotropic turbulence flows is presented. Such anisotropic turbulence flows are typified in the corner separations in turbomachinery. The commonly used Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) turbulence closures, in which the Reynolds stress tensor is modelled by the Boussinesq (linear) constitutive relation with the mean strain-rate tensor, often struggle to predict corner separation with reasonable accuracy. The physical reason for this modelling deficiency is partially attributable to the Boussinesq hypothesis which does not count for the turbulence anisotropy, whilst in a corner separation, the flow is subject to three-dimensional (3D) shear and the effects due to turbulence anisotropy may not be ignored. In light of this, an explicit non-linear Reynolds stress-strain constitutive relation developed by Menter et al. is adopted as a modification of the Reynolds-stress anisotropy. Coupled with the Menter’s hybrid "k-ω" ⁄"k-ε" turbulence model, this non-linear constitutive relation gives significantly improved predictions for the corner separation flows within a compressor cascade, at both the design and off-design flow conditions. The mean vorticity field are studied to further investigate the physical reasons for these improvements, highlighting its potential for the widespread applications in the corner separation prediction.


1997 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 59-65 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ruichong Zhang ◽  
Liyang Zhang ◽  
Masanobu Shinozuka

Seismic wave scattering representation for the layered half-space with lateral inhomogeneities subjected to a seismic dislocation source has been formulated in the companion paper with the use of first-order perturbation (Born-type approximation) technique. The total wave field is obtained as a superposition of the mean and the scattered wave fields, which are generated, respectively, by a series of double couples of body forces equivalent to the seismic dislocation source and by fictitious body forces equivalent to the existence of the lateral inhomogeneities in the layered half-space. The responses in both the mean and the scattered wave fields are found with the aid of an integral transform technique and wave propagation analysis. The characteristics of the scattered waves and their effects on the mean waves or corresponding induced ground and/or underground mean responses are investigated in this paper. In particular, coupling phenomena between P-SV and SH waves and wave number shifting effects between the mean and the scattered wave responses are presented in detail. With the lateral inhomogeneities being assumed as a homogeneous random field, a qualitative analysis is provided for estimating the effects of the lateral inhomogeneities on the ground motion, which is related to a fundamental issue: whether a real earth medium can or cannot be approximately considered as a laterally homogeneous layer. The effects of the lateral inhomogeneities on the ground motion time history are also presented as a quantitative analysis. Finally, a numerical example is carried out for illustration purposes.


2009 ◽  
Vol 639 ◽  
pp. 479-507 ◽  
Author(s):  
NIKOLAOS A. BAKAS

Non-modal mechanisms underlying transient growth of propagating acoustic waves and non-propagating vorticity perturbations in an unbounded compressible shear flow are investigated, making use of closed form solutions. Propagating acoustic waves amplify mainly due to two mechanisms: growth due to advection of streamwise velocity that is typically termed as the lift-up mechanism leading for large Mach numbers to an almost linear increase in streamwise velocity with time and growth due to the downgradient irrotational component of the Reynolds stress leading to linear growth of acoustic wave energy for large times. Synergy between these mechanisms along with the downgradient solenoidal component of the Reynolds stress produces large and robust energy amplification.On the other hand, non-propagating vorticity perturbations amplify due to kinematic deformation of vorticity by the mean flow. For weakly compressible flows, an initial vorticity perturbation abruptly excites acoustic waves with exponentially small amplitude, and the energy gained by vorticity perturbations is transferred back to the mean flow. For moderate Mach numbers, a strong coupling between vorticity perturbations and acoustic waves is found with the energy gained by vorticity perturbations being transferred to acoustic waves that are abruptly excited by the vortex.Calculation of the optimal perturbations for a viscous flow shows that for low Mach numbers, acoustic wave excitation by vorticity perturbations and the subsequent growth of acoustic waves leads to robust energy growth of the order of Reynolds number, while for large Mach numbers, synergy between the lift-up mechanism and the downgradient solenoidal component of the Reynolds stress dominates the growth and leads to a comparable large amplification of streamwise velocity.


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