Observations on turbulent-drag reduction in a dilute suspension of clay in sea-water

1976 ◽  
Vol 75 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giselher Gust

Hot-wire anemometer measurements have been made in a dilute sea-water/claymineral suspension. For fully developed turbulent flows in an open channel with a smooth mud (from the North Sea) bottom, mean streamwise velocity profiles were measured for Reynolds numbers between 5400 and 27 800 (i.e. non-eroding and eroding flow rates) and compared with Newtonian flows under the same experimental conditions. For the clay-mineral suspensions, measurements of the kinematic viscosityv, Kármán's constantkand the mean streamwise velocity$\overline{u}$of the logarithmic layer seemed to verify a Newtonian flow structure. Although the distributions of concentration showed no substantial increase towards the wall, it was found that beneath this Newtonian core there existed a viscous sublayer whose thickness was enhanced by a factor of 2–5. The friction velocityu*determined by the gradient method in the viscous sublayer was reduced by as much as 40 %. The mean flow structure exhibited an additional new layer in the region 10 <y+< 30.The measurements indicate that turbulent-drag reduction occurs for the experimental clay-mineral suspension at non-eroding and also at eroding velocities. Agglomeration of suspended clay-mineral particles is suggested as possible explanation of this phenomenon.

1970 ◽  
Vol 37 (2) ◽  
pp. 488-493 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. S. Virk ◽  
H. S. Mickley ◽  
K. A. Smith

The maximum drag reduction in turbulent pipe flow of dilute polymer solutions is ultimately limited by a unique asymptote described by the experimental correlation: f−1/2=19.0log10(NRef1/2)−32.4 The semilogarithmic mean velocity profile corresponding to and inferred from this ultimate asymptote has a mixing-length constant of 0.085 and shares a trisection (at y+ ∼ 12) with the Newtonian viscous sublayer and law of the wall. Experimental mean velocity profiles taken during drag reduction lie in the region bounded by the inferred ultimate profile and the Newtonian law of the wall. At low drag reductions the experimental profiles are well correlated by an “effective slip” model but this fails progressively with increasing drag reduction. Based on the foregoing a three-zone scheme is proposed to model the mean flow structure during drag reduction. In this the mean velocity profile segments are (a) a viscous sublayer, akin to Newtonian, (b) an interactive zone, characteristic of drag reduction, in which the ultimate profile is followed, and (c) a turbulent core in which the Newtonian mixing-length constant applies. The proposed model is consistent with experimental observations and reduces satisfactorily to the Taylor-Prandtl scheme and the ultimate profile, respectively, at the limits of zero and maximum drag reductions.


2019 ◽  
Vol 875 ◽  
pp. 124-172 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. Gómez-de-Segura ◽  
R. García-Mayoral

We explore the ability of anisotropic permeable substrates to reduce turbulent skin friction, studying the influence that these substrates have on the overlying turbulence. For this, we perform direct numerical simulations of channel flows bounded by permeable substrates. The results confirm theoretical predictions, and the resulting drag curves are similar to those of riblets. For small permeabilities, the drag reduction is proportional to the difference between the streamwise and spanwise permeabilities. This linear regime breaks down for a critical value of the wall-normal permeability, beyond which the performance begins to degrade. We observe that the degradation is associated with the appearance of spanwise-coherent structures, attributed to a Kelvin–Helmholtz-like instability of the mean flow. This feature is common to a variety of obstructed flows, and linear stability analysis can be used to predict it. For large permeabilities, these structures become prevalent in the flow, outweighing the drag-reducing effect of slip and eventually leading to an increase of drag. For the substrate configurations considered, the largest drag reduction observed is ${\approx}$20–25 % at a friction Reynolds number $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}^{+}=180$.


2005 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 370-389 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anshuman Roy ◽  
Ronald G. Larson

Abstract We present a one-parameter model that fits quantitatively the mean velocity profiles from experiments and numerical simulations of drag-reduced wall-bounded flows of dilute solutions of polymers and non-Brownian fibers in the low and modest drag reduction regime. The model is based on a viscous mechanism of drag reduction, in which either extended polymers or non-Brownian fibers increase the extensional viscosity of the fluid and thereby suppress both small and large turbulent eddies and reduce momentum transfer to the wall, resulting in drag reduction. Our model provides a rheological interpretation of the upward parallel shift S+ in the mean velocity profile upon addition of polymer, observed by Virk. We show that Virk’s correlations for the dependence on polymer molecular weight and concentration of the onset wall shear stress and slope increment on the Prandtl-Karman plot can be translated to two dimensionless numbers, namely an onset Weissenberg number and an asymptotic Trouton ratio of maximum extensional viscosity to zero-shear viscosity. We believe that our model, while simple, captures the essential features of drag reduction that are universal to flexible polymers and fibers, and, unlike the Virk phenomenology, can easily be extended to flows with inhomogeneous polymer or fiber concentration fields.


2007 ◽  
Vol 577 ◽  
pp. 457-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
B. FROHNAPFEL ◽  
P. LAMMERS ◽  
J. JOVANOVIĆ ◽  
F. DURST

A central goal of flow control is to minimize the energy consumption in turbulent flows and nowadays the best results in terms of drag reduction are obtained with the addition of long-chain polymers. This has been found to be associated with increased anisotropy of turbulence in the near-wall region. Other drag reduction mechanisms are analysed in this respect and it is shown that close to the wall highly anisotropic states of turbulence are commonly found. These findings are supported by results of direct numerical simulations which display high drag reduction effects of over 30% when only a few points inside the viscous sublayer are forced towards high anisotropy.


2008 ◽  
Vol 602 ◽  
pp. 209-218 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. J. J. GILLISSEN ◽  
B. J. BOERSMA ◽  
P. H. MORTENSEN ◽  
H. I. ANDERSSON

We use direct numerical simulation to study turbulent drag reduction by rigid polymer additives, referred to as fibres. The simulations agree with experimental data from the literature in terms of friction factor dependence on Reynolds number and fibre concentration. An expression for drag reduction is derived by adopting the concept of the elastic layer.


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