scholarly journals Statistical evidence of anasymptotic geometric structure to the momentum transporting motions in turbulent boundary layers

Author(s):  
Caleb Morrill-Winter ◽  
Jimmy Philip ◽  
Joseph Klewicki

The turbulence contribution to the mean flow is reflected by the motions producing the Reynolds shear stress (〈− uv 〉) and its gradient. Recent analyses of the mean dynamical equation, along with data, evidence that these motions asymptotically exhibit self-similar geometric properties. This study discerns additional properties associated with the uv signal, with an emphasis on the magnitudes and length scales of its negative contributions. The signals analysed derive from high-resolution multi-wire hot-wire sensor data acquired in flat-plate turbulent boundary layers. Space-filling properties of the present signals are shown to reinforce previous observations, while the skewness of uv suggests a connection between the size and magnitude of the negative excursions on the inertial domain. Here, the size and length scales of the negative uv motions are shown to increase with distance from the wall, whereas their occurrences decrease. A joint analysis of the signal magnitudes and their corresponding lengths reveals that the length scales that contribute most to 〈− uv 〉 are distinctly larger than the average geometric size of the negative uv motions. Co-spectra of the streamwise and wall-normal velocities, however, are shown to exhibit invariance across the inertial region when their wavelengths are normalized by the width distribution, W ( y ), of the scaling layer hierarchy, which renders the mean momentum equation invariant on the inertial domain. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Toward the development of high-fidelity models of wall turbulence at large Reynolds number’.

1999 ◽  
Vol 121 (3) ◽  
pp. 526-532 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andreas C. Schwarz ◽  
Michael W. Plesniak ◽  
S. N. B. Murthy

Turbomachinery flows can be extremely difficult to predict, due to a multitude of effects, including interacting strain rates, compressibility, and rotation. The primary objective of this investigation was to study the influence of multiple strain rates (favorable streamwise pressure gradient combined with radial pressure gradient due to convex curvature) on the structure of the turbulent boundary layer. The emphasis was on the initial region of curvature, which is relevant to the leading edge of a stator vane, for example. In order to gain better insight into the dynamics of complex turbulent boundary layers, detailed velocity measurements were made in a low-speed water tunnel using a two-component laser Doppler velocimeter. The mean and fluctuating velocity profiles showed that the influence of the strong favorable pressure augmented the stabilizing effects of convex curvature. The trends exhibited by the primary Reynolds shear stress followed those of the mean turbulent bursting frequency, i.e., a decrease in the bursting frequency coincided with a reduction of the peak Reynolds shear stress. It was found that the effects of these two strain rates were not superposable, or additive in any simple manner. Thus, the dynamics of the large energy-containing eddies and their interaction with the turbulence production mechanisms must be considered for modeling turbulent flows with multiple strain rates.


2002 ◽  
Vol 461 ◽  
pp. 61-91 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. E. PERRY ◽  
IVAN MARUSIC ◽  
M. B. JONES

A new approach to the classic closure problem for turbulent boundary layers is presented. This involves, first, using the well-known mean-flow scaling laws such as the log law of the wall and the law of the wake of Coles (1956) together with the mean continuity and the mean momentum differential and integral equations. The important parameters governing the flow in the general non-equilibrium case are identified and are used for establishing a framework for closure. Initially closure is achieved here empirically and the potential for achieving closure in the future using the wall-wake attached eddy model of Perry & Marusic (1995) is outlined. Comparisons are made with experiments covering adverse-pressure-gradient flows in relaxing and developing states and flows approaching equilibrium sink flow. Mean velocity profiles, total shear stress and Reynolds stress profiles can be computed for different streamwise stations, given an initial upstream mean velocity profile and the streamwise variation of free-stream velocity. The attached eddy model of Perry & Marusic (1995) can then be utilized, with some refinement, to compute the remaining unknown quantities such as Reynolds normal stresses and associated spectra and cross-power spectra in the fully turbulent part of the flow.


2005 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rau´l Bayoa´n Cal ◽  
Xia Wang ◽  
Luciano Castillo

Applying similarity analysis to the RANS equations of motion for a pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer, Castillo and George [1] obtained the scalings for the mean deficit velocity and the Reynolds stresses. Following this analysis, Castillo and George studied favorable pressure gradient (FPG) turbulent boundary layers. They were able to obtain a single curve for FPG flows when scaling the mean deficit velocity profiles. In this study, FPG turbulent boundary layers are analyzed as well as relaminarized boundary layers subjected to an even stronger FPG. It is found that the mean deficit velocity profiles diminish when scaled using the Castillo and George [1] scaling, U∞, and the Zagarola and Smits [2] scaling, U∞δ*/δ. In addition, Reynolds stress data has been analyzed and it is found that the relaminarized boundary layer data decreases drastically in all components of the Reynolds stresses. Furthermore, it will be shown that the shape of the profile for the wall-normal and Reynolds shear stress components change drastically given the relaminarized state. Therefore, the mean velocity deficit profiles as well as Reynolds stresses are found to be necessary in order to understand not only FPG flows, but also relaminarized boundary layers.


1987 ◽  
Vol 177 ◽  
pp. 437-466 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. E. Perry ◽  
K. L. Lim ◽  
S. M. Henbest

The turbulence structure in zero-pressure-gradient boundary layers above smooth, rough and wavy surfaces was investigated. The mean flow, turbulence intensity and spectral data for both smooth and rough surfaces show support for the attached eddy hypothesis of Townsend (1976), the model for wall turbulence proposed by Perry & Chong (1982) and the extended version developed by Perry, Henbest & Chong (1986). Anomalies in hot-wire behaviour when measuring in the turbulent wall region of the flow were discovered and some of these have been resolved.


2001 ◽  
Vol 428 ◽  
pp. 1-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. B. JONES ◽  
IVAN MARUSIC ◽  
A. E. PERRY

An experimental and theoretical investigation of turbulent boundary layers developing in a sink-flow pressure gradient was undertaken. Three flow cases were studied, corresponding to different acceleration strengths. Mean-flow measurements were taken for all three cases, while Reynolds stresses and spectra measurements were made for two of the flow cases. In this study attention was focused on the evolution of the layers to an equilibrium turbulent state. All the layers were found to attain a state very close to precise equilibrium. This gave equilibrium sink flow data at higher Reynolds numbers than in previous experiments. The mean velocity profiles were found to collapse onto the conventional logarithmic law of the wall. However, for profiles measured with the Pitot tube, a slight ‘kick-up’ from the logarithmic law was observed near the buffer region, whereas the mean velocity profiles measured with a normal hot wire did not exhibit this deviation from the logarithmic law. As the layers approached equilibrium, the mean velocity profiles were found to approach the pure wall profile and for the highest level of acceleration Π was very close to zero, where Π is the Coles wake factor. This supports the proposition of Coles (1957), that the equilibrium sink flow corresponds to pure wall flow. Particular interest was also given to the evolutionary stages of the boundary layers, in order to test and further develop the closure hypothesis of Perry, Marusic & Li (1994). Improved quantitative agreement with the experimental results was found after slight modification of their original closure equation.


Author(s):  
B. F. Farrell ◽  
D. F. Gayme ◽  
P. J. Ioannou

This paper reviews results obtained using statistical state dynamics (SSD) that demonstrate the benefits of adopting this perspective for understanding turbulence in wall-bounded shear flows. The SSD approach used in this work employs a second-order closure that retains only the interaction between the streamwise mean flow and the streamwise mean perturbation covariance. This closure restricts nonlinearity in the SSD to that explicitly retained in the streamwise constant mean flow together with nonlinear interactions between the mean flow and the perturbation covariance. This dynamical restriction, in which explicit perturbation–perturbation nonlinearity is removed from the perturbation equation, results in a simplified dynamics referred to as the restricted nonlinear (RNL) dynamics. RNL systems, in which a finite ensemble of realizations of the perturbation equation share the same mean flow, provide tractable approximations to the SSD, which is equivalent to an infinite ensemble RNL system. This infinite ensemble system, referred to as the stochastic structural stability theory system, introduces new analysis tools for studying turbulence. RNL systems provide computationally efficient means to approximate the SSD and produce self-sustaining turbulence exhibiting qualitative features similar to those observed in direct numerical simulations despite greatly simplified dynamics. The results presented show that RNL turbulence can be supported by as few as a single streamwise varying component interacting with the streamwise constant mean flow and that judicious selection of this truncated support or ‘band-limiting’ can be used to improve quantitative accuracy of RNL turbulence. These results suggest that the SSD approach provides new analytical and computational tools that allow new insights into wall turbulence. This article is part of the themed issue ‘Toward the development of high-fidelity models of wall turbulence at large Reynolds number’.


2005 ◽  
Vol 127 (2) ◽  
pp. 194-198 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rau´l Bayoa´n Cal, ◽  
Xia Wang, ◽  
Luciano Castillo

The problem of forced convection transpired turbulent boundary layers with external pressure gradient has been studied by using different scalings proposed by various researchers. Three major results were obtained: First, for adverse pressure gradient boundary layers with suction, the mean deficit profiles collapse with the free stream velocity, U∞, but into different curves depending on the strength of the blowing parameter and the upstream conditions. Second, the dependencies on the blowing parameter, the Reynolds number, and the strength of pressure gradient are removed from the outer flow when the mean deficit profiles are normalized by the Zagarola/Smits [Zagarola, M. V., and Smits, A. J., 1998, “Mean-Flow Scaling of Turbulent Pipe Flow,” J. Fluid Mech., 373, 33–79] scaling, U∞δ*/δ. Third, the temperature profiles collapse into a single curve using the new inner and outer scalings proposed by Wang and Castillo [Wang, X., and Castillo, L., 2003, “Asymptotic Solutions in Forced Convection Turbulent Boundary Layers,” J. Turbulence, 4(006)], which produce the true asymptotic profiles even at finite Pe´clet number.


2007 ◽  
Vol 571 ◽  
pp. 97-118 ◽  
Author(s):  
HEE CHANG LIM ◽  
IAN P. CASTRO ◽  
ROGER P. HOXEY

It is generally assumed that flows around wall-mounted sharp-edged bluff bodies submerged in thick turbulent boundary layers are essentially independent of the Reynolds number Re, provided that this exceeds some (2–3) × 104. (Re is based on the body height and upstream velocity at that height.) This is a particularization of the general principle of Reynolds-number similarity and it has important implications, most notably that it allows model scale testing in wind tunnels of, for example, atmospheric flows around buildings. A significant part of the literature on wind engineering thus describes work which implicitly rests on the validity of this assumption. This paper presents new wind-tunnel data obtained in the ‘classical’ case of thick fully turbulent boundary-layer flow over a surface-mounted cube, covering an Re range of well over an order of magnitude (that is, a factor of 22). The results are also compared with new field data, providing a further order of magnitude increase in Re. It is demonstrated that if on the one hand the flow around the obstacle does not contain strong concentrated-vortex motions (like the delta-wing-type motions present for a cube oriented at 45° to the oncoming flow), Re effects only appear on fluctuating quantities such as the r.m.s. fluctuating surface pressures. If, on the other hand, the flow is characterized by the presence of such vortex motions, Re effects are significant even on mean-flow quantities such as the mean surface pressures or the mean velocities near the surfaces. It is thus concluded that although, in certain circumstances and for some quantities, the Reynolds-number-independency assumption is valid, there are other important quantities and circumstances for which it is not.


1992 ◽  
Vol 238 ◽  
pp. 699-722 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. A. Durbin ◽  
S. E. Belcher

An asymptotic analysis is developed for turbulent boundary layers in strong adverse pressure gradients. It is found that the boundary layer divides into three distinguishable regions: these are the wall layer, the wake layer and a transition layer. This structure has two key differences from the zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer: the wall layer is not exponentially thinner than the wake; and the wake has a large velocity deficit, and cannot be linearized. The mean velocity profile has a y½ behaviour in the overlap layer between the wall and transition regions.The analysis is done in the context of eddy viscosity closure modelling. It is found that k-ε-type models are suitable to the wall region, and have a power-law solution in the y½ layer. The outer-region scaling precludes the usual ε-equation. The Clauser, constant-viscosity model is used in that region. An asymptotic expansion of the mean flow and matching between the three regions is carried out in order to determine the relation between skin friction and pressure gradient. Numerical calculations are done for self-similar flow. It is found that the surface shear stress is a double-valued function of the pressure gradient in a small range of pressure gradients.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document