Coherent Structures of Turbulence: Methods of Eduction and Results

2006 ◽  
Vol 59 (6) ◽  
pp. 307-323 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giancarlo Alfonsi
Keyword(s):  
Coherent Structures ◽  
Coherent Structure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mathematical Framework ◽  
Vortical Structures ◽  
Detection Techniques ◽  
Flow Phenomena ◽  
Definition Of ◽  
Inner Region ◽  
Proper Orthogonal

In this paper the issue of the coherent structures of turbulence developing in wall-bounded flows is addressed. After a short historical synthesis, some basic concepts are reviewed and the idea of coherent structure is introduced. The phenomena occurring in the inner and outer regions of the turbulent boundary layer in conjunction with the most widely used event-detection techniques are considered, with reference to the large amount of mainly experimental results existing on the subject. The flow phenomena are described in terms of events occurring in the inner region, large-scale motions developing in the outer layer and dynamics of vortical structures. In the second part of the paper, methods for the eduction of the coherent structures of turbulence from the background flow and results obtained in the framework of each method are presented. The techniques involving the invariants of the velocity gradient tensor, the analysis of the Hessian of the pressure and the proper orthogonal decomposition are considered. Each procedure involves a particular definition of coherent structure that is supported by an appropriate mathematical framework and permits the analysis of a turbulent-flow database in terms of dynamics of coherent structures. This work may contribute to the dissemination of the most recent concepts and techniques now in use in turbulence research among fluid dynamicists.

Visualizations of Flow Structures in the Rotor Passage of an Axial Compressor at the Onset of Stall

2017 ◽  
Vol 139 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Huang Chen ◽  
Yuanchao Li ◽  
David Tan ◽  
Joseph Katz
Keyword(s):  
High Speed ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Incidence Angle ◽  
Axial Compressor ◽  
Leading Edge ◽  
Suction Side ◽  
Stereoscopic Particle Image Velocimetry ◽  
High Speed Imaging ◽  
Vortical Structures ◽  
Flow Phenomena

Experiments preformed in the JHU refractive index matched facility examine flow phenomena developing in the rotor passage of an axial compressor at the onset of stall. High-speed imaging of cavitation performed at low pressures qualitatively visualizes vortical structures. Stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) measurements provide detailed snapshots and ensemble statistics of the flow in a series of meridional planes. At prestall condition, the tip leakage vortex (TLV) breaks up into widely distributed intermittent vortical structures shortly after rollup. The most prominent instability involves periodic formation of large-scale backflow vortices (BFVs) that extend diagonally upstream, from the suction side (SS) of one blade at midchord to the pressure side (PS) near the leading edge of the next blade. The 3D vorticity distributions obtained from data recorded in closely spaced planes show that the BFVs originate form at the transition between the high circumferential velocity region below the TLV center and the main passage flow radially inward from it. When the BFVs penetrate to the next passage across the tip gap or by circumventing the leading edge, they trigger a similar phenomenon there, sustaining the process. Further reduction in flow rate into the stall range increases the number and size of the backflow vortices, and they regularly propagate upstream of the leading edge of the next blade, where they increase the incidence angle in the tip corner. As this process proliferates circumferentially, the BFVs rotate with the blades, indicating that there is very little through flow across the tip region.

Large-scale coherent structures in the wake of axisymmetric bodies

1979 ◽  
Vol 93 (1) ◽  
pp. 185-207 ◽  
Author(s):  
H. V. Fuchs ◽  
E. Mercker ◽  
U. Michel
Keyword(s):  
Coherent Structures ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Axisymmetric Flow ◽  
Spatial Coherence ◽  
Power Spectra ◽  
Circular Disk ◽  
Wake Flow ◽  
Back Reaction ◽  
Flow Phenomena ◽  
Large Scale Flow

The unsteady flow past a circular disk is studied with hot-wire and microphone probes positioned in planes normal to the axis of symmetry at 3 and 9 disk diameters down-stream. Both the fluctuating velocity and pressure signals are shown to be continuously dominated by large-scale coherent motions enveloping the wake flow as a whole. This suggests narrowband two-point space correlations as an experimental tool for describing spatial coherence and phase characteristics of the basically random signals. The specific symmetry imposed by the axisymmetric boundary conditions of the disk enables a decomposition of the large-scale flow phenomena into relatively simple elementary structures or modes. The resulting azimuthal constituents are quantified in terms of their respective magnitudes and individual power spectra.The capability of the approach to uncover characteristic features of turbulence as far as its large-scale domain is concerned is demonstrated by a comparison of the present results with certain remarkably different features found in earlier jet flow investigations: the m = 1 and m = 2 modes are found to clearly dominate in wakes whereas the m = 0 and m = 1 modes were dominant in jets in a relevant range of Strouhal numbers. These large-scale coherent structures are more than just an interesting flow phenomenon; they must have a tremendou back-reaction on rigid flow boundaries (particularly if these allow a vibrational response) and may give rise to specific feedback mechanisms.The analysing technique proposed for studying large-scale flow phenomena injets and wakes removes part of the randomness in the turbulent signals without artificially exciting or forcing them in one way or another. No conditional sampling of the naturally occurring fluctuations is required, either. The method may be applicable to other than strictly axisymmetric flow configurations, too.

Coherent Structures in Shallow Water Jets

2011 ◽  
Vol 133 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-M. Shinneeb ◽  
J. D. Bugg ◽  
R. Balachandar
Keyword(s):  
Coherent Structures ◽  
Horizontal Plane ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Solid Wall ◽  
Vertical Wall ◽  
Vertical Plane ◽  
Vertical Direction ◽  
Particle Image Velocimetry System ◽  
Identification Algorithm ◽  
Vortical Structures

This paper reports an experimental investigation of a round jet discharging horizontally from a vertical wall into an isothermal body of water confined in the vertical direction by a flat wall on the bottom and a free surface on top. Specifically, this paper focuses on the effects of vertical confinement on the characteristics of large vortical structures. The jet exit velocity was 2.5 m/s, and the exit Reynolds number was 22,500. Experiments were performed at water layer depths corresponding to 15, 10, and 5 times the jet exit diameter (9 mm). The large-scale structures were exposed by performing a proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis of the velocity field obtained using a particle image velocimetry system. Measurements were made on vertical and horizontal planes—both containing the axis of the jet. All fields-of-view were positioned at an axial location in the range 10<x/D<80. The number of modes used for the POD reconstruction of the velocity fields was selected to recover ∼40% of the turbulent kinetic energy. A vortex identification algorithm was then employed to quantify the size, circulation, and direction of rotation of the exposed vortices. A statistical analysis of the distribution of number, size, and strength of the identified vortices was carried out to explore the characteristics of the coherent structures. The results clearly reveal the existence of numerous vortical structures of both rotational senses in the jet flow, and their number generally decreases in the axial direction while their size increases. The size of vortices identified in the vertical plane is restricted by the water depth, while they are allowed to increase in size in the horizontal plane. Moreover, the results show a significant decrease in the number of small vortices for the shallowest case in the horizontal plane, with a corresponding increase in the number of large vortices and a significant increase in their size. This behavior was accompanied with an increase in the vortex circulation in the horizontal plane and a reduction in the circulation in the vertical plane. This is indicative of the dominance of the pairing process due to shallowness. Moreover, the balance between the positive and negative vortices in the vertical plane changed because of the formation of negative (clockwise) vortices near the solid wall at downstream locations.

Effects of Outlier Flow Field on the Characteristics of In-Cylinder Coherent Structures Identified by Proper Orthogonal Decomposition-Based Conditional Averaging and Quadruple Proper Orthogonal Decomposition

2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Rui Gao ◽  
Li Shen ◽  
Kwee-Yan Teh ◽  
Penghui Ge ◽  
Fengnian Zhao ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Flow Field ◽  
Proper Orthogonal Decomposition ◽  
Coherent Structures ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Flow Fields ◽  
Orthogonal Decomposition ◽  
Engine Cylinder ◽  
Conditional Averaging ◽  
Proper Orthogonal ◽  
Engine Cycle

Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) offers an approach to quantify cycle-to-cycle variation (CCV) of the flow field inside the internal combustion engine cylinder. POD decomposes instantaneous flow fields (also called snapshots) into a series of orthonormal flow patterns (called POD modes) and the corresponding mode coefficients. The POD modes are rank-ordered by decreasing kinetic energy content, and the low-order, high-energy modes are interpreted as constituting the large-scale coherent flow structure that varies from engine cycle to engine cycle. Various POD-based analysis techniques have thus been proposed to characterize engine flow field CCV using these low-order modes. The validity of such POD-based analyses rests, as a matter of course, on the reliability of the underlying POD results (modes and coefficients). Yet a POD mode can be disproportionately skewed by a single outlier snapshot within a large data set, and an algorithm exists to define and identify such outliers. In this paper, the effects of a candidate outlier snapshot on the results of POD-based conditional averaging and quadruple POD analyses are examined for two sets of crank angle-resolved flow fields on the midtumble plane of an optical engine cylinder recorded by high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV). The results with and without the candidate outlier are compared and contrasted. In the case of POD-based conditional averaging, the presence of the outlier scrambles the composition of snapshot subsets that define large-scale flow pattern variations, and thus substantially alters the coherent flow structures that are identified; for quadruple POD, the shape of coherent structures and the number of modes to define them are not significantly affected by the outlier.

On the coherent structure of the axisymmetric mixing layer: a flow-visualization study

1981 ◽  
Vol 104 ◽  
pp. 263-294 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. K. M. F. Hussain ◽  
A. R. Clark
Keyword(s):  
Coherent Structures ◽  
Coherent Structure ◽  
High Speed ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Mixing Layer ◽  
Space Time ◽  
Convection Velocity ◽  
Low Speed ◽  
Large Scale Structures ◽  
Scale Structures

In an effort to resolve some controversies regarding the turbulent mixing-layer structure, the near field of a large (18 cm diameter) air jet has been investigated for the jet exit speed of 30 m s−1. The smoke-laden axisymmetric mixing layer has been illuminated by a thin sheet of laser light in an azimuthal plane passing through the jet axis. High-speed visualization films of the mixing layer in the region of its self-preservation (of which a few picture sequences depicting space-time evolutions of the structure of the layer are presented) reveal that most of the time the mixing layer is in a state of disorganization, consisting of relatively smaller scale, random and diffuse turbulent motions; only occasionally are organized distinct large-scale coherent structures formed. The survival distances of the large-scale structures are found to be comparable to their average sizes. The survival time of these structures is about one ‘turnover’ time, each being roughly about five times the local characteristic time scale of the mixing layer. It is seen that tearing is as dominant a mode of large-scale interaction as pairing is; large-scale structures are continually sheared and typically fragmented due to a segment on the high-speed side being torn and swept away from the slower-moving outer portion. Evolution of the large structures occur not primarily through complete pairing as widely believed but quite frequently through ‘fractional pairing’ between segments which have been torn from different upstream large-scale coherent structures or through ‘partial pairing’ when one structure captures only a part of another. The movies show that along with entrainment of non-vortical ambient fluid, radially outward ejection of vortical fluid into the ambient is an important aspect of jet mixing. From aligned displays of ciné film frame sequences, space-time trajectories of identifiable vortical fluid elements have been traced. The convection velocity variation across the shear layer and even the overall structure convection velocity measured from these trajectories agree with those determined from the wave-number-celerity spectra, obtained from double-Fourier transformation of longitudinal velocity space-time correlation measurements with hot-wires.The visualization films do not bear out the two-street vortex ring model recently propounded by Lau. Based on our observations, we propose that tearing, ‘slippage’ and fractional and partial pairings are responsible for the observed radial variation of structure passage frequency, and the causes of the different coherent structures educed by Bruun on the high- and low-speed sides of the mixing layer and for Yule's failure in educing a coherent structure on the low-speed side of the layer.

scholarly journals Lagrangian coherent structures and entrainment near the turbulent/non-turbulent interface of a gravity current

2019 ◽  
Vol 877 ◽  
pp. 824-843 ◽  
Author(s):  
Marius M. Neamtu-Halic ◽  
Dominik Krug ◽  
George Haller ◽  
Markus Holzner
Keyword(s):  
Coherent Structures ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Gravity Current ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Lagrangian Coherent Structures ◽  
Flow Measurements ◽  
Vortical Structures ◽  
Entrainment Velocity ◽  
Extraction Algorithm ◽  
Entrainment Process

In this paper, we employ the theory of Lagrangian coherent structures for three-dimensional vortex eduction and investigate the effect of large-scale vortical structures on the turbulent/non-turbulent interface (TNTI) and entrainment of a gravity current. The gravity current is realized experimentally and different levels of stratification are examined. For flow measurements, we use a multivolume three-dimensional particle tracking velocimetry technique. To identify vortical Lagrangian coherent structures (VLCSs), a fully automated three-dimensional extraction algorithm for multiple flow structures based on the so-called Lagrangian-averaged vorticity deviation method is implemented. The size, the orientation and the shape of the VLCSs are analysed and the results show that these characteristics depend only weakly on the strength of the stratification. Through conditional analysis, we provide evidence that VLCSs modulate the average TNTI height, consequently affecting the entrainment process. Furthermore, VLCSs influence the local entrainment velocity and organize the flow field on both the turbulent and non-turbulent sides of the gravity current boundary.

Reconstruction of the global velocity field in the axisymmetric mixing layer utilizing the proper orthogonal decomposition

2000 ◽  
Vol 418 ◽  
pp. 137-166 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. H. CITRINITI ◽  
W. K. GEORGE
Keyword(s):  
Velocity Field ◽  
Coherent Structures ◽  
Time Scale ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Large Scale Structure ◽  
Ring Structure ◽  
Scale Structure ◽  
Orthogonal Decomposition ◽  
Potential Core ◽  
Proper Orthogonal

Experimental data are presented from 138 synchronized channels of hot-wire anemometry in an investigation of the large-scale, or coherent, structures in a high Reynolds number fully developed, turbulent axisymmetric shear layer. The dynamics of the structures are obtained from instantaneous realizations of the streamwise velocity field in a single plane, x/D = 3, downstream of a round jet nozzle. The Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) technique is applied to an ensemble of these realizations to determine optimal representations of the velocity field, in a mean-square sense, in terms of an orthogonal basis. The coefficients of the orthogonal functions, which describe the temporal evolution of the POD eigenfunctions, are determined by projecting instantaneous realizations of the velocity field onto the basis.Evidence is presented to show that with a partial reconstruction of the velocity field, using only the first radial POD mode, the large-scale structure is objectively educed from the turbulent field. Further, it is shown that only five azimuthal Fourier modes (0,3,4,5,6) are necessary to represent the evolution of the large-scale structure. The results of the velocity reconstruction using the POD provide evidence for azimuthally coherent structures that exist near the potential core. In addition to the azimuthal structures near the potential core, evidence is also found for the presence of counter-rotating, streamwise vortex pairs (or ribs) in the region between successive azimuthally coherent structures as well as coexisting for short periods with them. The large-scale structure cycle, which includes the appearance of the ring structure, the advection of fluid by the ribs in the braid region and their advection toward the outside of the layer by a following ring structure, repeats approximately every one integral time scale. One surprising result was that the most spatially correlated structure in the flow, the coherent ring near the potential core which ejects fluid in the streamwise direction in a volcano-like eruption, is also the one with the shortest time scale.

scholarly journals Wind Tunnel Study on Wake Instability of Twin H-Rotor Vertical-Axis Turbines

Energies ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (17) ◽  
pp. 4310 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kun Wang ◽  
Li Zou ◽  
Aimin Wang ◽  
Peidong Zhao ◽  
Yichen Jiang
Keyword(s):  
Coherent Structures ◽  
Coherent Structure ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Turbine Blades ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Vertical Axis ◽  
Frequency Instability ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Cascade Process ◽  
Tidal Power

In recent years, the H-rotor vertical-axis turbine has attracted considerable attention in the field of wind and tidal power generation. After a series of complex spatiotemporal evolutions, the vortex shed from turbine blades forms a turbulent wake with a multi-scale coherent structure. An analysis of the wake characteristics of twin turbines forms the basis of array optimisation. This study aimed to examine the instability characteristics of a twin-turbine wake with two rotational configurations. The dynamic evolution characteristics of coherent structures with different scales in the wake were analysed via wavelet analysis. The results show that an inverse energy cascade process occurs after the high-frequency small-scale coherent structures induced by rotation lose their coherence. This self-organising characteristic is more apparent in the quasi two-dimensional wake of a forward-moving counter-rotating turbine (Array 1) than in that of a backward-moving counter-rotating turbine (Array 2). With greater organisation and coherence, the wake of Array 1 exhibits low-frequency instability characteristics dominated by a large-scale coherent structure. In addition, the signals reconstructed using wavelet transform show that asymmetric modes exist between low-frequency large-scale coherent structures. The experimental results provide a new perspective on the instability mechanism of twin-turbine wakes, as well as important data for numerical modelling.

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