The Present State of the Turbulence Problem

1933 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 19-28
Author(s):  
Walter Tollmien

Abstract In this survey the author first describes certain types of turbulent flow, following which he deals successively with the production of turbulent motion; the instability of the laminar motion; fully developed turbulence; momentum interchange and mixing lengths; and relations between the shearing stress at the wall and the mean velocity distributions. Finally he takes up the calculation of skin friction for simple cases of fully developed turbulence, especially for that of the flat plate. Although the methods outlined have often led to practically useful results, it is the author’s belief that they should be considered only as advances toward the real goal of the turbulence theory. The derivation of turbulence phenomena from the hydrodynamical equations will, in his opinion, be possible only by the application of statistical methods.

Author(s):  
Redha Wahidi ◽  
Walid Chakroun ◽  
Sami Al-Fahad

Turbulent boundary layer flows over a flat plate with multiple transverse square grooves spaced 10 element widths apart were investigated. Mean velocity profiles, turbulence intensity profiles, and the distributions of the skin-friction coefficients (Cf) and the integral parameters are presented for two grooved walls. The two transverse square groove sizes investigated are 5mm and 2.5mm. Laser-Doppler Anemometer (LDA) was used for the mean velocity and turbulence intensity measurements. The skin-friction coefficient was determined from the gradient of the mean velocity profiles in the viscous sublayer. Distribution of Cf in the first grooved-wall case (5mm) shows that Cf overshoots downstream of the groove and then oscillates within the uncertainty range and never shows the expected undershoot in Cf. The same overshoot is seen in the second grooved-wall case (2.5mm), however, Cf continues to oscillate above the uncertainty range and never returns to the smooth-wall value. The mean velocity profiles clearly represent the behavior of Cf where a downward shift is seen in the Cf overshoot region and no upward shift is seen in these profiles. The results show that the smaller grooves exhibit larger effects on Cf, however, the boundary layer responses to these effects in a slower rate than to those of the larger grooves.


1976 ◽  
Vol 77 (3) ◽  
pp. 473-497 ◽  
Author(s):  
L. J. S. Bradbury

This paper describes an investigation into the response of both the pulsed-wire anemometer and the hot-wire anemometer in a highly turbulent flow. The first part of the paper is concerned with a theoretical study of some aspects of the response of these instruments in a highly turbulent flow. It is shown that, under normal operating conditions, the pulsed-wire anemometer should give mean velocity and longitudinal turbulent intensity estimates to an accuracy of better than 10% without any restriction on turbulence level. However, to attain this accuracy in measurements of turbulent intensities normal to the mean flow direction, there is a lower limit on the turbulent intensity of about 50%. An analysis is then carried out of the behaviour of the hot-wire anemometer in a highly turbulent flow. It is found that the large errors that are known to develop are very sensitive to the precise structure of the turbulence, so that even qualitative use of hot-wire data in such flows is not feasible. Some brief comments on the possibility of improving the accuracy of the hot-wire anemometer are then given.The second half of the paper describes some comparative measurements in the highly turbulent flow immediately downstream of a normal flat plate. It is shown that, although it is not possible to interpret the hot-wire results on their own, it is possible to calculate the hot-wire response with a surprising degree of accuracy using the results from the pulsed-wire anemometer. This provides a rather indirect but none the less welcome check on the accuracy of the pulsed-wire results, which, in this very highly turbulent flow, have a certain interest in their own right.


The mechanism by means of which momentum is transmitted to a solid surface, in order that it may exert a drag on a fluid flowing past it, is at present understood only very imperfectly. It seems certain, however, that the law of dynamical similarity is applicable to skin friction; if therefore it were possible to measure the tangential force exerted by the wind as it blows over a large tract of land, it should be equal to the skin friction on a similar small surface when subjected to the action of the very high wind which would correspond with the same value of l V/ v . In reducing the tract of land to a similar small flat plate, the trees and houses would be reduced to a mere roughness on the plate. It is to be expected therefore that, if the skin friction on unit area of the earth's surface be expressed in the form F = kp Q 2 s , (1) Q s being the wind velocity near the surface and p the density of air, the constant k will be the same as the constant which would be found in the laboratory by experimenting with a small, slightly roughened plate, if a sufficiently high value of l V/ v , could be obtained. It should be noticed, however, that the velocity which should be compared with is the velocity close to the solid surface and not the general velocity of the air in the case of a flat plate, or the mean velocity over a cross section in the case of flow in a pipe.


Kármán and Prandtl were the first investigators to publish theoretical ults for problems of turbulent flow involving plane boundaries. Before nsidering any particular problem the general considerations of these iters will be outlined. Prandtl's is, perhaps, the easier method to follow. He considered a bulent motion in which the mean velocity u remains parallel to a tain direction—O x , say,—and is a function of y only, O y being perpendicular to O x , and he arrived at the result τ = ρ l 2 | du / dy | du / dy (1) the shearing stress, where ρ is the density of the fluid and l is a length, led the mixing length; it is the analogue of the mean free path in the etic theory of gases. The conception of the mixing length of the sent problem is physically much less surely grounded than the mean e path of the kinetic theory.


1984 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 165-170
Author(s):  
L.P. Hackman ◽  
A.B. Strong ◽  
G.D. Raithby

This paper reports predictions of the mean velocity, the turbulent kinetic energy and the pressure and skin friction coefficients for turbulent flow over a backward facing step based on the standard k – ε closure for the turbulence shear stresses. In previous publications, errors due to the numerical algorithm as distinct from the turbulence model have been carefully assessed using different numerical schemes and finite volume geometries and it is argued that the current results are numerically accurate. Thus one can now assess the accuracy of the k – ε model of turbulence independently of numerical error. The results predicted herein were found to be in reasonable agreement with relevant experimental data.


2019 ◽  
Vol 142 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Minghan Chu ◽  
Donald J. Bergstrom

Abstract The present paper reports a numerical study of fully developed turbulent flow over a flat plate with a step change from a smooth to a rough surface. The Reynolds number based on momentum thickness for the smooth flow was Reθ=5950. The focus of the study was to investigate the capability of the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations to predict the internal boundary layer (IBL) created by the flow configuration. The numerical solution used a two-layer k−ε model to implement the effects of surface roughness on the turbulence and mean flow fields via the use of a hydrodynamic roughness length y0. The prediction for the mean velocity field revealed a development zone immediately downstream of the step in which the mean velocity profile included a lower region affected by the surface roughness below and an upper region with the characteristics of the smooth-wall boundary layer above. In this zone, both the turbulence kinetic energy and Reynolds shear stress profiles were characterized by a significant reduction in magnitude in the outer region of the flow that is unaffected by the rough surface. The turbulence kinetic energy profile was used to estimate the thickness of the IBL, and the resulting growth rate closely matched the experimental results. As such, the IBL is a promising test case for assessing the ability of RANS models to predict the discrete roughness configurations often encountered in industrial and environmental applications.


2018 ◽  
Vol 140 (8) ◽  
Author(s):  
Pascal Bader ◽  
Manuel Pschernig ◽  
Wolfgang Sanz ◽  
Jakob Woisetschläger ◽  
Franz Heitmeir ◽  
...  

Flow in turbomachines is generally highly turbulent. Nonetheless, boundary layers may exhibit laminar-to-turbulent transition, and relaminarization of the turbulent flow may also occur. The state of flow of the boundary layer is important since it influences transport phenomena like skin friction and heat transfer. In this paper, relaminarization in accelerated flat-plate boundary-layer flows is experimentally investigated, measuring flow velocities with laser Doppler anemometry (LDA). Besides the mean values, statistical properties of the velocity fluctuations are discussed in order to understand the processes in relaminarization. It is shown that strong acceleration leads to a suppression of turbulence production. The velocity fluctuations in the accelerated boundary layer flow “freeze,” while the mean velocity increases, thus reducing the turbulence intensity. This leads to a laminar-like velocity profile close to the wall, resulting in a decrease of the local skin friction coefficient. Downstream from the section with enforced relaminarization, a rapid retransition to turbulent flow is observed. The findings of this work also describe the mechanism of retransition.


1960 ◽  
Vol 12 ◽  
pp. 376-384 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. V. R. Malkus

In the study of turbulent flows similarity arguments are used to explore the consequences of non-mechanistic assertions concerning the general behavior of the flow. For example, it is currently assumed that viscosity plays no role in the determination of the mean velocity profile of turbulent shearing flow far from a boundary. The consequences of this assumption are that the amplitude of the mean velocity will be determined by the momentum transported into such a region and that the velocity profile will be a solution to Euler's equations.


1971 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 165-175 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hiroshi Ishigaki

The time-mean skin friction of the laminar boundary layer on a flat plate which is fixed at zero incidence in a fluctuating stream is investigated analytically. Flow oscillation amplitude outside the boundary layer is assumed constant along the surface. First, the small velocity-amplitude case is treated, and approximate formulae are obtained in the extreme cases when the frequency is low and high. Next, the finite velocity-amplitude case is treated under the condition of high frequency, and it is found that the formula obtained for the small-amplitude and high-frequency case is also valid. These results show that the increase of the mean skin friction reduces with frequency and is ultimately inversely proportional to the square of frequency.The corresponding energy equation is also studied simultaneously under the condition of zero heat transfer between the fluid and the surface. It is confirmed that the time-mean surface temperature increases with frequency and tends to be proportional to the square root of frequency. Moreover, it is shown that the timemean recovery factor can be several times as large as that without flow oscillation.


1953 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-114
Author(s):  
S. I. Pai

Abstract The Reynolds equations of motion of turbulent flow of incompressible fluid have been studied for turbulent flow between parallel plates. The number of these equations is finally reduced to two. One of these consists of mean velocity and correlation between transverse and longitudinal turbulent-velocity fluctuations u 1 ′ u 2 ′ ¯ only. The other consists of the mean pressure and transverse turbulent-velocity intensity. Some conclusions about the mean pressure distribution and turbulent fluctuations are drawn. These equations are applied to two special cases: One is Poiseuille flow in which both plates are at rest and the other is Couette flow in which one plate is at rest and the other is moving with constant velocity. The mean velocity distribution and the correlation u 1 ′ u 2 ′ ¯ can be expressed in a form of polynomial of the co-ordinate in the direction perpendicular to the plates, with the ratio of shearing stress on the plate to that of the corresponding laminar flow of the same maximum velocity as a parameter. These expressions hold true all the way across the plates, i.e., both the turbulent region and viscous layer including the laminar sublayer. These expressions for Poiseuille flow have been checked with experimental data of Laufer fairly well. It also shows that the logarithmic mean velocity distribution is not a rigorous solution of Reynolds equations.


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