Transition to turbulence at the bottom of a solitary wave

2012 ◽  
Vol 709 ◽  
pp. 396-407 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Blondeaux ◽  
Jan Pralits ◽  
Giovanna Vittori

AbstractA linear stability analysis of the laminar flow in the boundary layer at the bottom of a solitary wave is made to determine the conditions leading to transition and the appearance of turbulence. The Reynolds number of the phenomenon is assumed to be large and a ‘momentary’ criterion of instability is used. The results show that the laminar regime becomes unstable during the decelerating phase, when the height of the solitary wave exceeds a threshold value which depends on the ratio between the boundary layer thickness and the local water depth. A comparison of the theoretical results with the experimental measurements of Sumer et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 646, 2010, pp. 207–231) supports the analysis.

2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (33) ◽  
pp. 17
Author(s):  
Paolo Blondeaux ◽  
Jan Pralits ◽  
Giovanna Vittori

The conditions leading to transition and turbulence appearance at the bottom of a solitary wave are determined by means of a linear stability analysis of the laminar flow in the bottom boundary layer. The ratio between the wave amplitude and the thickness of the viscous bottom boundary layer is assumed to be large and a 'momentary' criterion of instability is used. The results obtained show that the laminar regime becomes unstable, during the decelerating phase, if the height of the wave is larger than a threshold value which depends on the ratio between the boundary layer thickness and the local water depth. A comparison of the theoretical results with the experimental measurements of Sumer et al. (2010) seems to support the stability analysis.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (33) ◽  
pp. 22 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bambang Winarta ◽  
Hitoshi Tanaka ◽  
Hiroto Yamaji

This paper reports on continues an experimental investigation of characterizing transition to turbulence for solitary wave boundary layer in a smooth bed condition. A series of experiments have been carried out by means of a closed conduit solitary wave generation system over the Reynolds number (Re) range 5.64 x 105 – 7.34 x 105. Additionally, the instantaneous velocities were measured by using a Laser Doppler Veloci-meter (LDV) over 50 wave numbers and at 17 to 22 points in the vertical direction. The turbulence intermittency has been analyzed based on experimental data. Moreover, momentum method has been employed for calculating bottom shear stress for all cases. And then, the turbulence intensity is plotted to give clearly description how turbulence generated in the various values of Re. The phase difference and wave friction factor obtained from the present experiment has an excellent agreement with the result of previous studies. Inconsistency critical Reynolds number (Recr) can be found in solitary wave case in terms of phase difference and wave friction factor, this observable fact is difference with sinusoidal wave case which has consistency in Recr.


2021 ◽  
Vol 928 ◽  
Author(s):  
Paolo Blondeaux ◽  
Jan Oscar Pralits ◽  
Giovanna Vittori

This study contributes to an improved understanding of the stability of the boundary layer generated at the bottom of a propagating surface wave of small but finite amplitude such that both a second harmonic component and a steady streaming component, which are superimposed on the main oscillatory flow, assume significant values. A linear stability analysis of the laminar flow is made to determine the conditions leading to transition and turbulence appearance. The Reynolds number of the phenomenon is assumed to be large and a ‘momentary’ criterion of stability is used. The results show that, at a given location, the laminar regime becomes unstable when the flow close to the bottom reverses its direction from the onshore to the offshore direction and the Reynolds number exceeds a first critical value $R_{\delta ,c1}$ . However, close to the critical condition, the flow is expected to relaminarize during the other phases of the cycle. Only when the Reynolds number is increased does turbulence tend to appear also after the passage of the wave trough when the flow close to the bottom reverses from the offshore to the onshore direction. When the Reynolds number is further increased and becomes larger than a second ‘threshold’ value, the growth rate of the perturbations becomes positive over the entire wave period. The obtained results suggest the existence of four different flow regimes: the laminar regime, the disturbed laminar regime, the intermittently turbulent regime and the fully developed turbulent regime.


1986 ◽  
Vol 108 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. A. Cumpsty

There are few available measurements of the boundary layers in multistage compressors when the repeating-stage condition is reached. These tests were performed in a small four-stage compressor; the flow was essentially incompressible and the Reynolds number based on blade chord was about 5 • 104. Two series of tests were performed; in one series the full design number of blades were installed, in the other series half the blades were removed to reduce the solidity and double the staggered spacing. Initially it was wished to examine the hypothesis proposed by Smith [1] that staggered spacing is a particularly important scaling parameter for boundary layer thickness; the results of these tests and those of Hunter and Cumpsty [2] tend to suggest that it is tip clearance which is most potent in determining boundary-layer integral thicknesses. The integral thicknesses agree quite well with those published by Smith.


2019 ◽  
Vol 141 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Yousef Kanani ◽  
Sumanta Acharya ◽  
Forrest Ames

Vane pressure side heat transfer is studied numerically using large eddy simulation (LES) on an aft-loaded vane with a large leading edge over a range of turbulence conditions. Numerical simulations are performed in a linear cascade at exit chord Reynolds number of Re = 5.1 × 105 at low (Tu ≈ 0.7%), moderate (Tu ≈ 7.9%), and high (Tu ≈ 12.4%) freestream turbulence with varying length scales as prescribed by the experimental measurements of Varty and Ames (2016, “Experimental Heat Transfer Distributions Over an Aft Loaded Vane With a Large Leading Edge at Very High Turbulence Levels,” ASME Paper No. IMECE2016-67029). Heat transfer predictions on the vane pressure side are in a very good agreement with the experimental measurements and the heat transfer augmentation due to the freestream turbulence is well captured. At Tu ≈ 12.4%, freestream turbulence enhances the Stanton number on the pressure surface without boundary layer transition to turbulence by a maximum of about 50% relative to the low freestream turbulence case. Higher freestream turbulence generates elongated structures and high-velocity streaks wrapped around the leading edge that contain significant energy. Amplification of the velocity streaks is observed further downstream with max rms of 0.3 near the trailing edge but no transition to turbulence or formation of turbulence spots is observed on the pressure side. The heat transfer augmentation at the higher freestream turbulence is primarily due to the initial amplification of the low-frequency velocity perturbations inside the boundary layer that persist along the entire chord of the airfoil. Stanton numbers appear to scale with the streamwise velocity fluctuations inside the boundary layer.


2009 ◽  
Vol 131 (7) ◽  
Author(s):  
Young T. Shen ◽  
Scott Gowing ◽  
Stuart Jessup

Tip vortices generated by marine lifting surfaces such as propeller blades, ship rudders, hydrofoil wings, and antiroll fins can lead to cavitation. Prediction of the onset of this cavitation depends on model tests at Reynolds numbers much lower than those for the corresponding full-scale flows. The effect of Reynolds number variations on the scaling of tip vortex cavitation inception is investigated using a theoretical flow similarity approach. The ratio of the circulations in the full-scale and model-scale trailing vortices is obtained by assuming that the spanwise distributions of the section lift coefficients are the same between the model-scale and the full-scale. The vortex pressure distributions and core sizes are derived using the Rankine vortex model and McCormick’s assumption about the dependence of the vortex core size on the boundary layer thickness at the tip region. Using a logarithmic law to describe the velocity profile in the boundary layer over a large range of Reynolds number, the boundary layer thickness becomes dependent on the Reynolds number to a varying power. In deriving the scaling of the cavitation inception index as the ratio of Reynolds numbers to an exponent m, the values of m are not constant and are dependent on the values of the model- and full-scale Reynolds numbers themselves. This contrasts traditional scaling for which m is treated as a fixed value that is independent of Reynolds numbers. At very high Reynolds numbers, the present theory predicts the value of m to approach zero, consistent with the trend of these flows to become inviscid. Comparison of the present theory with available experimental data shows promising results, especially with recent results from high Reynolds number tests. Numerical examples of the values of m are given for different model- to full-scale sizes and Reynolds numbers.


2016 ◽  
Vol 801 ◽  
pp. 289-321 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wolfgang Balzer ◽  
H. F. Fasel

The aerodynamic performance of lifting surfaces operating at low Reynolds number conditions is impaired by laminar separation. In most cases, transition to turbulence occurs in the separated shear layer as a result of a series of strong hydrodynamic instability mechanisms. Although the understanding of these mechanisms has been significantly advanced over the past decades, key questions remain unanswered about the influence of external factors such as free-stream turbulence (FST) and others on transition and separation. The present study is driven by the need for more accurate predictions of separation and transition phenomena in ‘real world’ applications, where elevated levels of FST can play a significant role (e.g. turbomachinery). Numerical investigations have become an integral part in the effort to enhance our understanding of the intricate interactions between separation and transition. Due to the development of advanced numerical methods and the increase in the performance of supercomputers with parallel architecture, it has become feasible for low Reynolds number application ($O(10^{5})$) to carry out direct numerical simulations (DNS) such that all relevant spatial and temporal scales are resolved without the use of turbulence modelling. Because the employed high-order accurate DNS are characterized by very low levels of background noise, they lend themselves to transition research where the amplification of small disturbances, sometimes even growing from numerical round-off, can be examined in great detail. When comparing results from DNS and experiment, however, it is beneficial, if not necessary, to increase the background disturbance levels in the DNS to levels that are typical for the experiment. For the current work, a numerical model that emulates a realistic free-stream turbulent environment was adapted and implemented into an existing Navier–Stokes code based on a vorticity–velocity formulation. The role FST plays in the transition process was then investigated for a laminar separation bubble forming on a flat plate. FST was shown to cause the formation of the well-known Klebanoff mode that is represented by streamwise-elongated streaks inside the boundary layer. Increasing the FST levels led to accelerated transition, a reduction in bubble size and better agreement with the experiments. Moreover, the stage of linear disturbance growth due to the inviscid shear-layer instability was found to not be ‘bypassed’.


1973 ◽  
Vol 95 (2) ◽  
pp. 229-235 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. P. Johnston

Stabilization of turbulent boundary layer type flows by the action of Coriolis forces engendered by system rotation is studied. Experiments on fully developed, two-dimensional flow in a long, straight channel that was rotated about an axis perpendicular to the plane of mean shear are reviewed to demonstrate the principal effects of stabilization. In particular, the delay of transition to turbulence on the stabilized side of the channel to high Reynolds number (u¯mh/ν) as the rotation number (|Ω|h/u¯m) is increased is demonstrated. A simple method which utilizes the eddy Reynolds number criterion of Bradshaw, is employed to show that rotation-induced suppression of transition may be predicted for the channel flow case. The applicability of the predictive method to boundary layer type flows is indicated.


Author(s):  
Ralph J. Volino

Boundary layer separation, transition and reattachment have been studied on a new, very high lift, low-pressure turbine airfoil. Experiments were done under low freestream turbulence conditions on a linear cascade in a low speed wind tunnel. Pressure surveys on the airfoil surface and downstream total pressure loss surveys were documented. Velocity profiles were acquired in the suction side boundary layer at several streamwise locations using hot-wire anemometry. Cases were considered at Reynolds numbers (based on the suction surface length and the nominal exit velocity from the cascade) ranging from 25,000 to 330,000. In all cases the boundary layer separated, but at high Reynolds number the separation bubble remained very thin and quickly reattached after transition to turbulence. In the low Reynolds number cases, the boundary layer separated and did not reattach, even when transition occurred. This behavior contrasts with previous research on other airfoils, in which transition, if it occurred, always induced reattachment, regardless of Reynolds number.


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