Identifying the tangle of vortex tubes in homogeneous isotropic turbulence

2019 ◽  
Vol 874 ◽  
pp. 952-978 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shiying Xiong ◽  
Yue Yang

We extend the vortex-surface field (VSF), whose isosurface is a vortex surface consisting of vortex lines, to identify vortex tubes and sheets in homogeneous isotropic turbulence. The VSF at a time instant is constructed by solving a pseudo-transport equation. This equation is convected by a given instantaneous vorticity obtained from direct numerical simulation. In each pseudo-time step, we develop a novel local optimization algorithm to minimize a hybrid VSF constraint, balancing the accuracy and smoothness of VSF solutions. This key improvement makes the numerical construction of VSFs feasible for arbitrarily complex flow fields, as a general flow diagnostic tool. In the visualization of VSF isosurfaces in decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence, the initial curved vortex sheets first evolve into vortex tubes, and then the vortex tubes are stretched and tangled, constituting a complex network. Some vortex tubes exhibit helical geometry, which suggests the important role of vortex twisting in the generation of small-scale structures in energy cascade.

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (10) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mohamad Ibrahim Cheikh ◽  
James Chen ◽  
Mingjun Wei

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wojciech W. Grabowski ◽  
Lois Thomas

Abstract. Increase of the spectral width of initially monodisperse population of cloud droplets in homogeneous isotropic turbulence is investigated applying a finite-difference fluid flow model combined with either Eulerian bin microphysics or Lagrangian particle-based scheme. The turbulence is forced applying a variant of the so-called linear forcing method that maintains the mean turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) and the TKE partitioning between velocity components. The latter is important for maintaining the quasi-steady forcing of the supersaturation fluctuations that drive the increase of the spectral width. We apply a large computational domain, 643 m3, one of the domains considered in Thomas et al. (2020). The simulations apply 1 m grid length and are in the spirit of the implicit large eddy simulation (ILES), that is, with explicit small-scale dissipation provided by the model numerics. This is in contrast to the scaled-up direct numerical simulation (DNS) applied in Thomas et al. (2020). Two TKE intensities and three different droplet concentrations are considered. Analytic solutions derived in Sardina et al. (2015), valid for the case when the turbulence time scale is much larger than the droplet phase relaxation time scale, are used to guide the comparison between the two microphysics simulation techniques. The Lagrangian approach reproduces the scalings relatively well. Representing the spectral width increase in time is more challenging for the bin microphysics because appropriately high resolution in the bin space is needed. The bin width of 0.5 μm is only sufficient for the lowest droplet concentration, 26 cm−3. For the highest droplet concentration, 650 cm−3, even an order of magnitude smaller bin size is not sufficient. The scalings are not expected to be valid for the lowest droplet concentration and the high TKE case, and the two microphysics schemes represent similar departures. Finally, because the fluid flow is the same for all simulations featuring either low or high TKE, one can compare point-by-point simulation results. Such a comparison shows very close temperature and water vapor point-by-point values across the computational domain, and larger differences between simulated mean droplet radii and spectral width. The latter are explained by fundamental differences in the two simulation methodologies, numerical diffusion in the Eulerian bin approach and relatively small number of Lagrangian particles that are used in the particle-based microphysics.


1991 ◽  
pp. 422-434 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. C. R. Hunt ◽  
J. C. H. Fung ◽  
N. A. Malik ◽  
R. J. Perkins ◽  
J. C. Vassilicos ◽  
...  

2015 ◽  
Vol 112 (41) ◽  
pp. 12633-12638 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. K. Yeung ◽  
X. M. Zhai ◽  
Katepalli R. Sreenivasan

We have performed direct numerical simulations of homogeneous and isotropic turbulence in a periodic box with 8,1923grid points. These are the largest simulations performed, to date, aimed at improving our understanding of turbulence small-scale structure. We present some basic statistical results and focus on “extreme” events (whose magnitudes are several tens of thousands the mean value). The structure of these extreme events is quite different from that of moderately large events (of the order of 10 times the mean value). In particular, intense vorticity occurs primarily in the form of tubes for moderately large events whereas it is much more “chunky” for extreme events (though probably overlaid on the traditional vortex tubes). We track the temporal evolution of extreme events and find that they are generally short-lived. Extreme magnitudes of energy dissipation rate and enstrophy occur simultaneously in space and remain nearly colocated during their evolution.


2003 ◽  
Vol 56 (6) ◽  
pp. 615-632 ◽  
Author(s):  
RA Antonia ◽  
P Orlandi

Previous reviews of the behavior of passive scalars which are convected and mixed by turbulent flows have focused primarily on the case when the Prandtl number Pr, or more generally, the Schmidt number Sc is around 1. The present review considers the extra effects which arise when Sc differs from 1. It focuses mainly on information obtained from direct numerical simulations of homogeneous isotropic turbulence which either decays or is maintained in steady state. The first case is of interest since it has attracted significant theoretical attention and can be related to decaying turbulence downstream of a grid. Topics covered in the review include spectra and structure functions of the scalar, the topology and isotropy of the small-scale scalar field, as well as the correlation between the fluctuating rate of strain and the scalar dissipation rate. In each case, the emphasis is on the dependence with respect to Sc. There are as yet unexplained differences between results on forced and unforced simulations of homogeneous isotropic turbulence. There are 144 references cited in this review article.


1994 ◽  
Vol 47 (6S) ◽  
pp. S70-S74 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. R. Maxey ◽  
E. J. Chang ◽  
L. -P. Wang

Microbubbles formed by small air bubbles in water are characterized as spherical inclusions that are essentially rigid due to the effects of surfactants, and respond to the action of drag forces and added-mass effects from the motion relative to the surrounding fluid. Direct numerical simulations of homogeneous, isotropic turbulence are used to study the effects of the small-scale, dissipation range turbulence on microbubble transport and in particular the average rise velocity of microbubbles. It is found that microbubbles rise significantly more slowly than in still fluid even in the absence of a mean flow, due to a strong interaction with the small-scale vorticity. The way in which microbubbles might modify the underlying turbulence by the variations in their local distribution is discussed for dilute, dispersed systems and some estimates for the enhanced viscous dissipation given.


2022 ◽  
Vol 258 ◽  
pp. 10008
Author(s):  
Oleg Teryaev ◽  
Valentin Zakharov

The interplay between classical vorticity being the main undisputed source of polarization in heavy-ion collisions (HIC) and quantized vortices is considered. The vortex tubes emerging in the rotating pionic (super) fluid polarize the baryons in their cores and explain the emerging global polarization. The appearance of vortices in the region separating participants and spectators in non-central HIC is similar to that for sliding layers of liquid helium. From the other side, it is also the region where the classical vorticity was earlier found to be large forming the vortex sheets. The formation of tubes manifests a threshold at certain critical vorticity implying the vanishing polarization at lower energies. For central HIC the compact jet-like flows may lead to formation of vortex rings related to local polarization. The P-odd momentum correlations for their experimental investigation are suggested. The role of shear and viscosity in the emergence of polarization is discussed.


2010 ◽  
Vol 665 ◽  
pp. 334-356 ◽  
Author(s):  
W.-H. CAI ◽  
F.-C. LI ◽  
H.-N. ZHANG

In order to investigate the turbulent drag reduction phenomenon and understand its mechanism, direct numerical simulation (DNS) was carried out on decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence (DHIT) with and without polymer additives. We explored the polymer effect on DHIT from the energetic viewpoint, i.e. the decay of the total turbulent kinetic energy and energy distribution at each scale in Fourier space and from the phenomenological viewpoint, i.e. the alterations of vortex structures, the enstrophy and the strain. It was obtained that in DHIT with polymer additives the decay of the turbulent kinetic energy is faster than that in the Newtonian fluid case and a modification of the turbulent kinetic energy transfer process for the Newtonian fluid flow is observed due to the release of the polymer elastic energy into flow structures at certain small scales. Besides, we deduced the transport equations of the enstrophy and the strain, respectively, for DHIT with polymer additives. Based on the analyses of these transport equations, it was found that polymer additives depress both the enstrophy and the strain in DHIT as compared to the Newtonian fluid case, indicating the inhibition effect on small-scale vortex structures and turbulence intensity by polymers.


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