scholarly journals Scale interactions in turbulent rotating planar Couette flow: insight through the Reynolds stress transport

2019 ◽  
Vol 879 ◽  
pp. 255-295 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takuya Kawata ◽  
P. Henrik Alfredsson

In turbulent planar Couette flow under anticyclonic spanwise system rotation, large-scale roll-cell structures arise due to a Coriolis-force-induced instability. The structures are superimposed on smaller-scale turbulence, and with increasing angular velocity ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{z}$) such roll cells dominate the flow field and small-scale turbulence is instead suppressed in a certain rotation number range $0<Ro\lesssim 0.1$ ($Ro=2\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}_{z}h/U_{w}$, where $h$ is the channel half-width, $U_{w}$ the wall velocity). At low rotation numbers around $Ro\approx 0.02$ both large-scale roll cells and smaller-scale turbulence coexist. In the present study, we investigate interaction between these structures through a scale-by-scale analysis of the Reynolds stress transport. We show that at low rotation numbers $Ro\approx 0.01$ the turbulence productions by the mean flow gradient and the Coriolis force occur at different scales and thereby the turbulent energy distribution over a wide range of scales is maintained. On the other hand at higher rotation numbers $Ro\gtrsim 0.05$, a zero-absolute-vorticity state is established and production of small scales from the mean shear disappears although large-scale turbulence production is maintained through the Coriolis force. At high enough Reynolds numbers, where scale separation between the near-wall structures and the roll cells is relatively distinct, transition between these different $Ro$ regimes is found to occur rather abruptly around $Ro\approx 0.02$, resulting in a non-monotonic behaviour of the wall shear stress as a function of $Ro$. It is also shown that at such an intermediate rotation number the roll cells interact with smaller scales by moving near-wall structures towards the core region of the channel, by which the Reynolds stress is transported from relatively small scales near the wall towards larger scales in the channel centre. Such Reynolds stress transport by scale interaction becomes increasingly significant as the Reynolds number increases, and results in a reversed mean velocity gradient at the channel centre at high enough Reynolds numbers.

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Grigory Zasko ◽  
Andrey Glazunov ◽  
Evgeny Mortikov ◽  
Yuri Nechepurenko ◽  
Pavel Perezhogin

&lt;p&gt;In this report, we will try to explain the emergence of large-scale organized structures in stably stratified turbulent flows using optimal disturbances of the mean turbulent flow. These structures have been recently obtained in numerical simulations of turbulent stably stratified flows [1] (Ekman layer, LES) and [2] (plane Couette flow, DNS and LES) and indirectly confirmed by field measurements in the stable boundary layer of the atmosphere [1, 2]. In instantaneous temperature fields they manifest themselves as irregular inclined thin layers with large gradients (fronts), spaced from each other by distances comparable to the height of the entire turbulent layer, and separated by regions with weak stratification.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Optimal disturbances of a stably stratified turbulent plane Couette flow are investigated in a wide range of Reynolds and Richardson numbers. These disturbances were computed based on a simplified linearized system of equations in which turbulent Reynolds stresses and heat fluxes were approximated by isotropic viscosity and diffusion with coefficients obtained from DNS results. It was shown [3] that the spatial scales and configurations of the inclined structures extracted from DNS data coincide with the ones obtained from optimal disturbances of the mean turbulent flow.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Critical value of the stability parameter is found starting from which the optimal disturbances resemble inclined structures. The physical mechanisms that determine the evolution, energetics and spatial configuration of these optimal disturbances are discussed. The effects due to the presence of stable stratification are highlighted.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;Numerical experiments with optimal disturbances were supported by the RSF (grant No. 17-71-20149). Direct numerical simulation of stratified turbulent Couette flow was supported by the RFBR (grant No. 20-05-00776).&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;References:&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[1] P.P. Sullivan, J.C. Weil, E.G. Patton, H.J. Jonker, D.V. Mironov. Turbulent winds and temperature fronts in large-eddy simulations of the stable atmospheric boundary layer // J. Atmos. Sci., 2016, V. 73, P. 1815-1840.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[2] A.V. Glazunov, E.V. Mortikov, K.V. Barskov, E.V. Kadantsev, S.S. Zilitinkevich. Layered structure of stably stratified turbulent shear flows // Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys., 2019, V. 55, P. 312&amp;#8211;323.&lt;/p&gt;&lt;p&gt;[3] G.V. Zasko, A.V. Glazunov, E.V. Mortikov, Yu.M. Nechepurenko. Large-scale structures in stratified turbulent Couette flow and optimal disturbances // Russ. J. Num. Anal. Math. Model., 2010, V. 35, P. 35&amp;#8211;53.&lt;/p&gt;


2020 ◽  
Vol 495 (1) ◽  
pp. 238-248
Author(s):  
N Kleeorin ◽  
N Safiullin ◽  
K Kuzanyan ◽  
I Rogachevskii ◽  
A Tlatov ◽  
...  

ABSTRACT A theory of the mean tilt of sunspot bipolar regions (the angle between a line connecting the leading and following sunspots and the solar equator) is developed. A mechanism of formation of the mean tilt is related to the effect of the Coriolis force on meso-scale motions of super-granular convection and large-scale meridional circulation. The balance between the Coriolis force and the Lorentz force (the magnetic tension) determines an additional contribution caused by the large-scale magnetic field to the mean tilt of the sunspot bipolar regions at low latitudes. The latitudinal dependence of the solar differential rotation affects the mean tilt, which can explain deviations from Joy’s law for the sunspot bipolar regions at high latitudes. The theoretical results obtained and the results from numerical simulations based on the non-linear mean-field dynamo theory, which takes into account conservation of the total magnetic helicity and the budget equation for the evolution of the Wolf number density, are in agreement with observational data of the mean tilt of sunspot bipolar regions over individual solar cycles 15–24.


1990 ◽  
Vol 142 ◽  
pp. 60-61
Author(s):  
Sydney D'Silva ◽  
Arnab Rai Choudhuri

Working under the hypothesis that magnetic flux in the sun is generated at the bottom of the convection zone, Choudhuri and Gilman (1987; Astrophys. J. 316, 788) found that a magnetic flux tube symmetric around the rotation axis, when released at the bottom of the convection zone, gets deflected by the Coriolis force and tends to move parallel to the rotation axis as it rises in the convection zone. As a result, all the flux emerges at rather high latitudes and the flux observed at the typical sunspot latitudes remains unexplained. Choudhuri(1989; Solar Physics, in press) finds that non-axisymmetric perturbations too cannot subdue the Coriolis force. In this paper, we no longer treat the convection zone to be passive as in the previous papers, but we consider the role of turbulence in the convection zone in inhibiting the Coriolis force. The interaction of the flux tubes with the turbulence is treated in a phenomenological way as follows: (1) Large scale turbulence on the scale of giant cells can physically drag the tubes outwards, thus pulling the flux towards lower latitudes by dominating over the Coriolis force. (2) Small scale turbulence of the size of the tubes can exchange angular momentum with the tube, thus suppressing the growth of the Coriolis force and making the tubes emerge at lower latitudes. Numerical simulations show that the giant cells can drag the tubes and make them emerge at lower latitudes only if the velocities within the giant cells are unrealistically large or if the radii of the flux tubes are as small as 10 km. However, small scale turbulence can successfully suppress the growth of the Coriolis force if the tubes have radii smaller than about 300 km which may not be unreasonable. Such flux tubes can then emerge at low latitudes where sunspots are seen.


Author(s):  
J. Kulman ◽  
D. Gray ◽  
S. Sivanagere ◽  
S. Guffey

Heat transfer and flow characteristics have been determined for a single-phase rectangular loop thermosiphon. The plane of the loop was vertical, and tests were performed with in-plane tilt angles ranging from 3.6° CW to 4.2° CCW. Velocity profiles were measured in one vertical leg of the loop using both a single-component Laser Doppler Velocimeter (LDV), and a commercial Particle Image Velocimeter (PIV) system. The LDV data and PIV data were found to be in good agreement. The measured average velocities were approximately 2–2.5 cm/s at an average heating rate of 70 W, and were independent of tilt angle. Significant RMS fluctuations of 10–20% of the mean velocity were observed in the test section, in spite of the laminar or transitional Reynolds numbers (order of 700, based on the hydraulic diameter). These fluctuations have been attributed to vortex shedding from the upstream temperature probes and mitre bends, rather than to fully developed turbulence. Animations of the PIV data clearly show these large scale unsteady flow patterns. Multiple steady state flow patterns were not observed.


2015 ◽  
Vol 767 ◽  
Author(s):  
Subrahmanyam Duvvuri ◽  
Beverley J. McKeon

AbstractA formal relationship between the skewness and the correlation coefficient of large and small scales, termed the amplitude modulation coefficient, is established for a general statistically stationary signal and is analysed in the context of a turbulent velocity signal. Both the quantities are seen to be measures of phase in triadically consistent interactions between scales of turbulence. The naturally existing phase relationships between large and small scales in a turbulent boundary layer are then manipulated by exciting a synthetic large-scale motion in the flow using a spatially impulsive dynamic wall roughness perturbation. The synthetic scale is seen to alter the phase relationships, or the degree of modulation, in a quasi-deterministic manner by exhibiting a phase-organizing influence on the small scales. The results presented provide encouragement for the development of a practical framework for favourable manipulation of energetic small-scale turbulence through large-scale inputs in a wall-bounded turbulent flow.


This paper reviews how Kolmogorov postulated for the first time the existence of a steady statistical state for small-scale turbulence, and its defining parameters of dissipation rate and kinematic viscosity. Thence he made quantitative predictions of the statistics by extending previous methods of dimensional scaling to multiscale random processes. We present theoretical arguments and experimental evidence to indicate when the small-scale motions might tend to a universal form (paradoxically not necessarily in uniform flows when the large scales are gaussian and isotropic), and discuss the implications for the kinematics and dynamics of the fact that there must be singularities in the velocity field associated with the - 5/3 inertial range spectrum. These may be particular forms of eddy or ‘eigenstructure’ such as spiral vortices, which may not be unique to turbulent flows. Also, they tend to lead to the notable spiral contours of scalars in turbulence, whose self-similar structure enables the ‘box-counting’ technique to be used to measure the ‘capacity’ D K of the contours themselves or of their intersections with lines, D' K . Although the capacity, a term invented by Kolmogorov (and studied thoroughly by Kolmogorov & Tikhomirov), is like the exponent 2 p of a spectrum in being a measure of the distribution of length scales ( D' K being related to 2 p in the limit of very high Reynolds numbers), the capacity is also different in that experimentally it can be evaluated at local regions within a flow and at lower values of the Reynolds number. Thus Kolmogorov & Tikhomirov provide the basis for a more widely applicable measure of the self-similar structure of turbulence. Finally, we also review how Kolmogorov’s concept of the universal spatial structure of the small scales, together with appropriate additional physical hypotheses, enables other aspects of turbulence to be understood at these scales; in particular the general forms of the temporal statistics such as the high-frequency (inertial range) spectra in eulerian and lagrangian frames of reference, and the perturbations to the small scales caused by non-isotropic, non-gaussian and inhomogeneous large-scale motions.


1997 ◽  
Vol 119 (1) ◽  
pp. 23-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
F. E. Ames

An experimental research program was undertaken to examine the influence of large-scale high-intensity turbulence on vane heat transfer. The experiment was conducted in a four-vane linear cascade at exit Reynolds numbers of 500,000 and 800,000 based on chord length. Heat transfer measurements were made for four inlet turbulence conditions including a low turbulence case (Tu ≅ 1 percent), a grid turbulence case (Tu ≅ 7.5 percent), and two levels of large-scale turbulence generated with a mock combustor at two upstream locations (Tu ≅ 12 percent and 8 percent). The heat transfer data demonstrated that the length scale, Lu, has a significant effect on stagnation region and pressure surface heat transfer.


1988 ◽  
Vol 110 (3) ◽  
pp. 272-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. A. Humphries ◽  
D. H. Walker

A series of experiments were performed to measure the vortex-excited response of a 0.168-m-dia slender circular cylinder in a range of linear shear velocity profiles. Reynolds numbers of up to 2.5 × 105 were achieved. The results clearly showed that regular large-amplitude cylinder vibrations occurred well within the critical drag transition region. It was found that increasing the linear shear profile decreased the peak amplitude response but broadened the range of lock-on over which large oscillations occurred. The flow-induced vibration of the cylinder caused amplification of the mean hydrodynamic drag forces acting on the cylinder when compared with those expected for a similar rigid cylinder.


2010 ◽  
Vol 643 ◽  
pp. 333-348 ◽  
Author(s):  
YONGYUN HWANG ◽  
CARLO COSSU

We compute the optimal response of the turbulent Couette mean flow to initial conditions, harmonic and stochastic forcing at Re = 750. The equations for the coherent perturbations are linearized near the turbulent mean flow and include the associated eddy viscosity. The mean flow is found to be linearly stable but it has the potential to amplify steamwise streaks from streamwise vortices. The most amplified structures are streamwise uniform and the largest amplifications of the energy of initial conditions and of the variance of stochastic forcing are realized by large-scale streaks having spanwise wavelengths of 4.4h and 5.2h respectively. These spanwise scales compare well with the ones of the coherent large-scale streaks observed in experimental realizations and direct numerical simulations of the turbulent Couette flow. The optimal response to the harmonic forcing, related to the sensitivity to boundary conditions and artificial forcing, can be very large and is obtained with steady forcing of structures with larger spanwise wavelength (7.7h). The optimal large-scale streaks are furthermore found proportional to the mean turbulent profile in the viscous sublayer and up to the buffer layer.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document