scholarly journals Some comments on the small scale structure of turbulence at high Reynolds number

2001 ◽  
Vol 13 (5) ◽  
pp. 1532-1533 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. Warhaft ◽  
X. Shen
2001 ◽  
Vol 448 ◽  
pp. 279-288 ◽  
Author(s):  
SUSAN KURIEN ◽  
KONSTANTINOS G. AIVALIS ◽  
KATEPALLI R. SREENIVASAN

The anisotropy of small-scale temperature fluctuations in shear flows is analysed by making measurements in high-Reynolds-number atmospheric surface layers. A spherical harmonics representation of the moments of scalar increments is proposed, such that the isotropic part corresponds to the index j = 0 and increasing degrees of anisotropy correspond to increasing j. The parity and angular dependence of the odd moments of the scalar increments show that the moments cannot contain any isotropic part (j = 0), but can be satisfactorily represented by the lowest-order anisotropic term corresponding to j = 1. Thus, the skewnesses of scalar increments (and derivatives) are inherently anisotropic quantities, and are not suitable indicators of the tendency towards isotropy.


Author(s):  
Xi-Wan Sun ◽  
Wei Liu

Turbulent flat-plate boundary layer flows have been widely employed for numerical validation in the aero-optical field. In present study, the laminar-to-turbulent evolution induced by wavy roughness in high-Reynolds-number supersonic freestream is investigated using a numerical technique based on the fifth-order weighted compact nonlinear scheme (WCNS-E-5). The computational procedure and post-processing method are described in detail, and the acquired instantaneous flow structure and statistical data are compared with other theoretical, experimental, and numerical results to demonstrate the feasibility of predicting turbulence using WCNS-E-5. Further, to reduce the computational resources required to simulate turbulent flow, a velocity correlation function is introduced to decrease the computational domain in the spanwise direction. Additionally, the effects of different grid sizes on the simulation results are examined by reducing the number of cells in the streamwise, wall-normal, and spanwise directions. Finally, the authors conduct a tentative investigation into the aero-optical effects of the laminar-to-turbulent flowfield using a ray-tracing method, considering both the feasibility of aero-optical detection and the effect of grid scale on the time-averaged imaging quality, as well as a deeper probe into the characteristic structures reflected by aero-optical frequency spectrum. The results elucidated that the wall-normal grid number has the strongest influence on the transitional location, and undoubtedly affects wavefront aberrations. However, different gird scales lead to similar aero-optical spectrum, and revealed the Kolmogorov-type turbulence at small-scale regime. As a prelude to further aero-optical simulations of wall-bounded flows, the current study provides some reference for the code validation process and aero-optical interrogation.


2000 ◽  
Vol 406 ◽  
pp. 81-107 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. ZHOU ◽  
R. A. ANTONIA

The small-scale structure of grid turbulence is studied primarily using data obtained with a transverse vorticity (ω3) probe for values of the Taylor-microscale Reynolds number Rλ in the range 27–100. The measured spectra of the transverse vorticity component agree within ±10% with those calculated using the isotropic relation over nearly all wavenumbers. Scaling-range exponents of transverse velocity increments are appreciably smaller than exponents of longitudinal velocity increments. Only a small fraction of this difference can be attributed to the difference in intermittency between the locally averaged energy dissipation rate and enstrophy fluctuations. The anisotropy of turbulence structures in the scaling range, which reflects the small values of Rλ, is more likely to account for most of the difference. All four fourth-order rotational invariants Iα (α = 1 to 4) proposed by Siggia (1981) were evaluated. For any particular value of α, the magnitude of the ratio Iα / I1 is approximately constant, independently of Rλ. The implication is that the invariants are interdependent, at least in isotropic and quasi-Gaussian turbulence, so that only one power-law exponent may be sufficient to describe the Rλ dependence of all fourth-order velocity derivative moments in this type of flow. This contrasts with previous suggestions that at least two power-law exponents are needed, one for the rate of strain and the other for vorticity.


1986 ◽  
Vol 57 (6) ◽  
pp. 683-686 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. E. Brachet ◽  
M. Meneguzzi ◽  
P. L. Sulem

2017 ◽  
Vol 829 ◽  
pp. 31-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. E. Elsinga ◽  
T. Ishihara ◽  
M. V. Goudar ◽  
C. B. da Silva ◽  
J. C. R. Hunt

The scaling of turbulent motions is investigated by considering the flow in the eigenframe of the local strain-rate tensor. The flow patterns in this frame of reference are evaluated using existing direct numerical simulations of homogeneous isotropic turbulence over a Reynolds number range from $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}=34.6$ up to 1131, and also with reference to data for inhomogeneous, anisotropic wall turbulence. The average flow in the eigenframe reveals a shear layer structure containing tube-like vortices and a dissipation sheet, whose dimensions scale with the Kolmogorov length scale, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}$. The vorticity stretching motions scale with the Taylor length scale, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{T}$, while the flow outside the shear layer scales with the integral length scale, $L$. Furthermore, the spatial organization of the vortices and the dissipation sheet defines a characteristic small-scale structure. The overall size of this characteristic small-scale structure is $120\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}$ in all directions based on the coherence length of the vorticity. This is considerably larger than the typical size of individual vortices, and reflects the importance of spatial organization at the small scales. Comparing the overall size of the characteristic small-scale structure with the largest flow scales and the vorticity stretching motions on the scale of $4\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{T}$ shows that transitions in flow structure occur where $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}\approx 45$ and 250. Below these respective transitional Reynolds numbers, the small-scale motions and the vorticity stretching motions are progressively less well developed. Scale interactions are examined by decomposing the average shear layer into a local flow, which is induced by the shear layer vorticity, and a non-local flow, which represents the environment of the characteristic small-scale structure. The non-local strain is $4\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{T}$ in width and height, which is consistent with observations in high Reynolds number flow of a $4\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{T}$ wide instantaneous shear layer with many $\unicode[STIX]{x1D702}$-scale vortical structures inside (Ishihara et al., Flow Turbul. Combust., vol. 91, 2013, pp. 895–929). In the average shear layer, vorticity aligns with the intermediate principal strain at small scales, while it aligns with the most stretching principal strain at larger scales, consistent with instantaneous turbulence. The length scale at which the alignment changes depends on the Reynolds number. When conditioning the flow in the eigenframe on extreme dissipation, the velocity is strongly affected over large distances. Moreover, the associated peak velocity remains Reynolds number dependent when normalized by the Kolmogorov velocity scale. It signifies that extreme dissipation is not simply a small-scale property, but is associated with large scales at the same time.


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