Bistable Flow Patterns in a Free Surface Water Channel

1989 ◽  
Vol 111 (4) ◽  
pp. 408-413
Author(s):  
E. W. Adams ◽  
A. I. Stamou
Keyword(s):  
Free Surface ◽  
Surface Water ◽  
Stable State ◽  
Flow Patterns ◽  
Shear Layers ◽  
Turbulence Structure ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Free Shear Layers ◽  
Side Flow ◽  
Bistable Flow

A series of experiments is reported on a free surface water tunnel with a slot inlet centered at mid-depth in which the flow exhibited equally probable bistable flow patterns. The two flow fields are strongly asymmetric even when the geometry is symmetric and consists of a long stall on one side of the inlet and a short stall on the opposite side. Flow visualization and laser-Doppler velocimetry were performed to examine the flow structure of both stable states in detail. Results showed that the mean flow and turbulence structure of the two bistable states are largely mirror images of each other within the separation zone. The effect of the wall on the flow is minor, only very close to the wall/free surface did the difference in wall constraints cause the two flow patterns to diverge. After reattachment both flows relax to free-surface channel flow. It is shown that the bistable flow pattern results from the interaction of the free shear layers and that only strong disturbances in the free shear layers can cause the flow in one stable state to switch to the other stable state. Bistable flow exists for geometries with asymmetry up to 10 percent for the expansion ratio studied.

Turbulence structure in free shear layers.

AIAA Journal ◽  
1966 ◽  
Vol 4 (11) ◽  
pp. 1971-1978 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. O. A. L. DAVIES
Keyword(s):  
Shear Layers ◽  
Turbulence Structure ◽  
Free Shear Layers

scholarly journals Nonlinear dynamics of large-scale coherent structures in turbulent free shear layers

2015 ◽  
Vol 787 ◽  
pp. 396-439 ◽  
Author(s):  
Xuesong Wu ◽  
Xiuling Zhuang
Keyword(s):  
Nonlinear Dynamics ◽  
Coherent Structures ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Shear Layers ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Evolution System ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Free Shear Layers ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Scale Turbulence

Fully developed turbulent free shear layers exhibit a high degree of order, characterized by large-scale coherent structures in the form of spanwise vortex rollers. Extensive experimental investigations show that such organized motions bear remarkable resemblance to instability waves, and their main characteristics, including the length scales, propagation speeds and transverse structures, are reasonably well predicted by linear stability analysis of the mean flow. In this paper, we present a mathematical theory to describe the nonlinear dynamics of coherent structures. The formulation is based on the triple decomposition of the instantaneous flow into a mean field, coherent fluctuations and small-scale turbulence but with the mean-flow distortion induced by nonlinear interactions of coherent fluctuations being treated as part of the organized motion. The system is closed by employing a gradient type of model for the time- and phase-averaged Reynolds stresses of fine-scale turbulence. In the high-Reynolds-number limit, the nonlinear non-equilibrium critical-layer theory for laminar-flow instabilities is adapted to turbulent shear layers by accounting for (1) the enhanced non-parallelism associated with fast spreading of the mean flow, and (2) the influence of small-scale turbulence on coherent structures. The combination of these factors with nonlinearity leads to an interesting evolution system, consisting of coupled amplitude and vorticity equations, in which non-parallelism contributes the so-called translating critical-layer effect. Numerical solutions of the evolution system capture vortex roll-up, which is the hallmark of a turbulent mixing layer, and the predicted amplitude development mimics the qualitative feature of oscillatory saturation that has been observed in a number of experiments. A fair degree of quantitative agreement is obtained with one set of experimental data.

Stability Analysis of Hydropower Stations With Complex Flow Patterns in the Tailrace Tunnel

2013 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jianxu Zhou ◽  
Fulin Cai ◽  
Ming Hu
Keyword(s):  
Free Surface ◽  
Stability Analysis ◽  
Flow Patterns ◽  
Normal Operation ◽  
Complex Flow ◽  
Diversion Tunnel ◽  
Implicit Model ◽  
Special Cases ◽  
Tailrace Tunnel ◽  
Hydropower Stations

For some special tailrace tunnels in the hydropower stations, including the changing top-altitude tailrace tunnel and the tailrace tunnel with downstream reused flat-ceiling diversion tunnel, during normal operation and hydraulic transients, the flow patterns inside are relatively complex mainly including the free-surface pressurized flow and partial free flow if the tail water level is lower than the top elevation of tunnel’s outlet. These complex flow patterns have obvious effect on system’s stability, and can not be simulated accurately by the traditional models. Therefore, a characteristic implicit model is introduced to simulate these complex flow patterns for further stability analysis. In some special cases, the characteristic implicit model also fails to completely simulate the mixed free-surface pressurized flow in the flat-ceiling tailrace tunnel. A new method is presented based on both experimental research and numerical simulation, and then, system’s stability is analyzed by compared with traditional ordinary boundary condition. The results indicate that, with different simulation models for the complex water flow in the tailrace tunnel, system’s dynamic characteristic can be actually revealed with the consideration of the effect of complex flow patterns in the tailrace tunnel on system’s stability and regulation performance.

An Enhanced Flow Visualization Technique for Planar Free Shear Layers

AIAA Journal ◽  
1984 ◽  
Vol 22 (3) ◽  
pp. 439-441 ◽  
Author(s):  
Y. Hsia ◽  
D. Baganoff ◽  
A. Krothapalli ◽  
K. Karamcheti
Keyword(s):  
Flow Visualization ◽  
Shear Layers ◽  
Visualization Technique ◽  
Free Shear Layers

Scalability studies and large grid computations for surface combatant using CFDShip-Iowa

2011 ◽  
Vol 25 (4) ◽  
pp. 466-487 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanti Bhushan ◽  
Pablo Carrica ◽  
Jianming Yang ◽  
Frederick Stern
Keyword(s):  
Free Surface ◽  
Message Passing Interface ◽  
Free Surface Flows ◽  
Processing Unit ◽  
Mean Flow ◽  
Time Step ◽  
Vortical Structures ◽  
Cpu Time ◽  
Surface Combatant ◽  
Straight Ahead

Scalability studies and computations using the largest grids to date for free-surface flows are performed using message-passing interface (MPI)-based CFDShip-Iowa toolbox curvilinear (V4) and Cartesian (V6) grid solvers on Navy high-performance computing systems. Both solvers show good strong scalability up to 2048 processors, with V6 showing somewhat better performance than V4. V6 also outperforms V4 in terms of the memory requirements and central processing unit (CPU) time per time-step per grid point. The explicit solvers show better scalability than the implicit solvers, but the latter allows larger time-step sizes, resulting in a lower total CPU time. The multi-grid HYPRE solver shows better scalability than the portable, extensible toolkit for scientific computation solver. The main scalability bottleneck is identified to be the pressure Poisson solver. The memory bandwidth test suggests that further scalability improvements could be obtained by using hybrid MPI/open multi-processing (OpenMP) parallelization. V4-detached eddy simulation (DES) on a 300 M grid for the surface combatant model DTMB 5415 in the straight-ahead condition provides a plausible description of the vortical structures and mean flow patterns observed in the experiments. However, the vortex strengths are over predicted and the turbulence is not resolved. V4-DESs on up to 250 M grids for DTMB 5415 at 20° static drift angle significantly improve the forces and moment predictions compared to the coarse grid unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes, due to the improved resolved turbulence predictions. The simulations provide detailed resolution of the free-surface and breaking pattern and vortical and turbulent structures, which will guide planned experiments. V6 simulations on up to 276 M grids for DTMB 5415 in the straight-ahead condition predict diffused vortical structures due to poor wall-layer predictions. This could be due to the limitations of the wall-function implementation for the immersed boundary method.

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