Preferential concentration of water droplets in a volume of homogeneous and isotropic turbulence

Author(s):  
Georgios Charalampous ◽  
Yannis Hardalupas
2019 ◽  
Vol 867 ◽  
pp. 438-481 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Watteaux ◽  
G. Sardina ◽  
L. Brandt ◽  
D. Iudicone

We present a study of Lagrangian intermittency and its characteristic time scales. Using the concepts of flying and diving residence times above and below a given threshold in the magnitude of turbulence quantities, we infer the time spectra of the Lagrangian temporal fluctuations of dissipation, acceleration and enstrophy by means of a direct numerical simulation in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. We then relate these time scales, first, to the presence of extreme events in turbulence and, second, to the local flow characteristics. Analyses confirm the existence in turbulent quantities of holes mirroring bursts, both of which are at the core of what constitutes Lagrangian intermittency. It is shown that holes are associated with quiescent laminar regions of the flow. Moreover, Lagrangian holes occur over few Kolmogorov time scales while Lagrangian bursts happen over longer periods scaling with the global decorrelation time scale, hence showing that loss of the history of the turbulence quantities along particle trajectories in turbulence is not continuous. Such a characteristic partially explains why current Lagrangian stochastic models fail at reproducing our results. More generally, the Lagrangian dataset of residence times shown here represents another manner for qualifying the accuracy of models. We also deliver a theoretical approximation of mean residence times, which highlights the importance of the correlation between turbulence quantities and their time derivatives in setting temporal statistics. Finally, whether in a hole or a burst, the straining structure along particle trajectories always evolves self-similarly (in a statistical sense) from shearless two-dimensional to shear bi-axial configurations. We speculate that this latter configuration represents the optimum manner to dissipate locally the available energy.


Author(s):  
Savvas S. Xanthos ◽  
Yiannis Andreopoulos

The interaction of traveling expansion waves with grid-generated turbulence was investigated in a large-scale shock tube research facility. The incident shock and the induced flow behind it passed through a rectangular grid, which generated a nearly homogeneous and nearly isotropic turbulent flow. As the shock wave exited the open end of the shock tube, a system of expansion waves was generated which traveled upstream and interacted with the grid-generated turbulence; a type of interaction free from streamline curvature effects, which cause additional effects on turbulence. In this experiment, wall pressure, total pressure and velocity were measured indicating a clear reduction in fluctuations. The incoming flow at Mach number 0.46 was expanded to a flow with Mach number 0.77 by an applied mean shear of 100 s−1. Although the strength of the generated expansion waves was mild, the effect on damping fluctuations on turbulence was clear. A reduction of in the level of total pressure fluctuations by 20 per cent was detected in the present experiments.


2003 ◽  
Vol 15 (6) ◽  
pp. 1776 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonid I. Zaichik ◽  
Vladimir M. Alipchenkov

Author(s):  
Mark Pinsky ◽  
Eshkol Eytan ◽  
Ilan Koren ◽  
Orit Altaratz ◽  
Alexander Khain

AbstractAtmospheric motions in clouds and cloud surrounding have a wide range of scales, from several kilometers to centimeters. These motions have different impacts on cloud dynamics and microphysics. Larger-scale motions (hereafter referred to as convective motions) are responsible for mass transport over distances comparable with cloud scale, while motions of smaller scales (hereafter referred to as turbulent motions) are stochastic and responsible for mixing and cloud dilution. This distinction substantially simplifies the analysis of dynamic and microphysical processes in clouds. The present research is Part 1 of the study aimed at describing the method for separating the motion scale into a convective component and a turbulent component. An idealized flow is constructed, which is a sum of an initially prescribed field of the convective velocity with updrafts in the cloud core and downdrafts outside the core, and a stochastic turbulent velocity field obeying the turbulent properties, including the -5/3 law and the 2/3 structure function law. A wavelet method is developed allowing separation of the velocity field into the convective and turbulent components, with parameter values being in a good agreement with those prescribed initially. The efficiency of the method is demonstrated by an example of a vertical velocity field of a cumulus cloud simulated using SAM with bin-microphysics and resolution of 10 m. It is shown that vertical velocity in clouds indeed can be represented as a sum of convective velocity (forming zone of cloud updrafts and subsiding shell) and a stochastic velocity obeying laws of homogeneous and isotropic turbulence.


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