scholarly journals Stochastic Modelling of Turbulent Flows for Numerical Simulations

Fluids ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (3) ◽  
pp. 108 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carlo Cintolesi ◽  
Etienne Mémin

Numerical simulations are a powerful tool to investigate turbulent flows, both for theoretical studies and practical applications. The reliability of a simulation is mainly dependent on the turbulence model adopted, and improving its accuracy is a crucial issue. In this study, we investigated the potential for an alternative formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations, based on the stochastic representation of the velocity field. The new approach, named pseudo-stochastic simulation (PSS), is a generalisation of the widespread classical eddy–viscosity model, where the contribution of the unresolved scales of motion is expressed by a variance tensor, modelled following different paradigms. The PSS models were compared with the classical ones mathematically and numerically in the turbulent channel flow at R e τ = 590 . The PSS and the classical models are equivalent when the variance tensor is shaped through a molecular dissipation analogy, while it is more accurate when the tensor is defined by the way of a local variance model. A near-wall damping function derived from recent advancement in the field is also proposed and was successfully validated. The analyses demonstrate the relevance of the approach proposed and provide a basis for the development of an alternative turbulence model.

2018 ◽  
Vol 861 ◽  
pp. 200-222 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoshi Nakashima ◽  
Mitul Luhar ◽  
Koji Fukagata

We study the effect of spanwise rotation in turbulent channel flow at both low and high Reynolds numbers by employing the resolvent formulation proposed by McKeon & Sharma (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 658, 2010, pp. 336–382). Under this formulation, the nonlinear terms in the Navier–Stokes equations are regarded as a forcing that acts upon the remaining linear dynamics to generate the turbulent velocity field in response. A gain-based decomposition of the forcing–response transfer function across spectral space yields models for highly amplified flow structures, or modes. Unlike linear stability analysis, this enables targeted analyses of the effects of rotation on high-gain modes that serve as useful low-order models for dynamically important coherent structures in wall-bounded turbulent flows. The present study examines a wide range of rotation rates. A posteriori comparisons at low Reynolds number ($\mathit{Re}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}=180$) demonstrate that the resolvent formulation is able to quantitatively predict the effect of varying spanwise rotation rates on specific classes of flow structure (e.g. the near-wall cycle) as well as energy amplification across spectral space. For fixed inner-normalized rotation number, the effects of rotation at varying friction Reynolds numbers appear to be similar across spectral space, when scaled in outer units. We also consider the effects of rotation on modes with varying speed (i.e. modes that are localized in regions of varying mean shear), and provide suggestions for modelling the nonlinear forcing term.


2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 1402-1419 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nejmeddine Chorfi ◽  
Mohamed Abdelwahed ◽  
Luigi C. Berselli

Abstract In this paper we propose some new non-uniformly-elliptic/damping regularizations of the Navier-Stokes equations, with particular emphasis on the behavior of the vorticity. We consider regularized systems which are inspired by the Baldwin-Lomax and by the selective Smagorinsky model based on vorticity angles, and which can be interpreted as Large Scale methods for turbulent flows. We consider damping terms which are active at the level of the vorticity. We prove the main a priori estimates and compactness results which are needed to show existence of weak and/or strong solutions, both in velocity/pressure and velocity/vorticity formulation for various systems. We start with variants of the known ones, going later on to analyze the new proposed models.


2012 ◽  
Vol 712 ◽  
pp. 169-202 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Busse ◽  
N. D. Sandham

AbstractThe effects of rough surfaces on turbulent channel flow are modelled by an extra force term in the Navier–Stokes equations. This force term contains two parameters, related to the density and the height of the roughness elements, and a shape function, which regulates the influence of the force term with respect to the distance from the channel wall. This permits a more flexible specification of a rough surface than a single parameter such as the equivalent sand grain roughness. The effects of the roughness force term on turbulent channel flow have been investigated for a large number of parameter combinations and several shape functions by direct numerical simulations. It is possible to cover the full spectrum of rough flows ranging from hydraulically smooth through transitionally rough to fully rough cases. By using different parameter combinations and shape functions, it is possible to match the effects of different types of rough surfaces. Mean flow and standard turbulence statistics have been used to compare the results to recent experimental and numerical studies and a good qualitative agreement has been found. Outer scaling is preserved for the streamwise velocity for both the mean profile as well as its mean square fluctuations in all but extremely rough cases. The structure of the turbulent flow shows a trend towards more isotropic turbulent states within the roughness layer. In extremely rough cases, spanwise structures emerge near the wall and the turbulent state resembles a mixing layer. A direct comparison with the study of Ashrafian, Andersson & Manhart (Intl J. Heat Fluid Flow, vol. 25, 2004, pp. 373–383) shows a good quantitative agreement of the mean flow and Reynolds stresses everywhere except in the immediate vicinity of the rough wall. The proposed roughness force term may be of benefit as a wall model for direct and large-eddy numerical simulations in cases where the exact details of the flow over a rough wall can be neglected.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
Wang Wenquan ◽  
Zhang Lixiang ◽  
Yan Yan ◽  
Guo Yakun

An innovative computational model is presented for the large eddy simulation (LES) of multidimensional unsteady turbulent flow problems in complex geometries. The main objectives of this research are to know more about the structure of turbulent flows, to identify their three-dimensional characteristic, and to study physical effects due to complex fluid flow. The filtered Navier-Stokes equations are used to simulate large scales; however, they are supplemented by dynamic subgrid-scale (DSGS) models to simulate the energy transfer from large scales toward subgrid-scales, where this energy will be dissipated by molecular viscosity. Based on the Taylor-Galerkin schemes for the convection-diffusion problems, this model is implemented in a three-dimensional finite element code using a three-step finite element method (FEM). Turbulent channel flow and flow over a backward-facing step are considered as a benchmark for validating the methodology by comparing with the direct numerical simulation (DNS) results or experimental data. Also, qualitative and quantitative aspects of three-dimensional complex turbulent flow in a strong 3D blade passage of a Francis turbine are analyzed.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (33) ◽  
pp. 64
Author(s):  
Maria João Teles ◽  
António Pires-Silva ◽  
Michel Benoit

An advanced CFD solver based on the RANS (Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes) equations is used to evaluate wave-current interactions through numerical simulations of combined wave-current free surface turbulent flows. The repercussions of various schemes for modeling turbulence effects is addressed with a special attention to the exchanges and fluxes of momentum and energy between the mean flow components and the wave (oscillatory) component. Numerical simulations are compared with experimental data from Klopman (1994).


Author(s):  
H. Yokoyama ◽  
C. Kato

Self-sustained oscillations with fluid-acoustics interaction over a cavity can radiate intense tonal sound and fatigue nearby components of industrial products. The prediction and the suppression of these oscillations are very important for many practical applications. However, the fluid-acoustics interaction has not been thoroughly clarified in particular for the oscillations in turbulent flows. We investigate the mechanism of the oscillations over a rectangular cavity with a length-to-depth ratio of 2:1 by directly solving the compressible Navier-Stokes equations. The boundary layer over the cavity is turbulent and the freestream Mach numbers are M = 0.4 and 0.7. The results clarify that the self-sustained oscillations occur in the shear layer of the cavity and the oscillations are reinforced by the streamwise acoustic mode in the cavity for both Mach numbers. The shear layer of the cavity undulates. This undulation causes the deformation of fine vortices in the shear layer and radiates acoustic waves from the downstream edge of the cavity. Also, we clarify by the conditional identification of longitudinal vortices that the acoustic waves cause the undulation of the shear layer and a feedback loop is formed. Moreover, the comparison of the flow field over the cavity with that over a simple backstep shows that the shear layer in the cavity becomes two-dimensional by the acoustic feedback. Finally, we show that the oscillations become weaker particularly at M = 0.4 and the frequencies of the oscillations become lower as the boundary layer thickness at the upstream edge of the cavity increases. Considering this effect of the boundary layer thickness, the peak frequencies predicted by our computations are in good agreement with those measured in a past experiment.


Author(s):  
Thomas Ludwig Kaiser ◽  
Kilian Oberleithner

Abstract In this paper a new method is introduced to model the transport of entropy waves and equivalence ratio fluctuations in turbulent flows. The model is based on the Navier-Stokes equations and includes a transport equation for a passive scalar, which may stand for entropy or equivalence ratio fluctuations. The equations are linearized around the mean turbulent fields, which serve as the input to the model in addition to a turbulent eddy viscosity, which accounts for turbulent diffusion of the perturbations. Based on these inputs, the framework is able to predict the linear response of the flow velocity and passive scalar to harmonic perturbations that are imposed at the boundaries of the computational domain. These in this study are fluctuations in the passive scalar and/or velocities at the inlet of a channel flow. The code is first validated against analytic results, showing very good agreement. Then the method is applied to predict the convection, mean flow dispersion and turbulent mixing of passive scalar fluctuations in a turbulent channel flow, which has been studied in previous work with Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS). Results show that our code reproduces the dynamics of coherent passive scalar transport in the DNS with very high accuracy and low numerical costs, when the DNS mean flow and Reynolds stresses are provided. Furthermore, we demonstrate that turbulent mixing has a significant effect on the transport of the passive scalar fluctuations. Finally, we apply the method to explain experimental observations of transport of equivalence ratio fluctuations in the mixing duct of a model burner.


2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Y. Klimenko ◽  
Andrew P. Wandel ◽  
Nigel S. A. Smith

Abstract The difficulties of modelling transport of scalar properties (such as temperature and concentrations) in physical space are well-known. It is conventional to call the turbulent scalar transport as turbulent diffusion. However, if a strict mathematical definition of the term “diffusion” is to be used, this stochastic process is not a diffusion process since its characteristic time is quite long. That is why the gradient-based approximations of the turbulent fluxes, which are precise for the diffusion transport, may have some difficulties when dealing with a turbulent flow. In the present work, we investigated an alternative formulation of the turbulent scalar transport: the transport of one scalar with respect to another scalar. Using DNS data, we demonstrated that this transport can be much better approximated by a diffusion process than the turbulent scalar transport in physical space. This property is effectively used in Conditional Moment Closure (CMC) which deals with turbulent transport of reactive scalers (i.e. scalars participating in chemical reactions) with respect to the conserved scalar. The similarity with diffusion processes can be used to numerically simulate this process by stochastic differential equations. Although solving such equations would be much easier than using DNS to predict characteristics of the turbulent scalar transport, the idea needs a proper theoretical analysis due to the complicated structure of CMC equations which have, in their conserved form, both forward and inverse parabolic terms. In the present work, we also demonstrated how the CMC equations can be properly represented by a stochastic model.


2014 ◽  
Vol 757 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stephen B. Pope

AbstractFor inhomogeneous turbulent flows at high Reynolds number, it is shown that the redistribution term in Reynolds-stress turbulence models can be determined from the velocity–acceleration correlation. It is further shown that the drift coefficient in the generalized Langevin model (which is used in probability density function (PDF) methods) can be determined from the Reynolds stresses and the velocity–acceleration correlation. These observations are valuable, since the second moments of velocity and acceleration can be measured in experiments, in direct numerical simulations and in well-resolved large-eddy simulations (LES), and hence these turbulence-model quantities can be determined. The redistribution is closely related to the pressure–rate-of-strain, and the unknown in the PDF equation is closely related to the conditional mean pressure gradient (conditional on velocity). In contrast to the velocity–acceleration moments, these pressure statistics are much more difficult to obtain, and our knowledge of them is quite limited. It is also shown that the generalized Langevin model can be re-expressed to provide a direct connection between the drift term and the fluid acceleration. All of these results are first obtained using the constant-property Navier–Stokes equations, but it is then shown that the results are simply extended to variable-density flows.


2015 ◽  
Vol 766 ◽  
pp. 104-128 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthaus U. Babler ◽  
Luca Biferale ◽  
Luca Brandt ◽  
Ulrike Feudel ◽  
Ksenia Guseva ◽  
...  

AbstractBreakup of small aggregates in fully developed turbulence is studied by means of direct numerical simulations in a series of typical bounded and unbounded flow configurations, such as a turbulent channel flow, a developing boundary layer and homogeneous isotropic turbulence. The simplest criterion for breakup is adopted, whereby aggregate breakup occurs when the local hydrodynamic stress ${\it\sigma}\sim {\it\varepsilon}^{1/2}$, with ${\it\varepsilon}$ being the energy dissipation at the position of the aggregate, overcomes a given threshold ${\it\sigma}_{cr}$, which is characteristic for a given type of aggregate. Results show that the breakup rate decreases with increasing threshold. For small thresholds, it develops a scaling behaviour among the different flows. For high thresholds, the breakup rates show strong differences between the different flow configurations, highlighting the importance of non-universal mean-flow properties. To further assess the effects of flow inhomogeneity and turbulent fluctuations, the results are compared with those obtained in a smooth stochastic flow. Furthermore, we discuss the limitations and applicability of a set of independent proxies.


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