Use of the equation for turbulent viscosity to describe the flow near a rough surface

An investigation of the flow at a rough surface, as well as in pipes and channels with rough walls, is one of the most important problems of applied hydrodynamics. Results of classical investigations, in which the most important flow properties near a rough surface are clarified, are generalized in [1–3]. These investigations are the basis for the construction of numerous semiempirical theories using the “mixing path∝ model of L. Prandtl (for instance, [4–6]). However, despite their simplicity these methods possess all the disadvantages inherent in the Prandtl theory: They are not universal, they describe the transition from the laminar to the turbulent mode poorly, and they are not applicable for the computation of complex non-self-similar flows. Meanwhile, an analysis of the experimental results obtained in [7], for example, indicates an extremely complex flow structure both in the neighborhood of the rough surface and far away from it. Models using the differential equation of the kinetic energy of turbulence have recently been developed to describe turbulent flow near a rough surface [8]. The possibilities of applying a model using the equation for turbulent viscosity to close the problem [9] are analyzed in this paper in an example of a steady turbulent incompressible fluid flow in a circular pipe with rough walls.     

Outer flow scaling of smooth and rough wall turbulent boundary layers

Mean velocity profiles in a zero pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer were measured on a hydraulically smooth surface and three different rough surfaces created from sand paper, perforated plate, and woven wire mesh. The physical size and geometry of the roughness elements were chosen to encompass both transitionally and fully rough flow regimes. The mean velocity profiles were measured using a Pitot tube in a subsonic wind tunnel, for Reynolds numbers (based on momentum thickness) ranging from 3,730 to 12,260. Three different outer velocity scales were used to analyze the defect profile. The results show that application of a so called mixed outer scale causes the velocity profile in the outer region to collapse onto the same curve for different Reynolds numbers and roughness conditions. Although the mixed scale collapses defect profiles on different surfaces, the effect of surface roughness is still observed in the outer region.     

Bulk flow parameters in turbulent wall boundary layers near separation

Experiments were conducted in a turbulent boundary layer near separation along a flat plate. The pressure gradient in flow direction was varied such that three significant boundary layer configurations could be maintained. The flow in the test section thus had simultaneously a region of favourable pressure gradient, a region of strong adverse pressure gradient with boundary layer separation and a region of reattached boundary layer. Specially designed fine probes facilitated the measurements of skin friction and velocity distribution very close to the wall. Bulk flow parameters such as skin friction coefficient C _f, Reynold's number Re_δ2 and shape factors H and G, which are significant characteristics of wall boundary layers were evaluated. The dependence of these parameters on the Reynolds number and along the test section was explored and the values were compared with other empirical and analytical formulae known in the literature.     

A turbulent boundary layer over a two-dimensional rough wall

Particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements and planar laser induced fluorescence (PLIF) visualizations have been made in a turbulent boundary layer over a rough wall. The wall roughness consisted of square bars placed transversely to the flow at a pitch to height ratio of λ/k = 11 for the PLIF experiments and λ/k = 8 and 16 for the PIV measurements. The ratio between the boundary layer thickness and the roughness height k/δ was about 20 for the PLIF and 38 for the PIV. Both the PLIF and PIV data showed that the near-wall region of the flow was populated by unstable quasi-coherent structures which could be associated to shear layers originating at the trailing edge of the roughness elements. The streamwise mean velocity profile presented a downward shift which varied marginally between the two cases of λ/k, in agreement with previous measurements and DNS results. The data indicated that the Reynolds stresses normalized by the wall units are higher for the case λ/k = 16 than those for λ/k = 8 in the outer region of the flow, suggesting that the roughness density effects could be felt well beyond the near-wall region of the flow. As expected the roughness disturbed dramatically the sublayer which in turn altered the turbulence production mechanism. The turbulence production is maximum at a distance of about 0.5k above the roughness elements. When normalized by the wall units, the turbulence production is found to be smaller than that of a smooth wall. It is argued that the production of turbulence is correlated with the form drag.     

Two-layer turbulent flow over a rough rotating surface

A model of turbulent incompressible fluid flow over a rough surface under the action of the Coriolis force with a turbulent transfer coefficient corresponding to the Prandtl mixing length is proposed. A solution of the problem, asymptotic in the small Coriolis parameter, is presented for horizontally uniform steady-state flow. It is shown that for a small Coriolis parameter the velocity profile and the turbulent transfer coefficient can differ substantially from the limiting expressions known from Prandtl theory. The smaller the roughness coefficient, the greater the difference.Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 4, pp. 61–67, July–August, 1995.     

槽道湍流近壁结构的DPIV观测实验

采用DPIV系统(由两台CCD相机组成)对槽道湍流进行速度场时间历程的观测实验,通 过对大量测量结果的综合分析,取得了槽道湍流近壁结构的空间结构及其时间演化过程特征 的结果,可以揭示上扫下掠、湍流瞬时速度型等现象与大尺度涡演化的物理关系,解释若干 湍流大尺度结构的特征机理,还表明DPIV系统提供了一种定量观测湍流的时空结构特征的手 段.     

A plane turbulent wall jet on a fully rough surface

The mean velocity field and skin friction characteristics of a plane turbulent wall jet on a smooth and a fully rough surface were studied using Particle Image Velocimetry. The Reynolds number based on the slot height and the exit velocity of the jet was Re = 13,400 and the nominal size of the roughness was k = 0.44 mm. For this Reynolds number and size of roughness element, the flow was in the fully rough regime. The surface roughness results in a distinct change in the shape of the mean velocity profile when scaled in outer coordinates, i.e. using the maximum velocity and outer half-width as the relevant velocity and length scales, respectively. Using inner coordinates, the mean velocity in the lower region of the inner layer was consistent with a logarithmic profile which characterizes the overlap region of a turbulent boundary layer; for the rough wall case, the velocity profile was shifted downward due to the enhanced wall shear stress. For the fully rough flow, the decay rate of the maximum velocity of the wall jet is increased, and the skin friction coefficient is much larger than for the smooth wall case. The inner layer is also thicker for the rough wall case. The effects of surface roughness were observed to penetrate into the outer layer and slightly enhance the spread rate for the outer half-width, which was not observed in most other studies of transitionally rough wall jet flows.     

Small scale intermittency in a rough wall turbulent boundary layer

Relatively good quality isotropy is observed in the central region of a turbulent boundary layer developing over a mesh screen rough wall. Spectra of velocity and, more especially, vorticity fluctuations satisfy isotropy over a significant wavenumber range. Inertial range scaling exponents ζ _u2 (p) and ζ _u3 (p) of moments of order p(?8) of increments of the transverse velocity fluctuations u ₂ and u ₃ are significantly smaller than the exponents ζ _u1 (p) of increments of the longitudinal velocity fluctuation u ₁. Exponents inferred from the locally averaged values of squared transverse vorticity fluctuations are only slightly smaller than ζ _u1 (p). The difference between ζ _u1 (p) and ζ _u2 (p) [or ζ _u3 (p)] more likely reflects the departure from isotropy of inertial range scales. There is evidence to suggest that the difference decreases with an increase in the Reynolds number and/or a decrease in the magnitude of the mean shear.     

Prediction of turbulent wall shear flows directly from wall

The fully elliptic Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations have been used together with Lam and Bremhorst's low-Reynolds-number model, Chen and Patel's two-layer model and a two-point wall function method incorporated into the standard k-? model to predict channel flows and a backward-facig step flow. These flows enable the evaluation of the performance of different near-wall treatments in flows involving streamwise and normal pressure gradients, flows with separation and flows with non-equilibrium turbulence characteristics. Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of a channel flow with Re =3200 further provides the detailed budgets of each modelling term of the k and ?-transport equations. Comparison of model results with DNS data to evaluate the performance of each modelling term is also made in the present study. It is concluded that the low-Reynolds-number model has wider applicability and performs better than the two-layer model and wall function approaches. Comparison with DNS data further shows that large discrepancies exist between the DNS budgets and the modelled production and destruction terms of the ? equation. However, for simple channel flow the discrepancies are similar in magnitude but opposite in sign, so they are cancelled by each other. This may explain why, even when employing such an inaccurately modelled ?-equation, one can still predict satisfactorily some simple turbulent flows.     

Anisotropy of the Reynolds stresses in a turbulent boundary layer on a rough wall

The measured anisotropy invariants of the Reynolds stress tensor in a self-preserving rough wall turbulent boundary layer indicate that the anisotropy is significantly smaller than in a smooth wall layer.RAA is grateful to Dr. P. Spalart for the DNS data. The support of the Australian Research Council is acknowledged.     

Using digital holographic microscopy for simultaneous measurements of 3D near wall velocity and wall shear stress in a turbulent boundary layer

A digital holographic microscope is used to simultaneously measure the instantaneous 3D flow structure in the inner part of a turbulent boundary layer over a smooth wall, and the spatial distribution of wall shear stresses. The measurements are performed in a fully developed turbulent channel flow within square duct, at a moderately high Reynolds number. The sample volume size is 90 × 145 × 90 wall units, and the spatial resolution of the measurements is 3–8 wall units in streamwise and spanwise directions and one wall unit in the wall-normal direction. The paper describes the data acquisition and analysis procedures, including the particle tracking method and associated method for matching of particle pairs. The uncertainty in velocity is estimated to be better than 1 mm/s, less than 0.05% of the free stream velocity, by comparing the statistics of the normalized velocity divergence to divergence obtained by randomly adding an error of 1 mm/s to the data. Spatial distributions of wall shear stresses are approximated with the least square fit of velocity measurements in the viscous sublayer. Mean flow profiles and statistics of velocity fluctuations agree very well with expectations. Joint probability density distributions of instantaneous spanwise and streamwise wall shear stresses demonstrate the significance of near-wall coherent structures. The near wall 3D flow structures are classified into three groups, the first containing a pair of counter-rotating, quasi streamwise vortices and high streak-like shear stresses; the second group is characterized by multiple streamwise vortices and little variations in wall stress; and the third group has no buffer layer structures.     

Scale-by-scale energy budget in a turbulent boundary layer over a rough wall

Hot-wire velocity measurements are carried out in a turbulent boundary layer over a rough wall consisting of transverse circular rods, with a ratio of 8 between the spacing (w) of two consecutive rods and the rod height (k). The pressure distribution around the roughness element is used to accurately measure the mean friction velocity ($U_{\tau }$) and the error in the origin. It is found that $U_{\tau }$ remained practically constant in the streamwise direction suggesting that the boundary layer over this surface is evolving in a self-similar manner. This is further corroborated by the similarity observed at all scales of motion, in the region $0.2⩽y/\delta ⩽0.6$, as reflected in the constancy of Reynolds number ($R_{\lambda }$) based on Taylor’s microscale and the collapse of Kolmogorov normalized velocity spectra at all wavenumbers.A scale-by-scale budget for the second-order structure function $〈{(\delta u)}^2〉$ ($\delta u=u(x+r)-u(x)$, where u is the fluctuating streamwise velocity component and r is the longitudinal separation) is carried out to investigate the energy distribution amongst different scales in the boundary layer. It is found that while the small scales are controlled by the viscosity, intermediate scales over which the transfer of energy (or $〈{(\delta u)}^3〉$) is important are affected by mechanisms induced by the large-scale inhomogeneities in the flow, such as production, advection and turbulent diffusion. For example, there are non-negligible contributions from the large-scale inhomogeneity to the budget at scales of the order of $\lambda$, the Taylor microscale, in the region of the boundary layer extending from $y/\delta =0.2$ to 0.6 ($\delta$ is the boundary layer thickness).     

On the stability of the shear flow of a viscoelastic fluid with slip along the fixed wall

In this paper we solve the time-dependent shear flow of an Oldroyd-B fluid with slip along the fixed wall. We use a non-linear slip model relating the shear stress to the velocity at the wall and exhibiting a maximum and a minimum. We assume that the material parameters in the slip equation are such that multiple steady-state solutions do not exist. The stability of the steady-state solutions is investigated by means of a one-dimensional linear stability analysis and by numerical calculations. The instability regimes are always within or coincide with the negative-slope regime of the slip equation. As expected, the numerical results show that the instability regimes are much broader than those predicted by the linear stability analysis. Under our assumptions for the slip equation, the Newtonian solutions are stable everywhere. The interval of instability grows as one moves from the Newtonian to the upper-convected Maxwell model. Perturbing an unstable steady-state solution leads to periodic solutions. The amplitude and the period of the oscillations increase with elasticity.     

Simulation of particles released near the wall in a turbulent boundary layer

A direct numerical simulation was used along with a Lagrangian particle tracking technique to study particle motion in a horizontal, spatially developing turbulent boundary layer along an upper-wall (with terminal velocity directed away from the wall). The objective of the research was to study particle diffusion, dispersion, reflection, and mean velocity in the context of two parametric studies: one investigated the effect of the drift parameter (the ratio of particle terminal velocity to fluid friction velocity) for a fixed and finite particle inertia, and the second varied the drift parameter and particle inertia by the same amount (i.e. for a constant Froude number). A range of drift parameters from 10⁻⁴ to 10⁰ were considered for both cases. The particles were injected into the simulation at a height of four wall units for several evenly distributed points across the span and a perfectly elastic wall collision was specified at one wall unit.Statistics collected along the particle trajectories demonstrated a transition in particle movement from one that is dominated by diffusion to one that is dominated by gravity. For small and intermediate sized particles (i.e. ones with outer Stokes numbers and drift parameters much less than unity) transverse diffusion away from the wall dominated particle motion. However, preferential concentration is seen near the wall for intermediate-sized particles due to inhomogeneous turbulence effects (turbophoresis), consistent with previous channel flow studies. Particle–wall collision statistics indicated that impact velocities tended to increase with increasing terminal velocity for small and moderate inertias, after which initial conditions become important. Finally, high relative velocity fluctuations (compared to terminal velocity) were found as particle inertia increased, and were well described with a quasi-one-dimensional fluctuation model.     

Direction of streamlines near the wall in a three-dimensional turbulent boundary layer

Expressions are derived that, for a large class of flows, enable one to determine the direction of the streamlines near the wall in a three-dimensional turbulent boundary layer without integrating the system of boundary-layer equations. Comparison with available experimental data reveals a completely satisfactory agreement between the calculations and the experimental data.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 19–25, March–April, 1980.     

Modeling the dynamics of colliding particles in a turbulent shear flow

A kinetic model for the probability density function (PDF) of the particle velocity in a turbulent flow with account for particle collisions is presented. The model is tested by comparison with the results of a numerical experiment for a nonstationary homogeneous shear layer. Moscow. Translated from Izvestiya Rossiiskoi Akademii Nauk, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 4, pp. 105–112, July–August, 1998. The study received financial support from the International Science Foundation INTAS (project No. 94-4348) and the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project No. 97-01-00398).     

On the orientation of ellipsoidal particles in a turbulent shear flow

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of small prolate ellipsoidal particles suspended in a turbulent channel flow is reported. The coupling between the fluid and the particles is one-way. The particles are subjected to the hydrodynamic drag force and torque valid for creeping flow conditions. Six different particle cases with varying particle aspect ratios and equivalent response times are investigated. Results show that, in the near-wall region, ellipsoidal particles tend to align with the mean flow direction, and the alignment increases with increasing particle aspect ratio. When the particle inertia increases, the particles are less oriented in the spanwise direction and more oriented in the wall-normal direction. In the core region of the channel, the orientation becomes isotropic.     

Jet flow around a plate near a wall

Chaplygin's method [1] has been extended by Fal'kovich [2] to the case of several characteristic velocities; it has here been used to solve the two-dimensional unsymmetrical problem of subsonic gas jet flow around a plate near a solid wall. The Zhukovskii-Roshko scheme [3,4] has been used with a stagnant zone ahead of the plate. Formulas are derived for the current function, normal-pressure coefficient, and geometrical elements of the flow. The result is extended to the case of an incompressible fluid by passing to the limit.     

Scaling of the bursting period in turbulent rough wall boundary layers

Measurements in laboratory rough wall turbulent boundary layers have been made over a sufficient Reynolds number range for independence on the Reynolds number to be established adequately. The data have been analyzed with respect to the average period between ejections and sweeps, using methods previously applied to smooth wall flows. The results clearly show that the period is independent of Reynolds number when it is scaled on outer variables.