Methods of measuring vorticity in turbulent flows

Experimental methods which have been developed over the last three decades to measure one or more components of the vorticity vector are described and assessed. These include methods which estimate the velocity gradients comprising the various vorticity components, methods which sense fluid rotation directly, and methods which sense other fluid properties which can be related to vorticity.This paper was presented at the Ninth symposium on turbulence, University of Missouri-Rolla, October 1–3, 1984     

Reynolds stress and vorticity in turbulent wall flows

Experimental measurements in a boundary layer and a large-eddy simulation of plane channel flow have been used to study the dynamics of vorticity and mass transport in the nearwall region. It was found that Reynolds stress generation occurs in the vicinity of quasi-streamwise vortices, and that smoke particles tend to be ejected from the wall near these vortical structures.     

A vorticity stretching diagnostic for turbulent and transitional flows

Vorticity stretching in wall-bounded turbulent and transitional flows has been investigated by means of a new diagnostic measure, denoted by Γ, designed to pick up regions with large amounts of vorticity stretching. It is based on the maximum vorticity stretching component in every spatial point, thus yielding a three-dimensional scalar field. The measure was applied in four different flows with increasing complexity: (a) the near-wall cycle in an asymptotic suction boundary layer (ASBL), (b) K-type transition in a plane channel flow, (c) fully turbulent channel flow at Re _τ = 180 and (d) a complex turbulent three-dimensional separated flow. Instantaneous data show that the coherent structures associated with intense vorticity stretching in all four cases have the shape of flat ‘pancake’ structures in the vicinity of high-speed streaks, here denoted ‘h-type’ events. The other event found is of ‘l-type’, present on top of an unstable low-speed streak. These events (l-type) are further thought to be associated with the exponential growth of streamwise vorticity in the turbulent near-wall cycle. It was found that the largest occurrence of vorticity stretching in the fully turbulent wall-bounded flows is present at a wall-normal distance of y ⁺?=?6.5, i.e. in the transition between the viscous sublayer and buffer layer. The associated structures have a streamwise length of ~200–300 wall units. In K-type transition, the Γ-measure accurately locates the regions of interest, in particular the formation of high-speed streaks near the wall (h-type) and the appearance of the hairpin vortex (l-type). In the turbulent separated flow, the structures containing large amounts of vorticity stretching increase in size and magnitude in the shear layer upstream of the separation bubble but vanish in the backflow region itself. Overall, the measure proved to be useful in showing growing instabilities before they develop into structures, highlighting the mechanisms creating high shear region on a wall and showing turbulence creation associated with instantaneous separations.     

Pressure field,vorticity field,and coherent structures in two-dimensional incompressible turbulent flows

Geometrical arguments lead to the definition of two education criteria for coherent structures in two-dimensional incompressible turbulent flows. These criteria involve the pressure or the vorticity field and are compared.     

Measurements of turbulent and periodic flows around a square cross-section cylinder

Laser-Doppler measurements of the velocity characteristics are presented for the turbulent flow around a square cross-section cylinder mounted in a water channel for Re=14000. The study involved spectral analysis and digital filtering of the LDV data obtained behind the cylinder. The purpose of the measurements is to separate and quantify the turbulent and the periodic, non-turbulent, motions of the wake flow, in order to improve knowledge of the nature of the fluctuations in the near-wake region of two-dimensional bodies. The results show, for example, that in the zone of highest velocity oscillations the energy associated with the turbulent fluctuations is about 40% of the total energy.A version of the paper was presented at the 10th Symposium on Turbulence, University of Missouri-Rolla, September 22–24, 1986     

4D Magnetic resonance velocimetry for mean velocity measurements in complex turbulent flows

An adaptation of a medical magnetic resonance imaging system to the noninvasive measurement of three-component mean velocity fields in complex turbulent engineering flows is described. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the capabilities of the technique with respect to its accuracy, time efficiency and applicability as a design tool for complex turbulent internal geometries. The technique, called 4D magnetic resonance velocimetry (4D-MRV), is used to measure the mean flow in fully developed low-Reynolds number turbulent pipe flow, Re=6400 based on bulk mean velocity and diameter, and in a model of a gas turbine blade internal cooling geometry with four serpentine passages, Re=10,000 and 15,000 based on bulk mean velocity and hydraulic diameter. 4D-MRV is capable of completing full-field measurements in three-dimensional volumes with sizes on the order of the magnet bore diameter in less than one hour. Such measurements can include over 2 million independent mean velocity vectors. Velocities measured in round pipe flow agreed with previous experimental results to within 10%. In the turbulent cooling passage flow, the average flow rates calculated from the 4D-MRV velocity profiles agreed with ultrasonic flowmeter measurements to within 7%. The measurements lend excellent qualitative insight into flow structures even in the highly complex 180° bends. Accurate quantitative measurements were obtained throughout the Re=10,000 flow and in the Re=15,000 flow except in the most complex regions, areas just downstream of high-speed bends, where velocities and velocity fluctuations exceeded MRV capabilities for the chosen set of scan parameters. General guidelines for choosing scanning parameters and suggestions for future development are presented.     

Three-dimensional vorticity in a turbulent cylinder wake

The three components of the vorticity vector in the intermediate region of a turbulent cylinder wake were measured simultaneously using a multi-hot-wire probe. This probe has an improved spatial resolution compared with those reported in the literature. The behavior of the instantaneous velocity and vorticity signals is examined. Both coherent and incoherent vorticity fields are investigated using a phase-averaged technique. The iso-contours of the phase-averaged longitudinal and lateral vorticity variances, and , wrap around the spanwise structures of opposite sign and run through the saddle point along the diverging separatrix. The observation conforms to the previous reports of the occurrence of the longitudinal structures based on flow visualizations and numerical simulations. The magnitude of these contours is about the same as that of the maximum coherent spanwise vorticity at the vortex center, indicating that the strength of the longitudinal structures is comparable to that of the spanwise vortices. Furthermore, and exhibit maximum concentration away from the vortex center, probably because of a combined effect of the large-scale spanwise vortices and the intermediate-scale longitudinal structures. Coherent structures contribute about 36% to the spanwise vorticity variance at x/d=10. The contribution decreases rapidly to about 5% at x/d=40. The present results suggest that vorticity largely reside in relatively small-scale structures.     

Effects of the Reynolds number on the mean skin friction decomposition in turbulent channel flows

As the Reynolds number increases, the skin friction has been identified as the dominant drag in many practical applications. In the present paper, the effects of the Reynolds number on the mean skin friction decomposition in turbulent channel flows up to Reτ= 5 200 are investigated based on two different methods, i.e., the FukagataIwamoto-Kasagi(FIK) identity(FUKAGATA, K., IWAMOTO, K., and KASAGI, N.Contribution of Reynolds stress distribution to the skin friction in wall-bounded flows.Physics of Fluids, 14(11), L73–L76(2002)) and the Renard-Deck(RD) identity(DECK,S., RENARD, N., LARAUFIE, R., and WEISS, P.′E. Large-scale contribution to mean wall shear stress in high-Reynolds-number flat-plate boundary layers up to Reθ= 13 650.Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 743, 202–248(2014)). The direct numerical simulation(DNS) data provided by Lee and Moser(LEE, M. and MOSER, R. D. Direct numerical simulation of turbulent channel flow up to Reτ≈ 5 200. Journal of Fluid Mechanics,774, 395–415(2015)) are used. For these two skin friction decomposition methods, their decomposed constituents are discussed and compared for different Reynolds numbers.The integrands of the decomposed constituents are locally analyzed across the boundary layer to assess the actions associated with the inhomogeneity and multi-scale nature of turbulent motion. The scaling of the decomposed constituents and their integrands are presented. In addition, the boundary layer is divided into three sub-regions to evaluate the contributive proportion of each sub-region with an increase in the Reynolds number.     

Performance of lateral vorticity probe in a turbulent wake

A useful experimental check of the accuracy of measured lateral vorticity components is provided by comparing the vorticity-velocity cross products with the lateral derivative of the Reynolds shear stress. The check has been carried out in the self-preserving turbulent wake of a cylinder.     

Effect of turbulence-driven secondary flow on particle preferential concentration and clustering in turbulent square duct flows

In this study,the preferential concentration and clustering of inertial particles in fully developed turbulent square duct flows are studied using large eddy simulations combined with Lagrangian approach,where the Reynolds number is equal to Reτ=600(based on the mean friction velocity and duct full height),and the particle Stokes number ranges from 0.0007 to 1.16.The results obtained for duct flows are compared with those for channel flows under the same working conditions.Then,the effect of the secondary flow on the particle concentration in duct flows is investigated.The equation of particle motion is governed by the drag force,lift force,added mass force,pressure gradient force,and gravity.The inter-phase interaction that was considered includes one-way and two-way coupling.The simulations of a single phase are verified and in good agreement with the available literature data.For the discrete phase,particles in the duct flow are found to be more dispersed in the vertical direction compared with the channel flow.In near-wall regions,a small fraction of particles tends to accumulate in duct corners,forming stable particle streaks under the effect of the secondary flow.Meanwhile,most particles are likely to reside preferentially in the low-speed flow regions and form elongated particle streaks steadily in the middle region of duct or channel floors.The Voronoi diagram analysis shows that the near-wall secondary flows in the square duct could cause particle clusters to transfer from regions of high to low concentration,and this trend increases with particle size.In addition,two-way coupling is found to enhance the near-wall particle accumulation and to promote particles to form more elongated streaks than one-way coupling.Finally,the mechanism responsible for the particle preferential concentration in turbulent square duct flows is determined.     

Wall shear stress determination from near-wall mean velocity data in turbulent pipe and channel flows

A novel method is proposed that allows accurate estimates of the local wall shear stress from near-wall mean velocity data in fully developed pipe and channel flows. DNS databases are used to demonstrate the accuracy of the method and to provide the reliability requirements on the experimental data.To demonstrate the applicability of the method, near-wall LDA measurements in turbulent pipe and channel flows were performed. The estimated wall shear stress is shown to be accurate to within 1%. Streamwise mean velocity and turbulence intensity profiles normalized with the wall friction velocity at several Reynolds numbers are presented.The current research was funded in part by the European Community under the BRITE-EURAM program, Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (Du 101/16-1,2) and Deutscher Akademischer Austauschdienst. The authors are also grateful to Professors F. Nieuwstadt, N. Kasagi, P. Moin and Drs. J. Kim and N. Gilbert for providing their direct simulation data.     

RMS spanwise vorticity measurements in a turbulent boundary layer

Turbulent boundary layer measurements of the rms spanwise vorticity t_z with a four hot-wire probe are in reasonable agreement with direct numerical simulations and other published measurements at comparable Reynolds numbers. It is shown that a reasonable accurate approximation for _z can be obtained with only two parallel hot wires.     

Molecular transfer in turbulent flows

For modeling the molecular transfer of a passive scalar in a known turbulent field, the equations for the average scalar value and the correlation function for the scalar field are written in a form which makes it possible to examine the effect of molecular transfer on turbulent transfer and scalar dissipation. For the closure of the equation for the correlation function, the Prandtl hypothesis is used. The statistical reliability of this closure is demonstrated. The system proposed makes it possible to predict the dynamics of a decaying uniform scalar field and to explain why the effect of the real value of the molecular-transfer coefficient on the decaying scalar field is weak. Specific features of the transport process in a plane layer with prescribed scalar values on the layer boundaries are considered.     

Entropy and vorticity corrections for transonic flows

Different models for inviscid transonic flows are examined. The common assumptions that the flow is isentropic and irrotational are critically evaluated. Entropy and vorticity correction procedures for potential and stream function formulations are presented, together with the details of the treatment of shocks and wakes, and drag and lift calculations. The non-uniqueness problem of the potential formulation is studied using different artificial viscosity forms. Numerical results are compared with Euler solutions.