Applications of parabolized stability equation for predicting transition position in boundary layers

The phenomenon of laminar-turbulent transition exists universally in nature and various engineering practice.The prediction of transition position is one of crucial theories and practical problems in fluid mechanics due to the different characteristics of laminar flow and turbulent flow.Two types of disturbances are imposed at the entrance,i.e.,identical amplitude and wavepacket disturbances,along the spanwise direction in the incompressible boundary layers.The disturbances of identical amplitude are consisted of one two-dimensional(2D) wave and two three-dimensional(3D) waves.The parabolized stability equation(PSE) is used to research the evolution of disturbances and to predict the transition position.The results are compared with those obtained by the numerical simulation.The results show that the PSE method can investigate the evolution of disturbances and predict the transition position.At the same time,the calculation speed is much faster than that of the numerical simulation.     

DNS of a spatially developing turbulent boundary layer with passive scalar transport

A direct numerical simulation (DNS) of a spatially developing turbulent boundary layer over a flat plate under zero pressure gradient (ZPG) has been carried out. The evolution of several passive scalars with both isoscalar and isoflux wall boundary condition are computed during the simulation. The Navier–Stokes equations as well as the scalar transport equation are solved using a fully spectral method. The highest Reynolds number based on the free-stream velocity U_∞ and momentum thickness θ is Re_θ=830, and the molecular Prandtl numbers are 0.2, 0.71 and 2. To the authors’ knowledge, this Reynolds number is to date the highest with such a variety of scalars. A large number of turbulence statistics for both flow and scalar fields are obtained and compared when possible to existing experimental and numerical simulations at comparable Reynolds number. The main focus of the present paper is on the statistical behaviour of the scalars in the outer region of the boundary layer, distinctly different from the channel-flow simulations. Agreements as well as discrepancies are discussed while the influence of the molecular Prandtl number and wall boundary conditions is also highlighted. A Pr scaling for various quantities is proposed in outer scalings. In addition, spanwise two-point correlation and instantaneous fields are employed to investigate the near-wall streak spacing and the coherence between the velocity and the scalar fields. Probability density functions (PDF) and joint probability density functions (JPDF) are shown to identify the intermittency both near the wall and in the outer region of the boundary layer. The present simulation data will be available online for the research community.     

Verification of parabolized stability equations for its application to compressible boundary layers

Parabolized stability equations (PSE) were used to study the evolution of disturbances in compressible boundary layers.The results were compared with those ob- tained by direct numerical simulations (DNS),to check if the results from PSE method were reliable or not.The results of comparison showed that no matter for subsonic or supersonic boundary layers,results from both the PSE and DNS method agreed with each other reasonably well,and the agreement between temperatures was better than those between velocities.In addition,linear PSE was used to calculate the neutral curve for small amplitude disturbances in a supersonic boundary layer.Compared with those obtained by linear stability theory (LST),the situation was similar to those for incom- pressible boundary layer.     

A new method for computing turbulence in compressible laminar-turbulent transition and boundary layers--PSE＋DNS

A new method for computing laminar-turbulent transition and turbulence in compressible boundary layers is proposed. It is especially useful for computation of laminar-turbulent transition and turbulence starting from small-amplitude disturbances. The laminar stage, up to the beginning of the breakdown in laminar-turbulent transition, is computed by parabolized stability equations (PSE). The direct numerical simulation (DNS) method is used to compute the transition process and turbulent flow, for which the inflow condition is provided by using the disturbances obtained by PSE method up to that stage. In the two test cases incfuding a subsonic and a supersonic boundary layer, the transition locations and the turbulent flow obtained with this method agree well with those obtained by using only DNS method for the whole process. The computational cost of the proposed method is much less than using only DNS method.     

Sensitivity Analysis Using Adjoint Parabolized Stability Equations for Compressible Flows

An input/output framework is used to analyze the sensitivity of two- and three-dimensional disturbances in a compressible boundary layer for changes in wall and momentum forcing. The sensitivity is defined as the gradient of the kinetic disturbance energy at a given downstream position with respect to the forcing. The gradients are derived using the parabolized stability equations (PSE) and their adjoint (APSE). The adjoint equations are derived in a consistent way for a quasi-two-dimensional compressible flow in an orthogonal curvilinear coordinate system. The input/output framework provides a basis for optimal control studies. Analysis of two-dimensional boundary layers for Mach numbers between 0 and 1.2 show that wall and momentum forcing close to branch I of the neutral stability curve give the maximum magnitude of the gradient. Forcing at the wall gives the largest magnitude using the wall normal velocity component. In case of incompressible flow, the two-dimensional disturbances are the most sensitive ones to wall inhomogeneity. For compressible flow, the three-dimensional disturbances are the most sensitive ones. Further, it is shown that momentum forcing is most effectively done in the vicinity of the critical layer. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Features of the supercritical transition in the wake of a circular cylinder

The features of the wake behind a uniform circular cylinder atRe=200, which is just beyond the critical Reynolds number of 3-D transition, are investigated in detail by direct numerical simulations by solving 3-D incompressible Navier-Stokes equations using mixed spectral-spectral-element method. The high-order splitting algorithm based on the mixed stiffly stable scheme is employed in the time discretization. Due to the nonlinear evolution of the secondary instability of the wake, the spanwise modes with different wavelengths emerge. The spanwise characteristic length determines the transition features and global properties of the wake. The existence of the spanwise phase difference of the primary vortices shedding is confirmed by Fourier analysis of the time series of the spanwise vorticity and attributed to the dominant spanwise mode. The spatial energy distributions of various modes and the velocity profiles in the near wake are obtained. The numerical results indicate that the near wake is in 3-D quasi-periodic laminar state with transitional behaviors at this supercritical Reynolds number. The project supported by the State Key Fundamental Research Project of “Large Scale Scientific Computation Research” (G199903281)     

Direct numerical simulation of disturbances generated by periodic suction-blowing in a hypersonic boundary layer

A numerical algorithm and code are developed and applied to direct numerical simulation (DNS) of unsteady two-dimensional flow fields relevant to stability of the hypersonic boundary layer. An implicit second-order finite-volume technique is used for solving the compressible Navier–Stokes equations. Numerical simulation of disturbances generated by a periodic suction-blowing on a flat plate is performed at free-stream Mach number 6. For small forcing amplitudes, the second-mode growth rates predicted by DNS agree well with the growth rates resulted from the linear stability theory (LST) including nonparallel effects. This shows that numerical method allows for simulation of unstable processes despite its dissipative features. Calculations at large forcing amplitudes illustrate nonlinear dynamics of the disturbance flow field. DNS predicts a nonlinear saturation of fundamental harmonic and rapid growth of higher harmonics. These results are consistent with the experimental data of Stetson and Kimmel obtained on a sharp cone at the free-stream Mach number 8.     

Numerical studies on evolution of secondary streamwise vortices in transitional boundary layers

Formation and evolution of secondary streamwise vortices in the compressible transitional boundary layers over a flat plate are studied using a direct numerical simulation method with high-order accuracy and highly effective non-reflecting characteristic boundary conditions. Generation and development processes of the secondary streamwise vortices in the complicated transitional boundary flow are clearly analyzed based on the of numerical results, and the effects on the formation of the ring-like vortex that is vital to the boundary layer transition are explored. A new mechanism forming the ring-like vortex through the mutual effect of the primary and secondary streamwise vortices is expressed.     

A direct boundary-layer stability analysis of steady-state cavity convection flow

Natural convection flow in cavities with insulated top and bottom and heated and cooled walls is known to exhibit travelling wave instabilities in the thermal boundary layers that form on the walls. In water (Pr = 7.5) at Rayleigh number Ra = 6 × 10⁸, these waves have been observed at start-up. However no such waves have been observed for the fully developed flow, although it may be assumed that the stability character of the boundary layers is at least approximately the same. The start-up waves are generated by perturbations to the system. In the present paper, an artificial perturbation is applied to the system to determine the stability character of the boundary layers in fully developed flow. It is shown that the thermal boundary layers in the fully developed flow have approximately the same stability character as the start-up flow.     

EXACT SOLUTION OF NAVIER-STOKES EQUATIONS-THE THEORY OF FUNCTIONS OF A COMPLEX VARIABLE UNDER DIRACPAULI REPRESENTATION AND ITS APPLICATION IN FLUID DYNAMICS (Ⅱ)

This work is the continuation of the discussion of ref. [1]. In ref. [1] we applied the theory of functions of a complex variable under Dirac-Pauli representation, introduced the Kaluza Ghost coordinate, and turned Navier-Stokes equations of viscofluid dynamics of homogeneous and incompressible fluid into nonlinear equation with only a pair of complex unknown functions. In this paper we again combine the complex independent variable except time, and cause it to decrease in a pair to the number of complex independent variables. Lastly, we turn Navier-Stokes equations into classical Burgers equation. The Cole-Hopf transformation join up with Burgers equation and the diffusion equation is Bäcklund transformation in fact and the diffusion equation has the general solution as everyone knows. Thus, we obtain the exact solution of Navier-Stokes equations by Bäcklund transformation.