Direct simulation of the turbulent boundary layer on a plate

A numerical method for the integration of three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations for compressible fluid as applied to direct numerical simulation is proposed. By way of example, the boundary layer on a plate is simulated. The computations were carried out for Re_θ = 1500. The computational grid consisted of a half billion nodes. The flow region includes the laminar, transitional, and turbulent zones. The numerically obtained distributions of average velocity, friction, and pulsations are compared with experimental data and available numerical solutions.     

The problem of the turbulent boundary layer

Summary Existing measurements of low-speed turbulent surface friction on a flat plate, in the absence of pressure gradient and roughness, are shown to be consistent with a simple analysis based on functional similarity in the velocity profile. In particular, the fully developed turbulent boundary layer is found to be unique within the accuracy of the experimental data, with uniqueness defined as the existence of a definite correspondence between local friction coefficient and momentum thickness Reynolds number. The relationships known as the law of the wall and the velocity defect law are found to describe the turbulent velocity profiles accurately for a considerable range of Reynolds numbers, and an effort is made to clarify the physical significance of these formulae. Finally, the proper definition of a length Reynolds number is discussed in terms of the asymptotic local properties of the ideal boundary layer, and numerical values for ideal mean and local friction coefficients are tabulated against Reynolds numbers based on momentum thickness and on distance from the leading edge.

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Zusammenfassung Es wird gezeigt, dass vorhandene Messungen der turbulenten Wandschubspannung an der glatten ebenen Platte in inkompressibler Strömung ohne Druckgradient durch eine einfache Berechnung in Übereinstimmung gebracht werden können. Die Rechnung beruht auf einer funktionellen Ähnlichkeit der Geschwindigkeitsverteilung. Es wird im besonderen gefunden, dass die vollentwickelte turbulente Grenzschicht innerhalb der Messgenauigkeit einem eindeutigen Zusammenhang zwischen dem örtlichen Reibungskoeffizienten und der Reynoldsschen Zahl, bezogen auf die Impulsdicke, folgt. Die Beziehungen, die als Wandgesetz und Mittengesetz bekannt sind, beschreiben die Geschwindigkeitsverteilung genau innerhalb eines erheblichen Bereiches Reynoldsscher Zahlen, und es wird versucht, den physikalischen Inhalt dieser Gesetzmässigkeiten zu vertiefen. Abschliessend wird eine zweckmässige Definition der auf Plattenlänge bezogenen Reynoldsschen Zahl diskutiert, die auf dem asymptotischen örtlichen Zustand der idealen Grenzschicht beruht. Rechenwerte der idealen, mittleren und örtlichen Reibungskoeffizienten, bezogen auf beide obigen Definitionen der Reynoldsschen Zahl, werden tabelliert.

     

A Lagrangian simulation of particle deposition in a turbulent boundary layer in the presence of thermophoresis

Knowledge of particle deposition in turbulent flows is often required in engineering situations. Examples include fouling of turbine blades, plate-out in nuclear reactors and soot deposition. Thus it is important for numerical simulations to be able to predict particle deposition. Particle deposition is often principally determined by the forces acting on the particles in the boundary layer. The particle tracking facility in the CFD code uses the eddy lifetime model to simulate turbulent particle dispersion, no specific boundary layer being modelled. The particle tracking code has been modified to include a boundary layer. The non-dimensional yplus, y⁺, distance of the particle from the wall is determined and then values for the fluid velocity, fluctuating fluid velocity and eddy lifetime appropriate for a turbulent boundary layer used. Predictions including the boundary layer have been compared against experimental data for particle deposition in turbulent pipe flow. The results giving much better agreement. Many engineering problems also involve heat transfer and hence temperature gradients. Thermophoresis is a phenomena by which small particles experience a force in the opposite direction to the temperature gradient. Thus particles will tend to deposit on cold walls and be repulsed by hot walls. The effect of thermophoresis on the deposition of particles can be significant. The modifications of the particle tracking facility have been extended to include the effect of thermophoresis. A preliminary test case involving the deposition of particles in a heated pipe has been simulated. Comparison with experimental data from an extensive experimental programme undertaken at ISPRA, known as STORM (Simplified Tests on Resuspension Mechanisms), has been made.     

Near-separating,self-similar turbulent boundary layer

The self-similar flow in a turbulent boundary layer, which is in a state close to separation as a result of the effect of adverse pressure gradient, is investigated. Such a boundary layer has a triple-deck asymptotic structure. Between outer and near-wall regions above the logarithmic sublayer, i. e. the constant-stress layer, an intermediate region — the gradient sublayer — is formed, where the shear stress varies linearly due to adverse longitudinal pressure gradient. In the external part of the gradient sublayer, the velocity profile obeys the square-root law. The velocity profile obtained from the solution for the outer region satisfies a slip condition on the wall. The slip value decreases as the similarity parameter increases and vanishes at the value of Ω = 0.0911, which corresponds to separation, here δ^* is the displacement thickness, and U and U′ are the free-stream velocity and its derivative with respect to the longitudinal coordinate. In this case, the exponent m in the law specifying the free-stream self-similar velocity distribution increases, with separation occurring not at the minimal value of m = −1/3, which corresponds to the strongest adverse pressure gradient, but at the value m = 0.228. (© 2013 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Self-similar turbulent boundary layer in pressure gradient

Self-similar flows in a turbulent boundary layer when the free-stream velocity is specified as a power function of longitudinal coordinate are investigated. The self-similar formulation not only simplifies solving of the problem by reducing the equations of motion to ordinary differential equations but also provides a mean for formulating closure conditions. It is shown that for the class of flows under consideration that depend on three governing parameters the dimensionless mixing length is a function of the normalised distance from the wall and the exponent in the law specifying the free-stream velocity distribution in the outer region and a universal function of local Reynolds number in the wall region, the latter corollary being true even when the skin friction vanishes. In calculations this function is set to be independent of pressure gradient, which gives the results very close to experimental data. There exist four different self-similar flow regimes. Each regime is related to its similarity parameter, one of which is the well-known Clauser equilibrium parameter and the other three are established for the first time. In case of adverse pressure gradient when the exponent lies within certain limits, which depend on Reynolds number, the problem has two solutions with different values of the boundary layer thickness and skin friction, which points out the possibility of hysteresis in near-separating flow. Separation occurs not at the minimum value of the exponent that corresponds to the strongest adverse pressure gradient but at a higher one whose dependence on Reynolds number is calculated in the paper. The results of the theory are in good agreement with experimental data. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Numerical simulation of a class of fractional subdiffusion equations via the alternating direction implicit method

In this article, a new numerical technique is proposed for solving the two‐dimensional time fractional subdiffusion equation with nonhomogeneous terms. After a transformation of the original problem, standard central difference approximation is used for the spatial discretization. For the time step, a new fractional alternating direction implicit (FADI) scheme based on the L₁ approximation is considered. This FADI scheme is constructed by adding a small term, so it is different from standard FADI methods. The solvability, unconditional stability and H¹ norm convergence are proved. Finally, numerical examples show the effectiveness and accuracy of our proposed method. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq 32: 531–547, 2016     

Dynamical structure of the turbulent boundary layer on rough surface

The experiments on structure of turbulent boundary layer on the plane rough wall without pressure gradient are presented. Sand roughness of the wall is considered. Measurements are carried out using Time-Resolved PIV technique in planes parallel and perpendicular to the wall. The results on rough wall are compared with the base case of boundary layer on smooth wall. Hairpin vortices have been detected. Topology and typical size of those structures substantially differ in the cases in question. (© 2011 Wiley-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

Asymptotic solution of the unsteady boundary layer equations

Summary An extension of the Meksyn asymptotic method to unsteady boundary layers in laminar, incompressible flow is investigated. The results indicate that unsteady boundary layers can be calculated by the Meksyn asymptotic method with comparable accuracy to that obtained for steady flows. Several differences from the well developed steady-flow application exist and require further work before general problems can be treated. The calculation technique is more straight-forward for cases involving acceleration because three or four terms in the expansions may then yield sufficient accuracy. The form of the governing equation required by the Meksyn method indicates that it is most useful for unsteady stagnation boundary layers since some basic unsteady flows are not directly accessible in their simplest form from that equation. The effect of unsteadiness on the rate of asymptotic convergence is assessed by detailed comparison of a similar solution for unsteady, stagnation flow with analogous results from the Falkner-Skan equation and of reliable numerical results for both cases.

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Résumé On étudie une extension de la méthode asymptotique de Meksyn aux couches limites instables des écoulements laminaires de fluides incompressibles. Les résultats montrent que les couches limites instables peuvent être calculées à l'aide de la méthode asymptotique de Meksyn avec une précision comparable à celle obtenue pour les écoulements stables. Plusieurs différences existent par rapport à l'application, bien mise au point, aux écoulements stables; elles demandent encore du travail avant que les problèmes généraux puissent être traités. La méthode de calcul est plus directe dans les cas impliquant une accélération, car 3 ou 4 termes dans les développements assurent alors une précision suffisante. La forme de l'équation principale nécessaire à la méthode de Meksyn indique qu'elle est très utile pour les couches limites instables au repos; en effet, certains écoulements instables de base ne peuvent être atteints directement dans leur forme la plus simple à partir de cette équation. L'effet de l'instabilité sur la vitesse de convergence asymptotique est établi grâce à une comparaison détaillée d'une solution analogue pour un écoulement instable stagnant avec les résultats semblables obtenus par l'équation Falkner-Skan, et des résultats numériques sûrs obtenus dans les deux cas.

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This work was supported by the Energy Research and Development Administration.     

Three-dimensional turbulent boundary layer on wind turbine blades

The momentum integral technique for predicting the boundary–layer growth in three–dimensional flow has been extended to include the entrainment equation as the closure model. Special attention has been devoted to those terms in the differential equations that change the boundary–layer structure from that of cvasi two–dimensional steady flow, at outboard locations, to a tree–dimensional flow pattern. It is concluded that the stall is delayed due to the boundary–layer reattachment at inboard sections in conjunction with the onset of a spanwise vortex like structure. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

The heat transfer problem in the wall region of a turbulent boundary layer

The problem of heat transfer in the wall region of a turbulent boundary layer has been investigated. The resonant triad in the theory of hydrodynamic stability was used to obtain the velocity field induced by the coherent structures in the wall region of the turbulent boundary layer, while the small scale turbulence was represented by a simple model. By such a new approach of modeling, the 3-D temperature field is calculated, the mean temperature profile in the wall region and the Nusselt number characterizing the heat flux, which was found to be in good agreement with the experimental observations are obtained. The instantaneous temperature field had streaky structures, thus offering a mechanism for their generation found in numerical simulations. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 19132011).     

Minimum error solutions of boundary layer equations

The minimum error solutions of boundary layer equations in the least square sense have been studied by employing the Euler-Lagrange equations. To test the method a class of problems,i.e., boundary layer on a flat plate, Hiemenz flow, boundary layer on a moving sheet and boundary layer in non-Newtonian fluids have been studied. The comparison of the results with approximate methods, like Karman-Pohlhuasen, local potential and other variational methods, shows that the present predictions are invariably better.     

Effect of pressure gradient on coherent structures in a turbulent boundary layer

By using the idea of resonant triad of the theory of hydrodynamic stability, the effect of pressure gradient on coherent structures in a turbulent boundary layer is investigated. The favorable pressure gradient suppresses the generation of the coherent structure, while the adverse pressure gradient has the opposite effect. The scale, form, as well as the propagation speed of the coherent structures are different from those with zero pressure gradient. The theoretical results are, in general, in agreement with those found from experiments. From the calculated probability density curve of the circulation differences of the nearly streamwise vortex pairs, it is found that the adverse pressure gradient makes the vortex pair more symmetric. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China.     

Numerical treatment of degenerate diffusion equations via Feller's boundary classification,and applications

A numerical method is devised to solve a class of linear boundary‐value problems for one‐dimensional parabolic equations degenerate at the boundaries. Feller theory, which classifies the nature of the boundary points, is used to decide whether boundary conditions are needed to ensure uniqueness, and, if so, which ones they are. The algorithm is based on a suitable preconditioned implicit finite‐difference scheme, grid, and treatment of the boundary data. Second‐order accuracy, unconditional stability, and unconditional convergence of solutions of the finite‐difference scheme to a constant as the time‐step index tends to infinity are further properties of the method. Several examples, pertaining to financial mathematics, physics, and genetics, are presented for the purpose of illustration. © 2011 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Numer Methods Partial Differential Eq, 2011     

Similarity solutions of the boundary layer equations for a nonlinearly stretching sheet

Consideration is given to a class of nonlinear third‐order differential equations arising in fluid flow over a nonlinearly stretching sheet. Existence of a solution of the nonlinear third‐order differential equation over 0<η<∞ is established in this paper, answering the open question of Vajravelu and Cannon (Appl. Math. Comput. 2006; 181:609–618). That is, we prove with estimates independent of R for solutions of the third‐order differential equation on [0, R]. The existence of a solution on 0<η<∞ follows from the Ascoli–Arzela Theorem. Furthermore, numerical solutions are obtained and presented through graphs, and the influence of the physical parameter on the flow characteristics is discussed. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Numerical quenching of a system of equations coupled at the boundary

We study numerical approximations of solutions of the following system of heat equations, coupled at the boundary through a nonlinear flux: where p and q are parameters. We prove that the solutions of a semidiscretization in space quench in finite time. Moreover, we describe in terms of p and q the simultaneous versus non‐simultaneous quenching phenomena. We also find the numerical extinction sets. Finally, in order to obtain the correct quenching rates in the non‐simultaneous case we present some adaptive methods. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Some Fredholm equations with boundary layer resonance

Certain singularly perturbed differential equations which exhibit boundary layer resonance are difficult to solve by the application of standard asymptotic methods. After reformulation as a singularly perturbed integral equation and treatment by a recently developed asymptotic methodology, the desired solution is obtained in a straightforward manner.     

Modeling of individual coherent structures in wall region of a turbulent boundary layer

Models for individual coherent structures in the wall region of a turbulent boundary layer are proposed. Method of numerical simulations is used to follow the evolution of the structures. It is found that the proposed model does bear many features of coherent structures found in experiments. Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 19732005) and National Climbing Project.     

Modeling of individual coherent structures in wall region of a turbulent boundary layer

Models for individual coherent structures in the wall region of a turbulent boundary layer are proposed. Method of numerical simulations is used to follow the evolution of the structures. It is found that the proposed model does bear many features of coherent structures found in experiments.     

Monte Carlo simulation of boundary layer transition

A statistical method for simulating a boundary layer transition flow is proposed as based on experimental data on the kinematics and dynamics of turbulent spots (Emmons spots) on a flat plate placed in an incompressible fluid. The method determines intermittency with allowance for overlapping spots, which makes it possible to determine the forces on the plate surface and the flow field near the transition region if the mean streamwise velocity field in a developed turbulent boundary layer is known as a function of the Reynolds number. In contrast to multiparameter transition models, this approach avoids the use of nonphysical parameter values.