Three-dimensional vortex visualization in stratified spin-up

Abstract  

We present the results of three-dimensional time-dependent numerical simulations of incremental spin-up of a thermally stratified fluid. The fluid inside a vertical cylindrical container of radius R and height 2H is water characterized by the kinematic viscosity ν and thermal diffusivity κ. Initially, its density (temperature) varies linearly with height and is characterized by a constant buoyancy frequency N, which is proportional to the density gradient. The system undergoes an abrupt change in the rotation rate from its initial value Ω_i, when the fluid is in a solid-body rotation state, to the final value Ω_f. The aim of this contribution is to show the formation of columnar vortices in a high Rossby number spin-up flow.     

Reynolds number and scale dependence of turbulent eddy decorrelation

The temporal decay of the Lagrangian velocity correlation function of isotropic, homogeneous turbulence is calculated by following particle trajectories and via continued fraction representation. We report on the eddy size as well as on the Reynolds number dependence. Most remarkably, the exponential relaxation approximation for the correlation function turns out to be insufficient. Memory effects result in a considerable enhancement: the decay is more than an order of magnitude faster. The very high Reynolds number turbulent flow fields are generated by a reduced wave vector set approximation of the Navier-Stokes dynamics, but for smaller Re the conclusions are confirmed by direct numerical simulations. Two orders of magnitude of the Taylor-Reynolds number are covered, up to Re _λ ? 10⁴.     

雷诺数对圆形渐缩喷嘴湍流射流的影响

本文研究雷诺数(Re)对圆形渐缩喷嘴湍流射流的影响.实验在射流出口雷诺数为 Re = 4050—20100 的范围内进行,分别测量了射流出口、中心线的平均及湍流流场以及部分径向剖面速度分布.所有测量均采用单热线恒温热线风速仪进行高频采样,所测流场范围在轴向上为 0—30d(这里d为射流出口直径).虽然出口速度分布均为"平顶帽"形,但测量结果依然反映出Re对射流出口以及下游流场有强烈的影响.当Re小于临界值(～10000)时 关键词： 雷诺数 圆形射流 热线风速仪     

Reynolds number dependence of streamwise velocity spectra in turbulent pipe flow

Spectra of the streamwise velocity component in fully developed turbulent pipe flow are presented for Reynolds numbers up to 5.7x10(6). Even at the highest Reynolds number, streamwise velocity spectra exhibit incomplete similarity only: while spectra collapse with both classical inner and outer scaling for limited ranges of wave number, these ranges do not overlap. Thus similarity may not be described as complete, and a region varying with the inverse of the streamwise wave number, k(1), is not expected, and any apparent k(-1)(1) range does not attract any special significance and does not involve a universal constant. Reasons for this are suggested.     

Population dynamics at high Reynolds number

We study the statistical properties of population dynamics evolving in a realistic two-dimensional compressible turbulent velocity field. We show that the interplay between turbulent dynamics and population growth and saturation leads to quasilocalization and a remarkable reduction in the carrying capacity. The statistical properties of the population density are investigated and quantified via multifractal scaling analysis. We also investigate numerically the singular limit of negligibly small growth rates and delocalization of population ridges triggered by uniform advection.     

A multi-scale simulation method for high Reynolds number wall-bounded turbulent flows

We present an assessment and enhancement of the hybrid two-level large-eddy simulation method (A.G. Gungor and S. Menon, A new two-scale model for large eddy simulation of wall-bounded flows, Prog. Aerosp. Sci. 46 (2010), pp. 28–45), a multi-scale formulation for simulation of high Reynolds number wall-bounded turbulent flows. The assessment of the method is performed by examining role of static and dynamic blending functions used to perform hybridisation of two-level simulation (K. Kemenov and S. Menon, Explicit small-scale velocity simulation for high-Re turbulent flows, J. Comput. Phys. 220 (2006), pp. 290–311; K. Kemenov and S. Menon, Explicit small-scale velocity simulation for high-Re turbulent flows. Part 2: Non-homogeneous flows, J. Comput. Phys. 222 (2007), pp. 673–701) and large-eddy simulation methods. The sensitivity of first- and second-order turbulence statistics to the type of blending functions is investigated by simulating a fully developed turbulent flow in a channel at a friction Reynolds number Re_τ = 395 and comparing the results with those obtained using a direct numerical simulation. The first-order statistics do not show any significant differences for different blending functions, but the second-order statistics show some minor differences. The dynamic evaluation of the hybrid region and the blending function is necessary for non-equilibrium and complex flows where use of a static blending function can lead to inaccurate results. We propose two criteria for the dynamic evaluation; first evaluates extent of the hybrid region based on the subgrid turbulent kinetic energy and the second estimates the blending function based on a characteristic length scale. The computational efficiency of the method is enhanced by incorporating a hybrid programming paradigm where a standard domain decomposition by the message-passing-interface library is combined with the open multi-processing based parallelisation. A further enhancement of the method is achieved by incorporating a closure model for the unclosed hybrid terms in the governing equations, which appear due to hybridisation of two-level- and large-eddy-simulation methods. The model is based on an order of magnitude approximation and a preliminary assessment of the model shows improvement of turbulence statistics when used to simulate turbulent flow in a periodic channel. The assessment and improvements to the multi-scale method make it more suitable for simulation of practical wall-bounded turbulent flows at higher Reynolds number than a conventional large-eddy simulation. This is demonstrated by simulating two representative cases; turbulent flow at high Reynolds number in a periodic channel and flow over a bump placed on the lower surface of a channel, where a relatively coarser computational grid is found to be sufficient for reasonably accurate results.     

A circle swimmer at low Reynolds number

Swimming in circles occurs in a variety of situations at low Reynolds number. Here we propose a simple model for a swimmer that undergoes circular motion, generalising the model of a linear swimmer proposed by Najafi and Golestanian (Phys. Rev. E 69, 062901 (2004)). Our model consists of three solid spheres arranged in a triangular configuration, joined by two links of time-dependent length. For small strokes, we discuss the motion of the swimmer as a function of the separation angle between its links. We find that swimmers describe either clockwise or anticlockwise circular motion depending on the tilting angle in a non-trivial manner. The symmetry of the swimmer leads to a quadrupolar decay of the far flow field. We discuss the potential extensions and experimental realisation of our model.     

Minimal polar swimmer at low Reynolds number

We propose a minimal model for a polar swimmer, consisting of two spheres connected by a rigid slender arm, at low Reynolds number. The propulsive velocity for the proposed model is the maximum for any swimming cycle with the same variations in its two degrees of freedom and its displacement in a cycle is achieved entirely in one step. The stroke averaged flow field generated by the contractile swimmer at large distances is found to be dipolar. In addition, the changing radius of one of the spheres generates the field of a potential doublet centered at its initial position.     

Minimum state for high Reynolds and Péclet number turbulent flows

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) or experiments for the very high Reynolds (Re) and Péclet (Pe) number flows commonly exceed the resolution possible even when use is made of the most advanced computer capability or most sophisticated diagnostics and physical capabilities of advanced laboratory facilities. In practice use is made of statistical flow data bases developed at the highest Re and Pe levels achievable within the currently available facility limitations. In addition, there is presently no metric to indicate whether and how much of the fully resolved physics of the flow of interest has been captured within the facilities available. In this Letter the authors develop the necessary metric criteria for homogeneous, isotropic and shear layer flows. It is based on establishing a smaller subset of the total range of dynamic scale interactions that will still faithfully reproduce all of the essential, significant, influences of the larger range of scale interactions. The work identifies a minimum significant Re and Pe level that must be obtained by DNS or experiment in order to capture all of the significant dynamic influences in data which is then scaleable to flows of interest. Hereafter this is called the minimum state. Determination of the minimum state is based on finding a minimum scale separation for the energy-containing scales of the flow and scalar fields sufficient to prevent contamination by interaction with the (non-universal) velocity dissipation and scalar diffusivity inertial range scale limits.     

Direct numerical simulation of the turbulent MHD channel flow at low magnetic Reynolds number for electric correlation characteristics

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulent channel flow has been performed under the low magnetic Reynolds number assumption.The velocity-electric field and electric-electric field correlations were studied in the present work for different magnetic field orientations.The Kenjeres-Hanjalic (K-H) model was validated with the DNS data in a term by term manner.The numerical results showed that the K-H model makes good predictions for most components of the velocity-electric field correlations.The mechanisms of turbulence suppression were also analyzed for different magnetic field orientations utilizing the DNS data and the K-H model.The results revealed that the dissipative MHD source term is responsible for the turbulence suppression for the case of streamwise and spanwise magnetic orientation,while the Lorentz force which speeds up the near-wall fluid and decreases the production term is responsible for the turbulence suppression for the case of the wall normal magnetic orientation.     

Effects of upstream roughness and Reynolds number on separated and reattached turbulent flow

This paper presents experimental investigation of upstream roughness and Reynolds number effects on the recirculation region over a smooth forward facing step. The upstream rough wall was produced from 1.5 mm sand grains and the Reynolds number based on step height, Re_h, was varied from 2040 to 9130 for both the upstream smooth and rough walls. For the smooth wall, the reattachment length increased monotonically with Re_h to an asymptotic value of 2.2 step heights for Re_h ≥ 6380. Upstream roughness reduced the reattachment length by 44% because of larger momentum deficit and higher turbulence level in the rough wall boundary layer. The mean velocities and Reynolds stresses were also reduced by roughness. The Reynolds shear stress and production of turbulent kinetic energy showed high negative values at the leading edge of the step indicating counter-gradient diffusion. The implications of these results for standard eddy viscosity models are discussed.     

Levels of complexity in turbulent time series for weakly and high Reynolds number

We use the detrended fluctuation analysis (DFA), the detrended cross correlation analysis (DCCA) and the magnitude and sign decomposition analysis to study the fluctuations in the turbulent time series and to probe long-term nonlinear levels of complexity in weakly and high turbulent flow. The DFA analysis indicate that there is a time scaling region in the fluctuation function, segregating regimes with different scaling exponents. We discuss that this time scaling region is related to inertial range in turbulent flows. The DCCA exponent implies the presence of power-law cross correlations. In addition, we conclude its multifractality for high Reynold’s number in inertial range. Further, we find that turbulent time series exhibit complex features by magnitude and sign scaling exponents.