Symmetries, Invariance and Scaling-Laws in Inhomogeneous Turbulent Shear Flows

An approach to derive turbulent scaling laws based on symmetry analysis is presented. It unifies a large set of scaling laws for the mean velocity of stationary parallel turbulent shear flows. The approach is derived from the Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes equations, the fluctuation equations, and the velocity product equations, which are the dyad product of the velocity fluctuations with the equations for the velocity fluctuations. For the plane case the results include the logarithmic law of the wall, an algebraic law, the viscous sublayer, the linear region in the centre of a Couette flow and in the centre of a rotating channel flow, and a new exponential mean velocity profile that is found in the mid-wake region of high Reynolds number flat-plate boundary layers. The algebraic scaling law is confirmed in both the centre and the near wall regions in both experimental and DNS data of turbulent channel flows. For a non-rotating and a moderately rotating pipe about its axis an algebraic law was found for the axial and the azimuthal velocity near the pipe-axis with both laws having equal scaling exponents. In case of a rapidly rotating pipe, a new logarithmic scaling law for the axial velocity is developed. The key elements of the entire analysis are two scaling symmetries and Galilean invariance. Combining the scaling symmetries leads to the variety of different scaling laws. Galilean invariance is crucial for all of them. It has been demonstrated that two-equation models such as the k– model are not consistent with most of the new turbulent scaling laws.     

Flow pattern and pressure fluctuation in air-solid two-phase flow in a pipe at low air velocities

An experiment was made on an air-solid two-phase flow in a horizontal pipe. The main concern was the relation between flow patterns and pressure fluctuation at low air velocities. First, the flow patterns were classified into five different types depending on the air and particle flow rates. Next, it was shown how the properties of pressure fluctuation change as the air velocity decreases. Further, fluctuation signals were analyzed in detail and differences due to the flow patterns and particle size were discussed.     

Application of the ultrasonic technique and high-speed filming for the study of the structure of air–water bubbly flows

Multiphase flows are very common in industry, oftentimes involving very harsh environments and fluids. Accordingly, there is a need to determine the dispersed phase holdup using noninvasive fast responding techniques; besides, knowledge of the flow structure is essential for the assessment of the transport processes involved. The ultrasonic technique fulfills these requirements and could have the capability to provide the information required. In this paper, the potential of the ultrasonic technique for application to two-phase flows was investigated by checking acoustic attenuation data against experimental data on the void fraction and flow topology of vertical, upward, air–water bubbly flows in the zero to 15% void fraction range. The ultrasonic apparatus consisted of one emitter/receiver transducer and three other receivers at different positions along the pipe circumference; simultaneous high-speed motion pictures of the flow patterns were made at 250 and 1000 fps. The attenuation data for all sensors exhibited a systematic interrelated behavior with void fraction, thereby testifying to the capability of the ultrasonic technique to measure the dispersed phase holdup. From the motion pictures, basic gas phase structures and different flows patterns were identified that corroborated several features of the acoustic attenuation data. Finally, the acoustic wave transit time was also investigated as a function of void fraction.     

水平管内油——水两相流动压降规律的实验研究

设计和建造了内径为26．1mm,长30m的水平不锈钢多相流实验环道,利用白油与水进行了油－水两相流流型和压降实验。本文针对各种流型,分析了油－水两相流动的压降规律和油－水混合液有效粘度,指出有效粘度法只适用于油－水分散流型的压降预测,对于分层流型式其它混合流型使用合适该种流型的压降预测模型来计算压降。研究结论对油田现场的油水混输管路的经济运行具有较大的指导意义。     

Gas–liquid two phase flow measurement method based on combination instrument of turbine flowmeter and conductance sensor

In order to solve the flowrate measurement problem of gas–liquid two phase flow widely existing in gas wells of Daqing oil field in China, a new method has been developed, which is based on the combination instrument of turbine flowmeter and conductance sensor with petal type concentrating flow diverter. The turbine and conductance signals under 104 different flow conditions have been acquired through oil–gas–water three phase flow loop experimental facility. To determine the flow pattern in measurement channel, attractor morphologic characteristics are extracted from the conductance signals. For the total flowrate measurement, based on the turbine fluctuant signals of gas–liquid two phase flow, a statistical model with the average error of 7.9% is set up. With regard to the water cut measurement, the characteristics in time and frequency domains are extracted from the fluctuant conductance signals, and then employing the Support Vector Machine (SVM) soft measurement model used in high-dimension data fitting, the water cut prediction is realized with the average error of 0.038. The results show that the combination instrument of turbine flowmeter and conductance sensor with petal type concentrating flow diverter would be useful in measuring the total flowrate and water cut of gas–liquid two phase flow in gas production wells.     

Development characteristics of fluctuating velocity field of drag-reducing surfactant solution flow in a duct

Development behavior of the fluctuating velocity of surfactant solution in a duct has been studied experimentally. The concentration of surfactants was kept constant at 1,000 ppm, mean velocity at 0.78 m/s and fluid temperature at 15 °C. Using laser Doppler velocimetry, the fluctuating streamwise velocity distributions at six cross sections, which ranged from 14 to 112 times of hydraulic diameter of the duct, were measured. From the results, the fluctuating structures of surfactant solution flow are observed to have structures different from that of turbulent water flow in the developing field. The wavelet analysis reveals that the high-level fluctuation of surfactant solution flow is characterized by periodicity rather than irregularity around the position where the fluctuation intensity takes a peak value and that the period and the scale of periodic flow structures are related to the relaxation times of the fluid. This indicates that the high-level fluctuation is deeply related to the elastic instability and has a different generation mechanism from that of turbulence observed in a Newtonian turbulent flow.     

利用子波分析对平壁湍流猝发现象的研究

利用槽道湍流直接数值模拟的数据库,采用子波分析的方法。对平壁湍流猝发现象的多尺度特性进行了研究,在不同惊讶上对猝发平均周期进行了统计,并利用局部标度指数研究了猝发过程的奇异性。     

明渠中跌坎后突扩分离流数值研究

利用大涡模拟技术，对明渠中跌坎后的二维突扩分离流结构进行了数值模拟，探讨了这类典型分离流各特征区的流动性质，分析了再附区壁面上不同测点处脉动压力的统计特征，并与试验结果进行了比较．在数值模拟中，采用了弱压缩流的控制方程和非均匀网格系统．     

Electrical impedance string probes for two-phase void and velocity measurements

An instrumentation system was developed to measure two-phase flow velocity and void fraction. The principle of operation of this system was based on the measurement of the electrical impedance of two-phase mixtures. Two-phase velocity is estimated by time-of-flight analysis of signals from two spatially separated sensors. A technique involving measurement of both the capacitance and the conductance of the mixture was used to determine void fraction and correct for the effect of liquid distribution. The string probe instrumentation proved to be durable in air/water and steam/water flows and demonstrated an ability to measure a wide range of flow velocities (1–17 m/s) and void fractions (0.25?0.99+).     

Partial-average-based equations of incompressible turbulent flow

This paper presents a detailed study of incompressible turbulent flow based on a newly developed statistical partial average scheme. As the ensemble average is taken on two groups of turbulent fluctuations separately, the partial average scheme is able to capture the first-order statistical moment of the fluctuation field, providing valuable information in addition to what have been known in the past from the conventional Reynolds average. The first-order statistical moment serves as the foundation in formulating theories of orthotropic turbulence and a momentum transfer chain in the modeling of second-order correlation terms, and eventually leads to a complete set of equations of incompressible turbulent flow. Without any empirical coefficients, the same set of the equations is used to simulate statistical mean behaviors and coherent structures of various benchmark turbulent flows. The simulated results are in good agreement with experimental data.     

Wavelet decomposition and coherent structures eduction of low Reλ turbulent hot wire signals

Hot wire signals obtained in grid-turbulence are processed through orthogonal wavelet transform. It is shown that using wavelet decomposition in combination with the form of scaling named Extended Self Similarity, some statistical properties of fully developed turbulence can be extended to very low Re_λ flows. Furthermore, based on the wavelet decomposition, a new technique for coherent structures identification is introduced. We present results obtained in grid turbulence data at low and very low Re_λ conditions.     

An impedance method for the measurement of liquid hold-up in two-phase flow

A liquid hold-up gauge based on the measurement of the electrical impedance has been developed for application in gas-liquid pipe flow. The gauge consists of two ring electrodes mounted flush to the pipe wall. The impedance (capacitance or conductance) seen by the electrodes depends on the distance between them and on the liquid hold-up. For distances above three tube diameters, the impedance is independent of the flow configuration for all separated flow patterns and, with good approximation, also for intermittent flows. Moreover, capacitance or conductance are linearly related to the liquid hold-up. The impedance under bubble flow conditions closely follows the theoretical predictions due to Maxwell. Also for the other flow configurations (annular, stratified, intermittent) the results of static and/or dynamic calibration agree closely with theoretical models.     

Near-wall scaling for turbulent boundary layers with adverse pressure gradient

A new extended inner scaling is proposed for the wall layer of wall-bounded flows under the influence of both wall shear stress and streamwise pressure gradient. This scaling avoids problems of the classical wall coordinates close to flow separation and reattachment. Based on the proposed extended velocity and length scales a universal nondimensional family of velocity profiles is derived for the viscous region in the vicinity of a wall that depend on wall distance and a parameter α quantifying the importance of the streamwise pressure gradient with respect to the wall shear stress in the momentum balance. The performance of the proposed extended scaling is investigated in two different flow fields, a separating and reattaching turbulent boundary layer and a turbulent flow over a periodic arrangement of smoothly contoured hills. Both flows are results of highly resolved direct numerical simulation (DNS). The results show that the viscous assumptions are valid up to about two extended wall units. If the profiles are scaled by the extended inner coordinates, they seem to behave in a universal way. This gives rise to the hope that a universal behavior of velocity profiles can be found in the proposed extended inner coordinates even beyond the validity of the extended viscous law of the wall.      

垂直下降管中两相流的流型以及液相粘度对流型的影响

对空气－油在垂直下降管中的流型进行了实验研究，采用的管径为２９ｍｍ，油和空气的折算流速分别达到４ｍ／ｓ和２０ｍ／ｓ，并借助于压降脉动分析和目测观察相结合的方法来进行流型的识别。研究表明，油气两相流的流型不同于低粘液体的两相流流动，通过实验研究并结合前人的研究成果，给出了液相粘度对流型转变的影响趋势。     

Dynamical Equations and Turbulent Closures in Geophysics

Based on scaling arguments the governing equations for turbulent flows are classified. The similarity for stratified and rotating flows is characterized and the conditions for a hydrostatic assumption are shown for several flow regimes. For stratified rotating flow a scale analysis of the turbulent stresses exhibits different classes of second order closure. The complete sets of the governing equations for second and third order turbulent closures are presented. The evolution of the equations is embedded into a historical chronology. Received September 15, 1997     

Correlative analysis of organised structures in turbulent jets

An approach to characterise jets by analysing the locations of large-scale instantaneous structures is presented. Planar imaging is used to identify instantaneous large-scale structures in flow fields. ??Correlation Images?? are generated from the auto-correlation of identified large-scale structures in instantaneous planar images. A ??Structure Correlation Survey?? is produced by the sum of Correlation Images from an ensemble. A Structure Correlation Survey provides a measure of the underlying large-scale structures, namely the characteristic distances and angles between large-scale structures, number densities of large-scale structures in the image field and their dominant modes of flow. The approach is assessed analytically and applied to experimental data. Four generic flow patterns are identified and used individually, or in combination, to classify jet flows. Results show that the proposed method can be used successfully to characterise jet flows based on large-scale structures in an instantaneous flow field.     

Measurement of multiple gas-bubble velocities in gas–liquid flows using hot-film anemometry

A dual-probe hot-film anemometry technique has been developed to measure multiple gas-bubble velocities corresponding to different gas-bubble size groups in air–water flows. A data reduction scheme using wavelet analysis combined with a phase-detection technique is used to discriminate the hot-film anemometer output signals into signals corresponding to different bubble size groups. The phase and bubble size discrimination is based on the magnitude and time derivative of the signal, and the streamwise length of the gas bubbles. A cross-correlation between the discriminated signals from the two probes yields an average time difference of arrival of the gas bubbles at the two sensor locations. The velocities are estimated from the distance between the sensors and the time difference of arrival. The mean bubble size is estimated from the chord length distribution. Measurements performed in vertical-up air–water slug flow show the technique to be a viable method for obtaining bubble velocity and size information. The velocity measurements from the hot-film anemometry are corroborated using a high-speed quantitative flow visualization system. Received: 22 December 1999/Accepted: 8 May 2001     

Multi-resolution analysis of wavelet transform on pressure fluctuations in an L-valve

A novel diagnostic method to characterize the flow patterns in an 80 mm-i.d. L-valve had been developed by using multi-resolution analysis (MRA) of wavelet transformation on the pressure fluctuation signals which were acquired from the standpipe and the horizontal part of L-valve. Parameters including the aeration rate, aeration positions, riser gas velocity and composition of binary particle mixture (194-μm and 937-μm sand particles) were used to investigate the relationship of performance of L-valve and its pressure fluctuations. By means of MRA, the original pressure fluctuations were divided into multi-scale signals. They were macro-scale, meso-scale and micro-scale successfully described the structures of gas–solid flow in the L-valve, such as the gas bubbles/slugs, dune-ripple flow, suspension particle flow, etc.