Heat transfer modeling for turbulent shear flows on curved surfaces

This paper examines two models for two-dimensional curved flow heat transfer. Both models are based on the assumption of local-equilibrium turbulence. Yet, one model predicts an increase for the turbulent Prandtl number with convex curvature, while the other gives the opposite behavior. Through examination of the near wall temperature profiles, it is possible to identify the correct behavior for turbulent Prandtl number. It is found that the turbulent Prandtl number for curved flows increases with convex curvature. The discrepancy between the two models is traced to the modeling terms proposed for the pressure-temperature-gradient correlation and for wall corrections. While the introduction of the rapid component and the wall corrections in the modeling of the pressure-strain correlation do not affect the behavior of the resultant shear stress, these modeling terms in the pressure-temperature-gradient correlation cause the turbulent Prandtl number to decrease with convex curvature.

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Zusammenfassung In dieser Arbeit werden zwei Modelle für zweidimensionale Wärmeübertragung in gekrümmten Strömungen untersucht. Beide Modelle basieren auf der Annahme von lokalem Gleichgewicht innerhalb der turbulenten Strömung. Trotzdem resultiert das eine Modell in einer Erhöhung der turbulenten Prandtl-Zahl für konvexe Krümmungen, während das zweite Modell genau das Gegenteil vorhersagt. Es ist möglich, durch Untersuchung des Temperaturprofiles in Wandnähe das korrekte Verhalten der turbulenten Prandtl-Zahl zu identifizieren. Es stellt sich dabei heraus, daß die turbulente Prandtl-Zahl für gekrümmte Strömungen in konvexen Kurven zunimmt. Der Widerspruch zwischen den beiden Modellen läßt sich auf die Abbildungsausdrücke zurückführen, die für die Wechselbeziehungen zwischen den Druck- und Temperaturgradienten und die für die Wandkorrekturen angesetzt worden sind. Während die Einführung der schnellen Komponente und die Wandkorrekturen in der Darstellung der Wechselbeziehung zwischen Druck und Beanspruchung keinen Einfluß auf das Verhalten des resultierenden Schubdruckes haben, verursachen diese Darstellungsausdrücke für die Wechselbeziehung zwischen Druck- und Temperaturgradienten ein Abnehmen der turbulenten Prandtl-Zahl für konvexe Kurven.

     

On the curvature/buoyancy analogy for turbulent shear flows

Similarity in the near wall region of turbulent curved shear flows is examined. It is found that the normalized mean velocity is a function only of the dimensionless distance _c =z/L _c whereL _c is a corresponding Monin-Oboukhov length for curved shear flows. Again, the universal function is found to obey the log-linear law. Therefore, this result and the earlier derivation of So affirm that there is a very close analogy between the effects of streamline curvature and buoyancy for turbulent shear flows.

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Zusammenfassung Die Ähnlichkeitsverhältnisse in turbulenten, gekrümmten Strömungen mit Schubkräften wird für das Gebiet in der Nähe einer Wand untersucht. Es ergibt sich, daß die normalisierte mittlere Geschwindigkeit nur von der dimensionslosen Entfernung _c =z/L _c abhängt.L _c ist hierbei eine zugeordnete Monin-Oboukhov-Länge für gekrümmte Strömungen mit Schubkräften. Auch in diesem Falle geohorcht die allgemeine Gleichung dem logarithmisch-linearen Gesetz. Dieses Ergebnis und die frühere Ableitung von So bestätigen, daß eine ausgeprägte Analogie zwischen den Auswirkungen der Strömungslinienkrümmung und dem Auftrieb bei turbulenten Strömungen mit Schubkräften besteht.

     

On heat transfer modelling for turbulent shear flows on curved surfaces

Summary A second-order closure method for turbulent flow has been used by Dr. R. M. C. So to predict the effects of wall curvature on boundary layer heat transfer, apparently with good results. In the present paper it is shown that these good results are attributable mainly to algebraic errors made in working out the analysis and partly to unrealistic values having been assigned to the model coefficients. Attention is drawn to some of the fundamental difficulties encountered in modelling turbulent heat transfer and it is concluded that these have yet to be overcome for complex flows.

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Zusammenfassung Eine Schließungsmethode zweiter Ordnung für turbulente Strömungen wurde von Dr. R. M. C. So benützt um Effekte der Wandkrümmung auf die Wärmeübertragung vorauszusagen, mit anscheinend guten Resultaten. In dieser Arbeit wird gezeigt, daß diese guten Ergebnisse hauptsächlich gewissen algebraischen Fehlern in der Analyse zuzuschreiben sind; zum Teil sind auch den Modell-Koeffizienten unrealistische Werte zugeordnet worden. Es wird auf die grundsätzlichen Schwierigkeiten hingewiesen, die bei Modellen für turbulente Wärmeübertragung auftreten, und es wird der Schluß gezogen, daß diese für komplizierte Strömungen noch nicht überwunden worden sind.

     

Modified simple equation method for nonlinear evolution equations

This paper reflects the implementation of a reliable technique which is called modified simple equation method (MSEM) for solving evolution equations. The proposed algorithm has been successfully tested on two very important evolution equations namely Fitzhugh-Nagumo equation and Sharma-Tasso-Olver equation. Numerical results are very encouraging.     

Direct numerical simulation of turbulent flows in eccentric pipes

A numerical algorithm was developed for solving the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations in curvilinear orthogonal coordinates. The algorithm is based on a central-difference discretization in space and on a third-order accurate semi-implicit Runge-Kutta scheme for time integration. The discrete equations inherit some properties of the original differential equations, in particular, the neutrality of the convective terms and the pressure gradient in the kinetic energy production. The method was applied to the direct numerical simulation of turbulent flows between two eccentric cylinders. Numerical computations were performed at Re = 4000 (where the Reynolds number Re was defined in terms of the mean velocity and the hydraulic diameter). It was found that two types of flow develop depending on the geometric parameters. In the flow of one type, turbulent fluctuations were observed over the entire cross section of the pipe, including the narrowest gap, where the local Reynolds number was only about 500. The flow of the other type was divided into turbulent and laminar regions (in the wide and narrow parts of the gap, respectively).     

Dynamic K-L analysis of coherent structures based on DNS of turbulent Newtonian and viscoelastic flows

Earlier work [1, 2], using Karhunen-Loeve (K-L) analysis, demonstrated a dramatic enhancement of the importance of large scale motions with increased viscoelasticity and an equally dramatic decrease in the K-L dimension of the flow (an order of magnitude) as viscoelasticity increases versus similar Newtonian results. In this work we look into dynamics of viscoelastic turbulent flows by projecting the DNS data in time into a selected set of K-L modes. The dynamics of the coherent structures embedded in turbulent flows were investigated through calculations of mode auto and cross correlations. This allows for a more systematic examination of the role of large-scale structures in turbulence and drag reduction. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)     

A note on nonlinear stability of plane parallel shear flows

We present a generalized energy functional E for plane parallel shear flows which provides conditional nonlinear stability for Reynolds numbers Re below some value ReE depending on the shear profile. In the case of the experimentally important profiles, viz. combinations of laminar Couette and Poiseuille flow, ReE is shown to be at least 174.     

A uniform bound for the solutions to a simple nonlinear equation on Riemannian manifolds

Let M be a complete noncompact manifold with Ricci curvature bounded below. In this note, we derive a uniform bound for the solutions to the nonlinear equation

     

Solving a nonlinear fractional differential equation using Chebyshev wavelets

Chebyshev wavelet operational matrix of the fractional integration is derived and used to solve a nonlinear fractional differential equations. Some examples are included to demonstrate the validity and applicability of the technique.     

The modified simple equation method and the multiple exp-function method for solving nonlinear fractional Sharma-Tasso-Olver equation

In this article, the fractional derivatives in the sense of the modified Riemann-Liouville derivatives together with the modified simple equation method and the multiple exp-function method are employed for constructing the exact solutions and the solitary wave solutions for the nonlinear time fractional Sharma-Tasso- Olver equation. With help of Maple, we can get exact explicit 1-wave, 2-wave and 3-wave solutions, which include 1-soliton, 2-soliton and 3-soliton type solutions if we use the multiple exp-function method while we can get only exact explicit 1-wave solution including 1-soliton type solution if we use the modified simple equation method. Two cases with specific values of the involved parameters are plotted for each 2-wave and 3-wave solutions.     

Direct search for exact solutions to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation

A five-dimensional symmetry algebra consisting of Lie point symmetries is firstly computed for the nonlinear Schrödinger equation, which, together with a reflection invariance, generates two five-parameter solution groups. Three ansätze of transformations are secondly analyzed and used to construct exact solutions to the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Various examples of exact solutions with constant, trigonometric function type, exponential function type and rational function amplitude are given upon careful analysis. A bifurcation phenomenon in the nonlinear Schrödinger equation is clearly exhibited during the solution process.     

Direct numerical simulation of turbulent non-Newtonian flow using a spectral element method

A spectral element—Fourier method (SEM) for Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of the turbulent flow of non-Newtonian fluids is described and the particular requirements for non-Newtonian rheology are discussed. The method is implemented in parallel using the MPI message passing kernel, and execution times scale somewhat less than linearly with the number of CPUs, however this is more than compensated by the improved simulation turn around times. The method is applied to the case of turbulent pipe flow, where simulation results for a shear-thinning (power law) fluid are compared to those of a yield stress (Herschel–Bulkley) fluid at the same generalised Reynolds number. It is seen that the yield stress significantly dampens turbulence intensities in the core of the flow where the quasi-laminar flow region there co-exists with a transitional wall zone. An additional simulation of the flow of blood in a channel is undertaken using a Carreau–Yasuda rheology model, and results compared to those of the one-equation Spalart-Allmaras RANS (Reynolds-Averaged Navier–Stokes) model. Agreement between the mean flow velocity profile predictions is seen to be good. Use of a DNS technique to study turbulence in non-Newtonian fluids shows great promise in understanding transition and turbulence in shear thinning, non-Newtonian flows.     

Direct numerical simulation of turbulent non-Newtonian flow using OpenFOAM

Understanding transition and turbulence in the flow of shear-thinning non-Newtonian fluids remains substantially unresolved and additional research is required to develop better computational methods for wall-bounded turbulent flows of these fluids. Previous DNS studies of shear-thinning fluids mainly use purpose-built codes and simple geometries such as pipes and channels. However in practical application, the geometry of mixing vessels, pumps and other process equipment is far more complex, and more flexible computational methods are required. In this paper a general-purpose DNS approach for shear-thinning fluids is undertaken using the OpenFOAM CFD library. DNS of turbulent Newtonian and non-Newtonian flow in a pipe flow are conducted and the accuracy and efficiency of OpenFOAM are assessed against a validated high-order spectral element-Fourier DNS code – Semtex. The results show that OpenFOAM predicts the flow of shear-thinning fluids to be a little more transitional than the predictions from Semtex, with lower radial and azimuthal turbulence intensities and higher axial intensity. Despite this, the first and second order turbulence statistics differ by at most 16%, and usually much less. An assessment of the parallel scaling of OpenFOAM indicates that OpenFOAM scales very well for the CPUs from 8 to 512, but the intranode scalability is poor for less than 8CPUs. The present work shows that OpenFOAM can be used for DNS of shear-thinning fluids in the simple case of pipe flow, and suggests that more complex flows, where flow separation is often important, are likely to be simulated with accuracies that are acceptably good for engineering application.     

Simulation of turbulent dispersion using a simple random model of the flow field

A method is devised to simulate the movement and spreading of a patch of contaminant in two-dimensional turbulent flow. The turbulent motion is exponentially divided into components of differing wave number, adjacent components being made to have correlation times differing by a factor of two. The turbulent motion is then reconstructed by replacing each component with a sinusoidal advection field having a randomly directed wave number. Contaminant particles are advected by each of the reconstructed components, the smallest scale components being applied first. A computer simulation was performed, using a Kolmogorov k^{-$\text{5}\text{3}$} turbulent energy spectrum. Batchelor's σ ∝ t^{$\text{3}\text{2}$} law for the spreading of a contaminant patch was reproduced, approximately, as was Richardson's non-Gaussian asymptotic form of the distance-neighbour function.     

Blow-up rate for a nonlinear diffusion equation

In this work we study the blow-up rate for a nonlinear diffusion equation with an inner source and a nonlinear boundary flux, which is equivalent to a porous medium equation with convection. Depending upon the sign of a parameter included, the source can be positive or negative (absorption). By the scaling method, we obtain that the blow-up rate is independent of a negative source, while for the situation with a positive source, the blow-up rate is determined by the interaction between the inner source and the boundary flux. Comparing with the previous results for the porous medium model without convection, we observe that the gradient term included here does not affect the blow-up rates of solutions.