High-order incompressible large-eddy simulation of fully inhomogeneous turbulent flows

The subgrid-scale (SGS) eddy-viscosity model developed by Vreman [Phys. Fluids 16 (2004) 3670] and its dynamic version [Phys. Fluids 19 (2007) 065110] are tested in large-eddy simulations (LES) of the turbulent flow in an Re = 12,000 lid-driven cubical cavity by comparison to the direct numerical simulation (DNS) data of Leriche and Gavrilakis [Phys. Fluids 12 (2000) 1363]. This appears to be the first test of this class of model to flows without any homogeneous flow directions, which is typical of flows in complex geometries. Additional LES predictions at Re = 18,000 and Re = 22,000 are compared to the DNS data of Leriche [J. Sci. Comp. 27 (2006)]. The new LES framework yielded excellent agreement for both the mean velocity and Reynolds stress profiles and matches DNS data better than the more traditional Smagorinsky-based SGS models.     

A Reynolds stress model for turbulent flows of viscoelastic fluids

A second-order closure is developed for predicting turbulent flows of viscoelastic fluids described by a modified generalised Newtonian fluid model incorporating a nonlinear viscosity that depends on a strain-hardening Trouton ratio as a means to handle some of the effects of viscoelasticity upon turbulent flows. Its performance is assessed by comparing its predictions for fully developed turbulent pipe flow with experimental data for four different dilute polymeric solutions and also with two sets of direct numerical simulation data for fluids theoretically described by the finitely extensible nonlinear elastic – Peterlin model. The model is based on a Newtonian Reynolds stress closure to predict Newtonian fluid flows, which incorporates low Reynolds number damping functions to properly deal with wall effects and to provide the capability to handle fluid viscoelasticity more effectively. This new turbulence model was able to capture well the drag reduction of various viscoelastic fluids over a wide range of Reynolds numbers and performed better than previously developed models for the same type of constitutive equation, even if the streamwise and wall-normal turbulence intensities were underpredicted.     

Structure analysis of turbulent mixing patterns in inert and reactive turbulent liquid flows

The paper contains an extended summary of an invited plenary talk given at the Workshop on Active Chaos at the Los Alamos National Laboratory on 29-31 May 2001 by one of us (F.S.R.). (c) 2002 American Institute of Physics.     

Localized velocity and turbulence measurement in turbulent swirling flows using laser Doppler anemometry

Turbulent swirling water flow in a pipe has complex velocity distributions with special measurement problems tor experimental work. Some of these problems are described in the introduction to the paper along with comments on the basic characteristics of turbulent swirling flow.The form of laser Doppler anemometer used is briefly noted, with some special optical features developed to suit this class of flow. Experience during some two years of comprehensive experimentation is then outlined, including comment on the data processing system.Results from experiments with tangentially injected water flow in 50 mm bore pipes up to 60 diameters long are reported, with local measurements of mean velocity and turbulence intensity. The variation of mean velocity components and turbulence intensity with radius and distance along the pipe are discussed with a few comparisons of results obtained from other experimental techniques, e.g. pitot-static probe and hot films.For the particular problem examined here it would have been difficult, if not impossible, to obtain the measurements using a technique other than laser anemometry.     

Direct numerical simulation of the turbulent flows of power-law fluids in a circular pipe

Fully developed turbulent pipe flows of power-law fluids are studied by means of direct numerical simulation. Two series of calculations at generalised Reynolds numbers of approximately 10000 and 20000 were carried out. Five different power law indexes n from 0.4 to 1 were considered. The distributions of components of Reynolds stress tensor, averaged viscosity, viscosity fluctuations, and measures of turbulent anisotropy are presented. The friction coefficient predicted by the simulations is in a good agreement with the correlation obtained from experiment. Flows of power-law fluids exhibit stronger anisotropy of the Reynolds stress tensor compared with the flow of Newtonian fluid. The turbulence anisotropy becomes more significant with the decreasing flow index n. An increase in apparent viscosity away from the wall leads to the damping of the wall-normal velocity pulsations. The suppression of the turbulent energy redistribution between the Reynolds stress tensor components observed in the simulations leads to a strong domination of the axial velocity pulsations. The damping of wall-normal velocity pulsations leads to a reduction of the fluctuating transport of momentum from the core toward the wall, which explains the effect of drag reduction.     

Modeling of turbulent annular flows of Hershel-Bulkley fluids with eccentricity and inner cylinder rotation

The paper presents results of modeling of Hershel-Bulkley fluid flows through an eccentric cylindrical channel. The effect of inner cylinder rotation and eccentricity on flow characteristics (hydrodynamic channel resistance, flow pattern, stresses, etc.) is studied and it is demonstrated that, for a number of cases, the turbulence caused by the inner cylinder rotation results in reduction of the channel resistance. Moreover, certain relations of axial and rotational Reynolds numbers result in flows, where laminar and turbulent regions are present at the same time.     

Quantum fluids in the Kähler parametrization

In this Letter we address the problem of the quantization of the perfect relativistic fluids formulated in terms of the Kähler parametrization. This fluid model describes a large set of interesting systems such as the power law energy density fluids, Chaplygin gas, etc. In order to maintain the generality of the model, we apply the BRST method in the reduced phase space in which the fluid degrees of freedom are just the fluid potentials and the fluid current is classically resolved in terms of them. We determine the physical states in this setting, the time evolution and the path integral formulation.     

Wave motion of incompressible turbulent fluid

Evolution of small disturbances in a fully developed incompressible turbulent flow is considered on the base of the transport equation for the single-point probability density function (PDF) of velocity fluctuations. It is shown that at high frequencies this equation is similar to the Vlasov equation for charged plasma in a self-consistent electromagnetic field having longitudinal wave solutions for turbulent stresses similar to Langmuir waves. It is found that the longitudinal waves of turbulent stresses have a constant phase velocity and can be damped, neutral, or growing waves, depending on the type of undisturbed probability density function of velocity fluctuations. The obtained result differs from the previously published solutions to this problem using the statistical moments closures according to which the wave disturbances should be neutral or damped. The possibilities of experimental observation of longitudinal waves of turbulent stresses are analyzed.     

Efficient computation of compressible and incompressible flows

The combination of explicit Runge–Kutta time integration with the solution of an implicit system of equations, which in earlier work demonstrated increased efficiency in computing compressible flow on highly stretched meshes, is extended toward conditions where the free stream Mach number approaches zero. Expressing the inviscid flux Jacobians in terms of Mach number, an artificial speed of sound as in low Mach number preconditioning is introduced into the Jacobians, leading to a consistent formulation of the implicit and explicit parts of the discrete equations. Besides extension to low Mach number flows, the augmented Runge–Kutta/Implicit method allowed the admissible Courant–Friedrichs–Lewy number to be increased from O(1 0 0) to O(1 0 0 0). The implicit step introduced into the Runge–Kutta framework acts as a preconditioner which now addresses both, the stiffness in the discrete equations associated with highly stretched meshes, and the stiffness in the analytical equations associated with the disparity in the eigenvalues of the inviscid flux Jacobians. Integrated into a multigrid algorithm, the method is applied to efficiently compute different cases of inviscid flow around airfoils at various Mach numbers, and viscous turbulent airfoil flow with varying Mach and Reynolds number. Compared to well tuned conventional methods, computation times are reduced by half an order of magnitude.     

Hamiltonian dynamics of incompressible elastic fluids

Equations that govern the time evolution of incompressible elastic fluids are shown to possess the hamiltonian structure.     

Magnetohydrodynamic properties of incompressible Meissner fluids

We consider a superconducting material that exists in the liquid state, more precisely, in which the Meissner-Ochsenfeld effect persists in the liquid state. First, we investigate how the shape of such a hypothetical Meissner liquid will adapt to accomodate for an applied external field. In particular, we analyse the case of a droplet of Meissner fluid, and compute the elongation of the droplet and its quadrupole frequency as a function of the applied field. Next, the influence of an applied field on the flow of the liquid is studied for the case of a surface wave. We derive the dispersion relation for surface waves on an incompressible Meissner fluid. We discuss some candidate realizations of the Meissner fluids and for the case of a superconducting colloid discuss which regime of wave lengths would be most affected by the Meissner effect.     

On the characteristics-based ACM for incompressible flows

In this paper, the revised characteristics-based (CB) method for incompressible flows recently derived by Neofytou [P. Neofytou, Revision of the characteristic-based scheme for incompressible flows, J. Comput. Phys. 222 (2007) 475–484] has been further investigated. We have derived all the formulas for pressure and velocities from this revised CB method, which is based on the artificial compressibility method (ACM) [A.J. Chorin, A numerical solution for solving incompressible viscous flow problems, J. Comput. Phys. 2 (1967) 12]. Then we analyze the formulations of the original CB method [D. Drikakis, P.A. Govatsos, D.E. Papatonis, A characteristic based method for incompressible flows, Int. J. Numer. Meth. Fluids 19 (1994) 667–685; E. Shapiro, D. Drikakis, Non-conservative and conservative formulations of characteristics numerical reconstructions for incompressible flows, Int. J. Numer. Meth. Eng. 66 (2006) 1466–1482; D. Drikakis, P.K. Smolarkiewicz, On spurious vortical structures, J. Comput. Phys. 172 (2001) 309–325; F. Mallinger, D. Drikakis, Instability in three-dimensional, unsteady stenotic flows, Int. J. Heat Fluid Flow 23 (2002) 657–663; E. Shapiro, D. Drikakis, Artificial compressibility, characteristics-based schemes for variable density, incompressible, multi-species flows. Parts I. Derivation of different formulations and constant density limit, J. Comput. Phys. 210 (2005) 584–607; Y. Zhao, B. Zhang, A high-order characteristics upwind FV method for incompressible flow and heat transfer simulation on unstructured grids, Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng. 190 (5–7) (2000) 733–756] to investigate their consistency with the governing flow equations after convergence has been achieved. Furthermore we have implemented both formulations in an unstructured-grid finite volume solver [Y. Zhao, B. Zhang, A high-order characteristics upwind FV method for incompressible flow and heat transfer simulation on unstructured grids, Comput. Meth. Appl. Mech. Eng. 190 (5–7) (2000) 733–756]. Detailed numerical experiments show that both methods give almost identical solutions and convergence rates. Both can generate solutions which agree well with published results and experimental measurements. We thus conclude that both methods, being upwind schemes designed for the ACM, have the same performances in terms of accuracy and convergence speed, even though the revised method is more complex with less stringent assumptions made, while the original CB method is simpler due to the use of extra simplifying assumptions.     

A new mixed subgrid-scale model for large eddy simulation of turbulent drag-reducing flows of viscoelastic fluids

A mixed subgrid-scale(SGS) model based on coherent structures and temporal approximate deconvolution(MCT) is proposed for turbulent drag-reducing flows of viscoelastic fluids. The main idea of the MCT SGS model is to perform spatial filtering for the momentum equation and temporal filtering for the conformation tensor transport equation of turbulent flow of viscoelastic fluid, respectively. The MCT model is suitable for large eddy simulation(LES) of turbulent dragreducing flows of viscoelastic fluids in engineering applications since the model parameters can be easily obtained. The LES of forced homogeneous isotropic turbulence(FHIT) with polymer additives and turbulent channel flow with surfactant additives based on MCT SGS model shows excellent agreements with direct numerical simulation(DNS) results. Compared with the LES results using the temporal approximate deconvolution model(TADM) for FHIT with polymer additives, this mixed SGS model MCT behaves better, regarding the enhancement of calculating parameters such as the Reynolds number.For scientific and engineering research, turbulent flows at high Reynolds numbers are expected, so the MCT model can be a more suitable model for the LES of turbulent drag-reducing flows of viscoelastic fluid with polymer or surfactant additives.