Experiments in Turbulent Pipe Flow with Polymer Additives at Maximum Drag Reduction

In this paper we report on (two-component) LDV experiments in a fully developed turbulent pipe flow with a drag-reducing polymer (partially hydrolyzed polyacrylamide) dissolved in water. The Reynolds number based on the mean velocity, the pipe diameter and the local viscosity at the wall is approximately 10000. We have used polymer solutions with three different concentrations which have been chosen such that maximum drag reduction occurs. The amount of drag reduction found is 60–70%. Our experimental results are compared with results obtained with water and with a very dilute solution which exhibits only a small amount of drag reduction. We have focused on the observation of turbulence statistics (mean velocities and turbulence intensities) and on the various contributions to the total shear stress. The latter consists of a turbulent, a solvent (viscous) and a polymeric part. The polymers are found to contribute significantly to the total stress. With respect to the mean velocity profile we find a thickening of the buffer layer and an increase in the slope of the logarithmic profile. With respect to the turbulence statistics we find for the streamwise velocity fluctuations an increase of the root mean square at low polymer concentration but a return to values comparable to those for water at higher concentrations. The root mean square of the normal velocity fluctuations shows a strong decrease. Also the Reynolds (turbulent) shear stress and the correlation coefficient between the stream wise and the normal components are drastically reduced over the entire pipe diameter. In all cases the Reynolds stress stays definitely non-zero at maximum drag reduction. The consequence of the drop of the Reynolds stress is a large polymer stress, which can be 60% of the total stress. The kinetic-energy balance of the mean flow shows a large transfer of energy directly to the polymers instead of the route by turbulence. The kinetic energy of the turbulence suggests a possibly negative polymeric dissipation of turbulent energy. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

边界层对壁面湍流流动高分子减阻的影响

以“粘性”机制为理论基础,近年来在壁面湍流高分子减阻研究中提出了一种拉伸的高分子会产生自洽的等效粘度模型,这种等效粘度随离开壁面的距离而改变.通过等效粘度模型与Navier-Stokes方程的结合,运用雷诺应力模型计算壁面湍流减阻,并与基于高分子有限拉伸的非线性弹性哑铃模型的直接数值模拟结果进行比较,进一步校验了此等效粘度理论.通过肋条破坏槽道流中的边界层,显示了边界层对高分子减阻的影响,结果表明只有形成稳定的边界层,高分子才能有减阻作用.边界层是高分子减阻的首要条件,边界层中的粘性底层和对数率分布区之间的缓冲层可能是减阻的主要影响区域.     

On the Electric Potential Induced by a Homogeneous Magnetic Field in a Turbulent Pipe Flow

In this paper we study a turbulent pipe flow of a weakly electrical conducting fluid subjected to a homogeneous magnetic field which is applied perpendicular to the flow. This configuration forms the basis of a so-called electromagnetic induction flow meter. When the Hartmann number is small so that modification of flow by the Lorenz force can be neglected, the influence of the magnetic field results only in a spatially and temporally varying electric potential. The magnitude of the potential difference across the pipe is then proportional to the flow rate and this constitutes the principle of the flow meter. In this study the flow and electric potential are computed with help of a numerical flow simulation called Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) to which we have added an equation for the electrical potential. The results of the LES have been compared with experiments in which the electric potential is measured as a function of time at several positions on the circumference of the pipe. Both the experimental and numerical results for the mean potential at the pipe wall agree very well with an exact solution that can be obtained in this particular case of a homogeneous magnetic field. Furthermore, it is found that fluctuations in the electric potential due to the turbulence, are small compared to the velocity fluctuations. Based on the results we conclude that electrical-magnetic effects in pipe flow can be accurately computed with LES.     

Turbulent Drag Reduction Using Anisotropic Permeable Substrates

The behaviour of turbulent flow over anisotropic permeable substrates is studied using linear stability analysis and direct numerical simulations (DNS). The flow within the permeable substrate is modelled using the Brinkman equation, which is solved analytically to obtain the boundary conditions at the substrate-channel interface for both the DNS and the stability analysis. The DNS results show that the drag-reducing effect of the permeable substrate, caused by preferential streamwise slip, can be offset by the wall-normal permeability of the substrate. The latter is associated with the presence of large spanwise structures, typically associated to a Kelvin-Helmholtz-like instability. Linear stability analysis is used as a predictive tool to capture the onset of these drag-increasing Kelvin-Helmholtz rollers. It is shown that the appearance of these rollers is essentially driven by the wall-normal permeability \(K_{y}^{+}\). When realistic permeable substrates are considered, the transpiration at the substrate-channel interface is wavelength-dependent. For substrates with low \(K_{y}^{+}\), the wavelength-dependent transpiration inhibits the formation of large spanwise structures at the characteristic scales of the Kelvin-Helmholtz-like instability, thereby reducing the negative impact of wall-normal permeability.     

Turbulent Drag Reduction by Uniform Blowing Over a Two-dimensional Roughness

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of turbulent channel flow over a two-dimensional irregular rough wall with uniform blowing (UB) was performed. The main objective is to investigate the drag reduction effectiveness of UB on a rough-wall turbulent boundary layer toward its practical application. The DNS was performed under a constant flow rate at the bulk Reynolds number values of 5600 and 14000, which correspond to the friction Reynolds numbers of about 180 and 400 in the smooth-wall case, respectively. Based upon the decomposition of drag into the friction and pressure contributions, the present flow is considered to belong to the transitionally-rough regime. Unlike recent experimental results, it turns out that the drag reduction effect of UB on the present two-dimensional rough wall is similar to that for a smooth wall. The friction drag is reduced similarly to the smooth-wall case by the displacement of the mean velocity profile. Besides, the pressure drag, which does not exist in the smooth-wall case, is also reduced; namely, UB makes the rough wall aerodynamically smoother. Examination of turbulence statistics suggests that the effects of roughness and UB are relatively independent to each other in the outer layer, which suggests that Stevenson’s formula can be modified so as to account for the roughness effect by simply adding the roughness function term.     

Turbulent Drag Reduction by a Near Wall Surface Tension Active Interface

In this work we study the turbulence modulation in a viscosity-stratified two-phase flow using Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of turbulence and the Phase Field Method (PFM) to simulate the interfacial phenomena. Specifically we consider the case of two immiscible fluid layers driven in a closed rectangular channel by an imposed mean pressure gradient. The present problem, which may mimic the behaviour of an oil flowing under a thin layer of different oil, thickness ratio h₂/h₁ =?9, is described by three main flow parameters: the shear Reynolds number Re _τ (which quantifies the importance of inertia compared to viscous effects), the Weber number We (which quantifies surface tension effects) and the viscosity ratio λ = ν₁/ν₂ between the two fluids. For this first study, the density ratio of the two fluid layers is the same (ρ₂ = ρ₁), we keep Re _τ and We constant, but we consider three different values for the viscosity ratio: λ =?1, λ =?0.875 and λ =?0.75. Compared to a single phase flow at the same shear Reynolds number (Re _τ =?100), in the two phase flow case we observe a decrease of the wall-shear stress and a strong turbulence modulation in particular in the proximity of the interface. Interestingly, we observe that the modulation of turbulence by the liquid-liquid interface extends up to the top wall (i.e. the closest to the interface) and produces local shear stress inversions and flow recirculation regions. The observed results depend primarily on the interface deformability and on the viscosity ratio between the two fluids (λ).     

Invariant Analysis of Turbulent Pipe Flow

The anisotropy analysis of Lumley provides a useful tool to quantify the degree of anisotropy in turbulent flows. Also included in the analysis are relations which may be used to check if the flow is axisymmetric or two-dimensional. However, the method does not provide any scale information about the structures. The analysis has therefore been extended here to Fourier space, which allows scale information to be derived. The method was applied to fully developed pipe flow and it was shown that the large-scale motion is everywhere close to axisymmetric. The intermediate scales are strongly influenced by the restrictions posed by the pipe walls. At the centre line, the flow structure appears axisymmetric at all scales, but the measurement sindicate that true axisymmetry is lost very quickly away from the centre line. The structure of the smallest scales could not be determined reliably due to a singularity in the analysis which develops as the scales go to zero. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Reduction of the Induced Drag of a Supersonic Wing

The oblique wing effect, i.e., a reduction in the wave drag for given lift, cannot be realized for a delta wing with supersonic leading edges owing to the lift reduction in the wing mid-section. To preserve the effect, the disturbances generated by the delta wing vertex must be eliminated by adding a body (wedge) to the wing by replacing the streamsurfaces behind the shock with rigid surfaces. Moreover, using wing tip deflection, and thereby reducing the wave drag to zero, makes it possible to obtain a lift- drag ratio close to that of the limiting, infinitely long flat plate.     

Experimental Investigation on Turbulent Structure of Drag Reducing Channel Flow with Blowing Polymer Solution from the Wall

Turbulent drag reducing flow with blowing polymer solution from the channel wall was investigated experimentally using particle image velocimetry (PIV). Experiments were carried out with varying conditions of blowing polymer solution (e.g. weight concentration of polymer solution). Reynolds number based on the channel height and mean velocity was set to 20000 and 40000. When the polymer solution was blown from the channel wall, streamwise velocity fluctuation little increased, but wall-normal velocity fluctuation, Reynolds shear stress and correlation coefficient decreased significantly only near the blower wall. This behavior corresponds to the decrease of the ejection and sweep in the near-wall region observed by the investigation of instantaneous velocity map. On the contrary, this characteristic behavior was not observed at a position away from the blower wall (y/(H/2) > 0.4) and the scatter plot was almost the same as that of the water flow in this region. These results suggest that there are two regions in the drag reducing flow with blowing polymer solution from the wall; one is a non-Newtonian region which exists near the blower wall, and the other is a Newtonian region at a distance from the wall. The non-Newtonian region plays a key role in the drag reduction by the blowing polymer solution.     

Vibro-Acoustic Response of a Pipe Excited by a Turbulent Internal Flow

This article presents an experimental study of the vibro-acoustic response of a pipe excited by a fully-developed turbulent air flow. First, the wall pressure field acting on the internal pipe wall is investigated. The power spectral density of the wall pressure fluctuations is analyzed after cancellation of contaminating background noise. The convection velocity and correlation lengths are calculated from measured cross-spectra, and the cross-spectra are expressed in Corcos model form. Second, the vibro-acoustic response of the pipe is analyzed by referring to the structural modes of the pipe. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Three-Dimensional Laser-Doppler Velocimeter Measurements in Swirling Turbulent Pipe Flow

The present work is an experimental study of the evolutioncharacteristics of swirl in the flow in a pipe at a moderately highReynolds number and over a wide range of swirl numbers characterisingthe swirl strength. The measurements are done by 3D LDV in a speciallydesigned facility that works on the principle of refractive-indexmatching. Swirl with the well-defined distribution of a constant angularvelocity is introduced into the test section of this facility by a swirlgenerating device in which a tube bundle in the pipe rotates about thepipe axis. The measurements have been processed to yield themean-velocity vector and the Reynolds stress tensor in this flow. Ananalysis of the measured evolution characteristics brings out a dominanteffect of swirl with a solid body rotation as the annihilation ofReynolds shear streses.     

Reynolds Number Dependence of Velocity Structure Functions in a Turbulent Pipe Flow

Low-order moments of the increments δu andδv where u and v are the axial and radial velocity fluctuations respectively, have been obtained using single and X-hot wires mainly on the axis of a fully developed pipe flow for different values of the Taylor microscale Reynolds numberR _λ. The mean energy dissipation rate〉ε〈 was inferred from the uspectrum after the latter was corrected for the spatial resolution of the hot-wire probes. The corrected Kolmogorov-normalized second-order structure functions show a continuous evolution withR _λ. In particular, the scaling exponentζ _v , corresponding to the v structure function, continues to increase with R _λ in contrast to the nearly unchanged value of ζ _u . The Kolmogorov constant for δu shows a smaller rate of increase with R _λ than that forδv. The level of agreement with local isotropy is examined in the context of the competing influences ofR _λ and the mean shear. There is close but not perfect agreement between the present results on the pipe axis and those on the centreline of a fully developed channel flow. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

DNS of the Turbulent Channel Flow of a Dilute Polymer Solution

A direct numerical simulation of the turbulent channel flow of a dilute polymer solution has been performed in order to compare its turbulence statistics with those obtained in a Newtonian channel flow. The viscoelastic flow has been simulated by solving the whole set of continuity, momentum and constitutive equations for the six independent components of the extra-stress tensor induced by polymer addition. The Finitely Extensible Nonlinear Elastic dumbbell model was adopted in order to simulate a non-linear modulus of elasticity and a finite extendibility of the polymer macromolecules. Simulations were carried out under the narrow channel assumption at a Reynolds number of 169 based on the channel half height and on the friction velocity; they showed a significant reduction in drag, dependent on the influence of the elastic properties of the chains. A qualitative comparison with experiments at a higher Reynolds number has shown that the model here adopted is capable of reproducing all the main features of the polymer solution flow. Analysis of the turbulence statistics suggests that a dilute polymer solution can affect the intensity of the streamwise vortices, leading to an increase in the spacing between low speed streaks and eventually to a turbulent shear stress reduction.     

Experimental Determination of Lagrangian Velocity Statistics in Turbulent Pipe Flow

The calculation of Lagrangian statistics out of experimentally determined data from homogeneously seeded inhomogeneous turbulent flows is far from straightforward since statistical properties are position-dependent, necessitating local sampling. Two solutions for the preferential sampling of faster particles at a certain position in the flow are proposed. The performance of both methods was tested using DNS calculations for turbulent pipe flow. Both methods show a good performance for various statistical properties, thus providing two reliable ways to analyze experimental data from inhomogeneous turbulent flows.     

湍流涡致振动频率特性

用数值模拟方法对固定圆柱湍流涡脱落频率与弹性圆柱湍流涡致振动频率特性进行了研究,湍流计算模型采用标准κ-ε模型,压力泊松方程提法基于非交错网格系统.研究结果表明:固定圆柱湍流绕流涡脱落频率基本不随雷诺数而变,对于同一固有频率弹性圆柱,涡振频率基本不随雷诺数而变;对于某一固定雷诺数流动涡振频率在一定范围内与系统固有频率有关.     

Coriolis Effect on Convection in a Rotating Porous Layer Subjected to Variable Gravity

We consider the effects of rotation in a porous layer heated from below and subjected to a variable gravity field. The study is presented for large Vadasz numbers where no oscillatory convection is possible. It is demonstrated that the Coriolis acceleration stabilizes the convection in a variable gravity field, whilst the effect of gravity parameter stabilses the convection when reduced and destabilizes the convection when increased.     

Generic Transport Aft-body Drag Reduction using Active Flow Control

Active flow-separation control is an effective and efficient mean for drag reduction and unsteady load alleviation resulting from locally or massively separated flow. Such a situation occurs in configurations where the aerodynamic performance is of secondary importance to functionality. The performance of heavy transport helicopters and aeroplanes, having a large, and almost flat, aft loading ramp suffer from the poor aerodynamics of the aft body. Hence, a combined experimental and numerical investigation was undertaken on a generic transport aeroplane/helicopter configuration. The experimental study provided surface pressures, direct drag measurements, surface and smoke flow visualization. The baseline flow was numerically analyzed, using finite volume solutions of the RANS equations. The baseline flow around the model was insensitive to the Reynolds number in the range it was tested. The flow separating from the aft body was characterized by two main sources of drag and unsteadiness. The first is a separation bubble residing at the lower ramp corner and the second is a pair of vortex systems developing and separating from the sides of the ramp. As the model incidence is decreased, the pair of vortex systems also penetrates deeper towards the centerline of the ramp, decreasing the pressure and increasing the drag. As expected, the ramp lower corner bubble was highly receptive to periodic excitation introduced from four addressable piezo-fluidic actuators situated at the ramp lower corner. Total drag was reduced by 3–11%, depending on the model incidence. There are indications that the flow in the wake of the model is also significantly steadier when the bubble at the lower ramp corner is eliminated. The vortex system is tighter and steadier when the ramp-corner bubble is eliminated.     

LDV Measurements of the Response of the Swirling Turbulent Flow in a Pipe to a Rapid Temporal Change in Swirl

The present paper describes an experiment to study the response of the swirling flow in a pipe at a high Reynolds number to a rapid temporal change in swirl. The measurements have been conducted with 3D-LDV in a facility of special design that operates on the principle of refractive-index matching and in which swirl is generated in the flow by a tube-bundle in the pipe rotating about its own axis. The temporal change in swirl is effected by a computer controlled change of the angular velocity of the swirl generator. Measurement data from both cases, of increase and decrease of swirl, are presented. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Unsteady Laminar to Turbulent Flow in a Spacer-Filled Channel

A combined numerical and experimental investigation has been carried out to study the flow behaviour in a spacer-filled channel, representative of those used in spiral-wound membrane modules. Direct numerical simulation and particle image velocimetry were used to investigate the fluid flow characteristics inside a 2 × 2 cell at Reynolds numbers that range between 100 and 1000. It was found that the flow in this geometry moves parallel to and also rotates between the spacer filaments and that the rate of rotation increases with Reynolds number. The flow mechanisms, transition process and onset of turbulence in a spacer-filled channel are investigated including the use of the velocity spectra at different Reynolds numbers. It is found that the flow is steady for Re < 200 and oscillatory at Re ～ 250 and increasingly unsteady with further increases in Re before the onset of turbulent flow at Re ～ 1000.