Stirring up trouble: Multi-scale mixing measures for steady scalar sources

The mixing efficiency of a flow advecting a passive scalar sustained by steady sources and sinks is naturally defined in terms of the suppression of bulk scalar variance in the presence of stirring, relative to the variance in the absence of stirring. These variances can be weighted at various spatial scales, leading to a family of multi-scale mixing measures and efficiencies. We derive a priori estimates on these efficiencies from the advection-diffusion partial differential equation, focusing on a broad class of statistically homogeneous and isotropic incompressible flows. The analysis produces bounds on the mixing efficiencies in terms of the Péclet number, a measure of the strength of the stirring relative to molecular diffusion. We show by example that the estimates are sharp for particular source, sink and flow combinations. In general the high-Péclet-number behavior of the bounds (scaling exponents as well as prefactors) depends on the structure and smoothness properties of, and length scales in, the scalar source and sink distribution. The fundamental model of the stirring of a monochromatic source/sink combination by the random sine flow is investigated in detail via direct numerical simulation and analysis. The large-scale mixing efficiency follows the upper bound scaling (within a logarithm) at high Péclet number but the intermediate and small-scale efficiencies are qualitatively less than optimal. The Péclet number scaling exponents of the efficiencies observed in the simulations are deduced theoretically from the asymptotic solution of an internal layer problem arising in a quasi-static model.     

Aspects of large eddy simulation of homogeneous isotropic turbulence

HOMTY, a code for Large Eddy Simulation of homogeneous isotropic turbulence is proven by successful simulation of two experiments. The role of each term in the equations of motion and the concept of filtering is examined. It is shown that ‘prefiltering’ is unnecessary, and the resulting additional term in the equations, instead of transferring energy to the subgrid scales, backscatters energy from the resolved large wavenumerbers to the small ones. The kinetic energy decay exponent is shown to depend on the low wavenumber part of the velocity spectrum. Pressure statistics are computed and found to be in agreement with previous computations.     

Effect of streamline curvature on flow field of a turbulent plane jet in cross-flow

The effects of the streamline curvature and finite edge velocity on the flow field of a turbulent plane jet in cross-flow are studied numerically by incorporating the curvature effect in the k–ε turbulence model. The improvement in the predictions by the streamline curvature model is assessed by comparing its prediction with those by the standard k–ε model. The predictions by both the models are compared with available experimental data. It has been observed that the performance of the k–ε model with streamline curvature modification is superior to the standard k–ε model.     

Large Eddy Simulation of Premixed Turbulent Combustion Using Ξ Flame Surface Wrinkling Model

One commonly-used method for deriving the RANS equations for multicomponent flow is the technique of conditional averaging. In this paper the concept is extended to LES, by introducing the operations of conditional filtering and surface filtering. Properties of the filtered indicator function are investigated mathematically and computationally. These techniques are then used to derive conditionally filtered versions of the Navier–Stokes equations which are appropriate for simulating multicomponent flow in LES. Transport equations for the favre-averaged indicator function and the unresolved interface properties (the wrinkling and the surface area per unit volume) are also derived. Since the paper is directed towards modelling premixed combustion in the flamelet regime, closure of the equations is achieved by introducing physical models based on the picture of the flame as a wrinkled surface separating burnt and unburnt components of the fluid. This leads to a set of models for premixed turbulent combustion of varying complexity. The results of applying one of this set of models to propagation of a spherical flame in isotropic homogeneous turbulence are analysed. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Characterization of the Damping Behavior of a Nanoindentation Instrument for Carrying Out Dynamic Experiments

A new displacement modulation based dynamic indentation method is demonstrated and shown to be effective for viscoelastic characterization of a glassy polymer. The analysis of dynamic experiments requires a complete understanding of the measuring system’s dynamic characteristics especially the damping. Accordingly, an improved method, based on the use of a wire spring, is developed for determining the damping characteristics. In general, damping in an indentation instrument is contributed by two elements: the eddy current damping from the electromagnetic loading coil and the squeeze film damping from the capacitive displacement transducer. Therefore, a method to determine the relative contribution from the different damping elements present in the system is demonstrated and the results are compared with the calibration obtained from the wire spring method. Finally, dynamic indentation tests are carried out on a glassy polymer to obtain the complex modulus; the values of which are compared with those obtained from bulk dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA) tests. Storage modulus values are found to be in good agreement with bulk data but some divergence in the case of loss modulus is observed. The calibration procedure of the measuring instrument is critically examined in view of these observations. Overall, displacement modulation based dynamic indentation is shown to be a promising method for viscoelastic characterization at the micron length scales. An erratum to this article can be found at     

Constricted hysteresis loops in Fe and Ni single crystals

Magnetic hysteresis loops reflect the variety of magnetic domain structures and have been considered to have normal rectangular or leaf-like shapes in standard ferromagnets such as Fe and Ni metals. We report on observations of constricted hysteresis loops in Fe and Ni single crystals with very low defect densities. The constricted loops were observed below T=150 K and in a medium temperature range from 150 to 430 K in Fe and Ni single crystals, respectively. These constricted loops disappear by weak plastic deformation for both single crystals. The origin of constricted hysteresis loops was explained by eddy current effects under less domain wall pinning due to dislocations.     

数值耗散对压气机流动分离涡模拟的影响研究

分离涡模拟DES是压气机流动模拟中常用的高保真湍流模式。为了使DES准确解析湍流,数值耗散必须限制在合理范围内。然而,当前的压气机流动DES类研究工作中仍然普遍采用高耗散的迎风格式。本文首先基于DES类方法计算的各向同性衰减湍流结果,定量比较了多种不同数值格式的耗散,证实了高耗散迎风格式严重低估中高波数湍流能量。高阶重构格式可以一定程度上改善该问题,但能量耗散仍然过高。本文在高阶重构的基础上,进一步引入自适应耗散函数修改Riemann求解器,构造了自适应耗散格式。该格式在全波数范围都能准确地预测湍流能谱。将该格式配合DES类方法模拟跨声速离心压气机流动,其预测的压比相比于三阶迎风格式,更加接近实验结果。此外,自适应耗散格式显著提高了中小尺度流动结构的分辨率。分析表明,在使用DES类方法模拟压气机流动时,有必要采用数值耗散较低的离散格式,以准确预测压气机总体性能和流动结构。本文构造的自适应耗散格式是一种良好选择。     

Implicit LES of free and wall‐bounded turbulent flows based on the discontinuous Galerkin/symmetric interior penalty method

This paper presents the second validation step of a compressible discontinuous Galerkin solver with symmetric interior penalty (DGM/SIP) for the direct numerical simulation (DNS) and the large eddy simulation (LES) of complex flows. The method has already been successfully validated for DNS of an academic flow and has been applied to flows around complex geometries (e.g. airfoils and turbomachinery blades). During these studies, the advantages of the dissipation properties of the method have been highlighted, showing a natural tendency to dissipate only the under‐resolved scales (i.e the smallest scales present on the mesh), leaving the larger scales unaffected. This phenomenon is further enhanced as the polynomial order is increased. Indeed, the order increases the dissipation at the largest wave numbers, while its range of impact is reduced. These properties are spectrally compatible with a subgrid‐scale model, and hence DGM may be well suited to be used for an implicit LES (ILES) approach. A validation of this DGM/ILES approach is here investigated on canonical flows, allowing to study the impact of the discretisation on the turbulence for under‐resolved computations. The first test case is the LES of decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence (HIT) at very high Reynolds number. This benchmark allows to assess the spectral behaviour of the method for implicit LES. The results are in agreement with theory and are even slightly more accurate than other numerical results from literature, obtained using a pseudo‐spectral (PS) method with a state‐of‐the‐art subgrid‐scale model. The second benchmark is the LES of the channel flow. Three Reynolds numbers are considered: Re_τ=395, 590 and 950. The results are compared with DNS of Moser et al. and Hoyas et al., also using PS methods. Both averaged velocity and fluctuations are globally in good agreement with the reference, showing the ability of the method to predict equilibrium wall‐bounded flow turbulence. To show that the method is able to perform accurate DNS, a DNS of HIT at Re_λ=64 and a DNS of the channel flow at Re_τ=180 are also performed. The effects of the grid refinement are investigated on the channel flow at Re_τ=395, highlighting the improvement of the results when refining the mesh in the spanwise direction. Finally, the modification of the ILES parameters, that is the Riemann solver and of the SIP coefficient, is studied on both cases, showing a significant influence on the choice of the Riemann solver. Copyright © 2015 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

On large Eddy simulation and variational multiscale methods in the numerical simulation of turbulent incompressible flows

Numerical simulation of turbulent flows is one of the great challenges in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). In general, Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) is not feasible due to limited computer resources (performance and memory), and the use of a turbulence model becomes necessary. The paper will discuss several aspects of two approaches of turbulent modeling—Large Eddy Simulation (LES) and Variational Multiscale (VMS) models. Topics which will be addressed are the detailed derivation of these models, the analysis of commutation errors in LES models as well as other results from mathematical analysis.     

Mixed convection turbulent film condensation on a sphere

The present paper reports a research on condensation heat transfer of an isothermal sphere with an external flow of vapor. The high tangential velocity of the vapor flow is determined from potential flow theory. The transition criterion of the onset turbulence has been given in the local film Reynolds number (Re_Γ). An eddy diffusivity model along with an expression by [H. Kato, N.N. Shiwaki, M. Hirota, On the turbulent heat transfer by free convection from a vertical plate, Int. J. Heat Mass Transfer, 11(1968) 1117–1125] is used to model turbulence. And the local liquid–vapor interfacial shear which occurs for high velocity vapor flow across a sphere surface is defined by the Colburn analogy. The paper then presents analytical analysis for the local dimensionless film thickness and heat transfer characteristics for the film condensation. And a comparison with those generated by previous theoretical of laminar condensation is discussed. The comparison shows the heat transfer coefficient of turbulent film condensation is higher than laminar film condensation under the high vapor velocity.