On the role of anisotropic turbomachinery flow structures in inter-scale turbulence energy flux as deduced from SPIV measurements

The present study uses stereoscopic particle image velocimetry in the rotor exit of a centrifugal turbomachine to analyse anisotropy and geometrical characteristics of tensorial flow quantities. The purpose is to identify dominant topologies of turbulence stress tensor and principal directions of flow structures. The misalignment between principal directions of strain and turbulence stress tensors is more evident in the jet–wake interaction regions and questions the eddy-viscosity models which assume an exact alignment between stress/strain eigenvectors. Anisotropy analysis based on the barycentric approach shows that the disk-like structure and/or the rod-like structure limiting states of turbulence are the most frequent topologies of turbulence stress. Additionally, planar straining is the dominant deformation characteristic in the measurement area. These anisotropic behaviours considerably attribute to the turbulence energy cascade. Conditional isolation of flow structures based on inter-scale energy flux shows that a larger extent of turbulence stress anisotropy results in a larger energy flux and therefore significantly affects the dynamics of turbulent flow structures.