| Abstract: | In recent years there have appeared several experimental studies [1–5] which have shown that there are cases of turbulent flow with an asymmetric distribution of the flow velocity and in which at the point where the velocity derivative is zero the turbulent shear stress is not zero. This raises the question of the connection of the Reynolds stress tensor with the characteristics of the average flow. The relationships used in the usual mixing length theory connect the shear stress with the local value of the flow velocity derivative and are not consistent with the experimental results mentioned above. These relationships are based on the assumption that the mixing length is small in comparison with the characteristic length of the flow. Experiment shows that this assumption is not justified [6].Thus, turbulent diffusion refers to the case of diffusion with a large mean free path. In addition to the concept of  gradient diffusion, there is also the concept of bulk convection or integral diffusion [10], which means a transfer mechanism in which the shear stress is not expressed in terms of the velocity gradient. The generalization of mixing length theory proposed in [11–14] is based on the very simple kinetic equation which was used for the examination of turbulent transfer problems in [8] and which is encountered in the treatment of transport problems in gases, neutron diffusion, and radiative energy transfer.The proposed generalization of mixing length theory employs an analogy with the indicated processes and permits the derivation of formulas which are valid for large mean free paths. In the case of small mean free paths the obtained relationships lead to the relationships for diffusion in a continuous medium and, in particular, to the relationships of the Prandtl mixing length theory. The integral diffusion model is a phenomenological semiempirical theory in which empirical constants and several hypotheses common in mixing length theory are used. A very general analysis of the expression for the shear stress leads to the conclusion that if the flow is asymmetric over a distance comparable with the mixing length the points at which the velocity derivative and the turbulent shear stress are zero do not coincide [12]. Hence, it is to be hoped that the integral diffusion model will allow treatment of the above questions, which cause difficulty in the case of ordinary mixing length theory. Incompressible turbulent flow is considered. |
