Effect of heat source on kinetic energy transfer in compressible homogeneous shear turbulence

Abstract

The effects of heat sources on kinetic energy transfer in compressible homogeneous shear turbulence are studied using numerical simulations at turbulent Mach numbers 0.1 and 0.4 for two levels of heat source. It is found that the strong heat source can significantly enhance both positive and negative components of subgrid-scale (SGS) kinetic energy flux and pressure–dilatation. After adding a strong heat source, compression motions enhance the positive SGS flux, and expansion motions enhance the negative SGS flux at a low turbulent Mach number. According to the Helmholtz decomposition, we found that the solenoidal and dilatational components of pressure–dilatation and SGS kinetic energy flux are increased greatly by a strong heat source at a low turbulent Mach number. The solenoidal mode plays a dominant role in the kinetic energy transfer process, but the contribution of the dilatational mode is not negligible. The dilatational component of the production term is increased by a strong heat source at a low turbulent Mach number, providing the main source of kinetic energy to the dilatational mode. The strong heat source also enhances the kinetic energy exchange between solenoidal mode and dilatational mode through nonlinear advection at a low turbulent Mach number. Moreover, the strong heat source enhances pressure anisotropy, redistribution of the kinetic energy of two transverse components, and energy transfer from internal energy to the kinetic energy through pressure–dilatation term. At a high turbulent Mach number, the strong heat source has little impact on the solenoidal and dilatational components of kinetic energy transfer terms.