Estimating the local turbulent energy dissipation rate using 2-D PIV measurements and a 1-D energy spectrum function

Abstract

A simple method for estimating the local turbulent energy dissipation rate for a non-isotropic state is proposed. The proposed method is based on an estimation of the isotropic dissipation rate under the assumption of local isotropy, which is subsequently corrected for the actual conditions. The level of anisotropy is characterized by the fluctuation velocity components. The isotropic dissipation rates are obtained by energy spectrum function fitting. A data block averaging technique is used to smooth the spectrum. The effect of the data number within block on the calculated turbulent energy dissipation rate is taken into account. The proposed method has been tested on data obtained by a 2-D time-resolved PIV method. The effect of the spatial resolution of PIV on the estimation of the dissipation rate is also taken into account, using the correction proposed by Delafosse et al. (2011). The estimate of the local turbulent energy dissipation was found to be the same irrespective of the fluctuation velocity component that was taken for calculating the energy spectrum. This accords with the scalar character of the dissipation rate. The method also enables an estimate to be made of the integral length scale components.