One-dimensional turbulence investigation of variable density effects due to heat transfer in a low Mach number internal air flow

Abstract

A novel spatial formulation of the One-Dimensional Turbulence (ODT) model is applied to a vertical pipe-flow with heat transfer, analogous to the Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) performed by Bae et al. [Phys. Fluids 18, (075102) (2006)]. The framework presented here is an extension for radially confined domains of the cylindrical ODT spatial formulation for low Mach number flows with variable density. The variable density simulations for air (Prandtl number Pr=0.71) are performed at an initial bulk Reynolds number Reb,0,DNS=6000 and Grashof number Gr0,DNS=6.78×106. ODT results are presented for both the spatial formulation introduced in this work and the standard temporal formulation for cylindrical flows introduced by Lignell et al. [Theor. Comput. Fluid Dyn. 32, 4 (2018), pp. 495–20]. Streamwise bulk profiles and radial profiles at specific streamwise positions for the temporal and spatial formulations are in good agreement with the DNS results from Bae et al. For the present application, the spatial formulation yields physically better results in comparison to the temporal formulation. Overall, the findings in the original work of Bae et al. were corroborated with ODT. Although the framework proposed in this work is not a compressible framework and has some clear limitations regarding conservation properties, we suggest its use for future studies in the low Mach number variable density regime.