Production and dissipation of turbulent fluctuations close to a stagnation point

Abstract

In this article, we investigate the production and dissipation of turbulence in a region where the mean flow topology presents a stagnation point. Our goal is to understand the generation of anisotropic fluctuations and their influence on production, dissipation, and transport of turbulent kinetic energy. In order to investigate the local turbulent kinetic energy budget, we use a shadow particle tracking velocimetry technique (S-PTV) to track Lagrangian tracers in a large portion of a turbulent von Karman flow produced by counter-rotating disks. We observe that the flow produced in a square tank is bistable, with each of the two states resembling impinging jets. This stagnation-point topology is responsible for the strong anisotropy of velocity fluctuations observed in these type of flows. The production of turbulence locally exceeds the dissipation rate. As a consequence, the flow is to be considered as strongly inhomogeneous as the fluxes of turbulent kinetic energy are non-negligible when compared to the production and dissipation terms.