Radiation statistics in homogeneous isotropic turbulence

Abstract

An analysis of turbulence–radiation interaction (TRI) in statistically stationary (forced) homogeneous and isotropic turbulence is presented. A direct numerical simulation code was used to generate instantaneous turbulent scalar fields, and the radiative transfer equation (RTE) was solved to provide statistical data relevant in TRI. The radiation intensity is non-Gaussian and is not spatially correlated with any of the other turbulence or radiation quantities. Its power spectrum exhibits a power-law region with a slope steeper than the classical −5/3 law. The moments of the radiation intensity, Planck-mean and incident-mean absorption coefficients, and emission and absorption TRI correlations are calculated. The influence of the optical thickness of the medium, mean and variance of the temperature and variance of the molar fraction of the absorbing species is studied. Predictions obtained from the time-averaged RTE are also included. It was found that while turbulence yields an increase of the mean blackbody radiation intensity, it causes a decrease of the time-averaged Planck-mean absorption coefficient. The absorption coefficient self-correlation is small in comparison with the temperature self-correlation, and the role of TRI in radiative emission is more important than in radiative absorption. The absorption coefficient–radiation intensity correlation is small, which supports the optically thin fluctuation approximation, and justifies the good predictions often achieved using the time-averaged RTE.