Some observations concerning "laminarization" in heated vertical tubes

Abstract

For low "turbulent" Reynolds numbers in strongly-heated vertical gas flow, fundamental results of existing direct numerical simulation (DNS) databases have been examined to deduce differences between cases which "revert" to turbulent and those that yield integral parameters which correspond to laminar flow (henceforth laminarizing or laminarized). Objectives are (1) to examine the streamwise evolution of near-wall flow structures and (2) to determine which, if any, proposed laminarization parameters could be used to discriminate between turbulent and laminarizing flows resulting. Views of streamlines in r-θ cross sections showed evidence of a ring of irregular-shaped streamwise vortices near the wall at all locations. The transverse advection of these vortices is hypothesized to provide a path of least resistance to the transport of streamwise momentum in the wall-normal direction. It is demonstrated that a steady streamwise laminar vortex can provide apparent turbulent momentum transport (as a consequence of the Reynolds decomposition) such that a reasonable mean velocity profile is predicted near the wall. For the present cases, the values of the non-dimensional radius (yc,w+ = Reτ,w) and of the modified wall Reynolds number did discriminate whether turbulent or laminarizing flow resulted.