The URAPS closure for the normalized Reynolds stress

Abstract

The Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS)-equation for constant property Newtonian fluids is an exact, albeit unclosed, first-order moment equation for the mean velocity field. The RANS-equation and the Reynolds-averaged continuity equation together with a model for the Reynolds stress provide a set of closed equations that govern the behavior of the mean velocity and mean pressure fields. In this turbulent mixing and beyond (TMB) paper, the key ideas related to a recently developed universal closure for the normalized Reynolds (NR)-stress are reviewed. The new approach relates the NR-stress to four characteristic time scales: a turbulent time scale, a viscous time scale, a time scale related to the mean field velocity gradient and a time scale associated with a rigid body frame-of-reference. The theory stems from an analysis of the Navier–Stokes equation and is formulated as a universal non-negative mapping of the NR-stress into itself. Consequently, all solutions of the NR-stress equation are non-negative dyadic-valued linear operators regardless of the class of benchmark flows used to determine closure parameters. The new closure model predicts that the Coriolis acceleration causes an anisotropic re-distribution of turbulent kinetic energy among the three components of the fluctuating velocity in rotating homogeneous decay.