Theory of turbulent shear flow: I. Kinetic theory derivation of the Reynolds equation: Avoiding the closure problem

Abstract

This is the first of a series of three papers which report on an theoretical turbulence investigation. In the present part, the Reynolds equation for the mean velocity field in turbulent shear flow is derived in a systematic way starting from established physical knowledge. A basic problem of contemporary turbulence theory is that, at the hydrodynamic level, there seems to be no way presently to derive systematically the initial probability distribution of the fluctuating momentum density. For this reason, N-particle statistical mechanics is employed in this investigation. The closure problem of continuum turbulence theory is avoided by this method. The technique of deriving transport equations from the Liouville equation by projection operator methods is used for the derivation. Stationary constant density/temperature processes are considered only. The dissipative term of the momemtum transport equation is analyzed in order to obtain the formulas for the laminar and turbulent friction forces. The latter is obtained as a second-order convolution in the mean velocity field. The kernel function is a time integral of an equilibrium triple correlation function; it constitutes a physical “constant” of the fluid which is needed in addition to the viscosity constant. Its calculation has been the object of a separate investigation which will be reported in the second paper. The third paper describes the numerical evaluation and comparison with experiment for the spherical case of the circular jet. In the present state, the theoretical formula does not reproduce the experimental data. This is considered a preliminary result which, in view of the systematic nature of the derivation, offers the possibility to trace it back to the spots where the theoretical structure is still not adequate.