Incompressible Turbulent Channel Flow Research Articles

Subgrid-scale model for large eddy simulations of incompressible turbulent flows within the lattice Boltzmann framework.

Large eddy simulations are a popular method for turbulent simulations because of their accuracy and efficiency. In this paper, a coupling algorithm is proposed that combines nonequilibrium moments (NM) and the volumetric strain-stretching (VSS) model within the framework of the lattice Boltzmann method (LBM). This algorithm establishes a relation between the NM and the eddy viscosity by using a special calculation form of the VSS model and Chapman-Enskog analysis. The coupling algorithm is validated in three typical flow cases: freely decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence, homogeneous isotropic turbulence with body forces, and incompressible turbulent channel flow at Re_{τ}=180. The results show that the coupling algorithm is accurate and efficient when compared with the results of direct numerical simulations. Using calculation format of the eddy viscosity, a uniform calculation format is used for each grid point of the flow field during the modeling process. The modeling process uses only the local distribution function to obtain the local eddy viscosity coefficients without any additional processing on the boundary, while optimizing the memory access process to fit the inherent parallelism of the LBM. The efficiency of the calculation is improved by about 20% compared to the central difference method within the lattice Boltzmann framework for calculating the eddy viscosity.

Validation of symmetry-induced high moment velocity and temperature scaling laws in a turbulent channel flow.

The symmetry-based turbulence theory has been used to derive new scaling laws for the streamwise velocity and temperature moments of arbitrary order. For this, it has been applied to an incompressible turbulent channel flow driven by a pressure gradient with a passive scalar equationcoupled in. To derive the scaling laws, symmetries of the classical Navier-Stokes and the thermal energy equationshave been used together with statistical symmetries, i.e., the statistical scaling and translation symmetries of the multipoint moment equations. Specifically, the multipoint moments are built on the instantaneous velocity and temperature fields other than in the classical approach, where moments are based on the fluctuations of these fields. With this instantaneous approach, a linear system of multipoint correlation equationshas been obtained, which greatly simplifies the symmetry analysis. The scaling laws have been derived in the limit of zero viscosity and heat conduction, i.e., Re_{τ}→∞ and Pr>1, and they apply in the center of the channel, i.e., they represent a generalization of the deficit law, thus extending the work of Oberlack etal. [Phys. Rev. Lett. 128, 024502 (2022)0031-900710.1103/PhysRevLett.128.024502]. The scaling laws are all power laws, with the exponent of the high moments all depending exclusively on those of the first and second moments. To validate the new scaling laws, the data from a large number of direct numerical simulations (DNS) for different Reynolds and Prandtl numbers have been used. The results show a very high accuracy of the scaling laws to represent the DNS data. The statistical scaling symmetry of the multipoint moment equations, which characterizes intermittency, has been the key to the new results since it generates a constant in the exponent of the final scaling law. Most important, since this constant is independent of the order of the moments, it clearly indicates anomalous scaling.

Characterization and evolution of local streamline geometry in an incompressible turbulent channel flow

We investigated the statistical characterization and time evolution of local streamline geometry in typical regions of an incompressible turbulent channel flow at the friction Reynolds number Reτ∼1000. Local streamline structure is completely and uniquely determined by one magnitude factor—the magnitude of velocity gradient tensor (VGT) A—and four shape parameters—the second and third invariants of normalized VGT q and r, the intermediate eigenvalue of normalized strain-rate tensor a2, and the cosine of the angle between vorticity and the intermediate eigendirection of normalized strain-rate tensor | cos β|. As the distance to the wall decreases, the joint probability distribution function of q and r becomes more symmetrical and concentrated, while outside the viscous sublayer, the distribution of A in q–r plane gets dispersed. Interestingly, the inertial conditional mean trajectories (CMTs) exhibit a symmetrical picture only in the buffer layer, and outside the viscous sublayer, the pressure CMTs contributing to slow evolution from unstable focus compression geometry to stable focus stretching geometry tend to dominate the q–r plane as getting closer to the wall. Due to combined effects of inertia and pressure, the origin of the q–r plane (pure-shear geometry) acts as an attractor in the central region, the logarithmic region, and the upper part of the buffer layer while acts as a repeller in the lower part of the buffer layer and the viscous sublayer.

Reynolds number effects on a velocity–vorticity correlation-based skin-friction drag decomposition in incompressible turbulent channel flows

A form of skin-friction drag decomposition is given based on the velocity–vorticity correlations, $\langle v\omega _z\rangle$ and $\langle -w\omega _y\rangle$ , which represent the advective vorticity transport and vortex stretching, respectively. This identity provides a perspective to understand the mechanism of skin-friction drag generation from vortical motions and it has better physical interpretability compared with some previous studies. The skin-friction coefficients in incompressible turbulent channel flows at friction Reynolds numbers from 186 to 2003 are divided with this velocity–vorticity correlation-based identity. We mainly focus on the Reynolds number effects on the contributing terms, their scale-dependence and quadrant characteristics. Results show that the contributing terms and their proportions exhibit similarities and the same peak locations across the wall layer. For the first time, we find that the positive and negative regions in the spanwise pre-multiplied spectra of the turbulent inertia ( $\langle v'\omega _z'\rangle +\langle -w'\omega _y'\rangle$ ) can be separated with a universal linear relationship of $\lambda _z^+=3.75y^+$ . The linear relationship is adopted as the criterion to investigate the scale dependence of the velocity–vorticity coupling structures. It reveals that the negative and positive structures dominate the generation of friction drag associated with the advective vorticity transport and vortex stretching, respectively. Moreover, quadrant analyses of the velocity–vorticity correlations are performed to further examine the friction drag generation related to different quadrant motions.

A resolvent-based prediction framework for incompressible turbulent channel flow with limited measurements

A new resolvent-based method is developed to predict the space–time properties of the flow field. To overcome the deterioration of the prediction accuracy with increasing distance between the measurements and predictions in the resolvent-based estimation (RBE), the newly proposed method utilizes the RBE to estimate the relative energy distribution near the wall rather than the absolute energy directly estimated from the measurements. Using this extra information from RBE, the new method modifies the energy distribution of the spatially uniform and uncorrelated forcing that drives the flow system by minimizing the norm of the cross-spectral density tensor of the error matrix in the near-wall region in comparison with the RBE-estimated one, and therefore it is named as the resolvent-informed white-noise-based estimation (RWE) method. For validation, three time-resolved direct numerical simulation (DNS) datasets with the friction Reynolds numbers $Re_\tau = 180$ , 550 and 950 are generated, with various locations of measurements ranging from the near-wall region ( $y^+ = 40$ ) to the upper bound of the logarithmic region ( $y/h \approx 0.2$ , where h is the half-channel height) for the predictions. Besides the RWE, three existing methods, i.e. the RBE, the $\lambda$ -model and the white-noise-based estimation (WBE), are also included for the validation. The performance of the RBE and scale-dependent model ( $\lambda$ -model) in predicting the energy spectra shows a strong dependence on the measurement locations. The newly proposed RWE shows a low sensitivity on $Re_{\tau }$ and the measurement locations, which may range from the near-wall region to the upper bound of the logarithmic region, and has a high accuracy in predicting the energy spectra. The RWE also performs well in predicting the space–time properties in terms of the correlation magnitude and the convection velocity. We further utilize the new method to reconstruct the instantaneous large-scale structures with measurements from the logarithmic region. Both the RWE and RBE perform well in estimating the instantaneous large-scale structure, and the RWE has smaller errors in the estimations near the wall. The structural inclination angles around $15^\circ$ are predicted by the RWE and WBE, which generally recover the DNS results.

Effects of mean shear on the vortex identification and the orientation statistics

This work compares the threshold applied to the swirling strength as well as the vortex orientation statistics in the total and fluctuating velocity fields using direct numerical simulations of compressible and incompressible turbulent channel flows. It is concluded that the difference in the swirling strength for vortex identification is minimal in the logarithmic region such that these two situations share the same threshold. Regarding the vortex orientation, the inclination angle remains similar. However, as the wall-normal distance increases, a more and more obvious distinction is noticed for its orientation with respect to the spanwise (z) direction. It is mainly due to their intrinsic differences and attendant contrasting preference for the vortex identification, i.e., vortices rotating in the −z direction for the total velocity field and in the z direction for the fluctuating one. These observations function as a reasonable explanation for various remarks in previous studies.

High-order gas-kinetic schemes with non-compact and compact reconstruction for implicit large eddy simulation

High-order gas-kinetic scheme (HGKS) with 5th-order non-compact reconstruction has been well implemented for implicit large eddy simulation (ILES) in nearly incompressible turbulent channel flows. In this study, the HGKS with higher-order non-compact reconstruction and compact reconstruction will be validated in turbulence simulation. For higher-order non-compact reconstruction, 7th-order reconstruction in both normal and tangential directions are implemented. On the other hand, the compact HGKS with 5th-order compact reconstruction in normal direction is developed. Current work aims to show the benefits of high-order non-compact reconstruction and compact reconstruction for ILES. The accuracy of HGKS is verified by numerical simulation of three-dimensional advection of density perturbation. For the non-compact 7th-order scheme, 16 Gaussian points are required on the cell-interface to preserve the order of accuracy. Then, HGKS with non-compact and compact reconstruction is used in the three-dimensional Taylor–Green vortex (TGV) problem and turbulent channel flows. Accurate ILES solutions have been obtained from HGKS. In terms of the physical modeling underlying the numerical algorithms, the compact reconstruction has the consistent physical and numerical domains of dependence without employing additional information from cells which have no any direct physical connection with the targeted cell. The compact GKS shows a favorable performance for turbulence simulation in resolving the multi-scale structures.

Spectral decomposition of wall-attached/detached eddies in compressible and incompressible turbulent channel flows

A spectral decomposition method is proposed to segregate the contributions of wall-attached/wall-detached and self-similar/non-self-similar eddies by taking advantage of the proper orthogonal decomposition. It is applied to analyze the compressible and incompressible turbulent channel flows to verify the Reynolds number and compressibility effects on velocity fluctuations and investigate whether the temperature fluctuations share similar features. The statistical properties of eddies of each category have been discussed in detail.

Features of surface physical quantities and temporal-spatial evolution of wall-normal enstrophy flux in wall-bounded flows

This paper presents a concise derivation of the temporal-spatial evolution equation of the wall-normal enstrophy flux on a no-slip flat wall. Each contribution to the evolution is explicitly expressed using the two fundamental surface quantities: skin friction (or equivalently surface vorticity) and surface pressure which are coupled through the boundary enstrophy flux (BEF). The newly derived relation is then used to explore, in a preliminary manner, the physical features of surface quantities and their dynamical roles in wall-bounded laminar and turbulent flows. It is confirmed that the BEF usually changes its sign near the separation and attachment lines in the skin friction field. For the simulated incompressible turbulent channel flow at Reτ=180, violent variations of different terms in the derived formulation are observed in the regions below the strong wall-normal velocity events (SWNVEs) when compared to other common regions. Near the SWNVEs, the evolution of the wall-normal enstrophy flux is found to be dominated by the wall-normal diffusion of the vortex stretching term which is relatively weak or negligible for laminar flows. Combined with our previous research results, it is conjectured that the strong interaction between the quasi-streamwise vortex and the channel wall intensifies the temporal-spatial evolution of the wall-normal enstrophy flux on the wall, which accounts for the highly intermittent feature of the viscous sublayer.

Turbulent kinetic dissipation analysis for residual-based large eddy simulation of incompressible turbulent flow by variational multiscale method

The underlying physical mechanism of the residual-based large eddy simulation (LES) based on the variational multiscale (VMS) method is clarified. Resolved large-scale energy transportation equation is mathematically derived for turbulent kinetic energy budget analysis. Firstly, statistical results of benchmark turbulent channel flow at Reτ=180 obtained using a coarse mesh are compared with the results obtained by the classical LES with the Smagorinsky and dynamic subgrid stress (SGS) model. The present LES shows an advantage in predicting the statistical results of the incompressible turbulent flows. Secondly, the contributions of the unresolved small-scale presentation terms (Term I-IV in Eq. (10)) to the turbulent kinetic dissipation are analysed for the VMS method. The results show that the turbulent kinetic dissipation provided by the numerical diffusion in the VMS method is smaller in the inner layer, larger in the outer layer of the channel flow than those by the Smagorinsky and dynamic SGS model. The turbulent kinetic dissipation in the VMS method is mainly given by the numerical diffusion provided by one of the “cross-stress” terms (Term I, same as the stabilization term in the SUPG method) and LSIC term (Term IV). The other one of the “cross-stress” terms (Term II) gives rise to the positive turbulent kinetic energy budget, and does not dissipate the turbulent kinetic energy. The so-called “Reynolds stress” term (Term III) dissipates the turbulent energy but provides a very small numerical diffusion. Finally, on the basis of the turbulent kinetic energy dissipation analysis, a new residual-based stabilized finite element formulation is proposed by modifying the large-scale equation in the VMS method. Numerical experiments of 2D lid-driven cavity flow and 3D incompressible turbulent channel flow are tested to validate the proposed formulation. It is shown that all the stabilization terms in the proposed formulation produce additional numerical diffusions and physically increase the total turbulent kinetic dissipation. Consequently, an apparent improvement in both the first-order and second-order statistical quantities are pursued by the new stabilized finite element formulation.

Linear control of coherent structures in wall-bounded turbulence at [formula omitted

We consider linear feedback flow control of the largest scales in an incompressible turbulent channel flow at a friction Reynolds number of Reτ=2000. A linear model is formed by linearizing the Navier–Stokes equations about the turbulent mean and augmenting it with an eddy viscosity. Velocity perturbations are then generated by stochastically forcing the linear operator. The objective is to reduce the kinetic energy of these velocity perturbations at the largest scales using body forces. It is shown that a control set-up with a well-placed array of sensors and actuators performs comparably to either measuring the flow everywhere (while limiting actuators to a single wall height) or actuating the flow everywhere (while limiting sensors to a single wall height). In this way, we gain insight (at low computational cost) into how the very large scales of turbulence are most effectively estimated and controlled.

Comparison of turbulent drag reduction mechanisms of viscoelastic fluids based on the Fukagata-Iwamoto-Kasagi identity and the Renard-Deck identity

The friction coefficient decomposition was investigated in viscoelastic incompressible fluid turbulent channel flows based on two methods, i.e., the Fukagata-Iwamoto-Kasagi (FIK) identity [K. Fukagata, K. Iwamoto, and N. Kasagi, “Contribution of Reynolds stress distribution to the skin friction in wall-bounded flows,” Phys. Fluids 14(11), L73–L76 (2002)] and the Renard-Deck (RD) identity [N. Renard and S. Deck, “A theoretical decomposition of mean skin friction generation into physical phenomena across the boundary layer,” J. Fluid Mech. 790, 339–367 (2016)]. Direct numerical simulations of viscoelastic fluid turbulent and Newtonian fluid turbulent channel flows were carried out to provide a database for comparative investigations. By comparing the friction coefficient decomposition results based on the two identities, different understandings about the turbulent drag reduction (TDR) mechanism were comparatively analyzed. It was found that the reduction of the viscous contribution to the friction coefficient is also an important cause for TDR under the RD identity, and that the TDR effect in the near-wall region is more intense than that under the FIK identity. In addition, if the weight coefficient for the shear-stress contribution to the friction coefficient in the FIK identity is interpreted as the laminar shear strain rate, the TDR mechanisms obtained by the two identities can be unified; the difference in the understandings can be attributed to the difference in base flow selected to determine the weight coefficient.

IMEX‐ODTLES: A multi‐scale and stochastic approach for highly turbulent flows

AbstractThe stochastic One‐Dimensional Turbulence (ODT) model is used in combination with a Large Eddy Simulation (LES) approach in order to illustrate the potential of the fully coupled model (ODTLES) for highly turbulent flows. In this work, we use a new C++ implementation of the ODTLES code in order to analyze the computational performance in a classical incompressible turbulent channel flow problem. The parallelization potential of the model, as well as its physical and numerical consistency are evaluated and compared to Direct Numerical Simulations (DNSs). The numerical results show that the model is capable of reproducing a representative part of the DNS data at a cheaper computational cost. This advantage can be enhanced in the future by the implementation of a straightforward parallelization approach.

What can we learn from information‐entropy about turbulence and Large‐Eddy‐Simulation?

AbstractThe Shannon entropy is a rigorous measure of information that can be used to evaluate the properties of information in turbulent flows. In this study, the behavior of the Shannon entropy is investigated for LES of an incompressible turbulent channel flow based on the classical DNS of Moser et al.. The Shannon entropy is calculated from the velocity fluctuation fields and is compared to the turbulent kinetic energy. The quality and resolution of the LES calculations on different grids has been evaluated against DNS results. The Shannon entropy is calculated for velocities and the turbulent viscosity to observe how it behaves and how it is related to the simulation quality and grid resolution.

Reynolds number effect on drag control via spanwise wall oscillation in turbulent channel flows

The effect of Reynolds number (Reτ) on drag reduction using spanwise wall oscillation is studied through direct numerical simulation of incompressible turbulent channel flows with Reτ ranging from 200 to 2000. For the nondimensional oscillation period T+ = 100 with maximum velocity amplitude A+ = 12, the drag reduction (DR) decreases from 35.3% ± 0.5% at Reτ = 200 to 22.3% ± 0.7% at Reτ = 2000. The oscillation frequency ω+ for maximum DR slightly increases with Reτ, i.e., from ω+ ≈ 0.06 at Reτ = 200 to 0.08 at Reτ = 2000, with DRmax=23.2%±0.6%. These results show that DR progressively decreases with increasing Reτ. Turbulent statistics and coherent structures are examined to explain the degradation of drag control effectiveness at high Reτ. Fukagata, Iwamoto, and Kasagi analysis in combination with the spanwise wavenumber spectrum of Reynolds stresses reveals that the decreased drag reduction at higher Reτ is due to the weakened effectiveness in suppressing the near-wall large-scale turbulence, whose contribution continuously increases due to the enhanced modulation and penetration effect of the large-scale and very large-scale motions in the log and outer regions. Both the power-law model (DR∝Reτ−γ) and the log-law model [DR = f(Reτ, ΔB), where ΔB is the vertical shift of the log-law intercept under control] are examined here by comparing them with our simulation data, from these two models we predict more than 10% drag reduction at very high Reynolds numbers, say, Reτ = 105.

On the Comparison Between Lattice Boltzmann Methods and Spectral Methods for DNS of Incompressible Turbulent Channel Flows on Small Domain Size

On the Comparison Between Lattice Boltzmann Methods and Spectral Methods for DNS of Incompressible Turbulent Channel Flows on Small Domain Size

Eddy Viscosity and Reynolds Stress Models of Entropy Generation in Turbulent Channel Flows

This paper presents new models of entropy production for incompressible turbulent channel flows. A turbulence model is formulated and analyzed with direct numerical simulation (DNS) data. A Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) approach is used and applied to the turbulence closure of mean and fluctuating variables and entropy production. The expression of the mean entropy production in terms of other mean flow quantities is developed. This paper presents new models of entropy production by incorporating the eddy viscosity into the total shear stress. Also, the Reynolds shear stress is used as an alternative formulation. Solutions of the entropy transport equations are presented and discussed for both laminar and turbulent channel flows.

The role of vorticity in the turbulent/thermal transport of a channel flow with local blowing

Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of an incompressible turbulent channel flow with given local perturbations at the wall have been performed. Steady blowing is applied at the bottom wall by means of five spanwise jets. The perturbing vertical velocities are assigned spatial sinusoidal distributions (i.e., in the streamwise and spanwise directions) with an amplitude of Ao=0.025 based on a unitary velocity to explore its effects on the velocity and thermal fields. The Reynolds number of the unperturbed baseline case is Reτ=394 (based on the friction velocity and the half-height of the channel) and the molecular Prandtl number is Pr=0.71 with isothermal wall conditions. This study reports the similarity between turbulent and thermal transport and how the correlation between vorticity and thermal fluctuations is affected by steady blowing. It was found that the turbulent transport due to the v′ωz′¯ contribution was the most affected component by localized blowing, obtaining increases of up to four times in the downstream vicinity of the jets. The thermal and spanwise vorticity fluctuations (i.e., θ′ωz′¯) were found to be highly correlated and highly susceptible to changes by blowing. By examining the co-spectra of θ′ωz′¯, it was concluded that local blowing provoked an evident energy redistribution among two specific spanwise wavelengths in the buffer region, i.e. λz+≈ 100 and 200.

Multiscale analysis of the topological invariants in the logarithmic region of turbulent channels at a friction Reynolds number of 932

The invariants of the velocity gradient tensor,$R$and$Q$, and their enstrophy and strain components are studied in the logarithmic layer of an incompressible turbulent channel flow. The velocities are filtered in the three spatial directions and the results are analysed at different scales. We show that the$R$–$Q$plane does not capture the changes undergone by the flow as the filter width increases, and that the enstrophy/enstrophy-production and strain/strain-production planes represent better choices. We also show that the conditional mean trajectories may differ significantly from the instantaneous behaviour of the flow since they are the result of an averaging process where the mean is 3–5 times smaller than the corresponding standard deviation. The orbital periods in the$R$–$Q$plane are shown to be independent of the intensity of the events, and of the same order of magnitude as those in the enstrophy/enstrophy-production and strain/strain-production planes. Our final goal is to test whether the dynamics of the flow is self-similar in the inertial range, and the answer turns out to be that it is not. The mean shear is found to be responsible for the absence of self-similarity and progressively controls the dynamics of the eddies observed as the filter width increases. However, a self-similar behaviour emerges when the calculations are repeated for the fluctuating velocity gradient tensor. Finally, the turbulent cascade in terms of vortex stretching is considered by computing the alignment of the vorticity at a given scale with the strain at a different one. These results generally support a non-negligible role of the phenomenological energy-cascade model formulated in terms of vortex stretching.

Explicit filtering and exact reconstruction of the sub-filter stresses in large eddy simulation

Explicit filtering has the effect of reducing numerical or aliasing errors near the grid scale in large eddy simulation (LES). We use a differential filter, namely the inverse Helmholtz operator, which is readily applied to unstructured meshes. The filter is invertible, which allows the sub-filter scale (SFS) stresses to be exactly reconstructed in terms of the filtered solution. Unlike eddy viscosity models, the method of filtering and reconstruction avoids making any physical assumptions and is therefore valid in any flow regime. The sub-grid scale (SGS) stresses are not recoverable by reconstruction, but the second-order finite element method used here is an adequate source of numerical dissipation in lieu of an SGS model. Results for incompressible turbulent channel flow at Re τ = 180 are presented which show that explicit filtering and exact SFS reconstruction is a significant improvement over the standard LES approach of implicit filtering and eddy-viscosity SGS modelling.