Real Turbulence Research Articles

Oil Droplet Surfacing Probabilities Under Realistic Low Turbulence in Arctic Ice

ABSTRACT 2017-081 Responders need to choose among oil spill response options to combat spills in ice covered waters as effectively as possible. A decision to apply dispersants in remote ice covered waters requires an estimation of whether or not the oil will initially disperse and then remain dispersed. A concern is that an effectively dispersed plume of oil will not remain dispersed under ice because the mixing energy required is insufficient. We are advancing the predictive capability to determine whether small oil droplets will rise in the calmer, more stable conditions that can occur in ice covered waters. The results will be presented as lookup tables that can be used to assess whether or not oil has been successfully dispersed in ice covered waters. Ice covered waters can have very low vertical turbulence (mixing) energy, so smaller droplets may rise to the surface in ice covered waters than in open water at lower latitudes. Laboratory studies with oil droplets and field experiments to measure the turbulence directly under ice are being used to provide input and validation data to numerically simulate an oil spill in ice. We assumed that oil slicks were effectively dispersed to form plumes in the water column. Dispersion was assumed to be from natural mixing energy or forced by applying the propeller wash from vessels. The numerical simulations will be performed to determine if these dispersed plumes could significantly resurface. The International Oil and Gas Producers (IOGP) funded the Joint Industry Project (JIP) “Fate of Dispersed Oil Under Ice”. Sintef led two field campaigns (2015 and 2016) with fast ice (ice attached to land) in Van Miljenfjorden in Svalbard. These data for realistic water currents and mixing energy (turbulence) were used in model development. In the second field experiment, dye was released and followed under the ice in order to measure dilution of the dye, as a check on our model. Neap tide periods were targeted in order to look at low mixing energy conditions. At the Plymouth University mesoscale laboratory, studies in a 30 m flume allowed oil droplets of known size to be released in water flowing under synthetic ice under controlled water velocity and under ice roughness conditions. In addition, an analytical model is being developed to estimate the magnitude and dissipation rate of prop wash turbulence. This was necessary to give the time zero basis for estimating how quickly droplets produced by prop wash would rise to the surface. Size classes of oil droplets that do not rise in low vertical turbulence will certainly not rise in higher turbulence. This will allow future research to target larger oil droplet size classes in the Marginal Ice Zone (MIZ). This project was led by SINTEF (Norway) with participation by McPhee Research (USA), University of Plymouth (UK), and Ben Gurion University (Israel).

Hydrodynamic loadings on a horizontal axis tidal turbine prototype

Until recently tidal stream turbine design has been carried out mainly by experimental prototype testing aiming at maximum turbine efficiency. The harsh and highly turbulent environments in which tidal stream turbines operate in poses a design challenge mainly with regards to survivability of the turbine owing to the fact that tidal turbines are exposed to significant intermittent hydrodynamic loads. Credible numerical models can be used as a complement to experiments during the design process of tidal stream turbines. They can provide insights into the hydrodynamics, predict tidal turbine performance and clarify their fluid–structure interaction as well as quantify the hydrodynamic loadings on the rotor. The latter can lead to design enhancements aiming at increased robustness and survivability of the turbine. Physical experiments and complementary large-eddy simulations of flow around a horizontal axis tidal turbine rotor are presented. The goal is to provide details of the hydrodynamics around the rotor, the performance of the turbine and acting hydrodynamic forces on the rotor blades. The simulation results are first compared with the experimental and good agreement between measured and simulated coefficients of power are obtained. Acting bending and torsional moment coefficients on the blade-hub junction are computed for idealised flow conditions. Finally, realistic environmental turbulence is added to the inflow and its impact on the turbine’s performance, hydrodynamics and rotor loadings is quantified.

Gerchberg–Saxton algorithm based phase correction in optical wireless communication

Optical wireless communication (OWC) enables to establish the backhaul in the fifth generation (5G) wireless communication networks. The air turbulence, however, could distort the phases of optical signals, thus limit transmission capacity. In this paper, we study the correction of phase distortions by using the Gerchberg–Saxton (GS) algorithm. The air turbulence-induced phase is generated by the Monte-Carlo phase screen method, which characterizes the realistic air turbulence effect on the optical signals. The numerical results reveal that the GS algorithm is able to retrieve the phase information with fast convergence by adopting a proper initial condition. Also, the GS algorithm based phase correction in OWC is confirmed.

Simulation of anisoplanatic imaging through optical turbulence using numerical wave propagation with new validation analysis

We present a numerical wave propagation method for simulating imaging of an extended scene under anisoplanatic conditions. While isoplanatic simulation is relatively common, few tools are specifically designed for simulating the imaging of extended scenes under anisoplanatic conditions. We provide a complete description of the proposed simulation tool, including the wave propagation method used. Our approach computes an array of point spread functions (PSFs) for a two-dimensional grid on the object plane. The PSFs are then used in a spatially varying weighted sum operation, with an ideal image, to produce a simulated image with realistic optical turbulence degradation. The degradation includes spatially varying warping and blurring. To produce the PSF array, we generate a series of extended phase screens. Simulated point sources are numerically propagated from an array of positions on the object plane, through the phase screens, and ultimately to the focal plane of the simulated camera. Note that the optical path for each PSF will be different, and thus, pass through a different portion of the extended phase screens. These different paths give rise to a spatially varying PSF to produce anisoplanatic effects. We use a method for defining the individual phase screen statistics that we have not seen used in previous anisoplanatic simulations. We also present a validation analysis. In particular, we compare simulated outputs with the theoretical anisoplanatic tilt correlation and a derived differential tilt variance statistic. This is in addition to comparing the long- and short-exposure PSFs and isoplanatic angle. We believe this analysis represents the most thorough validation of an anisoplanatic simulation to date. The current work is also unique that we simulate and validate both constant and varying Cn2(z) profiles. Furthermore, we simulate sequences with both temporally independent and temporally correlated turbulence effects. Temporal correlation is introduced by generating even larger extended phase screens and translating this block of screens in front of the propagation area. Our validation analysis shows an excellent match between the simulation statistics and the theoretical predictions. Thus, we think this tool can be used effectively to study optical anisoplanatic turbulence and to aid in the development of image restoration methods.

Orientation and rotation dynamics of triaxial ellipsoidal tracers in wall turbulence

The rotational dynamics of triaxial ellipsoidal particles in turbulent channel flow have been explored. The non-inertial particles were tracked in a Lagrangian approach in an Eulerian flow field that resulted from a direct numerical simulation. Although the tracer particles translated along with the local fluid, they did not adhere to the local fluid rotation. The triaxial ellipsoids were characterized by two independent shape parameters that both were varied from 0.1 to 10. In spite of the anisotropic velocity field in the channel center, the tumbling of the particles closely resembled earlier results in homogeneous isotropic turbulence. The orientation of the particles varied substantially from the center to the near-wall region where triaxial particles tended to align their major axis in the mean flow direction and their minor axis in the wall-normal direction. These preferential alignments caused the ellipsoid to tumble as a rod about the major axis and like a disk about the minor axis. These observations show the dual nature of triaxial ellipsoids embedded in real turbulence.

Investigation of isothermal convective heat transfer in an optical combustor with a low-emissions swirl fuel nozzle

Modern combustor design optimization is contingent on the accurate characterization of the combustor flame side heat loads. The present work focuses on the experimental measurement of the isothermal (non-reacting) convective heat transfer along a fused silica optical can combustor liner for Reynolds numbers ranging between 11,500 and 138,000. The model combustor was equipped with the SoLoNOx swirl fuel nozzle from Solar Turbines Incorporated, subjecting the liner walls to realistic isothermal flow and turbulence fields. Infrared (IR) imaging through fused silica was demonstrated, and a novel estimation of the three-dimensional conduction heat losses for steady state constant heat flux experiments was developed. A maximum heat transfer augmentation of ∼18 was observed with respect to fully developed turbulent pipe flow correlations. Contrary to other investigations, the augmentation magnitude and distribution are shown to be approximately constant with Reynolds number (particularly away from the impingement location). Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) was included to support the heat transfer measurements, suggesting that peak heat transfer occurred 0.12 nozzle diameters upstream of the jet reattachment point along the liner. Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) computations are shown to yield peak heat transfer predictions within 17.4% of the experimental results when using the realizable k-ε turbulence model and enhanced wall treatment. The measurements were further analyzed in the context of results from other heat transfer studies on gas turbine combustors.

An LES Turbulent Inflow Generator using A Recycling and Rescaling Method

The present paper describes a recycling and rescaling method for generating turbulent inflow conditions for Large Eddy Simulation. The method is first validated by simulating a turbulent boundary layer and a turbulent mixing layer. It is demonstrated that, with input specification of mean velocities and turbulence rms levels (normal stresses) only, it can produce realistic and self-consistent turbulence structures. Comparison of shear stress and integral length scale indicates the success of the method in generating turbulent 1-point and 2-point correlations not specified in the input data. With the turbulent inlet conditions generated by this method, the growth rate of the turbulent boundary/mixing layer is properly predicted. Furthermore, the method can be used for the more complex inlet boundary flow types commonly found in industrial applications, which is demonstrated by generating non-equilibrium turbulent inflow and spanwise inhomogeneous inflow. As a final illustration of the benefits brought by this approach, a droplet-laden mixing layer is simulated. The dispersion of droplets in the near-field immediately downstream of the splitter plate trailing edge where the turbulent mixing layer begins is accurately reproduced due to the realistic turbulent structures captured by the recycling/rescaling method.

Effect of de-correlating turbulence on the low frequency decay of jet-surface interaction noise in sub-sonic unheated air jets using a CFD-based approach

In this paper we extend the Rapid-distortion theory (RDT)-based model derived by Goldstein, Afsar & Leib (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 736, pp. 532-569, 2013) for the sound generated by the interaction of a large-aspect-ratio rectangular jet with the trailing edge of a flat plate to include a more realistic upstream turbulence spectrum that possess a de-correlation (i.e. negative dip) in its space-time structure and use results from three-dimensional Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) solutions to determine the mean flow, turbulent kinetic energy and turbulence length & time scales. Since the interaction noise dominates the low-frequency portion of the spectrum, we use an appropriate asymptotic approximation for the Rayleigh equation Green’s function, which enters the analysis, based on a two-dimensional mean flow representation for the jet. We use the model to predict jet-surface interaction noise for a range of subsonic acoustic Mach number jets, nozzle aspect ratios, streamwise and transverse trailing-edge locations and compare them with experimental data. The RANS meanflow computations are also compared with flow data for selected cases to assess their validity. We find that finite de-correlation in the turbulence spectrum increases the low-frequency algebraic decay (the low-frequency “roll-off”) of the acoustic spectrum with angular frequency to give a model that has a pure dipole frequency scaling. This gives better agreement with noise data compared to Goldstein et al. (2013) for Strouhal numbers less than the peak jet-surface interaction noise. For example, through sensitivity analysis we find that there is a difference of 10 dB at the lowest frequency for which data exists (relative to a model without de-correlation effects included) for the highest acoustic Mach number case. Secondly, our results for the planar flow theory provide a first estimate of the low-frequency amplification due to the jet-surface interaction for moderate aspect ratio nozzles when RANS meanflow quantities are used appropriately. This work will hopefully add to noise prediction efforts for aircraft configurations in which the exhaust systems are tightly integrated with the airframe.

An anisotropic synthetic turbulence method for Large-Eddy Simulation

The method for generating anisotropic synthetic turbulence by Auerswald and Bange (2015) is extended to account for the integral length scales in y- and z-direction. This extension leads to more realistic turbulent structures. The method reproduces the given turbulence statistics very well and allows to set a number of turbulence parameters independently. In four Large-Eddy Simulations of a channel flow the synthetic turbulence is used as inflow boundary condition. The performance of the synthetic turbulence is tested and compared to the Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) results by Moser et al. (1999). In these simulations the synthetic turbulence shows good performance in recovering realistic turbulence downstream in the channel. The skin-friction coefficient converges to the level of the DNS. The profiles of the Reynolds stresses are very similar in the LES and the DNS except for the profiles of Rww+ where large deviations occur.

Investigation of inhomogeneity and anisotropy in near ground layers of atmospheric air turbulence using image motion monitoring method

In this work the anisotropy and inhomogeneity of real atmospheric turbulence have been investigated using image motion monitoring and differential image motion monitoring methods. For this purpose the light beam of a point source is propagated through the atmospheric turbulence layers in horizontal path and then impinged to a telescope aperture. The telescope and point source were 350m apart. In front of the telescope's aperture a mask consisting of four subapertures was installed. Image of the point source was formed on a sensitive CCD camera located at the focal plane of the telescope. By displacing CCD camera along the axis of telescope, four distinct images were recorded. Angle of arrival (AA) of each spot was calculated by image processing. Air turbulence causes AA to fluctuate. By comparing AA fluctuation variances of different spots in two directions isotropy and homogeneity of turbulence were studied. Results have shown that atmospheric turbulence in near ground layers is treated as an anisotropic and inhomogeneous medium. In addition, the inhomogeneity and anisotropy of turbulence decreases with the distance from earth surface.

A Study on the Active Induction Control of Upstream Wind Turbines for total power increases

In this study, the effect of active induction control of upstream wind turbines is investigated. Two scaled wind turbines having a rotor diameter of 1 m with a spacing of four times of the rotor diameter were used to experimentally validate the concept. Also, an in-house c code was used to simulate the same two wind turbines and see if the experimental observations can be obtained. From the experiment, approximately 0.81% increase of total power could be observed. Although the simulation results were not exactly the same as the experimental results but the shape was similar and the maximum power increase of 0.27% was predicted. Also from further simulation using NREL 5MW wind turbines instead of scaled wind turbines with realistic ambient turbulence intensity, it was found that the power increase could become more than 1%.

Turbulent jet interaction with a long rise-time pressure signature

A sonic boom signature with a long rise time has the ability to reduce the sonic boom, but it does not necessarily minimize the sonic boom at the ground level because of the real atmospheric turbulence. In this study, an effect of the turbulence on a long rise-time pressure signature was experimentally investigated in a ballistic range facility. To compare the effects of the turbulence on the long and short rise-time pressure signatures, a cone-cylinder projectile that simultaneously produces these pressure signatures was designed. The pressure waves interacted with a turbulent field generated by a circular nozzle. The turbulence effects were evaluated using flow diagnostic techniques: high-speed schlieren photography, a point-diffraction interferometer, and a pressure measurement. In spite of the fact that the long and short rise-time pressure signatures simultaneously travel through the turbulent field, the turbulence effects do not give the same contribution to these overpressures. Regarding the long rise-time pressure signature, the overpressure fluctuation due to the turbulence interaction is almost uniform, and a standard deviation 1.5 times greater than that of the no-turbulence case is observed. By contrast, a short rise-time pressure signature which passed through the same turbulent field is strongly affected by the turbulence. A standard deviation increases by a factor of 14 because of the turbulence interaction. Additionally, there is a non-correlation between the overpressure fluctuations of the long and short rise-time pressure signatures. These results deduce that the length of the rise time is important to the turbulence effects such as the shock focusing/diffracting.

A simple extension of digital filter-based turbulent inflow to non-uniform structured grids

The digital filter-based turbulence generator is one of the widely used synthetic turbulence inflow boundary conditions for large-scale-resolving flow simulations. However, the requirement of using uniformly-spaced Cartesian meshes and the limitation of enforcing a constant integral length scale along a given direction restrict the applicability of the method severely. The current paper describes an easy-to-implement and computationally inexpensive approach to extend the digital filter-based inflow to non-uniform structured meshes, using a mapping between the physical curvilinear mesh and a computational uniformly-spaced Cartesian mesh. The method also allows a limited control on the variation of integral length scales over the inflow plane. A zero-pressure-gradient, flat plate turbulent boundary layer is simulated using the proposed method and the distance required by the generated fluctuations to adapt into realistic turbulence is estimated to be about 10 boundary layer thicknesses. The method was developed for and has been used in simulations of turbulent boundary layers along nozzle walls for jet noise applications.

Impact of turbulent phase noise on frequency transfer with asymmetric two-way ground-satellite coherent optical links

Bidirectional ground-satellite laser links suffer from turbulence-induced scintillation and phase distortion. We study how turbulence impacts on coherent detection capacity and on the associated phase noise that restricts clock transfer precision. We evaluate the capacity to obtain a two-way cancellation of atmospheric effects despite the asymmetry between up and down link that limits the link reciprocity. For ground-satellite links, the asymmetry is induced by point-ahead angle and possibly the use, for the ground terminal, of different transceiver diameters, in reception and emission. The quantitative analysis is obtained thanks to refined end- to-end simulations under realistic turbulence and wind conditions as well as satellite cinematic. These temporally resolved simulations allow characterizing the coherent detection in terms of time series of heterodyne efficiency for different system parameters. We show that Tip/Tilt correction on ground is mandatory at reception for the down link and as a pre-compensation of the up link. Good correlation between up and down phase noise is obtained even with asymmetric apertures of the ground transceiver and in spite of pointing ahead angle. The reduction to less than 1 rad2 of the two-way differential phase noise is very promising for clock comparisons.

Turbulence generation through intense kinetic energy sources

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) are used to systematically study the development and establishment of turbulence when the flow is initialized with concentrated regions of intense kinetic energy. This resembles both active and passive grids which have been extensively used to generate and study turbulence in laboratories at different Reynolds numbers and with different characteristics, such as the degree of isotropy and homogeneity. A large DNS database was generated covering a wide range of initial conditions with a focus on perturbations with some directional preference, a condition found in active jet grids and passive grids passed through a contraction as well as a new type of active grid inspired by the experimental use of lasers to photo-excite the molecules that comprise the fluid. The DNS database is used to assert under what conditions the flow becomes turbulent and if so, the time required for this to occur. We identify a natural time scale of the problem which indicates the onset of turbulence and a single Reynolds number based exclusively on initial conditions which controls the evolution of the flow. It is found that a minimum Reynolds number is needed for the flow to evolve towards fully developed turbulence. An extensive analysis of single and two point statistics, velocity as well as spectral dynamics and anisotropy measures is presented to characterize the evolution of the flow towards realistic turbulence.

SAXO: the extreme adaptive optics system of SPHERE (I) system overview and global laboratory performance

The direct imaging of exoplanet is a leading field of today’s astronomy. The photons coming from the planet carry precious information on the chemical composition of its atmosphere. The second-generation instrument, Spectro-Polarimetric High contrast Exoplanet Research (SPHERE), dedicated to detection, photometry and spectral characterization of Jovian-like planets, is now in operation on the European very large telescope. This instrument relies on an extreme adaptive optics (XAO) system to compensate for atmospheric turbulence as well as for internal errors with an unprecedented accuracy. We demonstrate the high level of performance reached by the SPHERE XAO system (SAXO) during the assembly integration and test (AIT) period. In order to fully characterize the instrument quality, two AIT periods have been mandatory. In the first phase at Observatoire de Paris, the performance of SAXO itself was assessed. In the second phase at IPAG Grenoble Observatory, the operation of SAXO in interaction with the overall instrument has been optimized. In addition to the first two phases, a final check has been performed after the reintegration of the instrument at Paranal Observatory, in the New Integration Hall before integration at the telescope focus. The final performance aimed by the SPHERE instrument with the help of SAXO is among the highest Strehl ratio pretended for an operational instrument (90% in H band, 43% in V band in a realistic turbulence r0, and wind speed condition), a limit R magnitude for loop closure at 15, and a robustness to high wind speeds. The full-width at half-maximum reached by the instrument is 40 mas for infrared in H band and unprecedented 18.5 mas in V band.

An easy-to-use turbulent inlet boundary condition for large-eddy simulation of radial diffusers

When applying time-accurate computational fluid dynamics, large-eddy simulation (CFD LES) to room ventilation, a common problem is that the supply jets do not model properly if there is no realistic turbulence in the inflow boundary. In this paper we introduce a novel, easy-to-use method of generating a turbulent inlet boundary condition for simulating a radial diffuser. The basic idea is to apply a time-independent velocity distribution with realistic spatial statistics, and to add temporal fluctuations by rotation. The method is simple to use, requires only one extra parameter, and does not necessitate large storage files. It needs a momentary velocity distribution on the inflow surface with the desired volume flow rate obtained from a time-accurate internal simulation of the diffuser alone. In a room-scale simulation, this velocity distribution is put in rotating movement in order to mimic a turbulent inlet boundary. The method is verified by comparing the outcome with published measurements and with a simulation containing the interior of the diffuser.

Impact of turbulence on high-precision ground-satellite frequency transfer with two-way coherent optical links

Bidirectional ground-satellite laser links suffer from turbulence-induced scintillation and phase distortion. We study the impact of turbulence on coherent detection and the related phase noise that restricts time and frequency transfer precision. We evaluate the capacity to obtain a two-way cancellation of atmospheric effects despite the asymmetry between up- and downlink that limits the link reciprocity. For ground-satellite links, the asymmetry is induced by point-ahead angle and possibly the use, for the ground terminal, of different transceiver diameters, in reception and emission. The quantitative analysis is obtained thanks to refined end-to-end simulations under realistic turbulence and wind conditions as well as satellite kinematics. These temporally resolved simulations allow characterizing the coherent detection in terms of time series of heterodyne efficiency and phase noise for different system parameters. We show that tip-tilt correction on ground is mandatory at reception for the downlink and as a pre-compensation of the uplink. Besides, thanks to the large tilt angular correlation, the correction is shown to be efficient on uplink despite the point-ahead angle. Very good two-way compensation of turbulent effects is obtained even with the asymmetries. The two-way differential phase noise is reduced to $1{\mathrm{rad}}^{2}$, with the best fractional frequency stability below $2\ifmmode\times\else\texttimes\fi{}{10}^{\ensuremath{-}17}$ after 1-s averaging time.

Analytical reconstruction of isotropic turbulence spectra based on the Gaussian transform

The field of application of the Random Particle Mesh (RPM) method used to simulate turbulence-induced broadband noise in several aeroacoustic applications is improved to realise isotropic turbulence spectra. With this method turbulent fluctuations are synthesised by filtering white noise with a Gaussian filter kernel that in turn gives a Gaussian spectrum. The Gaussian filter is efficient and finds wide-spread applications in stochastic signal processing. However Gaussian spectra do not correspond to real turbulence spectra. Thus in turbo-machines the von Kármán, Liepmann, and modified von Kármán spectra are more realistic model spectra. In this note we analytically derive weighting functions to realise arbitrary isotropic solenoidal spectra using a superposition of weighted Gaussian spectra of different length scales. The analytic weighting functions for the von Kármán, the Liepmann, and the modified von Kármán spectra are derived subsequently. Finally a method is proposed to discretise the problem using a limited number of Gaussian spectra. The effectivity of this approach is demonstrated by realising a von Kármán velocity spectrum using the RPM method.

Measurement and limitations of optical orbital angular momentum through corrected atmospheric turbulence.

In recent years, there have been a series of proposals to exploit the orbital angular momentum (OAM) of light for astronomical applications. The OAM of light potentially represents a new way in which to probe the universe. The study of this property of light entails the development of new instrumentation and problems which must be addressed. One of the key issues is whether we can overcome the loss of the information carried by OAM due to atmospheric turbulence. We experimentally analyze the effect of atmospheric turbulence on the OAM content of a signal over a range of realistic turbulence strengths typical for astronomical observations. With an adaptive optics system we are able to recover up to 89% power in an initial non-zero OAM mode (ℓ = 1) at low turbulence strengths (0.30" FWHM seeing). However, for poorer seeing conditions (1.1" FWHM seeing), the amount of power recovered is significantly lower (5%), showing that for the terrestrial detection of astronomical OAM, a careful design of the adaptive optics system is needed.