Resolved Kinetic Energy Research Articles

A POSTERIORI TESTS OF ONE-EQUATION LES MODELING OF ROTATING TURBULENCE

Eight subgrid-scale (SGS) models were evaluated using two flow configurations: homogeneous decaying turbulence, and rotating turbulence forced at large or intermediate scales. Testing was performed for the first configuration through a systematic comparison between direct numerical simulation results and large eddy simulation results of many characteristics, including resolved kinetic energy, SGS energy production, molecular dissipation, and kinetic energy spectrum. The new models, which are based on dynamic structure model and satisfy the consistency of material frame indifference with the SGS stress, showed more accurate results than traditional models. In the forced testing, the new models were better able to capture essential features of rotating turbulence, including cyclonic/anti-cyclonic asymmetry, quasi-2D at large scales, and reverse kinetic energy transfer from small to large scales.

Subfilter-Scale Fluxes over a Surface Roughness Transition. Part II: A priori Study of Large-Eddy Simulation Models

The ability of subfilter-scale (SFS) models to reproduce the statistical properties of SFS stresses and energy transfers over heterogeneous surface roughness is key to improving the accuracy of large-eddy simulations of the atmospheric boundary layer. In this study, several SFS models are evaluated a priori using experimental data acquired downwind of a rough-to-smooth transition in a wind tunnel. The SFS models studied include the eddy-viscosity, similarity, non-linear and a mixed model consisting of a combination of the eddy-viscosity and non-linear models. The dynamic eddy-viscosity model is also evaluated. The experimental data consist of vertical and horizontal planes of high-spatial-resolution velocity fields measured using particle image velocimetry. These velocity fields are spatially filtered and used to calculate SFS stresses and SFS transfer rates of resolved kinetic energy. Coefficients for each SFS model are calculated by matching the measured and modelled SFS energy transfer rates. For the eddy-viscosity model, the Smagorinsky coefficient is also evaluated using a dynamic procedure. The model coefficients are found to be scale dependent when the filter scales are larger than the vertical measurement height and fall into the production subrange of the turbulence where the flow scales are anisotropic. Near the surface, the Smagorinsky coefficient is also found to decrease with distance downwind from the transition, in response to the increase in mean shear as the flow adjusts to the smooth surface. In a priori tests, the ability of each model to reproduce statistical properties of the SFS stress is assessed. While the eddy-viscosity model has low spatial correlation with the measured stress, it predicts mean stresses with the same accuracy as the other models. However, the deficiency of the eddy-viscosity model is apparent in the underestimation of the standard deviation of the SFS stresses and the inability to predict transfers of kinetic energy from the subfilter scales to the resolved scales. Overall, the mixed model is found to have the best performance.

Subfilter-scale Fluxes over a Surface Roughness Transition. Part I: Measured Fluxes and Energy Transfer Rates

A wind-tunnel experiment was designed and carried out to study the effect of a surface roughness transition on subfilter-scale (SFS) physics in a turbulent boundary layer. Specifically, subfilter-scale stresses are evaluated that require parameterizations and are key to improving the accuracy of large-eddy simulations of the atmospheric boundary layer. The surface transition considered in this study consists of a sharp change from a rough, wire-mesh covered surface to a smooth surface. The resulting magnitude jump in aerodynamic roughnesses, M = ln(z01/z02), where z01 and z02 are the upwind and downwind aerodynamic surface roughnesses respectively, is similar to that of past experimental studies in the atmospheric boundary layer. The two-dimensional velocity fields used in this study are measured using particle image velocimetry and are acquired at several positions downwind of the roughness transition as well as over a homogeneous smooth surface. Results show that the SFS stress, resolved strain rate and SFS transfer rate of resolved kinetic energy are dependent on the position within the boundary layer relative to the surface roughness transition. A mismatch is found in the downwind trend of the SFS stress and resolved strain rate with distance from the transition. This difference of behaviour may not be captured by some eddy-viscosity type models that parameterize the SFS stress tensor as proportional to the resolved strain rate tensor. These results can be used as a benchmark to test the ability of existing and new SFS models to capture the spatial variability SFS physics associated with surface roughness heterogeneities.

Successive inverse polynomial interpolation to optimize Smagorinsky’s model for large-eddy simulation of homogeneous turbulence

We propose the successive inverse polynomial interpolation method to optimize model parameters in subgrid parameterization for large-eddy simulation. This approach is illustrated for the Smagorinsky eddy-viscosity model used in homogeneous decaying turbulence. The optimal Smagorinsky parameter is resolution dependent and provides minimal total error in the resolved kinetic energy. It is approximated by starting with a “bracketing interval” that is obtained from separate “no-model” and “dynamic eddy-viscosity” large-eddy simulations. The total error level is reduced 3–6 times compared to the maximal initial errors. The computational overhead of the full optimization at resolution N3 is comparable to a single simulation at (3N∕2)3 grid cells. The increased accuracy is higher than obtained with dynamic modeling at a resolution of (4N)3.

Large-eddy simulation of sheared interfacial flow

Large-eddy simulations (LES) of a turbulent interfacial gas-liquid flows are described in this paper. The variational multiscale approach (VMS) introduced by Hughes for single-phase flows is systematically assessed against direct numerical simulation (DNS) data obtained at a shear Reynolds number Re⋆=171, and compared to LES results obtained with the Smagorinsky model, modified by a near-interface turbulence decay treatment. The models are incorporated in the same pseudospectral DNS solver built within the boundary fitting method used by Fulgosi et al. for air-water flow. The LES are performed for physical conditions allowing low interface deformations that fall in the range of capillary waves of wave slope ak=0.01. The LES results show that both the modified Smagorinsky model and the VMS are capable to predict the boundary layer structure in the gas side, including the decay process, and to cope with the anisotropy of turbulence in the liquid blockage layer underneath the interface. Higher-order turbulence statistics, including the transfer of energy between the normal stresses is also well predicted by both approaches, but qualitatively the VMS results remain overall better than the modified Smagorinsky model. The study has demonstrated that the key to the prediction of the energy transfer mechanism is in the proper prediction of the fluctuating pressure field, which has been found out of reach of any of the LES methodologies. The superiority of the VMS is demonstrated through the analysis of the subgrid transport and exchange terms in the resolved kinetic energy, where it is indeed shown to be self-adaptive with regard to the eddy viscosity. Although VMS is shown to be sensitive to filter scale partition and model constant, the optimal setting can be easily translated in the interface tracking/finite-volume context, which makes it very useful for practical purposes. An important point is that the VMS approach yields very satisfactory results without the need for prescribing an ad-hoc damping function and the required distance to the interface.

Disentangling the volume effect through intensity-difference spectra:? application to laser-induced dissociation of H2+

An intensity-difference spectrum method is developed to disentangle the intensity volume effect inherent in focused laser beam interaction with gas-phase matter. This method is applicable to a Gaussian beam of constant axial intensity, which keeps the exact contribution from a predetermined intensity range and eliminates the contributions from lower intensities. We apply this method to the angularly resolved kinetic energy release spectrum of laser-induced dissociation of H2+. The difference spectrum at higher intensities is found to be dominated by the bond-softening process, and the distribution shifts to lower energy and becomes narrower with increasing intensity.

The effect of subgrid-scale models on the vortices computed from large-eddy simulations

Direct numerical and large-eddy simulations (DNS/LES) of temporal plane jets are carried out in order to analyze the effect of the subgrid-scale (SGS) models on the vortices obtained from LES. The dynamics of the filtered vorticity norm (or filtered enstrophy) is analyzed through the application of a box filter to temporal DNS of turbulent plane jets (Reλ≈100), using a methodology similar to da Silva and Métais [J. Fluid Mech. 473, 103 (2002)]. Special emphasis is placed on the enstrophy SGS dissipation term, which represents the effect of the SGS models on the vortices computed from LES. When the filter is placed in the inertial range region the evolution of the vorticity norm is governed by the enstrophy production and enstrophy SGS dissipation, which represents, in the mean, a sink of resolved enstrophy. Thus the coherent vortices obtained from LES are subjected to an additional (nonviscous) dissipation mechanism. Locally, however, the enstrophy SGS dissipation can be either a sink or a source of resolved vorticity (forward/backward enstrophy cascade), but the forward cascade dominates, in analogy with what happens with the resolved kinetic energy equation. A priori tests are conducted using several SGS models in order to analyze their ability to represent the enstrophy SGS dissipation. The models analyzed are the Smagorinsky, structure function, filtered structure function, dynamic Smagorinsky, gradient, scale similarity, and mixed. It turns out that in terms of spatial localization all the models lead to a good correlation between the “real” and “modeled” enstrophy SGS dissipation. Moreover, all the SGS models, even of eddy-viscosity type, are able to provide enstrophy SGS backscatter. However, in terms of statistical behavior the eddy-viscosity models do not provide enough enstrophy backscatter as the non-eddy-viscosity models. LES are carried out and show that the Smagorinsky, structure function, and mixed models cause excessive vorticity dissipation compared to the other models, and although the enstrophy SGS dissipation affects mainly the smallest resolved scales, it may affect also some low-wave numbers. An estimation of the “vorticity error” and its wave number dependence is given, for each SGS model. Both a priori tests and LES show that the dynamic Smagorinsky and filtered structure function models seem to be the best suited to a correct prediction of the resolved vorticity field.

Energetic Ion-Stimulated Desorption of Physisorbed Molecules

We have conducted an experimental investigation into molecular desorption stimulated by 8 keV Ar+ ions. The investigated systems are comprised of aromatic molecules (benzene and phenol) adsorbed to an Ag(111) surface. Resonance-enhanced laser ionization coupled with time-of-flight mass spectrometry provide the ability to obtain quantum state resolved kinetic energy distributions of the desorbed molecules. Our results indicate that the desorption mechanisms for the molecules are dictated by the molecular coverage and determine if the molecules are desorbed in an internally excited state. We use specific mechanisms observed in molecular dynamics simulations reported in the literature to describe our experimental observations. In the low coverage regime, ballistic collisions between dislocated silver substrate atoms and the adsorbed molecules lead to the emission of energetic molecules. A collision between a single substrate atom and an adsorbed molecule leads to the emission of translationally and internall...

Novel system for picosecond photoemission spectroscopy

This article describes a laser-based source and detection scheme for performing time-resolved photoemission studies of materials. The pulsed laser source produces intense picosecond pulses of coherent radiation that are nearly continuously tunable from the near infrared to photon energies up to 13 eV. To achieve high sensitivity, a novel multianode time-of-flight spectrometer has been built that generates an angularly resolved intensity versus kinetic energy spectrum with better than 100-meV resolution. The source and detector provide an opportunity to study the electronic dynamics of excited systems on a picosecond time scale.

Theoretical electronic state and angular resolved kinetic energy distributions of sputtered diatomic molecules

Electronic state selected translational kinetic energy and polar angular distributions of several homonuclear and heteronuclear diatomic molecules, corresponding to direct ejection and recombination mechanisms of sputtering, are presented. The initial atom separation on, and axis orientation to, the surface are only weakly reflected in the distributions, in contrast to the atomic cascade properties and ejection mechanism. Many observed features of kinetic energy distributions can be reproduced by the simulation, including additional peaks previously interpreted as due to thermal or other processes. Measurements of polar angular distributions are shown to contain important information on atom-pair momentum correlations in collision cascades.