Turbulent Vorticity Field Research Articles

On the transport equation for probability density functions of turbulent vorticity fields.

Vorticity random fields of turbulent flows (modelled over the vorticity equation with random initial data for example) are singled out as the main dynamic variables for the description of turbulence, and the evolution equation of the probability density function (PDF) of the vorticity field has been obtained. This PDF evolution equation is a mixed type partial differential equation (PDE) of second order which depends only on the conditional mean (which is a first-order statistics) of the underlying turbulent flow. This is in contrast with Reynolds mean flow equation which relies on a quadratic statistics. The PDF PDE may provide new closure schemes based on the first-order conditional statistics, and some of them will be described in the paper. We should mention that the PDF equation is interesting by its own and is worthy of study as a PDE of second order.

Interaction of a planar reacting shock wave with an isotropic turbulent vorticity field.

Linear interaction analysis (LIA) is employed to investigate the interaction of reactive and nonreactive shock waves with isotropic vortical turbulence. The analysis is carried out, through Laplace-transform technique, accounting for long-time effects of vortical disturbances on the burnt-gas flow in the fast-reaction limit, where the reaction-region thickness is significantly small in comparison with the most representative turbulent length scales. Results provided by the opposite slow-reaction limit are also recollected. The reactive case is here restricted to situations where the overdriven detonation front does not exhibit self-induced oscillations nor inherent instabilities. The interaction of the planar detonation with a monochromatic pattern of perturbations is addressed first, and then a Fourier superposition for three-dimensional isotropic turbulent fields is employed to provide integral formulas for the amplification of the kinetic energy, enstrophy, and anisotropy downstream. Transitory evolution is also provided for single-frequency disturbances. In addition, further effects associatedtothe reaction rate, which have not been included in LIA, are studied through direct numerical simulations. The numerical computations, based on WENO-BO4-type scheme, provide spatial profiles of the turbulent structures downstream for four different conditions that include nonreacting shock waves, unstable reacting shock (sufficiently high activation energy), and stable reacting shocks for different detonation thicknesses. Effects of the propagation Mach number, chemical heat release, and burn rate are analyzed.

DNS of the thermal effects of laser energy deposition in isotropic turbulence

The interaction of a laser-induced plasma with isotropic turbulence is studied using numerical simulations. The simulations use air as the working fluid and assume local thermodynamic equilibrium. The numerical method is fully spectral and uses a shock-capturing scheme in a corrector step. A model problem involving the effect of energy deposition on an isolated vortex is studied as a first step towards plasma/turbulence interaction. Turbulent Reynolds number Reλ = 30 and fluctuation Mach numbers Mt = 0.001 and 0.3 are considered. A tear-drop-shaped shock wave is observed to propagate into the background, and progressively become spherical in time. The turbulence experiences strong compression due to the shock wave and strong expansion in the core. This behaviour is spatially inhomogeneous and non-stationary in time. Statistics are computed as functions of radial distance from the plasma axis and angular distance across the surface of the shock wave. For Mt = 0.001, the shock wave propagates on a much faster time scale compared to the turbulence evolution. At Mt of 0.3, the time scale of the shock wave is comparable to that of the background. For both cases the mean flow is classified into shock formation, shock propagation and subsequent collapse of the plasma core, and the effect of turbulence on each of these phases is studied in detail. The effect of mean vorticity production on the turbulent vorticity field is also discussed. Turbulent kinetic energy budgets are presented to explain the mechanism underlying the transfer of energy between the mean flow and background turbulence.

Shock-turbulence interaction: What we know and what we can learn from peta-scale simulations

Many applications in engineering and physical sciences involve turbulent flows interacting with shock waves. High-speed flows around aerodynamic bodies and through propulsion systems for high-speed flight abound with interactions of shear driven turbulence with complex shock waves. Supernova explosions and implosion of a cryogenic fuel pellet for inertial confinement fusion also involve the interaction of shockwaves with turbulence and strong density variations. Numerical simulations of such physical phenomena impose conflicting demands on the numerical algorithms. Capturing broadband spatial and temporal variations in a turbulent flow suggests the use of high-bandwidth schemes with minimal dissipation and dispersion, while capturing the flow discontinuity at a shock wave requires numerical dissipation.Results from three promising shock-capturing schemes a) high order WENO, b) nonlinear artificial diffusivity with compact finite differences, and c) a hybrid approach combining high-order central differencing with WENO near the shocks are compared using the Taylor-Green problem and compressible isotropic turbulence with eddy-shocklets. The performance of each scheme is characterized in terms of an effective bandwidth. The comparison highlights the damaging effect of numerical dissipation when the WENO scheme is applied everywhere. The hybrid approach is found to be best suited for studying shock-turbulence interactions.Results from previous DNS and LES studies of the canonical shock-turbulence interaction problem, i.e. the interaction of isotropic turbulence with a (nominally) normal shock and comparison with available theory and experimental data are recalled. The principal physical effects include the amplification of turbulent kinetic energy across the shock and its anisotropy, change in turbulence length scales across the shock, departure from the common assumption of strong Reynolds analogy (used in modeling turbulence in high-speed flows), and the distortion of the shock due to its interaction with the incident turbulence. In this context new results from our SciDAC sponsored project are shown and open issues are mentioned. New DNS results achieve a significantly larger turbulence Reynolds number and allow an exploration of the nonlinear effects. While the linear interaction theory of Ribner provides useful estimates of the amplification of vorticity fluctuations across the shock, it misses the strong nonlinear dynamics of the energized and highly anisotropic vorticity downstream of the shock. It is found that previous DNS studies also underestimated this effect. The simulations show that turbulent self-stretching and tilting mechanisms bring about a relatively rapid return to isotropy in the turbulent vorticity field. The turbulent velocity field, however, does not show any appreciable tendency towards isotropy. It is further observed that when the turbulence interacting with the shock is sufficiently energetic the instantaneous shock structure is significantly modified; local regions of significant over-compression are found as well as regions where the mean shock compression is nearly isentropic. Estimates for the computational resources necessary for studying this fundamental shock-turbulence interaction problem at higher Reynolds number on peta-scale computing systems are given.

Analytical linear theory for the interaction of a planar shock wave with an isotropic turbulent vorticity field

An exact analytical model for the interaction between an isolated shock wave and an isotropic turbulent vorticity field is presented. The interaction with a single-mode two-dimensional (2D) divergence-free vorticity field is analyzed in detail, giving the time and space evolutions of the perturbed quantities downstream. The results are generalized to study the interaction of a planar shock wave with an isotropic three-dimensional (3D) or 2D preshock vorticity field. This field is decomposed into Fourier modes, and each mode is assumed to interact independently with the shock front. Averages of the downstream quantities are made by integrating over the angles that define the orientation of the upstream velocity field. The ratio of downstream/upstream kinetic energies is in good agreement with existing numerical and experimental results for both 3D and 2D preshock vorticity fields. The generation of sound and the sonic energy flux radiated downstream from the shock front is also discussed in detail, as well as the amplification of transverse vorticity across the shock front. The anisotropy is calculated for the far downstream fields of both velocity and vorticity. All the quantities characteristic of the shock-turbulence interaction are reduced to closed-form exact analytical expressions. They are presented as explicit functions of the two parameters that govern the dynamics of the interaction: the adiabatic exponent gamma and the shock Mach number M1 . These formulas are further reduced to simpler exact asymptotic expressions in the limits of weak and strong shock waves (M_{1}-11, M_{1}1) and high shock compressibility of the gas (gamma-->1) .

Dynamics of spatial Fourier modes in turbulence

We report an experimental investigation of the statistical time dynamic of spatial Fourier modes in a fully developped turbulent jet flow. Measurements rely on an original acoustic scattering technique, allowing the direct and continuous probing in a time of spatial Fourier modes of the turbulent vorticity field at well defined spatial wavevectors. From the recordings of the amplitude of the spatial Fourier modes corresponding to different wavevectors in the inertial range, we compute the time correlation functions of the modal amplitude. The modal vorticity dynamics exhibits two well separated time scales: a short one which is scale dependant and related to the well known sweeping effect (random advection), and a much longer one, of order the integral time scale, which is not scale dependent. By computing the cross-correlation of the amplitude of two different wavevectors, we evidence a clear statistical dependance between scales, whatever their separation, at variance with the original Kolmogorov 41 theory. We ascribe our experimental results to a manifestation of a new type of statistical intermittency. We call this new statistical feature a large scale time intermittency effect, in contrast with the usual small scale spatial intermittency reported in Eulerian velocity measurements. We propose to attribute this time intermittency, to the fluctuations in time of the injected energy at large scale, in the spirit of the objection formulated by Landau against the K41 theory.

Naissance des corrélations triples de vorticité dans une turbulence statistiquement homogène soumise à une rotation

A homogeneous and isotropic turbulence is suddenly subjected to a rigid body rotation, whose influence on the turbulent vorticity field is studied. It is shown that only the odd statistical moments are influenced by the rotation at the first order in time. This effect is shown in particular for triple correlations and should be more important for a small Rossby number.

Conditional sampling of the turbulent vorticity field near a smooth corner

The turbulence source terms in the equation for the mean vorticity near the walls of a smooth corner are examined through correlations involving the fluctuating vorticity field. A manifestation of the corner effect is the specific asymmetries of the estimated probability density functions for the production terms. These can be used to extract the type of three-dimensional structures that contribute in the production of mean vorticity.

A Theoretical and Experimental Investigation of Energy-Containing Scales in the Dynamic Sublayer of Boundary-Layer Flows

The existence of universal power laws at low wavenumbers (K) in the energy spectrum (Eu) of the turbulent longitudinal velocity (u) is examined theoretically and experimentally for the near-neutral atmospheric surface layer. Newly derived power-law solutions to Tchen's approximate integral spectral budget equation are tested for strong- and weak-interaction cases between the mean flow and turbulent vorticity fields. To verify whether these solutions reproduce the measured Eu at low wavenumbers, velocity measurements were collected in the dynamic sublayer of the atmosphere at three sites and in the inner region of a laboratory open channel. The atmospheric surface layer measurements were carried out using triaxial sonic anemometers over tall corn, short grass, and smooth desert-like sandy soil. The open channel measurements were performed using a two-dimensional boundary-layer probe above a smooth stainless steel bed. Comparisons between the proposed analytical solution for Eu, the dimensional analysis by Kader and Yaglom, and the measured Haar wavelet Eu spectra are presented. It is shown that when strong interaction between the mean flow and turbulent vorticity field occurs, wavelet spectra measurements, predictions by the analytical solution, and predictions by the dimensional analysis of Kader-Yaglom (KY) are all in good agreement and confirm the existence of a -1 power law in Eu(= Cuuu2* K-1, where Cuu is a constant and u* is the friction velocity). The normalized upper wavenumber limit of the -1 power law (Kz = 1, where z is the height above the zero-plane displacement) is estimated using two separate approaches and compared to the open channel and atmospheric surface-layer measurements. It is demonstrated that the measured upper wavenumber limit is consistent with Tchen's budget but not with the KY assumptions. The constraints as to whether the mean flow and turbulent vorticity strongly interact are considered using a proposed analysis by Panchev. It is demonstrated that the arguments by Panchev cannot be consistent with surface-layer turbulence. Using dimensional analysis and Heisenberg's turbulent viscosity model, new constraints are proposed. The new constraints agree with the open channel and atmospheric surface-layer measurements, Townsend's ‘inactive eddy motion hypothesis’, and the Perry et al. analysis.

The robustness of self-organized zonal jets in unforced, turbulent vorticity fields

A wide parameter space is spanned to check the influence of numerical parameters on self-organized jets in rotating, turbulent shallow-water flows. It is found that, even in harsh physical (strongly ageostrophic) and numerical (filtered, hyperviscous, high-resolution) environments, the basic morphogenesis of steady jets, qualitatively reflecting the Rhines scale, is robust. However, detailed features of the jet pattern, such as the amplitude, the width, and the location can be substantially affected by numerical parameters for a fixed set of physical parameters. In general, while the amount of energy lost seems to be a good predictor of maximum jet amplitude and width, a nonmonotonic dependence of these features on the numerical parameters is observed. The most acute sensitivity is associated with the use of a hyperdissipation operator in conjunction with a Robert-Asselin filter, which leads to substantial meridional shifts of the entire jet pattern as the viscosity coefficient is varied.

Computation of the Turbulent Flow in an Internal Combustion Engine During Compression

A set of closed dynamical equations for the mean and variance of the turbulent vorticity field are used to study the piston driven flow in a two-dimensional model of an internal combustion engine cyclinder during the compression stroke. A dominant feature of the flow is observed to be the development of large corner vortices. In their vicinity intense production of turbulence occurs which locally greatly exceeds that resulting from the compression of intake generated turbulence. A comparison of the flow field at two strokes to bore ratios is made.

On the Interpretation of Space-Time Correlation Measurements in Shear Flow

The problem of deducing the convective velocities for the turbulent fluctuations from cross correlation measurements using two hot wires is re-examined. It is shown that for large scale motions the path of the maximum space-time correlation will, in general, deviate from the local mean streamline because of the distorting effect of the mean shear on the turbulent vorticity field. Calculations are presented to show that this effect can account for the shapes of the curves of maximum correlation in a boundary layer as reported by Favre some years ago. These same considerations would indicate that the convective velocity of the large scale disturbances should be measured along the lines of maximum correlation rather than along the streamlines. The deduction of the general form of the eddies from the space-time correlation measurements is also examined. In the case of two hot wires set on a line orthogonal to the surface, the negative optimum delay for maximum correlation is shown to be consistent with the presence of eddies aligned in a downstream direction at a relatively small angle to the surface.