We study the laminar and turbulent channel flow over a viscous hyper-elastic wall and show that it is possible to sustain an unsteady chaotic turbulent-like flow at any Reynolds number by properly choosing the wall elastic modulus. We propose a physical explanation for this effect by evaluating the shear stress and the turbulent kinetic energy budget in the fluid and elastic layer. We vary the bulk Reynolds number from 2800 to 10 and identify two distinct mechanisms for turbulence production. At moderate and high Reynolds numbers, turbulent fluctuations activate the wall oscillations, which, in turn, amplify the turbulent Reynolds stresses in the fluid. At very low Reynolds number, the only production term is due to the energy input from the elastic wall, which increases with the wall elasticity. This mechanism may be exploited to passively enhance mixing in microfluidic devices.
We show a method, for direct numerical simulations, to trigger and maintain turbulent bands directly at low Reynolds numbers in channel flow. The key is to impose a moving localised force which induces a local flow with sufficiently strong inflectional instability. With the method, we can trigger and maintain turbulent bands at Reynolds numbers down to $Re \simeq 500$. More importantly, we can generate any band patterns with desired relative position and orientation. The usual perturbation approach resorts to turbulent fields simulated at higher Reynolds numbers, random noise, or localised vor…
We investigated the side-wall effects on turbulent bands in channel flow at transitional Reynolds numbers by direct numerical simulations using the open source spectral-element code Nektar++. The width-to-height aspect ratio of 50:1 is considered for this study. Our study shows that turbulent bands can survive the collision with the side wall above bulk Reynolds number of Re around 1000 but decay below Re around 975, i.e. the critical Reynolds number should be approximately between the two Reynolds numbers. We also discussed about the underlying mechanism for the decay of the band at low Reyno…
In this visualisation, the transition from laminar to turbulent flow is characterised by the intermittent ejection of wall fluid into the outer stream. The normalised thickness of the viscous flow layer reaches an asymptotic value but the physical thickness drops exponentially after transition. The critical transition pipe Reynolds number can be obtained simply by equating it with the asymptotic value of the normalised thickness of viscous flow layer. Key words: Transition, critical stability Reynolds number, critical transition Reynolds number, non-Newtonian pipe flow
We present a unique method for solving for the Reynolds stress in turbulent canonical flows, which is based on momentum balance for a control volume moving at the local mean velocity. Comparisons with experimental and computational data in simple geometries show quite good agreement. An alternate picture for the turbulence momentum transport is offered, based on the closed-form expression for the Reynolds stress. The turbulence momentum balance is verified using DNS data. This approach has potential applications in aerodynamics, and also represents a possible method for determining the Reynold…
Using the previously developed model to describe laminar/turbulent states of a viscous fluid flow, which treats the flow as a collection of coherent structures of various size (Chekmarev, Chaos, 2013, 013144), the statistical temperature of the flow state is determined as a function of the Reynolds number. It is shown that at small Reynolds numbers, associated with laminar states, the temperature is positive, while at large Reynolds numbers, associated with turbulent states, it is negative. At intermediate Reynolds numbers, the temperature changes from positive to negative as the size of the c…
Numerical simulations of turbulent round jets, using explicit-filtered LES technique, are performed, for three different Reynolds numbers(Re = 3600, 88000, 400000), to understand the Reynolds number effect on subsonic jets with Mach number 0.9. Eigth-order compact schemes are used for spatial derivative estimation. Second order Runge-Kutta method is used for Time evolution of flow. One-parameter fourth-order compact filter is used for low-pass explicit filtering of transported variables. Decreased centreline axial velocity decay rate and reduced turbulence intensities are observed as jet Reyno…
In this report we briefly summarize the set-up and results for direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent channel flows with riblets. The DNS are carried out with OpenFOAM which allows the use of an unstructured mesh. The present results were presented at the European Drag Reduction and Flow Control Meeting in 2015.
The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations are widely used in turbulence applications. They require accurately modeling the anisotropic Reynolds stress tensor, for which traditional Reynolds stress closure models only yield reliable results in some flow configurations. In the last few years, there has been a surge of work aiming at using data-driven approaches to tackle this problem. The majority of previous work has focused on the development of fully-connected networks for modeling the anisotropic Reynolds stress tensor. In this paper, we expand upon recent work for turbulent chann…
The turbulence statistics of the intermittent region in a supersonic turbulent boundary layer are studied by direct numerical simulation. Recently, Kwon et al. (2016) have shown that this intermittent behavior, consisting of the coexistence of turbulent and non-turbulent flows separated by an interface, could result in perils when the traditional Reynolds decomposition is used to analyze data. Here, we extend the study of turbulent/non-turbulent interfaces to the supersonic regime and report turbulence statistics conditioned to the interface. We show that the mathematical artefact of the tradi…
This study presents a deep learning-based framework to reconstruct high-resolution turbulent velocity fields from extremely low-resolution data at various Reynolds numbers using the concept of generative adversarial networks (GANs). A multiscale enhanced super-resolution generative adversarial network (MS-ESRGAN) is applied as a model to reconstruct the high-resolution velocity fields, and direct numerical simulation (DNS) data of turbulent channel flow with large longitudinal ribs at various Reynolds numbers are used to evaluate the performance of the model. The model is found to have the cap…
Experiments in an extraordinary turbulent boundary layer called the sink flow, displaying a perfect streamwise invariance, show a wide extent of logarithmic scaling for moments of streamwise velocity up to order 12, even at moderate Reynolds numbers. This is in striking contrast to canonical constant-pressure turbulent boundary layers that show such comprehensive log scaling only at ultra-high Reynolds numbers. This demonstrates that ultra-high Reynolds number is not necessary for comprehensive log scaling to occur; while specific details of the sink flow are special, the relevance to general …
The modified Townsend-Perry attached eddy model of Vassilicos et al (2015) combines the outer peak/plateau behaviour of rms streamwise turbulence velocity profiles and the Townsend-Perry log-decay of these profiles at higher distances from the wall. This model was validated by these authors for high Reynolds number tur- bulent pipe flow data and is shown here to describe equally well and with about the same parameter values turbulent boundary layer flow data from four different facilities and a wide range of Reynolds numbers. The model has predictive value as, when extrapolated to the extremel…
Direct numerical simulations (DNS) of fully-developed turbulent channel flows for very low Reynolds numbers have been performed with a larger computational box sizes than those of existing DNS. The friction Reynolds number was decreased down to 60, where the friction Reynolds number is based on the friction velocity and the channel half width. When the Reynolds number was decreased to 60 with small computational box size, the flow became laminar. Using a large box, we found that a localized turbulence was observed to sustain in the form of periodic oblique band. This type of locally disordered…
At sufficiently high Reynolds numbers, shear-flow turbulence close to a wall acquires universal properties. When length and velocity are rescaled by appropriate characteristic scales of the turbulent flow and thereby measured in \emph{inner units}, the statistical properties of the flow become independent of the Reynolds number. We demonstrate the existence of a wall-attached non-chaotic exact invariant solution of the fully nonlinear 3D Navier-Stokes equations for a parallel boundary layer that captures the characteristic self-similar scaling of near-wall turbulent structures. The branch of t…
In this study, realizable algebraic Reynolds stress modeling based on the square root tensor [Phys. Rev. E \textbf{92}, 053010 (2015)] is further developed for extending its applicability to more complex flows. In conventional methods, it was difficult to construct an algebraic Reynolds stress model satisfying the realizability conditions when the model involves higher-order nonlinear terms on the mean velocity gradient. Such higher-order nonlinear terms are required to predict turbulent flows with three-dimensional mean velocity. The present modeling based on the square root tensor enables us…
Here we report the measurements of two-dimensional (2-D) spectra of the streamwise velocity ($u$) in a high Reynolds number turbulent boundary layer. A novel experiment employing multiple hot-wire probes was carried out at friction Reynolds numbers ranging from 2400 to 26000. Taylor's frozen turbulence hypothesis is used to convert temporal-spanwise information into a 2-D spatial spectrum which shows the contribution of streamwise ($λ_x$) and spanwise ($λ_y$) length scales to the streamwise variance at a given wall height ($z$). At low Reynolds numbers, the shape of the 2-D spectra at a consta…
Direct numerical simulation of a turbulent channel flow with heat transfer was performed at very low Reynolds numbers. Two different thermal boundary conditions were studied, and temperature was considered as a passive scalar. The computations were carried out with huge computational boxes (up to 327.7 x 2 x 128 in the streamwise, wall-normal, and spanwise directions, respectively). The emphases of this paper are to investigate the large-scale structure (puff) in the intermittent-turbulent flow including the scalar fields and to provide the values of the transitional and critical Reynolds numb…
In this work, we carried out direct numerical simulations in large channel domains and studied the kinematics and dynamics of fully localised turbulent bands at Reynolds number Re = 750. Our results show that the downstream end of the band features fast streak generation and travels into the adjacent laminar flow, whereas streaks at the upstream end continually and relatively more slowly decay. This asymmetry is responsible for the transverse growth of the band. We particularly investigated the mechanism of streak generation at the downstream end, which engines the growth of the band. We ident…
We carry out Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) of flows in closed rectangular ducts with several aspect ratios. The Navier-Stokes equations are discretized through a second-order finite difference scheme, with non-uniform grids in two directions. The duct cross-sectional area is maintained constant as well as the flow rate, which allows to investigate which is the appropriate length scale in the Reynolds number for a good scaling in the laminar and in the fully turbulent regimes. We find that the Reynolds number based on the half length of the short side leads to a critical Reynolds number whi…
It is extremely uncommon to be able to predict the velocity profile of a turbulent flow. In two-dimensional flows, atmosphere dynamics, and plasma physics, large scale coherent jets are created through inverse energy transfers from small scales to the largest scales of the flow. We prove that in the limits of vanishing energy injection, vanishing friction, and small scale forcing, the velocity profile of a jet obeys an equation independent of the details of the forcing. We find another general relation for the maximal curvature of a jet and we give strong arguments to support the existence of …
We study the Reynolds number scaling and the geometric self-similarity of a gain-based, low-rank approximation to turbulent channel flows, determined by the resolvent formulation of McKeon & Sharma (2010), in order to obtain a description of the streamwise turbulence intensity from direct consideration of the Navier-Stokes equations. Under this formulation, the velocity field is decomposed into propagating waves (with single streamwise and spanwise wavelengths and wave speed) whose wall-normal shapes are determined from the principal singular function of the corresponding resolvent operator. U…
An approximate method to compute mean velocity profiles in turbulent flows is developed. This approach is based on the equation connecting the Reynolds stress and mean velocity. By using the measured values of pressure drop and average (bulk) flow velocity, such characteristics of a turbulent flow as the mean velocity and Reynolds stress distributions were calculated and compared with the experimental measurements in different pipes and channels for various fluids and gases. These show good agreement for a wide range of Reynolds numbers.
A conservative coupled finite difference-boundary element computational procedure for the simulation of turbulent magnetohydrodynamic flow in a straight rectangular duct at finite magnetic Reynolds number is presented. The flow is assumed to be periodic in the streamwise direction and is driven by a mean pressure gradient. The duct walls are considered to be electrically insulating. The co-evolution of the velocity and magnetic fields as described respectively by the Navier-Stokes and the magnetic induction equations, together with the coupling of the magnetic field between the conducting doma…
The Variable Density and Speed of Sound Vessel (VDSSV) produces subsonic turbulent flows that are both compressible and observable at all scales with existing instrumentation including hot wires and particle tracking. We realize this objective by looking at the flow of a heavy gas (sulfur hexafluoride $SF_6$), with a speed of sound almost three times lower than for air. By switching between air and $SF_6$, we isolate the influence of the turbulent Mach number (up to $M_t$ = 0.17) on turbulence statistics from the influences of changes in the Reynolds number (up to $R_λ$ = 1600), and boundary c…
Turbulent flow separation induced by a protuberance on one of the walls of an otherwise planar channel is investigated using Direct Numerical Simulations. Different bulge geometries and Reynolds numbers - with the highest friction Reynolds number simulation reaching a peak of Reτ = 900 - are addressed to understand the effect of the wall curvature and of the Reynolds number on the dynamics of the recirculating bubble behind the bump. Most of the drag is due to the form contribution, whilst the friction contribution does not change appreciably with respect to an equivalent planar channel flow. …
Due to its very low viscosity, cryogenic helium has been used for years to generate high Reynolds turbulent flows. The measurement of velocity fluctuations in such high Reynolds flows is however a challenging issue, as it is necessary to develop small size (typically micron-length), robust sensors, to measure the whole spectrum of fluctuations of the velocity, which may extend to hundreds of kHz and possibly higher. SBT has developed for years different facilities, in particular taking benefit of the refrigeration capacities available at CEA Grenoble. In this article we present the current sta…
A three-layer asymptotic structure for turbulent pipe flow is proposed, revealing in terms of intermediate variables, the existence of a Reynolds-number invariant logarithmic region. It provides a theoretical foundation for addressing important questions in the scaling of the streamwise mean velocity and variance. The key insight emerging from the analysis is that the scale separation between two adjacent layers is proportional to $\sqrt{Re_τ}$, rather than $Re_τ$. This suggests that, in order to realise Reynolds-number asymptotic invariance, much higher Reynolds numbers may be necessary to ac…
The ability of linear stochastic response analysis to estimate coherent motions is investigated in turbulent channel flow at friction Reynolds number Re$_τ$ = 1007. The analysis is performed for spatial scales characteristic of buffer-layer and large-scale motions by separating the contributions of different temporal frequencies. Good agreement between the measured spatio-temporal power spectral densities and those estimated by means of the resolvent is found when the effect of turbulent Reynolds stresses, modelled with an eddy-viscosity associated to the turbulent mean flow, is included in th…
Here we introduce new coarse-grained variables for a turbulent flow in the form of moments of its Reynolds-averaged Boltzmann equation. With the exception of the collision moments, the transport equations for the new variables are identical to the usual moment equations, and thus naturally lend themselves to the variety of already existing closure methods. Under the anelastic turbulence approximation, we derive equations for the Reynolds-averaged turbulent fluctuations around the coarse-grained state. We show that the global relative entropy of the coarse-grained state is bounded from above by…
We measured Reynolds numbers R_e of turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection over the Rayleigh-number range 2 times 10^8 < R < 10^11 and Prandtl-number range 3.3 < sigma < 29 for cylindrical samples of aspect ratio Gamma = 1. For R < R_c = 3 times 10^9 we found R_e ~ R^beta_eff with beta_eff = 0.46 < 1/2. Here both the sigma- and R-dependences are quantitatively consistent with the Grossmann-Lohse (GL) prediction. For R > R_c we found R_e = 0.106 sigma^-3/4 R^1/2, which differs from the GL prediction. The relatively sharp transition at R_c to the large-R regime suggests a qualitative and sudden ch…
A rapid predictive tool based on the linearised Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations is proposed in this work to investigate secondary currents generated by streamwise-independent surface topography modulations in turbulent channel flow. The tool is derived by coupling the Reynolds-averaged momentum equation to the Spalart-Allmaras transport equation for the turbulent eddy viscosity, using a nonlinear constitutive relation for the Reynolds stresses to capture correctly secondary motions. Linearised equations, describing the steady flow response to arbitrary surface modulations, are derive…
A theoretical mechanism of laminar-turbulent transition originated from the deceleration of fluid streams on the walls of the channel or pipe is proposed. For Poiseuille flow an analytical expression relating the critical Reynolds number with the degree of disturbance of the flow is derived.
The evolution with Reynolds number of the dissipation function, normalized by wall variables, is investigated using direct numerical simulation (DNS) databases for incompressible turbulent Poiseuille flow in a plane channel, at friction Reynolds numbers up to Reτ= 2000. DNS results show that the mean part, directly dissipated by the mean flow, reaches a constant value while the turbulent part, converted into turbulent kinetic energy before being dissipated, follows a logarithmic law. This result shows that the logarithmic law of friction can be obtained without any assumption on the mean veloc…
A scaling relation for the high frequency regime of streamwise energy spectra (in frequency domain) in the near-wall region is proposed. This is based on the dimensional analysis approach of \cite{perry1977} and \cite{Zamalloa2014} together with the hypothesis that the small-scale fluctuations in the near-wall region should only depend on the viscous scales, analogous to the Prandtl's law-of-the-wall for the mean flow. This allows us to examine the lower bound for the high frequency regime where law-of-the-wall in spectra would hold. Observations in high-Reynolds-number turbulent boundary laye…
Direct numerical simulations of sub- and supersonic impinging jets with Reynolds numbers of 3300 and 8000 are carried out to analyse their statistical properties. The influence of the parameters Mach number, Reynolds number and ambient temperature on the mean velocity and temperature fields are studied. For the compressible subsonic cold impinging jets into a heated environment, different Reynolds analogies are assesses. It is shown, that the (original) Reynolds analogy as well as the Chilton Colburn analogy are in good agreement with the DNS data outside the impinging area. The generalised Re…
We present direct numerical simulation results of turbulent open channel flow at bulk Reynolds numbers up to 12000, coupled with (passive) scalar transport at Schmidt numbers up to 200. Care is taken to capture the very large scale motions which appear already for relatively modest Reynolds numbers. The transfer velocity at the flat, free surface is found to scale with the Schmidt number to the power "-1/2", in accordance with previous studies and theoretical predictions for uncontaminated surfaces. The scaling of the transfer velocity with Reynolds number is found to vary, depending on the Re…
The pressure strain correlation plays a critical role in the Reynolds stress transport modelling. Accurate modelling of the pressure strain correlation leads to proper prediction of turbulence stresses and subsequently the other terms of engineering interest. However, classical pressure strain correlation models are often unreliable for complex turbulent flows. Machine learning based models have shown promise in turbulence modeling but their application has been largely restricted to eddy viscosity based models. In this article, we outline a rationale for the preferential application of machin…
In this paper, we extend Grossmann and Lohse's (GL) model [Phys. Rev. Lett. {\bf 86}, 3316 (2001)] for the predictions of Reynolds number (Re) and Nusselt number (Nu) in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RBC). Towards this objective, we use functional forms for the prefactors of the dissipation rates in the bulk and the boundary layers. The functional forms arise due to inhibition of nonlinear interactions in the presence of walls and buoyancy compared to free turbulence, along with a deviation of viscous boundary layer profile from Prandtl-Blasius theory. We perform 60 numerical runs on a…
Almost 50 years ago Bob Brodkey and his student, Corino, conceived of and carried out a visualization experiment for the very near wall region of a turbulent pipe flow that, together with the turbulent boundary layer visualization of Kline et al., excited the turbulence research community. Using a high speed movie camera mounted on a lathe bed that recorded magnified images in a frame of reference moving with the flow, they observed the motions of sub-micron particles in the sub-, buffer- and log-layers. Surprisingly, these motions were not nearly so locally random as was the general view of t…
Turbulence in fluids is an ubiquitous phenomenon, characterized by spontaneous transition of a smooth, laminar flow to rapidly changing, chaotic dynamics. In 1883, Reynolds experimentally demonstrated that, in an initially laminar flow of water, turbulent motions emerge without any measurable external disturbance. To this day, turbulence remains a major unresolved phenomenon in fluid mechanics; in particular, there is a lack of a mathematical model where turbulent dynamics emerge naturally from a laminar flow. Recently, we proposed a new theory of turbulence in gases, according to which turbul…
Four well-resolved LESs of the turbulent boundary layers around a NACA4412 wing section, with Rec ranging from 100,000 to 1,000,000, were performed at 5 degree angle of attack. By comparing the turbulence statistics with those in ZPG TBLs at approximately matching Re_tau, we find that the effect of the adverse pressure gradient (APG) is more intense at lower Reynolds numbers. This indicates that at low Re the outer region of the TBL becomes more energized through the wall-normal convection associated to the APG. This is also reflected in the fact that the inner-scaled wall-normal velocity is l…
Its is a well known fact that Turbulence exhibits non-locality, however, modeling has largely received local treatment following the work of Prandl over mixing-length model. Thus, in this article we report our findings by formulating a non-local closure model for Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation using Fractional Calculus. Two model formulations are studied, namely one- and two-sided for Channel, Pipe and Couette flow, where the results shown have less 1% error. The motivation of two-sided model lies in recognising the fact that non-locality at a given spatial location is an aggr…
We present a detailed study of of a global bifurcation occuring in a turbulent von Kármán swirling flow. In this system, the statistically steady states progressively display hysteretic behaviour when the Reynolds number is increased above the transition to turbulence. We examine in detail this hysteresis using asymmetric forcing conditions --- rotating the impellers at different speeds. For very high Reynolds numbers, we study the sensitivity of the hysteresis cycle --- using complementary Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) and global mechanical measurements --- to the forcing nature, imposing …
The turbulent flow over monochromatic waves of moderate steepness is studied by means of wall resolved LES, and cover a range of wave ages and Reynolds numbers. We compute the Fourier modes of the flow and analyse the momentum balance for the mean and fundamental mode. At low wave ages, the form drag displays a large sensitivity to changes in Reynolds number, and the interaction between turbulent and wave-induced stresses increases with Reynolds number. At higher wave ages, a quasi-laminar regime is entered, where the wave-induced stress is primarily balanced by viscous stresses. To exploit th…
The first direct measurements of effective magnetic diffusivity in turbulent flow of electro-conductive fluids (the so-called beta-effect) under magnetic Reynolds number Rm >> 1 are reported. The measurements are performed in a nonstationary turbulent flow of liquid sodium, generated in a closed toroidal channel. The peak level of the Reynolds number reached Re \approx 3 10^6, which corresponds to the magnetic Reynolds number Rm \approx 30. The magnetic diffusivity of the liquid metal was determined by measuring the phase shift between the induced and the applied magnetic fields. The maximal d…
We study the melting dynamics of large ice balls in a turbulent von Karman flow at very high Reynolds number. Using an optical shadowgraphy setup, we record the time evolution of particle sizes. We study the heat transfer as a function of the particle scale Reynolds number for three cases: fixed ice balls melting in a region of strong turbulence with zero mean flow, fixed ice balls melting under the action of a strong mean flow with lower fluctuations, and ice balls freely advected in the whole flow. For the fixed particles cases, heat transfer is observed to be much stronger than in laminar f…
A series of Direct Numerical Simulations (DNS) of lean methane/air flames was conducted in order to investigate the enhancement of the turbulent flame speed and modifications to the reaction layer structure associated with the systematic increase of the integral scale of turbulence $l$ while the Karlovitz number and the Kolmogorov scale are kept constant. Four turbulent slot jet flames are simulated at increasing Reynolds number and up to $Re \approx 22000$, defined based on the bulk velocity, slot width, and the reactants' properties. The turbulent flame speed $S_T$ is evaluated locally at se…
Reynolds-number effects in the adverse-pressure-gradient (APG) turbulent boundary layer (TBL) developing on the suction side of a NACA4412 wing section are assessed in the present work. To this end, we analyze four cases at Reynolds numbers based on freestream velocity and chord length ranging from Rec = 100, 000 to 1,000,000, all of them with 5 degree angle of attack. The results of four well-resolved large-eddy simulations (LESs) are used to characterize the effect of Reynolds number on APG TBLs subjected to approximately the same pressure-gradient distribution (defined by the Clauser pressu…
We investigated the propagation of turbulent fronts in pipe flow at high Reynolds numbers by direct numerical simulation. We used a technique combining a moving frame of reference and an artificial damping to isolate the fronts in short periodic pipes, which enables us to explore the bulk Reynolds number up to Re = $10^5$ with affordable computation power. We measured the propagation speed of the downstream front and observed that a fit of $1.971-(Re/1925)^{-0.825}$ (in unit of bulk speed) well captures this speed above $Re\simeq 5000$. The speed increases monotonically as Re increases, in sta…
