Based on the properties of large-scale plume currents, an injection/suction control strategy is introduced to enhance the strength of plume currents and the turbulent transport of passive scalar in rotating plane Poiseuille flow. The control keeps the classical non-penetrative condition on the stable side, and prescribes spanwise varying wall-normal velocity on the unstable side. Direct numerical simulations show that at medium rotation numbers, very weak injection/suction (the root-mean-square velocity on the controlled side is below $1\%$ of the bulk mean velocity) with properly distributed slots could significantly enhance the large-scale plume currents which have the same spatial distribution as the injection slots. In addition, if the distance between plume currents are increased, the turbulent transport efficiency can be promoted. Therefore, taking the strength and transport efficiency into account, the distance between injection slots should be slightly larger than the intrinsic distance between plume currents to achieve maximum enhancement of turbulent transport. For comparison, the control with non-penetrative condition on the unstable side and injection/suction on the stable side is also examined with simulations. It is found that the injection/suction on the stable side has much weaker influence compared with that on the unstable side. This is because that plumes are generated on the unstable side, and that controlling the origin of plumes is more effective.
We study the laminar turbulent boundary in plane Poiseuille flow at $Re=1400$ and $2180$ using the technique of edge tracking. For large computational domains the attracting state in the laminar-turbulent boundary is localized in spanwise and streamwise direction and chaotic.
We present a new experimental set-up that creates a shear flow with zero mean advection velocity achieved by counterbalancing the nonzero streamwise pressure gradient by moving boundaries, which generates plane Couette-Poiseuille flow. We carry out the first experimental results in the transitional regime for this flow. Using flow visualization we characterize the subcritical transition to turbulence in Couette-Poiseuille flow and show the existence of turbulent spots generated by a permanent perturbation. Due to the zero mean advection velocity of the base profile, these turbulent structures …
Turbulent-laminar banded patterns in plane Poiseuille flow are studied via direct numerical simulations in a tilted and translating computational domain using a parallel version of the pseudospectral code Channelflow. 3D visualizations via the streamwise vorticity of an instantaneous and a time-averaged pattern are presented, as well as 2D visualizations of the average velocity field and the turbulent kinetic energy. Simulations for Reynolds numbers descending from 2300 to 700 show the gradual development from uniform turbulence to a pattern with wavelength 20 half-gaps near Re=1900, to a patt…
The ultimate goal of a sound theory of turbulence in fluids is to close in a rational way the Reynolds equations, namely to express the time averaged turbulent stress tensor as a function of the time averaged velocity field. This closure problem is a deep and unsolved problem of statistical physics whose solution requires to go beyond the assumption of a homogeneous and isotropic state, as fluctuations in turbulent flows are strongly related to the geometry of this flow. This links the dissipation to the space dependence of the average velocity field. Based on the idea that dissipation in full…
A structure consisting of quasi-laminar and turbulent regions in a stripe pattern, which can be found in a transitional plane channel flow, is called `turbulent stripe'. In the previous works, the emergence of this structure was confirmed only in the case of decreasing Reynolds number from turbulent regime. In the present study, its formation from a turbulent spot has been investigated using a direct numerical simulation in a relatively large-scale computational domain of $L_x \times L_y \times L_z = 731.4δ\times 2δ\times 365.7δ$ at ${\rm Re}_τ= 56$ and $L_x \times L_y \times L_z = 640δ\times …
Large-scale instabilities occurring in the presence of small-scale turbulent fluctuations are frequently observed in geophysical or astrophysical contexts but are difficult to reproduce in the laboratory. Using extensive numerical simulations, we report here on intense recurrent bursts of turbulence in plane Poiseuille flow rotating about a spanwise axis. A simple model based on the linear instability of the mean flow can predict the structure and time scale of the nearly-periodic and self-sustained burst cycles. Rotating Poiseuille flow is suggested as a prototype for future studies of low-di…
Turbulence in the restricted nonlinear (RNL) dynamics is analyzed and compared with DNS of Poiseuille turbulence at $R=1650$. The structures are obtained by POD analysis of the two components of the flow partition used in RNL dynamics: the streamwise-mean flow and fluctuations. POD analysis of the streamwise-mean flow indicates that the dominant POD modes, in both DNS and RNL, are roll-streaks harmonic in the spanwise. However, we conclude that these POD modes do not occur in isolation but rather are Fourier components of a coherent roll-streak structure. POD analysis of the fluctuations in DN…
For Gagen-Poiseuille flow, we show that exponential instability (to extremely small, axially symmetric disturbances represented by Galerkin's approximation) is possible only if there exists bi-periodic variability of the disturbances along the pipe axis when the threshold Reynolds number depends on the ratio of two longitudinal periods. Absolute minimum (for) is obtained that corresponds to the observed conditions of transition from the laminar resistance law to the turbulent one and Tollmien-Schlichting waves exciting in the boundary layer.
We explore the effect of forcing on the linear shear flow or plane Couette flow, which is also the background flow in the very small region of the Keplerian accretion disk. We show that depending on the strength of forcing and boundary conditions suitable for the systems under consideration, the background plane shear flow and, hence, accretion disk velocity profile modifies to parabolic flow, which is plane Poiseuille flow or Couette-Poiseuille flow, depending on the frame of reference. In the presence of rotation, plane Poiseuille flow becomes unstable at a smaller Reynolds number under pure…
The linear amplification mechanisms leading to streamwise-constant large-scale structures in laminar and turbulent channel flows are considered. A key feature of the analysis is that the Orr--Sommerfeld and Squire operators are each considered separately. Physically this corresponds to considering two separate processes: (i) the response of wall-normal velocity fluctuations to external forcing; and (ii) the response of streamwise velocity fluctuations to wall-normal velocity fluctuations. In this way we exploit the fact that, for streamwise-constant fluctuations, the dynamics governing the wal…
In wall-bounded flows, the laminar regime remain linearly stable up to large values of the Reynolds number while competing with nonlinear turbulent solutions issued from finite amplitude perturbations. The transition to turbulence of plane channel flow (plane Poiseuille flow) is more specifically considered via numerical simulations. Previous conflicting observations are reconciled by noting that the two-dimensional directed percolation scenario expected for the decay of turbulence may be interrupted by a symmetry-breaking bifurcation favoring localized turbulent bands. At the other end of the…
Travelling-wave solutions are shown to bifurcate from relative periodic orbits in plane Poiseuille flow at Re = 2000 in a saddle-node infinite period bifurcation. These solutions consist in self-sustaining sinuous quasi-streamwise streaks and quasi- streamwise vortices located in the bulk of the flow. The lower branch travelling-wave solutions evolve into spanwise localized states when the spanwise size Lz of the domain in which they are computed is increased. On the contrary, upper branch of travelling-wave solutions develop multiple streaks when Lz is increased. Upper branch travelling-wave …
The proliferation of turbulence in subcritical wall-bounded shear flows involves spatially localised coherent structures. Turbulent spots correspond to finite-time nonlinear responses to pointwise disturbances and are regarded as seeds of turbulence during transition. The rapid spatial decay of the turbulent fluctuations away from a spot is accompanied by large-scale flows with a robust structuration. The far field velocity field of these spots is investigated numerically using spectral methods in large domains in four different flow scenarios (plane Couette, plane Poiseuille, Couette-Poiseuil…
We investigate the laminar-turbulent boundary in plane Poiseuille flow by the method of edge tracking. In short and narrow computational domains we find for a wide range in Reynolds number that all states in the boundary converge to a period orbit with a period of the order of $10^{3}$ time units. The attracting states in these small domains are periodically extended in the spanwise and streamwise direction, but always localized to one side of the channel in the normal direction. In short and wide domains the edge states are localized in the spanwise direction. The periodic motion found in the…
Something as simple as Couette and Poiseuille onedimensional flow of a newtonian fluid between infinite parallel walls provides an illuminating example of the contrasting physics of laminar and turbulent flow: the difference between their mean velocity profiles has in one regime the opposite sign than in the other. This easily verifiable but yet unnoticed behaviour implies that the physical mechanisms of laminar and turbulent transport are even more fundamentally different than ordinarily presumed.
The instability of a streak and its nonlinear evolution are investigated by direct numerical simulation (DNS) for plane Poiseuille flow at Re=3000. It is suggested that there exists a traveling-wave solution (TWS). The TWS is localized around one of the two walls and notably resemble to the coherent structures observed in experiments and DNS so far. The phase space structure around this TWS is similar to a saddle point. Since the stable manifold of this TWS is extended close to the quasi two dimensional (Q2D) energy axis, the approaching process toward the TWS along the stable manifold is appr…
We perform a numerical analysis of superfluid turbulence produced by thermal counterflow in He II by using the vortex filament model. Counterflow in a low aspect ratio channel is known to show the transition from laminar flow to the two turbulent states TI and TII. The present understanding is that the TI has the turbulent superfluid and the laminar normal fluid but both fluids are turbulent in the TII state. This work studies the vortex tangle in the TI state. Solid boundary condition is applied to walls of a square channel, and the velocity field of the normal fluid is prescribed to be a lam…
We study localised exact coherent structures in plane Poiseuille flow that are relative periodic orbits. They are obtained from extended states in smaller, periodically continued domains, by increasing the length to obtain streamwise localization and then by increasing the width to achieve spanwise localisation. The states maintain the travelling wave structure of the extended states, which is then modulated by a localised envelope on larger scales. In streamwise direction, the envelope shows exponential localization, with different exponents on the upstream and downstream side. The upstream e…
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.
Buoyancy-induced velocity dip in turbulent open Poiseuille--Rayleigh--Bénard convection
Institute of Extreme Mechanics, School of Aeronautics, Northwestern Polytechnical University(西北工业大学航空学院极端力学研究所);National Key Laboratory of Aircraft Configuration Design, Key Laboratory for Extreme Mechanics of Aircraft of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology(飞机构型设计全国重点实验室、工业和信息化部飞机极端力学重点实验室)
The direct numerical simulation of compressible fully developed turbulent Couette flow between two parallel plates with equal temperatures moving in opposite directions with some velocity was performed. The algorithm was tested on well known numerical solution for incompressible Poiseuille channel flow and found to provide its well description. The slip effects in studied flow are found to be negligibly small at the values of accommodation coefficients for velocity and temperature of the order of unity. The considerable increase of mean temperature with decreasing the accommodation coefficient…
A form for the two-point third order structure function has been calculated for three dimensional homogeneous incompressible slowly rotating turbulent fluid. It has been argued that it may possibly hint at the initiation of the phenomenon of two-dimensionalisation of the 3D incompressible turbulence owing to rotation.
Weakly-rotating turbulent Rayleigh-Benard convection was studied experimentally and numerically. With increasing rotation and large enough Rayleigh number an abrupt transition from a turbulent state with nearly rotation-independent heat transport to another turbulent state with enhanced heat transfer is observed at a critical inverse Rossby number $1/Ro_c \simeq 0.4$. Whereas for $1/Ro < 1/Ro_c$ the strength of the large-scale convection-roll is either enhanced or essentially unmodified depending on parameters, its strength is increasingly diminished beyond $1/Ro_c$ where it competes with Ekma…
A biconcave particle suspended in a Poiseuille flow is investigated by the multiple-relaxation-time lattice Boltzmann method with the Galilean-invariant momentum exchange method. The lateral migration and equilibrium of the particle are similar to the Segré-Silberberg effect in our numerical simulations. Surprisingly, two lateral equilibrium positions are observed corresponding to the releasing positions of the biconcave particle. The upper equilibrium positions significantly decrease with the growth of the Reynolds number, whereas the lower ones are almost insensitive to the Reynolds number. …
We show that viscoelastic plane Poiseuille flow becomes linearly unstable in the absence of inertia, in the limit of high elasticities, for ultra-dilute polymer solutions. While inertialess elastic instabilities have been predicted for curvilinear shear flows, this is the first ever report of a purely elastic linear instability in a rectilinear shear flow. The novel instability continues upto a Reynolds number ($Re$) of $O(1000)$, corresponding to the recently identified elasto-inertial turbulent state believed to underlie the maximum-drag-reduced regime. Thus, for highly elastic ultra-dilute …
The possibility of subcritical behaviour in the geostrophic turbulence regime of rapidly rotating thermally driven convection is explored. In this regime a non-local inverse energy transfer may compete with the more traditional and local direct cascade. We show that, even for control parameters for which no inverse cascade has previously been observed, a subcritical transition towards a large-scale vortex state can occur when the system is initialized with a vortex dipole of finite amplitude. This new example of bistability in a turbulent flow, which may not be specific to rotating convection,…
We investigate the Lagrangian statistics of three-dimensional rotating turbulent flows through direct numerical simulations. We find that the emergence of coherent vortical structures because of the Coriolis force leads to a suppression of the "flight-crash" events reported by Xu, et al. [Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. (U.S.A) 111, 7558 (2014)]. We perform systematic studies to trace the origins of this suppression in the emergent geometry of the flow and show why such a Lagrangian measure of irreversibility may fail in the presence of rotation.
We suggest certain effects, caused by interaction between rotation and gravitation with turbulence structure, for the cooling/heating of dispersed phase of non-isothermal particles in rotating turbulent fluid flows. These effects are obtained through the derivation of kinetic or probability density function based macroscopic equations for the particles. In doing so, for one-way temperature coupling, we also show that homogeneous, isotropic non-isothermal fluid turbulence does not influence the mean temperature (though it influences mean velocity) of the dispersed phase of particles settling du…
Turbulent-laminar intermittency, typically in the form of bands and spots, is a ubiquitous feature of the route to turbulence in wall-bounded shear flows. Here we study the idealised shear between stress-free boundaries driven by a sinusoidal body force and demonstrate quantitative agreement between turbulence in this flow and that found in the interior of plane Couette flow -- the region excluding the boundary layers. Exploiting the absence of boundary layers, we construct a model flow that uses only four Fourier modes in the shear direction and yet robustly captures the range of spatiotempor…
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…
For rapidly rotating turbulent Rayleigh--Bénard convection in a slender cylindrical cell, experiments and direct numerical simulations reveal a boundary zonal flow (BZF) that replaces the classical large-scale circulation. The BZF is located near the vertical side wall and enables enhanced heat transport there. Although the azimuthal velocity of the BZF is cyclonic (in the rotating frame), the temperature is an anticyclonic traveling wave of mode one whose signature is a bimodal temperature distribution near the radial boundary. The BZF width is found to scale like $Ra^{1/4}Ek^{2/3}$ where the…
We study a large-scale instability in a sheared nonhelical turbulence that causes generation of large-scale vorticity. Three types of the background large-scale flows are considered, i.e., the Couette and Poiseuille flows in a small-scale homogeneous turbulence, and the "log-linear" velocity shear in an inhomogeneous turbulence. It is known that laminar plane Couette flow and antisymmetric mode of laminar plane Poiseuille flow are stable with respect to small perturbations for any Reynolds numbers. We demonstrate that in a small-scale turbulence under certain conditions the large-scale Couette…
We find steady channel flows that are locally optimal for transferring heat from fixed-temperature walls, under the constraint of a fixed rate of viscous dissipation (enstrophy = $Pe^2$), also the power needed to pump the fluid through the channel. We generate the optima with net flux as a continuation parameter, starting from parabolic (Poiseuille) flow, the unique optimum at maximum net flux. Decreasing the flux, we eventually reach optimal flows that concentrate the enstrophy in boundary layers of thickness $\sim Pe^{-2/5}$ at the channel walls, and have a uniform flow with speed $\sim Pe^{…
We perform direct numerical simulations of rotating Rayleigh--Bénard convection of fluids with low ($Pr=0.1$) and high ($Pr=5$) Prandtl numbers in a horizontally periodic layer with no-slip top and bottom boundaries. At both Prandtl numbers, we demonstrate the presence of an upscale transfer of kinetic energy that leads to the development of domain-filling vortical structures. Sufficiently strong buoyant forcing and rotation foster the quasi-two-dimensional turbulent state of the flow, despite the formation of plume-like vertical disturbances promoted by so-called Ekman pumping from the viscou…
Experimental and numerical data for the heat transfer as a function of the Rayleigh-, Prandtl-, and Rossby numbers in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Benard convection are presented. For relatively small $Ra ~ 10^8$ and large Pr modest rotation can enhance the heat transfer by up to 30%. At larger Ra there is less heat-transfer enhancement, and at small Pr = 0.7. there is no heat-transfer enhancement at all. We suggest that the small-Pr behavior is due to the breakdown of the heat-transfer-enhancing Ekman pumping because of larger thermal diffusion.
What is the turbulent drag force experienced by an object moving in a rotating fluid? This open and fundamental question can be addressed by measuring the torque needed to drive an impeller at constant angular velocity $ω$ in a water tank mounted on a platform rotating at a rate $Ω$. We report a dramatic reduction in drag as $Ω$ increases, down to values as low as $12$\% of the non-rotating drag. At small Rossby number $Ro = ω/Ω$, the decrease in drag coefficient $K$ follows the approximate scaling law $K \sim Ro$, which is predicted in the framework of nonlinear inertial wave interactions and…
We report the results of an experimental investigation into the decay of turbulence in plane Couette-Poiseuille flow using 'quench' experiments where the flow laminarises after a sudden reduction in Reynolds number $Re$. Specifically, we study the velocity field in the streamwise-spanwise plane. We show that the spanwise velocity containing rolls, decays faster than the streamwise velocity, which displays elongated regions of higher or lower velocity called streaks. At final Reynolds numbers above 425, the decay of streaks displays two stages: first a slow decay when rolls are present and seco…
Direct numerical simulations of turbulent non-rotating and rotating Plane Couette Flow with a periodically modulated plate velocity are conducted to study the effect of modulated forcing on turbulent shear flows. The time averaged shear Reynolds number is fixed to $Re_S = 3 \cdot 10^4$, which results in a frictional Reynolds number of approximately $Re_τ\approx 400$. The modulating frequency is varied in the range $Wo\in(20,200)$, while the modulating amplitude is kept fixed at $10\%$ of the shear velocity except to demonstrate that varying this parameter changes little. The resulting shear at…
This paper describes an experimental investigation, by means of hot-wire anemometry, of the characteristics of velocity and temperature in a rotating turbulent boundary layer under isothermal and non-isothermal conditions. The ranges of experimental parameters are: Reynolds number from 10000 to 25000, rotational speed from 0 to 150 rpm, and y+ from 1.8 to 100. The relative temperature difference is held constant at 0.1. Detailed velocity and temperature distributions in the boundary layer are measured in the rotating state, and a new criterion for boundary layer segmentation under rotation is …
For Hagen-Poiseuille flow the mechanism of laminar-to-turbulent transition originated from the deceleration of disturbed streams on the pipe wall is analyzed. An expression for the critical Reynolds number and the disturbance in the form of ring obstacle is derived. The good qualitative agreement between the theoretical results and published experimental data is demonstrated
Rotating turbulent flows form a challenging test case for large-eddy simulation (LES). We, therefore, propose and validate a new subgrid-scale (SGS) model for such flows. The proposed SGS model consists of a dissipative eddy viscosity term as well as a nondissipative term that is nonlinear in the rate-of-strain and rate-of-rotation tensors. The two corresponding model coefficients are a function of the vortex stretching magnitude. Therefore, the model is consistent with many physical and mathematical properties of the Navier-Stokes equations and turbulent stresses, and is easy to implement. We…
A new turbulent Taylor-Couette system consisting of two independently rotating cylinders has been constructed. The gap between the cylinders has a height of 0.927 m, an inner radius of 0.200 m, and a variable outer radius (from 0.279 to 0.220 m). The maximum angular rotation rates of the inner and outer cylinder are 20 and 10 Hz, respectively, resulting in Reynolds numbers up to 3.4 x 10^6 with water as working fluid. With this Taylor-Couette system, the parameter space (Re_i, Re_o, η) extends to (2.0 x 10^6, {\pm}1.4 x 10^6, 0.716-0.909). The system is equipped with bubble injectors, temperat…
We present measurements of the azimuthal orientation θ(t) and thermal amplitude δ(t) of the large-scale circulation (LSC) of turbulent rotating convection within an unprecedented large Rossby number range 1<Ro<314. Results of θ(t) reveal persistent rotation of the LSC flow in the retrograde direction over the entire Ro range. The rotation speed ratio remains a constant of 0.13(${\pm}$0.01) for 10<Ro<70, but starts to increase with increasing Ro when Ro>70. We identify the mechanism through which the mean retrograde rotation speed can be enhanced by stochastic cessations in the presence of weak…
We test a subgrid-scale spectral model of rotating turbulent flows against direct numerical simulations. The particular case of Taylor-Green forcing at large scale is considered, a configuration that mimics the flow between two counter rotating disks as often used in the laboratory. We perform computations in the presence of moderate rotation down to Rossby numbers of 0.03, as can be encountered in the Earth atmosphere and oceans. We provide several classical measures of the degree of anisotropy of the small scales of the flows under study and conclude that an isotropic model may suffice at mo…
Modeling and simulating overland flow fed by rainfall is a common issue in watershed surface hydrology. Modelers have to choose among various friction models when defining their simulation framework. The purpose of this work is to compare the simulation quality for the Manning, Darcy-Weisbach, and Poiseuille friction models on the simple case of a constant rain on a thin experimental flume. Results show that the usual friction law of Manning is not suitable for this type of flow. The Poiseuille friction model gave the best results both on the flux at the outlet and the velocity and depth profi…
Passive scalar transport in turbulent channel flow subject to spanwise system rotation is studied by direct numerical simulations. The Reynolds number $Re = U_b h/ν$ is fixed at $20\,000$ and the rotation number $Ro = 2 Ωh/U_b$ is varied from 0 to 1.2, where $U_b$ is the bulk mean velocity, $h$ the half channel gap width and $Ω$ the rotation rate. The scalar value is constant but different at the two walls, leading to steady scalar transport across the channel. The rotation causes an unstable channel side with relatively strong turbulence and turbulent scalar transport, and a stable channel si…
In this letter, it is shown numerically that in plane Poiseuille flow and before the threshold of equilibrium turbulence defined by the directed-percolation universality class, a sparse turbulent state in form of localized turbulent band can sustain either by continuous increase of the turbulence fraction due to band extension when the flow domain is large enough, or by a dynamic balance between the band extension and the band breaking and decay caused by the band interaction in a finite domain. The width and tilt angle of the band keep statistically invariant during its oblique extension, a p…
We report heat transfer and temperature profile measurements in laboratory experiments of rapidly rotating convection in water under intense thermal forcing (Rayleigh number $Ra$ as high as $\sim 10^{13}$) and unprecedentedly strong rotational influence (Ekman numbers $E$ as low as $10^{-8}$). Measurements of the mid-height vertical temperature gradient connect quantitatively to predictions from numerical models of asymptotically rapidly rotating convection, separating various flow phenomenologies. Past the limit of validity of the asymptotically-reduced models, we find novel behaviors in a re…