The transfer of turbulence kinetic energy from large to small scales occurs through vortex stretching. Also, statistical properties of the subgrid-scale energy fluxes depend on the alignment of the vorticity vector with the principal strain axis. A heuristic analysis of the present study indicates that vortex-stretching and the second invariant of the velocity gradient tensor provide a scale-adaptive parameterization of the subgrid-scale stresses and the local energy fluxes in the wakes of wind turbines. The scale-adaptivity underlies the restricted Euler dynamics of the filtered motion that vortex-stretching plays in the growth of the second invariant of filtered velocity gradient and the local energy transfer. We have analyzed wind power fluctuations in a utility-scale wind farm with $41$ actuator disks. The numerical results show that the spectrum of the wind power fluctuations follows a power law with a logarithmic slope of $-5/3$. Furthermore, POD analysis indicates that the wind power fluctuations depend on the incoming turbulence and its modulation by the wake interactions in wind farms.
Although traditional vortex identification methods such as Q, Delta, Lambda2, Lambdaci remain popular in the identification and visualization of vortices, these methods count on shearing and stretching as a part of vortex strength. However, shearing and stretching do not contribute to fluid rotation. In this paper, the contamination effects of stretching and shearing of these methods are investigated and compared with Liutex method. From our investigation, the Liutex is an exact definition of fluid rotation or vortex, while other vortex identification methods are contaminated by stretching and…
In three dimensional turbulence there is on average a cascade of kinetic energy from the largest to the smallest scales of the flow. While the dominant idea is that the cascade occurs through the physical process of vortex stretching, evidence for this is debated. In the framework of the Karman-Howarth equation for the two point turbulent kinetic energy, we derive a new result for the average flux of kinetic energy between two points in the flow that reveals the role of vortex stretching. However, the result shows that vortex stretching is in fact not the main contributor to the average energy…
Vortex stretching in a compressible fluid is considered. Two-dimensional and axisymmetric cases are considered separately. The flows associated with the vortices are perpendicular to the plane of the uniform straining flows. Externally-imposed density build-up near the axis leads to enhanced compactness of the vortices - "dressed" vortices (in analogy to "dressed" charged particles in a dielectric system). The compressible vortex flow solutions in the 2D as well as axisymmetric cases identify a length scale relevant for the compressible case which leads to the Kadomtsev-Petviashvili spectrum f…
The three dimensional optimal energy growth mechanism, in plane parallel shear flows, is reexamined in terms of the role of vortex stretching and the interplay between the span-wise vorticity and the planar divergent components. For high Reynolds numbers the structure of the optimal perturbations in Couette, Poiseuille, and mixing layer shear profiles is robust and resembles localized plane-waves in regions where the background shear is large. The waves are tilted with the shear when the span-wise vorticity and the planar divergence fields are in (out of) phase when the background shear is pos…
Energy dissipation and pressure fluctuations are features inherent to turbulent fluid motion, and the internal origin of spatial and temporal temperature fluctuations. By measuring local velocity, pressure or temperature, it is possible to detect the presence of coherent structures ---like concentrated vortices--- and quantify their intensity. Here we report measurements of speed and temperature in a filamentary vortex lying in a strongly stretched turbulent airflow. The largest core temperature drop measured in our experiment was $ΔT = 9$ K, while the fastest measured air speed was $v_{max} =…
In large wind farms, wake distribution behind a wind turbine causes a considerable reduction of wind velocity for downstream wind turbines, resulting in a significant amount of power loss. Therefore, it is very crucial to predict wind turbine wakes efficiently. Thus, we propose a large-eddy simulation (LES) methodology, which takes the vorticity stretching to model transients in wind turbine wakes. In addition, we present an improved actuator disk model, which accounts for two-way feedback between the atmosphere and the wakes. First, we show that the vertical profile of the mean wind predicted…
In this paper, with the aid of direct numerical simulations (DNS) of forced turbulence in a periodic domain, we mathematically reformulate the Kolmogorov-Richardson energy cascade in terms of vortex stretching. By using the description, we prove that if the Navier-Stokes flow satisfies a new regularity criterion in terms of the enstrophy production rate, then the flow does not blow up. Our DNS results seem to support this regularity criterion. Next, we mathematically construct the hierarchy of tubular vortices, which is statistically self-similar in the inertial range. Under the assumptions of…
We consider the 3D incompressible Euler equations under the following situation: small-scale vortex blob being stretched by a prescribed large-scale stationary flow. More precisely, we clarify what kind of large-scale stationary flows really stretch small-scale vortex blobs in alignment with the straining direction. The key idea is constructing a Lagrangian coordinate so that the Lie bracket is identically zero (c.f. the Frobenius theorem), and investigate the locality of the pressure term by using it.
Vortex Stretching in the Navier-Stokes Equations and Information Dissipation in Diffusion Models: A Reformulation from a Partial Differential Equation Viewpoint
Graduate School of Economics, Hitotsubashi University（早稻田大学经济学研究科）
By DNS of Navier-Stokes turbulence, Goto-Saito-Kawahara (2017) showed that turbulence consists of a self-similar hierarchy of anti-parallel pairs of vortex tubes, in particular, stretching in larger-scale strain fields creates smaller-scale vortices. Inspired by their numerical result, we examine the Goto-Saito-Kawahara type of vortex-tubes behavior using the 3D incompressible Euler equations, and show that such behavior induces energy cascade in the absence of nonlinear scale-interaction. From this energy cascade, we prove a modified version of the zeroth-law. In the Appendix, we derive Kolmo…
Whether turbulence intermittencies shall be described by a log-Poisson, a log-stable pdf or other distributions is still debated nowadays. In this paper, a bridge between polymer physics, self-avoiding walk and random vortex stretching is established which may help in getting a new insight on this topics. Actually a very simple relationship between stability index of the stable law and the well known Flory exponent stemming from polymer physics is established. Moreover the scaling of turbulence intermittencies with Reynolds number is also obtained and the overall picture is very close to Tenne…
We analyze the dynamics of solute mixing in a vortex flow. The transport of a passive tracer is considered in a Rankine vortex. The action of a shear flow, in general, is to achieve stretching of fluid elements. A vortex flow exhibits stretching and folding of fluid elements in a way which brings adjacent fluid elements closer every turn. A strong stretching along the direction of rotation is accompanied by a concomitant thinning in the radial direction leading to a strong diffusive flux which may cause material from neighbouring regions of the mixing interface to aggregate. Through a Lagrangi…
Lagrangian Phase-Lag and Geometric Precedence in Turbulent Vortex Stretching
Mechanical Engineering Deparatment, College of Engineering and Technology（机械工程系，工程学院与技术学院）；Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport（阿拉伯科学、技术与海运学院）
Stretching in continuum mechanics is naturally described using the Cauchy-Green strain tensors. These tensors quantify the Lagrangian stretching experienced by a material element, and provide a powerful way to study processes in turbulent fluid flows that involve stretching such as vortex stretching and alignment of anisotropic particles. Analyzing data from a simulation of isotropic turbulence, we observe preferential alignment between anisotropic particles and vorticity. We show that this alignment arises because both of these quantities independently tend to align with the strongest Lagrang…
An essential ingredient of turbulent flows is the vortex stretching mechanism, which emanates from the non-linear interaction of vorticity and strain-rate tensor and leads to formation of extreme events. We analyze the statistical correlations between vorticity and strain rate by using a massive database generated from very well resolved direct numerical simulations of forced isotropic turbulence in periodic domains. The grid resolution is up to $12288^3$, and the Taylor-scale Reynolds number is in the range $140-1300$. In order to understand the formation and structure of extreme vorticity fl…
We compute the angular dynamics of a neutrally buoyant nearly spherical particle immersed in an unsteady fluid. We assume that the particle is small, that its translational slip velocity is negligible, and that unsteady and convective inertia are small perturbations. We derive an approximation for the torque on the particle that determines the first inertial corrections to Jeffery's equation. These corrections arise as a consequence of local vortex stretching, and can be substantial in turbulence where local vortex stretching is strong and closely linked to the irreversibility of turbulence.
Viscous depletion of vorticity is an essential and well known property of turbulent flows, balancing, in the mean, the net vorticity production associated with the vortex stretching mechanism. In this letter we however demonstrate that viscous effects are not restricted to a mere destruction process, but play a more complex role in vorticity dynamics that is as important as vortex stretching. Based on results from particle tracking experiments (3D-PTV) and direct numerical simulation (DNS) of homogeneous and quasi isotropic turbulence, we show that the viscous term in the vorticity equation ca…
Large eddy simulation allows to incorporate the important driving physics of turbulent flow through forest- or vegetation-like canopies. In this paper we investigate the effects of vortex stretching and coherent structures on the subgrid-scale (SGS) turbulence kinetic energy (TKE). We present three simulations (SGS-d/s/w) of turbulence-canopy interactions. SGS-d assumes a local, dynamic balance of SGS production with SGS dissipation. SGS-s averages the SGS contributions of coherent structures over Lagrangian pathlines. SGS-w assumes that an average cascade of TKE from large- to small-scales oc…
Incompressible, homogeneous and isotropic turbulence is studied by solving the Navier-Stokes equations on a reduced set of Fourier modes, belonging to a fractal set of dimension $D$. By tuning the fractal dimension parameter, we study the dynamical effects of Fourier decimation on the vortex stretching mechanism and on the statistics of the velocity and the velocity gradient tensor. In particular, we show that as we move from $D=3$ to $D \sim 2.8$, the statistics gradually turns into a purely Gaussian one. This result suggests that even a mild fractal mode reduction strongly depletes the stret…
Viscous vortex layers subject to a more general uniform strain are considered. They include Townsend's steady solution for plane strain (corresponding to a parameter $a = 1$) in which all the strain in the plane of the layer goes toward vorticity stretching, as well as Migdal's recent steady asymmetric solution for axisymmetric strain ($a = 1/2$) in which half of the strain goes into vorticity stretching. In addition to considering asymmetric, symmetric and antisymmetric steady solutions $\forall a \ge 0$, it is shown that for $a < 1$, i.e., anything less than the Townsend case, the vorticity …
To investigate the intrinsic mechanism for mixing enhancement by variable density behaviour, a canonical variable density (VD) mixing extracted from a supersonic streamwise vortex protocol, shock bubble interaction (SBI), is numerically studied and compared with a counterpart of passive scalar (PS) mixing. It is meaningful to observe that the maximum concentration decays much faster in VD SBI than in PS SBI regardless of the shock Mach number (Ma = 1.22 ~ 4). The quasi-Lamb-Oseen type velocity distribution in the PS SBI is found by analyzing the azimuthal velocity that stretches the bubble. Me…
Intense fluctuations of energy dissipation rate in turbulent flows result from the self-amplification of strain rate via a quadratic nonlinearity, with contributions from vorticity (via the vortex stretching mechanism) and the pressure Hessian tensor, which we analyze here using direct numerical simulations of isotropic turbulence in periodic domains of up to $12288^3$ grid points, and Taylor-scale Reynolds numbers in the range $140-1300$. We extract the statistics of various terms involved in amplification of strain and additionally condition them on the magnitude of strain. We find that stra…
The tendency of turbulent flows to produce fine-scale motions from large-scale energy injection is often viewed as a scale-wise cascade of kinetic energy driven by vorticity stretching. This has been recently evaluated by an exact, spatially-local relationship [Johnson, P. L. 2020, Phys. Rev. Lett., \textbf{124}, 104501], which also highlights the contribution of strain self-amplification. In this paper, the role of these two mechanisms is explored in more detail. Vorticity stretching and strain amplification interactions between velocity gradients filtered at the same scale account for about …
From a new anti-parallel initial condition using long vortices, three-dimensional turbulence forms after two reconnection steps and the formation of at least one vortex ring. The long domain is needed in order to accommodate the multiple reconnections, which enhance vortex stretching rates and the generation of small-scale vortex structures within the vortex rings. In addition to making the initial vortices very long, new features introduced with this initial condition are an initial profile less likely to shed vortex sheets and an improved method for mapping the direction of the vorticity ont…
Motivated by the need for compact descriptions of the evolution of non-classical wakes behind yawed wind turbines, we develop an analytical model to predict the shape of curled wakes. Interest in such modelling arises due to the potential of wake steering as a strategy for mitigating power reduction and unsteady loading of downstream turbines in wind farms. We first estimate the distribution of the shed vorticity at the wake edge due to both yaw offset and rotating blades. By considering the wake edge as an ideally thin vortex sheet, we describe its evolution in time moving with the flow. Vort…
This two-part paper presents the integration of the free-vortex wake method (FVM) with an aeroelastic framework suitable to model the rotor-wake interactions engendered by floating offshore wind turbine (FOWT) rotors in operation. Part 1 of this paper introduces the numerical development and validation of an aeroelastic framework. Due to a lack of experimental aeroelastic benchmarks for FOWTs, a series of validation studies are conducted against the rotor aerodynamic and structural performance of the National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) 5-MW reference wind turbine. Part 2 of this paper …
The flows behind a model wind turbine under two turbine operating regimes are investigated using wind tunnel experiments and large-eddy simulations. Measurements from the model wind turbine experiment reveal that the power coefficient and turbine wake are affected by the operating regime. Simulations employing a new class of actuator surface methods which parameterize both the turbine blades and nacelle with and without a nacelle model are carried out for each operating condition to study the influence of the operating regime and nacelle. For simulations with a nacelle model, the mean flow fie…
We propose to combine the active vortex generators with the particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements and post-processing streamwise vortex characterization algorithms into a feedback based closed-loop control system for wind turbine applications. We develop two vortex identification and characterization methods that use PIV realizations for the purpose of a real-time (online or on-the-fly) feedback-based control. Both methods can extract centers and strengths of streamwise vortices generated behind active vortex generators in a turbulent boundary layer flow, and we show how to integrate t…
Recent field experiments conducted in the near-wake (up to 0.5 rotor diameters downwind of the rotor) of a 2.5 MW wind turbine using snow-based super-large-scale particle image velocimetery (SLPIV) (Hong et al., Nature Comm., vol. 5, 2014, no. 4216) were successful in visualizing tip vortex cores as areas devoid of snowflakes. The so-visualized snow voids, however, suggested tip vortex cores of complex shape consisting of circular cores with distinct elongated comet-like tails. We employ large-eddy simulation (LES) to elucidate the structure and dynamics of the complex tip vortices identified …
Direct numerical simulations of the Taylor-Green Vortex interacting with a hydrogen diffusion flame: Reynolds number and non-unity Lewis number effects
This report proposes a new method to study vortex tubes in one-dimensional velocity data of experimental turbulence. Vortex tubes are detected as local maxima on the scale-space plot of wavelet transforms of the velocity data. Then it is possible to extract a typical velocity pattern. The result for data obtained in a wind tunnel is consistent with those of three-dimensional direct numerical simulations.
The energy spectrum of the 3D velocity field, induced by collapsing vortex filaments is studied. One of the aims of this work is to clarify the appearance of the Kolmogorov type energy spectrum $E(k)\varpropto k^{-5/3}$, observed in many numerical works on discrete vortex tubes (quantized vortex filaments in quantum fluids). Usually, explaining classical turbulent properties of quantum turbulence, the model of vortex bundles, is used. This model is necessary to mimic the vortex stretching, which is responsible for the energy transfer in classical turbulence. In our consideration we do not appe…
Wind farm flow control aims to improve wind turbine performance by reducing aerodynamic wake interaction between turbines. Dynamic, physics-based models of wind farm flows have been essential for exploring control strategies such as wake redirection and dynamic induction control. Free vortex methods can provide a computationally efficient way to model wind turbine wake dynamics for control optimisation. We present a control-oriented free-vortex wake model of a 2D and 3D actuator disc to represent wind turbine wakes. The novel derivation of the discrete adjoint equations allows efficient gradie…
Long distance wind dispersal requires small spores with low terminal velocities, which can be held aloft by turbulent air currents until they are deposited in suitable habitats for colonization. The inherent difficulty in dispersing spores by wind is that spores easily carried by wind are also rapidly decelerated when moving through still air. Thus the height of spore release is critical in determining their range of dispersal. Vascular plants with wind dispersed spores use the height of the plant to lift spores into sufficient wind currents for dispersal, however non-vascular plants such as S…
Center for Climate Research Singapore, Department of Weather Research, Core Modeling Development team（新加坡气候研究中心天气研究部核心建模开发团队）；Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences（地球与大气科学系）；Indiana University Bloomington（印第安纳大学布卢明顿分校）
