Turbulence basics

Turbulent motions are variations in fluid properties and velocity due to the decay of large-scale instabilities within the flow. Strictly speaking, they are neither chaotic nor random.

A treatment of turbulence naturally leads to a discussion about statistics of properties of the flow (usually velocity) and their relation to the flow Reynolds number Re.

We know that Re = UL , where U and L are characteristic velocities and lengths; respectively, and is the kinematic viscosity. Lets think about flow around a fixed object and increase the Re around it.

Properties of turbulent flows Irregular in both space and time Continuous spectrum in both space and time Large Reynolds number Enhanced dissipation of energy and heat Enhanced mixing and heat transfer Three-dimensional Dominated by vortical motions Intermittent

Spectral description of turbulence

Turbulent motions often take the form of vortices (or eddies), which in a Eulerian reference frame manifests itself as series of waves. As a result, frequency space is often preferable to describe the physics of turbulent flow. A reminder: Eulerian reference frame Reference frame is stationary. Velocities are related to this fixed frame. Lagrangian reference frame Moves with a fluid element. Simplest form of turbulence is isotropic turbulence. That is, the statistics of the flow have no preferred direction.

There are many ways to describe turbulence, but the most convenient method is that of an energy spectrum E(k)

But how do you get to wavenumber k from real data? Taylors frozen-turbulence approximation! Taylors approximation implies that turbulence in a time series is reflective of the variability in space (f => k). That is, fluctuations are not affected by the mean flow, but merely advected.

The inertial subrange

Kolmogorov (1941) postulated that at length scales much larger than those where viscosity is important and simultaneously

much smaller than the source of turbulent energy, the transfer of energy should be self-similar. As a result, some people have attempted to understand turbulence from analysis of fractals. Dimensional examination of turbulence quantities can yield interesting results [k] = 1/L, [] = L2/T, [E(k)] = L3/T2, = L2/T3 Knowing that E = f (k , , ) for length scales much smaller than production, we introduce Kolmogorov length and velocity scale

= ( )1 4 Velocity,

= 3 4 1 4 Length,

(1)

Noticing we have 4 unknown variables and two dimensions (length and time) E (k )
2 So two dimensionless groups and k

Introducing Kolmogorov wavenumber: = 1/kd

~ E (k ) = 2E (k )

(2)

In order to remove dependence on in unknown function, we choose to remove E (k ) = 2 (k )

5 3

F (k )

(3)

E (k ) = 2 3k 5 3 F (k kd )
F ~ exp (k k d )

(4)

43

(5)

For wavenumbers k << kd (i.e., in the inertial subrange)

E (k ) = C 2 3k 5 3

(6)

C is theoretically a UNIVERSAL constant. Its value, however, depends on details not encapsulated in this simplified analysis.

Qualitative features of wall-bounded coherent structures

As mentioned before, turbulence is produced at large scales by fluid mechanical instabilities. The greatest energy is in these large scales. So what are the instabilities that produce turbulence in wallbounded flows?

Hairpin (horseshoe) vortices

Bed

Low-speed streaks

Flow => Low-speed streaks form as a result of circulation in the viscous boundary layer. An explanation of low-speed streaks is not trivial because low-speed streaks are relatively constant, steady and periodic, despite that the fluctuations that create them are quasi-random.

It was first thought that streamwise vorticity associated with successive hairpin vortices, originating in the viscous sublayer, causes material to pile up in areas of locally suppressed streamwise velocity (regions dominated by sweeps). However, numerical experiments by Marchioli and Soldati (2002) have shown that alternating vortices are rare.

y+ ~10 Accumulated material Low streamwise High streamwise velocity velocity Bed

Both hairpin vortices and low-speed streaks have a geological signal. For instance, flute marks at the base of erosive turbidity current deposits are most likely associated with a feedback related to hairpin vortices and topography. Low speed streaks can often be seen on well-preserved ripples.

Modeling Turbulence
Direct-numerical simulation
Solves

r Du r p r =F + 2u Dt
r u = 0

(7) (8)

directly, usually in Fourier space (i.e., using spectral methods). The problem is that you need to account for energy at all length scales. A simple scale analysis illustrates the problem. Assume an integral length scale

And a mean velocity U

Your box size (computational domain) needs to be 3 and the grid size has to be 3
3

So the number of points required is We can relate this to the overall Reynolds number (U/) by remembering the definition of the Kolmogorov length scale and noting = U3/L
3

1 4

3 4

U 3 4 = 3 4 1 4 = Re3 4

(9)

3 94 So # of grid points ~ ( ) Re

The time required to examined the entire flow must be at least the time scale of the largest eddy T

T=

(10)

And the time step

t =

(11)

So the # of time steps required ~ T/t

T ( ) = = 3 4 1 4 = Re1 2 t U u This makes the total computation scale with Re11/4

(12)

So, for instance, the solution of a reasonably small geophysical flow (river plume: U = 1 m/s, = 1 km) where Re = 107, requires 107
11 4

~ 1019 solutions of (7) and (8).

Even teraflop supercomputers (which there are only a few: teraflop => 1012 floating point operations per second) would require months of computing time to solve a single flow. As a result, DNS is usually useful for flows where Re ~103-104 Another difficulty not discussed is the assessment of boundary conditions. In natural flows, the boundary conditions are often extremely complex and can present incalculable hazards to numerical estimation.

Eddy viscosity
The concept of eddy viscosity is used ALOT in oceanography and in fluid mechanical modeling. It is not a real viscosity, as is a molecular viscosity, but rather an assumption to the N-S equations. That assumption (for 2-D unidirectional flow) is:

 (uw) = T

u z

(13)

Remember, the LHS quantity is a matrix for multi-dimensional flows.

Mixing length
You might remember that the derivative of the Reynolds stress is present in the N-S equations (making the term analogous to diffusion). Like any diffusion equation, the constant within it (in this case, T) is essentially a description of the length scale over which the quantity (in this case, momentum) is diffused. In turbulent flows, this length is the mixing length .

can be thought of as the average length over which momentum

is distributed.

For instance, dimensional analysis would indicate that in a unidirectional boundary-layer flow

T = 2

du dz

(14)

In fact, this formulation was proposed by Prandtl, and ultimately used by von Karman, to formulate the log-layer relationship discussed the other day.

Zero-equation models
These models prescribe as an algebraic equation. They use no information about the flow other than geometry. As a result, they cannot predict the dynamic relationships between productive and dissipative areas within the flow. For example, the van Driest damping function

= z[1 exp( z+ A)]

(15)

where A and are constants. Most simple oceanographic models are of this type.

One-equation models
These models formulate an equation for the mixing length. In the case of the log-layer (inertial sublayer), the mixing length is a constant. Namely,

= z

(16)

This example and most other one-equation models typically find this length scale by balancing production and dissipation. There are certain assumptions present in setting these quantities equal, which make the 1-equation models generally undesirable.

k- models (Two-equation models)

A somewhat more sophisticated approach which uses turbulence theory to describe production and dissipation in terms of other flow parameters. In short, it uses two equations (one for production, another for dissipation) to estimate the eddy viscosity. This model, along with everything mentioned previously, has assumed isotropic turbulence. No natural flow is isotropic, particularly stratified flows. Most of the errors associated with these models are related to this assumption. Mellor-Yamada is a commonly used two-equation model designed explicitly for stratified turbulence. It has many empirical parameters. It is particularly good at describing gently stirred regions in the oceans. Highly mixed regions or particleladen flows, like turbidity current fronts, are poorly (if not, inaccurately) described.

LES (Large-Eddy Simulation) LES is the future of flow simulation. Many commercial packages are being developed to utilize this approach (many currently use zero- or two-equation models). The approach is to utilize Kolmogorovs theory to save computing decaying eddies. That is:
Large scales: solve for explicitly Universal

E(k)

Grid size

For the universal portion of spectral space, the model uses a sub-grid model for the decay and dissipation of smaller eddies. The result is that you have sub-grid resolution of ALL statistical properties of the flow (and total resolution of dissipation, mixing, etc.).

Difficulty: the proper computation of conditions for a good subgrid model requires significant effort not much less than is required to solve the N-S equations directly. Poorer models have done little to improve k-. Even with improvements, there are always the problems of initial and boundary conditions for natural flows.