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Analysis of periodic synthetic turbulence generation and development for

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Analysis of periodic synthetic turbulence
generation and development for direct
numerical simulations applications
Cite as: Phys. Fluids 33, 125130 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0071002
Submitted: 10 September 2021 • Accepted: 01 December 2021 • Published Online: 21 December 2021

Daniel Martinez-Sanchis, Andrej Sternin, Daniel Sternin, et al.

Phys. Fluids 33, 125130 (2021); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0071002 33, 125130

© 2021 Author(s).
 Physics of Fluids ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf

Analysis of periodic synthetic turbulence

generation and development for direct
numerical simulations applications
Cite as: Phys. Fluids 33, 125130 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0071002
Submitted: 10 September 2021 . Accepted: 1 December 2021 .
Published Online: 21 December 2021

Daniel Martinez-Sanchis,1,a) Andrej Sternin,1,2 Daniel Sternin,1 Oskar Haidn,1 and Martin Tajmar2

AFFILIATIONS
1
€ t Mu
Chair of Space Propulsion Technische, Universita € nchen, Boltzmannstraße 15, Garching, Germany
2
€ t Dresden, Marschnerstraße 32, Dresden, Germany
Chair of Space Systems/Technische, Universita

a)
Author to whom correspondence should be addressed: daniel.martinez@tum.de

ABSTRACT
The generation of periodic synthetic turbulence through superposition of Fourier modes is investigated. The introduction of directional
biases and mismatches in the second-order statistics associated with the enforcement of periodicity is analyzed and quantified. Two strategies
for mitigation of these disparities are proposed. The suggested approaches are subsequently validated and compared with the original meth-
odologies using direct numerical simulations. The proposed strategies are capable of neutralizing the disparities in the second-order statistics
at the injection region. The development from synthetic to realistic turbulence is evaluated through the resulting flow statistics and spectral
analysis. It is found that higher-order statistics and other indicators converge to the expected results with sufficient length.
C 2021 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://
V
creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/). https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0071002

I. INTRODUCTION separated simulation that is initialized with artificial turbulence during

Scale resolving simulations are steadily gaining relevance due to
the increase in computational capabilities. These methods can address
scenarios where the classical assumptions of turbulence are challenged.
Such is the case of reacting flows in the combustion chamber of a
rocket engine. Intermittency, interactions between anisotropic vortical
structures, and reversed spectral energy transfer are examples of pro-
cesses that cannot be captured in such a context with conventional
models. Unsteady inflow boundary conditions are required to investi-
gate these sorts of phenomena by numerical simulations. To recreate
the desired turbulent conditions, inlet regions must enforce a velocity
field with fluctuations that match a set of prescribed statistics.
Stochastic equivalence is a necessary but not sufficient condition for
accurately representing a realistic turbulent flow. Artificial turbulent
fields lack complete physical motivation since they do not originate
from a solution to the Navier–Stokes equations.1 As a consequence,
spatial-temporal development is required to beget a physically mean-
ingful turbulent flow.
There are two main approaches to produce turbulent inflow con-
ditions: Synthetic Turbulence Generation (STG) and Precursor
Simulations (PS).2 Synthetic turbulence generation creates a turbulent
field introducing randomized elements. Precursor methods run a
a development time to obtain more realistic data. This precursor veloc-
ity field is fed as the inflow values in the main simulation afterward.
Such an approach can provide very realistic turbulent fields but lacks
adaptability and is not able to produce specific anisotropy. Optimizing
the synthetic turbulence generation is an intensive research area3–5
since improving the features of the imposed fluctuations will be benefi-
cial regardless of the approach. The present paper aims to advance in
this direction by studying the generation and the development of syn-
thetic turbulence for researching the statistics of flows in extreme
conditions.
The methods discussed herein are derived from the foundational
concept introduced by Kraichnan.6 The basic premise is to reproduce
a turbulent velocity field through the superposition of a finite number
of spatial Fourier modes with random amplitude and phases. The
main benefit of this sort of approach is that the amount of required
statistical information is minimal. Although further refinement is pos-
sible, basic parameters such as the turbulent kinetic energy and the dis-
sipation rate suffice to apply a synthetic turbulence algorithm based
on Fourier modes. This feature is advantageous when addressing flows
in extreme conditions that prevent their complete observation,
and there is a lack of available data. In this context, the application of

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 Physics of Fluids
sophisticated methods such as Synthetic Eddy Method (SEM),7 High
Order Data Decomposition (HODD),1 or Digital Filtering (DF)8 can
be challenging since more detailed statistical information is required.
The original Kraichnan’s idea heralded a series of works, which
successively refined the initial concept.9–11 The upgrade introduced by
Shur et al.12 is particularly interesting for addressing scenarios where
the standard assumptions of turbulent flows can be challenged. This
approach has the capability of representing anisotropic vortical struc-
tures in a realistic way, which is a common feature in turbulent bound-
ary layers and reacting flows. Although the model was conceived for
hybrid Reynolds Average Navier-Stokes (RANS)-Large Eddy
Simulation (LES) simulations, its validity for Direct Numerical
Simulations (DNS) has been recently studied.13 The ease of implemen-
tation coupled with its high adaptability endows this method a huge
potential for its future use in Large Eddy Simulations (LES) and DNS.
Despite its advantages, this procedure has exhibited remarkable hin-
drances in the achievement of the targeted second-order statistics. In
this sense, Morsbach and Franke14 observed an increase in the turbu-
lent kinetic energy in the periodic directions following the enforce-
ment of periodicity. Significant deviations in the targeted Reynolds
Stress Tensor (RST) were also observed by Patterson et al.,15 which
could add up to 30% if no countermeasures were adopted.
In the present study, the origin of the directional biases associated
with the enforcement of periodicity of Shur’s method is investigated.
The introduction of random elements for the generation of synthetic
turbulence is analyzed, and strategies to minimize the discrepancies in
the targeted statistics are proposed. The suggested schemes are vali-
dated through the simulation of spatially decaying turbulence and
compared with the original approach.
II. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND
This section introduces the theoretical concepts that are needed
to discuss the improvements proposed later in the text. The first
Subsection II A provides a general description of a model for the spec-
tral turbulent kinetic energy. In the second Subsection II B, the genera-
tion of Fourier modes based on this spectrum and randomized
elements is presented. The components responsible for the introduc-
tion of randomness are identified and described in Subsection II C. In
Subsection II D, the conditions necessary to meet the requirement of
periodicity are introduced. Only the aspects which are relevant within
this paper’s scope are presented in detail. The reader is referred to the
original works6,12,14 for a comprehensive illustration.
A. Spectral energy function
The power spectral density function of the turbulent kinetic
energy is a key element that defines the spatial characteristics of the
turbulent structures. Ideally, this spectrum is acquired from experi-
mental measurements. However, this is unfeasible in most cases. Due
to this, model spectra that depend on the integral characteristics of tur-
bulence have been developed. The following expression is commonly
used for defining the spectrum of the turbulent kinetic energy:16
0 153þp0
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi kL
EðkÞ ¼ C e2 =k5 3@qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiA fg ðk; gÞ; (1)
ðkLÞ2 þ cL
Phys. Fluids 33, 125130 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0071002
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where k ¼ 2p=l is the spatial frequency for a given eddy size l, and L
is the length scale of the largest eddies, which is a function of the tur-
bulent kinetic energy q and the dissipation rate e
pffiffiffiffiffi
L ¼ q3 =e: (2)
This value is roughly twice the integral eddies length scale K:16
The constant p0 in (1) determines the order of the power spectral den-
sity in the region of the largest length scales ðl  LÞ. For this parame-
ter, values of 2 or 4 are used, with the latter option leading to the
celebrated von Karman spectrum.17 The factor fg accounts for the
steep decrease in energy in the dissipation domain as the eddie’s size
approaches the Kolmogorov length scale g. A general formulation of
this factor is also provided by Pope,16
  
 4 1=4
fg ¼ exp b 16p4 k=kg þ c4g  cg ; (3)
where kg is the spatial frequency of the Kolmogorov eddies, and b and
cg are model parameters. Finding an adequate expression for fg is far
from being trivial. The smallness of the involved scales poses signifi-
cant challenges, and there is no extended consensus concerning a uni-
versal formulation. For b, a value of 5.2 has been suggested by
Saddoughi and Veeravalli18 based on experimental results. Martinez
et al.19 found that the value ranges from roughly 7.5 to 5.5, decreasing
as the Reynolds number of the Taylor eddies Rek grows. The factor fg
departs from unity later as cg grows for high Reynolds number, a value
of 0:4 leads to a good match with the integral characteristics of turbu-
lence.16 For the particular case cg ¼ 0, (1) becomes a first-order expo-
nential decay as suggested by Kraichnan.20 For such cases, b  2:1 is
more convenient due to the sooner appearance of viscous damping
effects. A second-order exponential decay has been found to provide a
better agreement with experimental data in other research.21,22 This
sort of modeling is indeed the one recommended in the original Shur’s
method.
The expression in (1) tends asymptotically to zero when k tends
to zero or infinity, meaning that there is no turbulent energy neither in
infinitely small eddies nor in large length scales. It is possible to analyt-
ically derive the size of the most energetic eddies l  , where the spec-
trum peaks in (1). If fg is neglected, differentiating and setting to zero
(1) leads to the following result:
 
l 2p
¼ sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
  ffi 2 ½1:56 ; 2:2; (4)
L 3
p0 cL
5
where cL  6:78 has been assumed, as suggested by Pope,16 for large
Reynolds numbers.
B. Harmonics generation
The spectrum defined in (1) has to be split into a finite number
of elements, each of them associated with a given frequency k. These
elements are referred to as harmonics or modes. The energy contained
in each of them can be approximated with the following expression:
 
ki þ kiþ1
qi ¼ E ðkiþ1  ki Þ; (5)
2
which corresponds to the following fraction of the total:
33, 125130-2
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~q i ¼ qi =q: (6) the direction (x; y; z). Each of the components is then normalized with
the second norm of the initial random set to obtain a unit vector,
Combining these values with some random elements, it is possi-
ble to determine the harmonics that enable the generation of the tur- *
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
  2 þ d 2 þ d 2 :
dj;n ¼ dj;n =jjd jj ¼ dj;n = dx;n y;n z;n (9)
bulent fluctuations field,
*
0 1 If the norm of the initial random set jjd jj is greater than one, the com-
u0
B x0 C XN pffiffiffiffiffiffiffi bination is discarded. This ensures that the points are uniformly dis-
B uy C ¼ L ðRij Þ 6~q i
@ A tributed over a spherical surface.24 If this step is not followed,pa ffiffibias
ffi is
i¼1
u0z created by increasing the concentration of values around 61= 2.
0    1 The following step is to obtain a random vector perpendicular to
*
rx;i cos ki dx;i x þ dy;i y þ dz;i ðz  U0 t Þsn þ /i d j ; this can be achieved with the following expression:
B    C
B C
@ ry;i cos ki dx;i x þ dy;i y þ dz;i ðz  U0 t Þsn  þ /i A; * * *
rj;n ¼ cosðhn Þv1;n þ cosðhn Þv 2;n ; (10)
rz;i cos ki dx;i x þ dy;i y þ dz;i ðz  U0 t Þsn þ /
*
* *

(7) where v1;n and v 2;n constitute an orthonormal basis of d n , and h is a

* random angle,
where dj;i and rj;i are the components of random unit vectors d i and
*
r i which are normal to each other and /i is a random angle. These hn ¼ 2pn: (11)
three random elements are calculated for each ith harmonic. L is the Following this strategy ensures that a set of randomly generated values
Choleski decomposition23 of the Reynolds stress tensor Rij ; and it ena- *
*
for d and r are uniformly distributed over a spherical surface with a
bles the recreation of anisotropic fluctuations. U0 is the bulk, i.e., mean constant probability density of 1=4p sr 1 , ensuring the absence of dis-
flow’s velocity. sn ¼ ln =maxfle g is the ratio between the eddy size of crepancies concerning the targeted statistics.
the nth harmonic and the maximum length of the most energetic
eddies over the interface. This sort of expression enables the introduc-
tion of the time-dependency with the “wave-convection approach.”12 D. Enforcement of periodicity
In this example, it is assumed that the flow propagates in z, but the The method described until this point does not provide a peri-
expression in (7) can be conveniently adapted for any other case. odic turbulent field. To do so,
*
it is necessary to specify the values of the
randomly generated vector d . The components that ensure periodicity
C. Introduction of randomness with a fundamental frequency k0 are
The introduction of randomness occurs in the obtention of ran- m
dp;n ¼ ; (12)
dom phases and the generation of the random orthonormal vectors. ~k n
These processes are crucial for the generation of statistically meaningful
*
turbulence. The relevance of r in the obtention of the targeted second- where ~k n
1 denotes the ratio between the frequency of the nth har-
order statistics is evident after paying close attention to (7). The turbu- monic’s and the fundamental harmonic’s frequency, i.e., kn =k0 and m
lent kinetic energy of a harmonic in a given direction is proportional to is an integer which allows ensuring periodicity,
the square of the component in that direction qi r2i . If these compo- 


nents are not equally distributed, a bias in the Reynolds *stress tensor
will appear. Imbalances in the distribution of the vector d cannot be
observed through the Reynolds stress tensor. Nevertheless, if this vector
is not uniformly distributed, the spatial organization of vortical struc-
tures will become less realistic, decreasing the quality of the artificial
turbulence. To ensure that the second-order statistics of the synthetic
fluctuations matches the targeted ones, it is required that the set of ran-
domly generated values presents a uniform distribution. For the case of
the random phases /, the *
solution is quite trivial. However, generating
* *
sets of random vectors d and r which are both orthonormal and uni-
formly distributed over a goniometric sphere is less evident. In this sec-
tion, a simple procedure to create random sets of vectors that fulfill
these characteristics is presented. The general case without the enforce-
ment of periodicity is considered. The obstacles arising in this process
after this imposition will be discussed in Sec. III.
First, random pseudo-components are generated with a formula
of the following sort:

dj;n ¼ 1 þ 2n; (8)
where n is a random number between 0 and 1 with a uniform
Probability Distribution Function (PDF), and the subindex j denotes
Phys. Fluids 33, 125130 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0071002
C Author(s) 2021
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m 2 Z j m 2  ~k n ; ~k n : (13)
In the context of the present text, it is assumed that the flow is periodic
in directions x and y. Hence, dp will be used to denote dx or dy indis-
tinctively, and df will be used to denote their counterpart in the non-
periodic direction, i.e., dz .
III. ANALYSIS OF STATISTICAL BIASES
Periodicity enforcement alters the selection process of random
elements that determine the modes in the STG algorithm. To satisfy
*
(12), the components of the unit vectors d and r must be selected in
a different sequence, and their range is limited. Following these modi-
fications, deviations from their original uniform distribution over a
spherical surface arise. Consequently, directional biases in the turbu-
lent kinetic energy that offset the aimed features of the synthetic veloc-
ity field appear. This section is devoted to the investigation and
quantification of these effects. In Subsection III A, indicators of the
deviations from the targeted statistics to the expected ones are defined.
The rest of this section discusses three main observed sources of irreg-
ularities. The first effect is discussed in Sec. III B and arises from split-
ting the selection of the components of random unit vectors. After the
periodicity enforcement, components are chosen separately, and if it is
33, 125130-3
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not done with care, a bias may be introduced. We shall demonstrate
that this effect can be accurately controlled by introducing convenient
geometrical considerations in the selection process. Nevertheless, there
are two additional uncontrollable effects that preclude the generation
of stochastically uniformly distributed vectors. One of them is the ceil-
ing of the absolute values when kn is not a multiple of k0 . This limita-
tion reduces the range of possible values of dp , which effectively averts
the achievement of a uniform distribution. This issue will be referred
to in this paper as the ceiling error. The other relevant effect interfering
with the obtainment of evenly distributed random sets is the rounding
error. This effect relates to the fact that the rounding criteria can intro-
duce biases due to the finite number of combinations that can generate
a periodic field. These two mentioned error sources are discussed in
the following lines, and mitigation strategies are considered.
A. Bias quantification
It is necessary to define indicators of the introduced error in the
targeted turbulence to assess the deviations between the targeted and
the desired turbulent kinetic energy. To evaluate the integral introduc-
tion of directional preferences, the ratio between the observed turbu-
lent kinetic energy in the non-periodic direction and its theoretical
value will be considered,
N ¼ qf =qf ;theor : (14)
To analyze these deviations in spatial frequency domain, the definition
is extended subsequently,
ZðkÞ ¼ Ef ðkÞ=EðkÞf ;theor : (15)
The subscript theor in (14) and (15) indicates the prescribed value in
the synthetic turbulence generation algorithm.
~ ~
B. Selection sequence error
The simplest way to obtain periodic harmonics is to generate ran-
dom values for dp that comply with (12) and subsequently calculate
the value of df to obtain a unit vector. The strategy proposed by
Morsbach and Franke14 is based on this idea. This approach signifi-
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
df
¼ D f ¼ 1  2Dþ2 p
0: (21)
cantly alters the generation process of randomized elements. If the val-
ues of dx and dy are generated with a uniform probability density, it
can be easily reasoned that this creates a bias toward low absolute val-
ues (inward bias). The cause behind this deviation from uniformity is
that the combinations which have a higher radius than unity are auto-
matically discarded since no real value dz will be able to provide a unit
vector. Therefore, the probability of a value being discarded increases
as it moves toward the edges (61). To circumvent this issue, the gen-
eration of combinations of dx and dy has to be executed in a way that
a uniform spherical distribution is obtained. To address this matter, it
is useful to define the norm of the periodic components as
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
r ¼ dx2 þ dy2 : (16)
* mþ1
It is possible to demonstrate that if the values d are uniformly distrib-
uted over a spherical surface, the following probability density function
for r is obtained:
r case occurs if Dþ
f ðr Þ ¼ pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi : (17)
1  r2
Phys. Fluids 33, 125130 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0071002
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This leads to the following Cumulative distribution function:
pffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
F ðr Þ ¼ 1  1  r 2 : (18)
This expression can be used to generate random*combinations of dx
and dy which lead to uniformly distributed sets of d and subsequently,
*
r . Under this consideration, the random value n corresponds to the
cumulative probability of r. Then, it is possible to define the following
mapping from random values into a random radius rn :
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
2
rn ¼ 1  ð1  nÞ ; (19)
where the random value n is obtained using a uniform probability
density function 2 ½0; 1. This ensures resulting random values rn
which lead to a uniform distribution over a sphere. With the genera-
tion of a random angle as in (11), a combination for random values of
dx and dy can be obtained. Two possible values of dz result from this
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
combination corresponding to 6 1  dx2  dy2 . The final value is
chosen randomly with equal probability for both options. Following
*
this procedure, the random set of d is uniformly distributed into a
sphere, ensuring the conservation of the targeted statistics.
C. Ceiling error
One of the consequences of imposing periodicity*
is the limitation
T
in the range of the components for the unit vectors d ¼ dp;1 dp;2 df .
The most obvious limitation is the upper bound in the maximum abso-
lute value of dp;1 and dp;2 . This limit is denoted as Dþ
p ; and it can be
expressed as
Dþ
p ¼ dp max ¼ k n =k n  1: (20)
If the range limitations Dþ p are large enough, additional constraints for
non-periodic component
pffiffiffi df can appear. This is the case if Dþ p is
smaller than 1= 2: In such a case, the absolute value of the compo-
nent in the non-periodic direction has a minimum value of
min
This bound corresponds to the best-case scenario, which occurs if
both components dp have the maximum absolute value that they are
allowed to. The net result of the ceiling effect is the generation of an
inward bias for dp and an outward bias for df since points at the
extremes and the origin are suppressed, respectively. Consequently,
the turbulent kinetic energy in the periodic directions will be greater
since ki r2i di2 . The ceiling is null for frequencies that are a mul-
tiple of the fundamental frequency, and it gradually increases until the
next multiple, when it becomes zero again, as displayed in Fig. 1. The
limit ceiling Dþp;min before a frequency mk0 is
m
Dþ
p;min ¼ : (22)
For low frequencies (m  1), this limitation is very pronounced. A
particularly problematic case appears if D þ
f > Dp . This implies that
values of dp will always p present
ffiffiffi a lower absolute value than df . Such a
< 1= 3 , which can only happen if ~k n < 2. More
p
specifically, this effect takes place in the following interval:
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where it can be seen that the indicator Z ð~k Þ has an error on the order
of 80% as it approaches to ~k ¼ 2.
Figure 2 was elaborated to illustrate further the ceiling effects dis-
*
cussed in this section. The possible values for the random vectors d
and r are represented for different values of ~k. The directionality of
*

*
the turbulent kinetic energy is given by the positions occupied by r .
In the extremely unfavorable case, when ~k ¼ 1:96; the condition of
*
FIG. 1. Spectral distribution of induced directional biases for planar periodic config- (23) holds. In such a case, the vertical component of r is severely lim-
urations with different rounding strategies. ited, meaning that values of rp close to 61 cannot be balanced with
pffiffiffi  similar values of rf . This condition explains the results obtained by
D þ ~
f > Dp $ k n 2 3; 2 : (23) Morsbach and Franke,14 where higher turbulent kinetic energy in the
direction where periodicity was imposed was observed. For the cases
in which ~k n is an integer, all the components of the vector r are
*
Such frequencies pose a great challenge to the achievement of unifor-
mity since they impose a substantial constraint on the possible values unconstrained, preventing undesired directional biases. It can be
for the random orthonormal vectors. This can be observed in Fig. 1, observed that the coverage of the sphere grows fast with ~k n which

*
*
FIG. 2. Periodic configurations of random unit vectors d and r over the goniometric sphere for different frequencies ratios.

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C Author(s) 2021
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 Physics of Fluids
implies that the higher the frequency, the easier it is to avoid falsifying
effects. This claim is supported by the results displayed in Figs. 1 and 2.
D. Rounding error
As illustrated in Fig. 2, there is a finite number of combinations
for dx and dy that can provide periodicity for a given ~k n . An ideally
uniform distribution does not imply that all of them present the same
probability density due to the highly non-linear shape of a spherical
surface. For this reason, the most direct approach to generate a ran-
dom uniform set is to generate values for dp in the continuous domain
and implement a rounding strategy afterward. A bias toward the origin
is introduced if the obtained values are rounded with a conventional
1D rounding scheme. The reason is that the closer a value is to 61,
the higher is its chances to be discarded after rounding for exceeding
the maximum norm of 1. To overcome this effect, a 2D rounding
strategy has to be implemented. The simplest approach consists in
choosing the closest combination among all the available ones. Such a
strategy can partially reduce the bias, but some error remains due to
the differential coverage of the goniometric sphere. This effect can be
visualized in Fig. 3 for the case when ~k n ¼ 3. As it can be seen, the
density of coverage for d varies greatly as r grows. Since points with r
close to 1 are rather sparse, the 2D rounding strategy tends to choose
points closer to the origin. This effect can be circumvented by consid-
ering distances in a polar coordinate system. In this case, the points
with the most similar radius are selected. The angle is only used after-
ward to break ties due to the symmetrical distribution of all the avail-
able combinations. This latter strategy can significantly reduce the
induced directional biases. This is illustrated in Fig. 1, where it can be
seen that when ~k n is an integer, the error of the polar rounding is close
to zero, whilst the Cartesian strategy still presents a significant
deviation.
IV. CORRECTION STRATEGIES
Based on the reasonings presented in Sec. III, two main effects
impair the generation of periodic synthetic turbulence in the absence
FIG. 3. Periodic configurations for ~k n ¼ 3.
Phys. Fluids 33, 125130 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0071002
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FIG. 4. Introduction of directional biases with varying parameter n.
of directional biases. This section discusses two strategies to compen-
sate for these effects and preserve the targeted second-order statistics
of the artificial velocity field.
A. Integral compensation
The integral compensation approach aims to generate harmonics
at all frequencies, in a way the anisotropies of each mode compensate
each other globally. Since the standard method is prone to generate
more turbulent kinetic energy in the periodic directions, it is necessary
to balance this effect with a bias that actuates in the opposite direction.
A possible way to generate this variation in the statistics is to define
the expression derived in (19) in a more general fashion,
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
n n
rn ðnÞ ¼ 1  ð1  nÞ ; (24)
where n is a value that has to be adjusted to achieve an integral com-
pensation of the biases introduced by the ceiling effects. For the case
n ¼ 2; we obtain zero bias in the frequencies, which are multiples of
the integral one, and negative bias in every intermediate frequency,
which leads to a negative global budget. As the value of n increases,
the deficiency of turbulent kinetic energy in the non-periodic direction
decreases until it becomes null. This effect can be observed in Fig. 4,
where the introduction of bias in the spectral domain is presented.
The value of n that provides this condition has to be obtained numeri-
cally for each simulation since it depends on the turbulent kinetic
energy spectrum, the Reynolds number, and the frequency in which
periodicity is imposed. The most important factor is the domain
length with respect to the integral eddy’s length. Since the most aniso-
tropic frequencies are the lowest ones, the less energetic they are, the
lower are their global impact. Therefore, the larger the domain, the
lower is the deviation introduced due to the ceiling error. This can be
clearly visualized in Fig. 5. In this figure, the integral anisotropy was
studied for different values of the length with which periodicity is
imposed ‘p . As it can be observed, as ‘p becomes larger in comparison
FIG. 5. Integral deviation indicator for several ‘p =L ratios.
33, 125130-6
 Physics of Fluids
with the size of the largest eddies, a lower correction is required to
achieve null directional biases. The choice of the constant p0 in (1) has a
determinant role as well. Nevertheless, its evaluation is less trivial. For
p0 ¼ 2, the peak of spectral turbulent kinetic energy takes place at lower
frequencies in comparison with the von Karman spectrum. However,
this peak is higher in relative terms. Due to this, the value of q is lower at
the lowest frequencies for p0 ¼ 2; and it surpasses the von Karman
spectrum at some point before the peak of spectral energy. For very large
‘p =L, the modes are isotropic by this intersection point, and thus the
von Karman spectrum leads to a smaller introduction of directional
biases. This is indeed the most common scenario. However, for lower
values of ‘p =L, the choice of p0 ¼ 2 can become more beneficial.
Determining the threshold for this to happen depends on the Reynolds
number of the considered flow and the parameters involved in the
model spectrum. The model of the spectral turbulent kinetic energy in
the dissipation domain presented in (3) can play a significant role too,
especially for low Reynolds numbers. The harmonics placed at small
length scales are the ones that minimize ceiling error, as illustrated in
Fig. 1. Hence, increasing its prevalence will reduce the required compen-
sation. Under these considerations, it is easy to deduce that spectra with
the first-order exponential decay in the dissipation range require a lower
amount of compensation.
Assuming the ideal value for compensation n has already been
obtained, the integral compensation algorithm shall be summarized as
follows:
1. Choose nk frequencies of harmonics to be used:
k0 ; k0 fk ; k0 fk2 ; …; k0 fki1 ; …; k0 fknk 1 :
With fk > 1
For each of these frequencies, calculate one harmonic using the
following scheme:
2. Calculate random number n1 , n2 , n3 .
3. Obtain a random radius rn1 based on n1 using (24).
4. Obtain a random angle hn2 using (11).
5. Calculate periodic components: dp;1 ¼ rn1 cosðhn2 Þ; dp;2
¼ rn1 sinðhn2 Þ.
6. Choose one of the two values for the non-periodic component:
qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
df ¼ 1  dp1 2  d2 .
p2
7.
*
*
Obtain orthonormal basis of d : v 1 ; v 2 .
* based on OpenFOAM25,26 and was developed for direct numerical
8. Obtain a random angle hn3 using (11).
9.
* * *
Calculate r ¼ cosðhn3 Þv 1 þ cosðhn3 Þv 2 .
10. Calculate energy fraction ~q i using (5) and (6) and assign it to
this harmonic.
B. Multiple harmonics allocation
One possibility to avoid the ceiling effect is to generate harmonics
only at the frequencies, which are a multiple of the fundamental one.
Since the recommended number of harmonics is on the order of sev-
eral thousand, this strategy would lead to an insufficient number of
harmonics in most cases. To address this issue, several harmonics can
be placed at these frequencies instead of a single one. The differential
turbulent kinetic energy corresponding to each of these frequencies
will be distributed evenly among the multiple modes allocated at it.
Although the total frequency of these harmonics is the same, the indi-
vidual spatial frequencies in each direction can vary in a considerable
Phys. Fluids 33, 125130 (2021); doi: 10.1063/5.0071002
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range. This possibility enables the generation of a realistic result. Using
the polar rounding, this strategy can avoid the introduction of direc-
tional preferences in the artificial turbulent field.
The multiple harmonics allocation algorithm shall be summa-
rized as follows:
1. Choose nk frequencies of harmonics to be used:
k0 ; 2k0 ; 3k0 ; …; nk k0 :
2. For each of these frequencies, calculate nh harmonics repeating
the same scheme as presented for the integral compensation
algorithm. Only two differences are to be considered:
• In 2.2, use (19) instead of (24).
• In 2.9, assign energy ~q i =nh to each harmonic instead of ~q i .
V. COMPUTATIONAL SETUP
Three different simulations were performed to validate and analyze
the applicability of the discussed methodologies. The simulations differ
from each other on the turbulence generation method. The first simula-
tion (S1) uses the original method proposed by Shur et al.,12 the second
simulation (S2) uses the integral compensation approach, and the third
simulation (S3) employs the multiple harmonics allocation. For S2,
n ¼ 3 is used as it is the value that was found to eliminate the directional
biases with the chosen conditions. Synthetic turbulence with its corre-
sponding method is enforced in the region close to the inlet, more specif-
ically, in the initial 5% of the domain. Hence, the velocity field in the
near-inlet region is completely synthetic, and it does not originate from a
solution to the Navier–Stokes equations. 20 000 harmonics were used to
generate this synthetic turbulence. The energy of these modes was deter-
mined using the von Karman spectrum with second-order exponential
decay in the dissipation range as in the works of Shur et al.12
Spatially decaying turbulence was simulated in a cuboid domain
with an aspect ratio of 2 with 360  360  720 cells. The flow is prop-
agating in the Z direction, with X and Y constituting the transversal
plane. For all simulations, the velocity field is initialized using its corre-
sponding STG method, and synthetic turbulence with a mean velocity
U0 is continuously updated in the region close to the inlet (initial 5%
of the domain). The flow at the outlet has a Neumann boundary con-
dition. The solver used is EBI (Engler-Bunte-Institute)-DNS which is
simulations of reacting flows.27,28 The properties of the considered tur-
bulent flow were chosen to resemble the results obtained in the injec-
tion region of a rocket combustion chamber in Ref. 29. These
characteristics are summarized in Table I.
The periodicity is imposed with a domain size of 11 times the
integral eddy’s length scale K0 . With an aspect ratio of 2, the time
required for the whole flow to renovate is roughly tren  22K0 =U0
¼ 72 ls. When this period of time has elapsed, it can be considered
that the observed flow is a developed turbulent field. Figure 6 illus-
trates the normalized enstrophy and scalar dissipation of S3 for the
same time step after tren . The region where synthetic turbulence is
imposed can be clearly identified at the bottom of this illustration. It
corresponds to the first 5% of the domain. The spatial decay of turbu-
lence can be easily noticed through the constant drop of vorticity and
the dissipation rate in the flow’s propagation direction. These results
can be used to visualize the eddies using the Q criterion.30 With
2 2
Q ¼ 1  jSj =jXj , it is possible to identify the vortical structures.
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TABLE I. Characteristics of the simulated turbulent flow. VI. RESULTS ANALYSIS

The results’ analysis for the different methods is separated
Root mean square of injected
into three distinct sections. First, the relevant turbulent character-
u0rms velocity fluctuations 6 m=s
istics and length scales are measured. In the second section, statis-
L0 Size of largest eddies 75 lm tics in the inertial and dissipative range are studied and compared
K0 Integral eddy scale 33 lm against the expected values. Finally, the results of the spectral anal-
g0 Kolmogorov length scale 1 lm ysis are discussed. The turbulent properties presented herein are
Dx Cell size 1 lm obtained after averaging values for 30 initial eddy turnover times
with 100 time steps considered. All the presented data are time-
 Kinematic viscosity 8:35 107 m2 =s
averaged unless otherwise stated. When information is presented
P Pressure 20 bar
spanwise, the data have been spatially averaged in the plane XY
T0 Temperature 300 K
and in time subsequently.
U0 Bulk velocity 10 m=s

A. Relevant turbulence characteristics and length

This value is presented at the bottom of Fig. 6, where the red
regions correspond to Q > 0 and hence to places were a vortex is
present. Here, the synthetic eddies are placed at the left, where syn-
thetic turbulence is imposed. Their transition to “natural” eddies
can be clearly visualized as one moves in z directrion. The analysis
of these vortical structures and their statistical properties is
addressed in Sec. VI.
scales
The turbulent kinetic energy k and the dissipation rate e were
obtained, evaluating the fluctuations for all the considered time-
steps. For all simulations, the deviation from isotropic conditions
is negligible for all positions, and N  1 holds with an error under
1%. The decay turbulence is displayed in Fig. 7 through the
longitudinal evolution of turbulent kinetic energy kðz Þ and its

FIG. 6. Vorticity and scalar dissipation

rate for S3 at the same time step.

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FIG. 7. Spatial evolution of the dissipation rate (left) and the turbulent kinetic energy (right) for all the performed simulations.

vffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
dissipation rate eðz Þ. The observed turbulent kinetic energy gradi- u 2
ent is in reasonable agreement with the expected one according to kg ¼ u
u 2 *  : (27)
u@ g x ; r
theory.31 Figure 8 shows the velocity fluctuations for all the simula- t
@r
tions through the development of turbulence. For z=K0 < 1:1, the r¼0
fluctuations are entirely synthetic, and they do not originate from a
solution to the Navier–Stokes equations. This generates the char- The dissipation rate  can be obtained using this value as
acteristic random distribution that can be observed at the very left u02
of Fig. 8. In these positions, the second-order statistics match the e ¼ 15 : (28)
k2g
targeted ones, but there is an imbalance with respect to a natural
field, which requires development. As the flow advances in z direc- The mean dissipation rate can be additionally obtained considering
tion, the fluctuations acquire certain coherence. This feature can the general definition for
be distinguished in the outermost points, which are organized in
clusters rather than being randomly mixed. @u0i @u0i
e¼ : (29)
@xj @xj

B. Relevant scales Both approaches were used in the present work to determine the
dissipation rate. In all simulations, the discrepancy between both
The most relevant length scales were calculated for all the simula-
methods is on the order of 5% after the turbulent flow has been devel-
tions to evaluate the development of turbulence. The integral scale of
oped. This degree of agreement can be considered as an indicator of
eddies was computed using the transversal two-point autocorrelation
the turbulence quality. Since no method is presumably more accurate,
function as suggested by Taylor,32
the dissipation rate used henceforth is the averaged result between
*  *
u0x ðx Þu0x ðx þ rt g Þ
* * (28) and (29). This is indeed the case of the plot presented in Fig. 7.
g x ;r ¼ * * *
; (25) Finally, the size of the smallest turbulent scales, i.e., the Kolmogorov
rðu0x ; x Þrðu0x ; x þ rt g Þ scales, is obtained as
*
where t g denotes a unit vector contained in the transversal plane  1=4
3
and r indicates the distance at which the correlation is calculated. g¼ : (30)
*
In this context, rðA; B Þ indicates the standard deviation of 
*
the quantity A at the position B . The integral eddies length scale
It is important to note that g has a very weak sensitivity with
is defined the cumulative transversal correlation in terms of dis- respect to . Therefore, the mismatches between (28) and (29), which
tance r; are already very small, become negligible when translated to g; e.g., a
ð þ1   10% error in  leads to a 2.4% error in g. The longitudinal evolution of
*
Kg ¼ 2 g x ; r dr; (26) all the mentioned scales is represented in Fig. 9. In the synthetic
0
region, the observed values do not match the expected ones. This error
with the integral length scale K ¼ 2Kg . Note that L11 is often used in originates from the fact that neither K nor kg can be directly controlled
the scientific literature when referring
* to K. The Taylor microscale can with the model spectrum described in Sec. II. All scales present a grow-
*
be obtained by approximating g x ; r as a concave parabola for ing trend in z direction which is consistent with the Q criterion results
r  0; displayed in Fig. 6.

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FIG. 8. Example of instantaneous fluctuations for different longitudinal positions for simulation 2. The colors of the scatter plots are related to the transversal position of the
data. Hence, similar color implies that points lay together.
Figure 10 illustrates the spatial evolution of the averaged turbu-
lent Reynolds number ReT ¼ u0 K= and the microscale Reynolds
number Rek ¼ u0 k=. The differences at the inlet between the differ-
ent simulations can be attributed to the incapability of the model spec-
trum to impose all the desired length scales. All simulations present a
similar evolution, and they converge to the same values. For
z=K0  10, the values seem to be rather stabilized. This effect can be
used to study the development of turbulence since several statistical
parameters of turbulent flows depend only on the Reynolds number.
Therefore, for a roughly constant Reynolds number, these statistics
ARTICLE scitation.org/journal/phf
is displayed in Fig. 11. This figure depends on the microscale Reynolds
number Rek , and it tends to 2.33 for very high Reynolds numbers.16
Figure 11 illustrates the longitudinal evolution of this ratio for all the
simulations. The theoretical value for Rek  30 is L=K  1:83:16 All
simulations seem to tend to this value although S2 and S3 seem to con-
verge faster spatially.
B. Statistics in the inertial domain
This section addresses the validity of the turbulence’s statistics in
should not vary. An example of such a parameter is the ratio between the inertial range (g  l  L). The main tools used are the energy
the scale of the largest eddies and the integral eddies’ length scale, i.e., spectrum and structure functions. Due to the universal properties in
L=K, where L corresponds to the expression defined in (2). This ratio this range,33,34 these mathematical functions can be modeled,

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FIG. 9. Spatial evolution of the most relevant turbulent length scales for S1.
including constant parameters independent of the considered flow.
Hence, it is possible to compare these values against the ones observed
in previous research to assess the integrity of the developed turbulent
flow.
In the inertial range, the one-dimensional energy spectrum can
be written with the celebrated 5=3 power law,
EðkÞ ¼ Ce2=3 k5=3 ;
where C is a universal constant according to Kolmogorov’s second
similarity hypothesis.33,34 Empirical evidence35 suggests a value of
C  1:5. For longitudinal and transversal spectral energy functions,
the following analogous expressions can be used:
E11 ðkÞ ¼ C1 e2=3 k5=3 ;
E22 ðkÞ ¼ E33 ðkÞ ¼ C10 e2=3 k5=3 ;
36
with C10 =C1
¼ 4=3, and C1 ¼ 18=55 C: The constants C and C1 are
quite challenging to obtain for the current flow due to the strong
FIG. 10. Spatial evolution of the turbulent Reynolds number and the Reynolds num-
ber of the Taylor eddies for all simulations.
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FIG. 11. Ratio between the size of the largest eddies and the integral eddies length
scale for all simulations.
dissipation rate in the longitudinal direction. However, the constant
C10 can be obtained consistently since the turbulent properties can be
assumed constant transversally. After a Fourier transform is applied to
the transverse velocity field, an empirical estimation for E22 ðkÞ is
obtained. With this result, it is possible to obtain an estimation of C10
by fitting the power spectral density with the expression in (33). This
estimation is denoted as C10 . The obtained values for each longitudinal
(31)
position are displayed in Fig. 12. As it can be seen, all simulations
experience a significant overshoot at the beginning, but they seem to
converge to a value close to the expected one (C10  0:65).
Structure functions are an additional tool that can be used to
assess the validity of statistics in the inertial range. These functions are
essentially the covariance of the velocity fluctuations. The general
(32) expression for the nth order structure function is
(33) *   n
Dnij x ; r ¼  ui ðx Þ  ui ðx þ rx j Þ ;
* * *
(34)
*
where x j is the unit vector in the j direction. In particular, the longitu-
*
dinal velocity structure functions, i.e., Dn11 ðx ; rÞ will be considered. In
the present work, this corresponds to shifts in uz over a separation
* * T *
rx j ¼ rx 1 ¼ ð0 0 r Þ . For a given position x , these functions can be
modeled in the inertial range with the following expression:
FIG. 12. Estimated value for the Kolmogorov constant C10 .
33, 125130-11
 Physics of Fluids
Dn11 ðr Þ ¼ Cn ðr Þfn ;
where fn is the longitudinal velocity structure exponent that presents
the following general expression:
fn ¼ n=3  l:
The case of l ¼ 0 is obtained after assuming Kolmogorov’s second
similarity hypothesis and performing a dimensional analysis. For
low values of n, this assumption is in excellent agreement with
observations although a significant bending is observed for higher
orders (n > 5).37 For the particular case of n ¼ 2, the original
Kolmogorov hypotheses hold, and they yield the following
expression:
2 2
D211 ðr Þ ¼ C2 r 3 3 ;
where the constant C2 is related to the constant parameters in (31),
40;
(32), and (33). In particular, the value of C2  4C1  2 can be derived
and it is well supported by empirical evidence.35 This coefficient can
be inferred from the velocity fields obtained in the performed simula-
tions. To estimate it, the value is averaged over the inertial range.pItffiffiffiffiffiffi
pffiffiffiffiffiffi that the inertial region spans over lengths ranging from gK
assumed
to KL. The estimated value C2 is obtained after averaging the value
through the mentioned range,
ffiffiffiffiffi qffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffi
ð pLK
1
C2 ¼ pffiffiffiffi pffiffiffi pffiffiffi pffiffiffiffiffi ðr=Þ2 3D211 ðr Þdr:
   (38)
K L g Kg
This estimation was computed for all the positions and all the simula-
tions spanwise. The results are displayed in Fig. 13. This outcome can
be considered as a fairly good agreement since empirical results18
show discrepancies on the order of 15% with the value predicted for
C2 following the Kolmogorov hypotheses.
C. Statistics in the dissipative domain
The higher-order statistics of the simulations are examined to
investigate in more detail the characteristics of the developed turbu-
lence in the dissipative range. The most elementary higher-order sta-
tistics are the normalized velocity-derivative moments.16 In the
context of this work, these parameters can be expressed as
FIG. 13. Estimated value for the Kolmogorov constant.
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 n
(35) @uz
@z
Mn ¼ sffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffiffinffi ; (39)
 2
@uz
(36) @z
where n is the order of the statistical moment. The velocity derivate
skewness S and kurtosis K correspond to n ¼ 3, and n ¼ 4; respec-
tively. These stochastic figures belong to the dissipative range, and
hence their values should be universal, according to the Kolmogorov
hypotheses.33,34 Empirical evidence contests this claim. Van atta and
Antonia38 investigated these higher-order statistics, concluding that
they grow indefinitely with Rek rather than reaching an asymptote.
For the kurtosis, their results can be approximated as follows:
(37) (
4; Rek < 40;
K 3=8 (40)
Rek ; Rek
and for skewness, their data yielded the following expression through
fitting:
is
S  0:23K 3=8 : (41)
This expression is significatively more uncertain than the one in
(40), and it should be taken with care since the results presented a
large amount of scattering. In fact, other researchers39–41 found a
decreasing trend of S with Rek for low microscale Reynolds num-
bers (Rek < 70). The models presented in (40) and (41) were used
as reference to assess the results obtained in the present study.
The measured higher-order velocity derivatives and their predicted
values are presented in Fig. 14.
The expected values were obtained considering the average
Reynolds number of the Taylor eddies between the three simulations.
This value is chosen to obtain a single value for K and S; simplifying
the graphical representation. Since all simulations exhibit very similar
results for Rek ðz Þ and the sensitivity of K and S with respect to this
value is very low, the error is negligible (<1%). All synthetic turbulen-
ces present zero skewness and K ¼ 3, which correspond to the
expected values for a Gaussian probability distribution. For the region
where turbulence is developed, there is an excellent agreement for the
Kurtosis in all simulations although for S the deviation is significant
(50%). Two possible reasons can explain this behavior. First, the model
for K in (40) has better agreement with experimental results compared
with the one in (41).38 Indeed, the obtained values of skewness are
consistent with the trends observed in the range Rek 2 ½10 100 in
other research.39–41 Second, the kurtosis of the synthetic turbulence
field (K ¼ 3) is very close to the one of the developed turbulent flow
(K  4), while the skewness of synthetic to developed turbulence dif-
fers more in relative terms.
Significant differences can be appreciated in the transition from
synthetic to developed turbulence. S1 presents a substantial overshoot
for both statistics. S2 has a large overshoot only for the skewness.
Ignoring the very initial transition zone, all simulations seem to con-
verge to the same result for K. For S, it is unclear if the flow would
tend to the theoretical value (S  0:4) with a larger domain. A nega-
tive trend can be appreciated in the second half of the domain, but it is
on the order of magnitude of the noise due to the limited data points
for averaging. Therefore, no definitive statement can be made.
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 Physics of Fluids
FIG. 14. Evolution of the higher-order velocity derivative statistics for the three sim-
ulations performed and comparison with the expected values.
D. Spectral analysis
The power spectral density was calculated for all the simulations
at all time steps to analyze the results further. The evolution of the
power spectral density in space is represented in Fig. 15. In this illus-
tration, the time-averaged power spectral density for S1 is presented.
The initial region where synthetic turbulence is imposed can be clearly
observed at the left, with noticeable discontinuities. This result is only
shown for S2 since no differences can be appreciated with the analog
graphs of the other simulations. Figures 16 and 17 were elaborated to
circumvent this difficulty and ease the comparison between the three
FIG. 15. Power spectral density for simulation 2.
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FIG. 16. Logarithmic difference in the power spectral density between the three
performed simulations. Top: S1–S2. Middle: S1–S3. Bottom: S2–S3.
simulations. In figure Fig. 16, the logarithmic difference between the
averaged spectral density is calculated. This value is obtained with the
following expression:
   
Ed ðEa ; Eb Þ ¼ 20log10 Ea =Eref  20log10 Eb =Eref
¼ 20log10 ðEa =Eb Þ; (42)
where Ea and Eb are the spectral energies that are being compared.
Such an approach allows observing the differences between power
spectra with greater detail. Values below 5 dB can be considered as
noise due to the reduced amount of time steps used for averaging and
the limited grid resolution. Relevant anomalies appear in the region
close to the inlet for the smallest scales between S1 and the other simu-
lations. The spectral turbulent kinetic energy of these scales is signifi-
cantly larger for S1. Furthermore, simulation S1 presents two discrete
peaks at high spatial frequencies at the positions z=K0  8, and
z=K0  17. The authors believe this is a numerical artifact that arises
from the difficulties in performing spectral analyses at scales signifi-
cantly smaller than the Kolmogorov length, where the signal-to-noise
ratio becomes small. Similar results in the dissipation range have been
observed in other research.42,43
Besides these minor effects, spectral differences between the dif-
ferent simulations can be regarded as negligible. These points can be
visualized in Fig. 17 as well, where the energy cascade for each simula-
tion is represented at different positions. The case z=K0 ¼ 0:6 corre-
sponds to the region where synthetic turbulence was enforced. In
z=K0 ¼ 1:2, the development of turbulence is taking place. For
z=K0 > 2, no differences can be appreciated from the energy cascade.
VII. CONCLUSIONS
In this work, the performance of the synthetic turbulence gener-
ated by Shur’s algorithm was analyzed. The sources of discrepancies
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 Physics of Fluids
FIG. 17. Power spectral densities obtained for all the simulations at different positions.
associated with the enforcement of periodicity were investigated, and
countermeasures were suggested. Two main variants of the method
were proposed to preserve the aimed statistics of turbulence while
achieving periodicity. The original method and these enhanced ver-
sions were simulated in spatial decaying conditions to investigate and
compare the development of artificial turbulence. All simulations pre-
sented a fast decay in turbulent kinetic energy right after the imposed
turbulent inlet. The original method presented a larger overshoot in
the averaged statistics at this region, and the power spectral analysis
revealed a significant positive anomaly in the energy of the smallest
eddies. After a distance greater than the integral length scale of the
synthetic turbulence (K0 ), no relevant differences can be appreciated
neither visually nor in the spectrum of the turbulent kinetic energy.
Nevertheless, a more detailed statistical analysis reveals that a larger
space is required for convergence into a developed turbulent flow. The
original formulation required roughly 15 times K0 for stochastic con-
vergence, while the methods proposed in this work needed ten times
K0 . Since periodicity is obtained directly in the artificial turbulent field,
discontinuities are avoided, which speeds up the development process.
This reduction of the development length is beneficial for lowering the
computational cost of future DNS, LES, and hybrid simulations.
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ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The authors thank SuperMUC NGen for providing the
computational resources for performing the numerical
simulations and their post-processing. Special thanks go to
Martin Ohlerich for his aid and support that allowed this project
to make the most of SuperMUC NGen’s capabilities. The
authors are also grateful towards PD Dr.-Ing. habil. Xiangyu Hu
and Dr.-Ing Stefan Adami for their valuable advice and
suggestions.
AUTHOR DECLARATIONS
Conflict of Interest
The authors have no conflicts of interest to disclose.
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