Employing the ideas of the PDF approach to interpret the

behavior of compressible turbulent ¯ows

Alright in the following article PDF methods are used for

compressible turbulent flows.

This is Authored by B J Delarue and S P S B Pope.

128 Roberts and east avenue ithaca NY 14853 sibley school of

mechanical and aerospace engineering cornell university

PROBLEM: ~Date: Received 30 September 1996 and accepted 13

May 1997

One of the most important methods of the particle analysis is the

so-called probability density function ‘~PDF! The following
section presents an analysis of a scalar ¯eld in a compressible
turbulent flow employing the preceding method The applicability
of the method is demonstrated in the turbulence present in the
compressible mixing layer where comparison with experimental
data yields good results The derived PDF equation is solved by
the way of the Lagrangian/Monte Carlo method In order to The
model is then used to simulate the plane compressible mixing
layer and compares the behaviour of the spreading rate with the
already documented results where the rate was prompted to
decrease due to increased compressibility.
ulence. Vital theoretical achievements have been obtained and discussed:1 Of course, one
should not forget that scientific research gives a set of experimental data which allows to
determine the nature of certain phenomena and their regularity, to find important characteristics of
new materials, as well as to obtain theoretical results and bring them to the discussion.

I. INTRODUCTION
Over the past few years, renewed interest in supersonic
aircraft and high-speed combustion has emphasized the need for
research in the ®eld of compressible turbulence. Impor-tant
theoretical results have been established and reviewed, 1
allowing a better understanding of the complex phenomena
involved in compressible turbulence. Extensive experimental
work has been conducted, especially in the case of the plane
compressible mixing layer.2±9 In the turbulence modelling
community, the limitations of existing incompressible turbu-
lence models have been established.10 Second-order closures
have been designed to represent explicit compressibility ef-
fects, such as the compressible dissipation and the pressure±
dilatation correlation.11±18 The need for future research, in both
understanding and modelling the effects of compress-ibility on
turbulence, has been clearly established.10,19
For ¯ows involving combustion, probability density
function ~PDF! methods have demonstrated their ability to
treat the important processes of reaction and convection
exactly,20 making transport and reaction models used in or-
dinary PDE solvers unnecessary. The modelled transport
equation for the joint PDF of velocity and composition has
been successfully solved, using sets of stochastic particles
with time-evolving properties to model ¯uid particles.21,22
Recent works include the development of models for the
velocity-dissipation joint PDF.23,24 However, the majority of
applications is limited to low Mach number ¯ows and, with-out
coupling to a ®nite-volume type solver to obtain quanti-
a! Present
address: Electricite de France, Laboratoire National
d'Hydraulique, 78401 Chatou, France.
ties such as the mean pressure, to ¯ows with weak pressure
gradients.
Only recently have PDF methods been applied to ¯ows
with pressure-induced density variations,25±27 requiring in
general ~except reference 27! coupling with a ®nite-volume
solver of some kind. The problem of determining the mean
pressure directly from the particle properties ~i.e., without a
®nite-volume solver! is closely related to the dif®culties en-
countered in trying to extend PDF formulation to complex
compressible ¯ows.
The objective of the present work is to extend the exist-
ing PDF models to compressible reacting ¯ows with arbi-
trary pressure gradients, with the aim of developing a stand-
alone method to solve for the joint PDF of all relevant ¯ow
variables, including the dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic
energy, without coupling with a pressure algorithm. By do-
ing so we hope to exploit fully, in a simple and computation-
ally ef®cient way, the remarkable potential offered by PDF
methods to solve for complex turbulent reacting ¯ows.
For the de®nition of the method, henceforth, we restrict
ourselves to nonreacting ¯ows. It is believed, however, that
extension of the method to account for the reaction will be
straightforward. The method has been successfully imple-
mented for homogeneous compressible ¯ows ~hence it deals
with unsteady ¯ows without coupling with a ®nite-volume
solver, a feature displayed only by recent work using smoothed
particle hydrodynamics27!, and statistically station-ary
inhomogeneous ¯ows. A unique feature of the method is the
inclusion in the joint PDF of two extra thermodynamic
variables, namely the pressure and the internal energy. Hence,
all statistics of the ¯ow, including the mean pressure, can be
determined directly from the particle properties. A

2704 Phys. Fluids 9 (9), September 1997 1070-6631/97/9(9)/2704/12/$10.00 © 1997 American Institute of Physics

Downloaded 22 Sep 2004 to 140.121.120.39. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://pof.aip.org/pof/copyright.jsp
®nite-volume type solver is therefore unnecessary. In addi- where «s 5n^v8i v8i& is the standard solenoidal dissipation,
tion, models have been derived from existing Reynolds and «d 54/3n^u 8i, i 2& is the so-called dilatation
stress closures to account for the compressible dissipation dissipation, which is clearly zero in incompressible ¯ows,
and the pressure±dilatation correlation. and strictly positive in compressible ¯ows, thus amounting to
In section II we review some general effects of com- extra dis-sipation. We see that in ~1! three explicit terms
pressibility on turbulent ¯ows, as well as second-order clo- arising from compressibility need to be modelled: «d , Pd ,
sures from which our PDF formulation is inspired. It is em- and the last term, which arises because the Reynolds
phasized that the purpose of this work is neither to develop averages ^u 9i& of Favre ¯uctuations are nonzero. The last
new models for compressibility effects on turbulence, nor to term is probably very small in ¯ows without large pressure
test existing models, but to develop an innovative and con- gradients and away from walls. We therefore choose to
sistent PDF formulation designed for high-speed combus- neglect it. We need, however, to model the other two.
tion. In section III we detail the PDF formulation which is For the dilatation dissipation, we use the model of
the object of this work, summarizing brie¯y the general idea Sarkar et al.11 relating «d to «s in the following way:
behind PDF methods, then de®ning our stochastic variables
and the corresponding stochastic differential equations «d 5C d M t2 «s , ~2!
~SDE!. In section IV we present results for homogeneous 2 Ä2 Ä
where M t 52 k / a is the turbulent Mach number squared, a
¯ows. In section V, we extend the model to inhomogeneous
being the mean speed of sound. This model was developed
¯ows. At this point a comparison is made between model
for M t !1. The constant C d is of order 1. Equation ~2!
results and experimental data in the supersonic mixing layer
relates the dilatation dissipation to the solenoidal dissipation.
case.
It has been argued11,14 that the energy cascade responsible
for the latter is moderately affected by compressibility,
II. MODELS FOR THE EFFECTS OF
therefore standard incompressible models for the solenoidal
COMPRESSIBILITY ON TURBULENCE dissipa-tion can be used in the present situation.
In compressible reacting ¯ows, density variations arise For the pressure dilatation, we use Zeman's model,15
because of variations in chemical composition, and of tem- which can be summarized in the following two equations:
perature and pressure ¯uctuations. While all these effects 1 D ^ p 8 2&
contribute to create nonzero dilatation rates, only the latter Pd 52 , ~3!
are termed compressibility effects. In the following discus- 2 g^p& Dt
sion, we consider an inert ¯ow and therefore ignore the ef- D ^ p 8 2& ^ p 8 2 &2 p e 2
fects of a chemical reaction on the density. 52 . ~4!
Consider the equation for turbulent kinetic energy in Dt ta
compressible ¯ow: The ®rst equation is valid in homogeneous turbulence for M t
!1, and for high Reynolds and PeÂclet numbers. The sec-ond
]k Ä ]k ] ^ p& equation is fully modelled, relying on the results of Sarkar et
5T 1 P 1P

S ]x i
^r& 2^r&«2^u 9 &
i]x
1^r&U

al.,11,28 and stating that pressure variance relaxes to an

]t i d i

]^ ti j & equilibrium level p e on the acoustic time scale ta . These two

2 ]x j D, ~1! model quantities are de®ned in Zeman.15 The pressure±
dilatation is expected to be important in nonequilibrium ¯ows,
where
namely in ¯ows with a strong dependence on initial conditions,
for instance decaying isotropic turbulence. It is expected to be
T 52 ] 1 Ä
of lesser importance in equilibrium ¯ows, for
S2 D
^r&u 9u 9u 9 1^p 8u 9 &2^u 9t8 &

]x i j j i i j ij instance most free shear ¯ows without shocks. To date, most

is the transport term, models for Pd 12,15,16 are restricted to weakly inhomogeneous
Ä turbulence.
P 52 r
Ä
u 9u 9
]U i The models for both «d and Pd are restricted to ¯ows
^ & i j ]x j with M t !1. In our calculations, for example, in mixing lay-
is the production term, ers with free stream Mach numbers as high as 6.5, we never

Pd 5 K p8
]x i
]u 8i L encountered values of M t above 0.5, which has been consid-
ered to fall within the range of applicability of these models.
The above discussion is centered exclusively on model-
ling from the point of view of the turbulent kinetic energy
is the trace of the pressure-rate of strain correlation, also
equation, and not from the Reynolds stresses equation. The
called pressure dilatation, and « is the viscous dissipation.
models we have chosen will affect the turbulence in an iso-
In ~1!, the brackets correspond to Reynolds averages and the
primes to ¯uctuations about these averages, while the tildes tropic manner. Though it is known at this point 19,10 that com-
and double primes stand for Favre averages and ¯uctuations, pressibility also, and probably chie¯y, affects the turbulence
by modifying the deviatoric pressure-rate of strain correla-
respectively. It has been shown11,14 that the viscous dissipa-
tion so that the redistribution of energy does not function as
tion can be split into two terms:
well when the compressibility level is high, resulting in in-
«5«s 1«d , creased anisotropies in the normal stresses and decreased an-

Phys. Fluids, Vol. 9, No. 9, September 1997 B. J. Delarue and S. B. Pope 2705

Downloaded 22 Sep 2004 to 140.121.120.39. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://pof.aip.org/pof/copyright.jsp
 FDA 95-05, Cornell University, 1995.
6
W. Kollmann, ``The pdf approach to turbulent ¯ow,'' Theor. Comput. Fluid Dyn. 1, 249
4 ~1990!.
A. W. Vreman, N. D. Sandham, and K. H. Luo, ``Compressible mixing layer growth rate
and turbulence characteristics,'' J. Fluid Mech. 320, 235 ~1996!.
B. J. Delarue and S. B. Pope
5
Jayesh and S. B. Pope, ``Stochastic model for turbulent frequency,'' Tech-nical report,

Downloaded 22 Sep 2004 to 140.121.120.39. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://pof.aip.org/pof/copyright.jsp
33 36
K. N. C. Bray, P. A. Libby, and F. A. Williams, ``High speed turbulent combustion,'' S. B. Pope, ``Position, velocity and pressure correction algorithm for par-ticle method
in Turbulent Reacting Flows, edited by P. A. Libby ~Aca-demic, New York, 1994!, solution of the pdf transport equations,'' Technical report, FDA 95-06, Cornell University,
Chap 10. 1995.
34 37
D. W. Bogdanoff, ``Compressibility effects in turbulent shear layers,'' AIAA J. 21, 926
D. C. Haworth and S. B. Pope, ``A generalized Langevin model for tur-bulent
¯ows,'' Phys. Fluids 29, 387 ~1986!. ~1983!.
35 38
G. L. Brown and A. Roshko, ``On density effects and large structures in turbulent mixing
S. B. Pope, ``On the relationship between stochastic Lagrangian models of
turbulence and second-moment closures,'' Phys. Fluids 6, 973 ~1994!. layers,'' J. Fluid Mech. 64, 775 ~1974!.

Phys. Fluids, Vol. 9, No. 9, September 1997 B. J. Delarue and S. B. Pope 2715

Downloaded 22 Sep 2004 to 140.121.120.39. Redistribution subject to AIP license or copyright, see http://pof.aip.org/pof/copyright.jsp