Using a simulated highly compressible isotropic turbulence field with turbulent Mach number around 1.0, we studied the effects of local compressibility on the statistical properties and structures of ...velocity gradients in order to assess salient small-scale features pertaining to highly compressible turbulence against existing theories for incompressible turbulence. A variety of statistics and local flow structures conditioned on the local dilatation – a measure of local flow compressibility – are studied. The overall enstrophy production is found to be enhanced by compression motions and suppressed by expansion motions. It is further revealed that most of the enstrophy production is generated along the directions tangential to the local density isosurface in both compression and expansion regions. The dilatational contribution to enstrophy production is isotropic and dominant in highly compressible regions. The emphasis is then directed to the complicated properties of the enstrophy production by the deviatoric strain rate at various dilatation levels. In the overall flow field, the most probable eigenvalue ratio for the strain rate tensor is found to be −3:1:2.5, quantitatively different from the preferred eigenvalue ratio of −4:1:3 reported in incompressible turbulence. Furthermore, the strain rate eigenvalue ratio tends to be −1:0:0 in high compression regions, implying the dominance of sheet-like structures. The joint probability distribution function of the invariants for the deviatoric velocity gradient tensor is used to characterize local flow structures conditioned on the local dilatation as well as the distribution of enstrophy production within these flow structures. We demonstrate that strong local compression motions enhance the enstrophy production by vortex stretching, while strong local expansion motions suppress enstrophy production by vortex stretching. Despite these complications, most statistical properties associated with the solenoidal component of the velocity field are found to be very similar to those in incompressible turbulence, and are insensitive to the change of local dilatation. Therefore, a good understanding of dynamics of the compressive component of the velocity field is key to an overall accurate description of highly compressible turbulence.
When discussing research in physics and in science more generally, it is common to ascribe equal importance to the three components of the scientific trinity: theoretical, experimental, and ...computational studies. This review will explore the future of modern turbulence theory by tracing its history, which began in earnest with Kolmogorov’s 1941 analysis of turbulence cascade and inertial range A.N. Kolmogorov, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, 30, 299, (1941); 32, 19, (1941). The 80th Anniversary of Kolmogorov’s landmark study is a welcome opportunity to survey the achievements and evaluate the future of the theoretical approach of turbulence research. Over the years, turbulence theories have been critically important in laying the foundation of our understanding of the nature of turbulent flows. In particular, the Direct Interaction Approximation (DIA) R.H. Kraichnan, J. Fluid Mech., 5, 497 (1959) and its subsequent development, known as the statistical closure approach, can be identified as perhaps the most profound single advancement. The remarkable success of the statistical closure has furnished a platform to study such essential concepts as the energy transfer process and interacting scales, and the roles of the straining and sweeping motions. More recently, the quasi-Lagrangian formulation of V. L’vov & I. Procaccia and Kraichnan’s solvable passive scalar model provided powerful ways to explore another fundamental aspect of turbulent flows, the phenomena of intermittency, and the associated anomalous scaling exponents. In the meantime, the theory of fluid equilibria has been developed to describe the large-scale structures that can emerge from turbulent cascades of two-dimensional and geophysical flows at a later time. And yet, despite all these successes, analytical treatments suffer from mathematical complexities. As a result, the utility of theoretical approaches has been limited to relatively idealized flows. On the other hand, in recent decades, computational abilities and experimental facilities have reached an unprecedented scale. Looking beyond the horizon, the imminent deployment of exascale supercomputers will generate complete datasets of the entire flow field of key benchmark flows, allowing researchers to extract additional measurements concerning fully developed, complex turbulent flow fields far beyond those available from the statistical closure theories. Some other developments that could potentially influence the future course of turbulence theories include the advancement of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and data science; likely disruptions arising from the advent of quantum computation; and the increasingly prominent role of turbulence research in providing more accurate climate scientific data. Turbulence theorists can leverage these developments by asking the right questions and developing advanced, sophisticated frameworks that will be able to predict and correlate vast amounts of data from the other two components of the trinity.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
Turbulent flows are characterized by the non-linear cascades of energy and other inviscid invariants across a huge range of scales, from where they are injected to where they are dissipated. ...Recently, new experimental, numerical and theoretical works have revealed that many turbulent configurations deviate from the ideal three and two dimensional homogeneous and isotropic cases characterized by the presence of a strictly direct and inverse energy cascade, respectively. New phenomena appear that alter the global and local transfer properties. In this review, we provide a critical summary of historical and recent works from a unified point of view and we present a classification of all known transfer mechanisms. Beside the classical cases of direct and inverse energy cascades, the different scenarios include: split cascades for which an invariant flows both to small and large scales simultaneously, multiple/dual cascades of different quantities, bi-directional cascades where direct and inverse transfers of the same invariant coexist in the same scale-range and finally equilibrium states where no cascades are present, including the case when a large scale condensate is formed. We classify all possible transitions from one scenario to another as the control parameters are changed and we analyse when and why different configurations are observed. Our discussion is based on a set of paradigmatic applications: helical turbulence, rotating and/or stratified flows, magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) turbulence, and passive/active scalars where the transfer properties are altered as one changes the embedding dimensions, the thickness of the domain or other relevant control parameters, as, e.g., the Reynolds, Rossby, Froude, Péclet, or Alfvén numbers. We briefly discuss the presence of anomalous scaling laws in 3D hydrodynamics and in other configurations, in connection with the intermittent nature of the energy dissipation in configuration space. A quick overview is also provided concerning the importance of cascades in other applications such as bounded flows, quantum fluids, relativistic and compressible turbulence, and active matter, together with a discussion of the implications for turbulent modelling. Finally, we present a series of open problems and challenges that future work needs to address.
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GEOZS, IJS, IMTLJ, KILJ, KISLJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, PNG, SAZU, SBCE, SBJE, UILJ, UL, UM, UPCLJ, UPUK, ZAGLJ, ZRSKP
We use data from well-resolved direct numerical simulations at Taylor-scale Reynolds numbers from 140 to 1000 to study the statistics of energy dissipation rate and enstrophy density (i.e. the square ...of local vorticity). Despite substantial variability in each of these variables, their extreme events not only scale in a similar manner but also progressively tend to occur spatially together as the Reynolds number increases. Though they possess non-Gaussian tails of enormous amplitudes, ratios of some characteristic properties can be closely linked to those of isotropic Gaussian random fields. We present results also on statistics of the pressure Laplacian and conditional mean pressure given both dissipation and enstrophy. At low Reynolds number intense negative pressure fluctuations are preferentially associated with rotation-dominated regions but at high Reynolds number both high dissipation and high enstrophy have similar effects.
A recent assessment of available direct numerical simulation (DNS) data from turbulent boundary layer flows (Schlatter & Örlü, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 659, 2010, pp. 116–126) showed surprisingly large ...differences not only in the skin friction coefficient or shape factor, but also in their predictions of mean and fluctuation profiles far into the sublayer. While such differences are expected at very low Reynolds numbers and/or the immediate vicinity of the inflow or tripping region, it remains unclear whether inflow and tripping effects explain the differences observed even at moderate Reynolds numbers. This question is systematically addressed by re-simulating the DNS of a zero-pressure-gradient turbulent boundary layer flow by Schlatter et al. (Phys. Fluids, vol. 21, 2009, art. 051702). The previous DNS serves as the baseline simulation, and the new DNS with a range of physically different inflow conditions and tripping effects are carefully compared. The downstream evolution of integral quantities as well as mean and fluctuation profiles is analysed, and the results show that different inflow conditions and tripping effects do indeed explain most of the differences observed when comparing available DNS at low Reynolds number. It is further found that, if transition is initiated inside the boundary layer at a low enough Reynolds number (based on the momentum-loss thickness)
${\mathit{Re}}_{\theta } \lt 300$
, all quantities agree well for both inner and outer layer for
${\mathit{Re}}_{\theta } \gt 2000$
. This result gives a lower limit for meaningful comparisons between numerical and/or wind tunnel experiments, assuming that the flow was not severely over- or understimulated. It is further shown that even profiles of the wall-normal velocity fluctuations and Reynolds shear stress collapse for higher
${\mathit{Re}}_{\theta } $
irrespective of the upstream conditions. In addition, the overshoot in the total shear stress within the sublayer observed in the DNS of Wu & Moin (Phys. Fluids, vol. 22, 2010, art. 085105) has been identified as a feature of transitional boundary layers.
Turbulence data from the CASES‐99 field experiment, over comparatively horizontally homogeneous and flat terrain, are separated based on the anisotropy of the Reynolds stress tensor (into isotropic, ...two‐component axisymmetric and one‐component turbulence) and flux‐variance similarity scaling relations are tested. Results illustrate that different states of anisotropy correspond to different similarity relations, especially under unstable stratification. Experimental data with close to isotropic turbulence match similarity relationships well. On the other hand, very anisotropic turbulence deviates significantly from the traditional scaling relations. We examine in detail the characteristics of these states of anisotropy, identify conditions in which they occur and connect them with different governing parameters. The governing parameters of turbulence anisotropy are shown to be different for stable and unstable stratification, but are able to delineate clearly the conditions in which each of the anisotropy states occurs.
Near‐surface similarity relations are examined in the light of turbulence anisotropy. Isotropic turbulence is found to fit traditional scaling well, while highly anisotropic data deviate significantly from the scaling. Anisotropy also explains the large scatter in scaled horizontal velocity variances. Parameters governing anisotropy in unstable stratification are found to be wind shear and stability and, for stable stratification, wind speed and turbulent kinetic energy.
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BFBNIB, FZAB, GIS, IJS, KILJ, NLZOH, NUK, OILJ, SBCE, SBMB, UL, UM, UPUK
•Effect of blade profiles on the Savonius rotor performance is studied numerically.•Performance studies are made on the basis of torque and power coefficients.•Flow field studies are made based on ...velocity, total pressure and turbulence intensity contours.•Wind tunnel experiments are conducted to validate the numerical results.
In this work, some notable blade profiles of drag-based vertical axis Savonius wind turbine rotor have been investigated both numerically and experimentally to judge their performances on a common platform. At the outset, 2D unsteady simulation is performed for semicircular, Benesh, modified Bach and elliptical profiles keeping the overall rotor diameter in each case to be constant. The simulation has been carried out using the Shear Stress Transport k-ω turbulence model with the help of the finite volume solver ANSYS Fluent. The torque and power coefficients, in each case, are estimated as a function of tip speed ratio. The total pressure, velocity magnitude, and turbulence intensity contours are obtained and analyzed. Finally, wind tunnel tests are conducted to validate the numerical results. From the numerical simulation, the maximum power coefficients for the semicircular, Benesh, modified Bach and elliptical profiles are found to be 0.272, 0.294, 0.304 and 0.34, respectively. However, the wind tunnel tests with the semicircular, Benesh, modified Bach and elliptical-bladed rotors demonstrated the maximum CP to be 0.158, 0.159, 0.162, and 0.19, respectively.
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