Model for transitional turbulence in a planar shear flow

Fuente: arXiv
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Main Authors: Benavides, Santiago J., Barkley, Dwight
Format: Preprint
Published: 2023
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author Benavides, Santiago J.
Barkley, Dwight
author_facet Benavides, Santiago J.
Barkley, Dwight
contents A central obstacle to understanding the route to turbulence in wall-bounded flows is that the flows are composed of complex, highly fluctuating, and strongly nonlinear states. In the case of pipe flow, models have deepened our understanding of turbulent onset by providing valuable theory to complement experiments and simulations. In planar cases, the large-scale flows associated with transitional turbulence are considerably more complex than for pipes, limiting our ability to develop models and provide theoretical analyses for these cases. We address this challenge here by deriving from the Navier-Stokes equations a simplified model for transitional turbulence in a planar setting. The Reynolds-averaged and turbulent-kinetic-energy equations are projected onto a minimal set of wall-normal modes and justified model closures are used for the Reynolds stresses and turbulent dissipation and transport. The model reproduces phenomena found at the onset of turbulence in planar shear flows, such as turbulent-laminar patterns (turbulent bands) oriented obliquely to the streamwise direction and large-scale flows associated with both stationary patterns and growing turbulent spots. We demonstrate the model's utility by showing that patterns arise with decreasing Reynolds number via a linear instability of uniform turbulence and by deriving a selection criterion for the pattern orientation at onset.
format Preprint
id arxiv_https___arxiv_org_abs_2309_12879
institution arXiv
publishDate 2023
record_format arxiv
spellingShingle Model for transitional turbulence in a planar shear flow
Benavides, Santiago J.
Barkley, Dwight
Fluid Dynamics
A central obstacle to understanding the route to turbulence in wall-bounded flows is that the flows are composed of complex, highly fluctuating, and strongly nonlinear states. In the case of pipe flow, models have deepened our understanding of turbulent onset by providing valuable theory to complement experiments and simulations. In planar cases, the large-scale flows associated with transitional turbulence are considerably more complex than for pipes, limiting our ability to develop models and provide theoretical analyses for these cases. We address this challenge here by deriving from the Navier-Stokes equations a simplified model for transitional turbulence in a planar setting. The Reynolds-averaged and turbulent-kinetic-energy equations are projected onto a minimal set of wall-normal modes and justified model closures are used for the Reynolds stresses and turbulent dissipation and transport. The model reproduces phenomena found at the onset of turbulence in planar shear flows, such as turbulent-laminar patterns (turbulent bands) oriented obliquely to the streamwise direction and large-scale flows associated with both stationary patterns and growing turbulent spots. We demonstrate the model's utility by showing that patterns arise with decreasing Reynolds number via a linear instability of uniform turbulence and by deriving a selection criterion for the pattern orientation at onset.
title Model for transitional turbulence in a planar shear flow
topic Fluid Dynamics
url https://arxiv.org/abs/2309.12879