Intro.

Turbulent Flows

INTRODUCTION TO TURBULENT FLOWS

What is turbulence?
How is turbulence created?
How do we solve turbulent flows?
General Purposes
-

u and U
Mass diffussion and concentration statistics
Details of turbulent motion and how they interact

Three Types of turbulence

-

Grid turbulence -- not self-sustaining

Wall shear layers --- self sustaining
- wall effect as a turbulence source
Free shear layers -- mixing layers
-- two fluid at different speeds
-- jets, wakes

Characteristics of turbulence
-

Velocity fluctuates in a random manner -- Statisitically can be studied

High levels of vorticity fluctuations
High Reynolds numbers
Described by the Navier-Stokes (N-S) equations
Higher levels of momentum and energy transfers
Dissivative
Continuum level
Certain spatial structures - eddies vortices
- mushroom like, etc, all are distributed continuesly.

Reynolds Decompositions (RANS = Reynolds Average of N-S)

~ U u
u
i
i
i
Ui

Lim

1
T T

t 0 T

t0

~ dt
u
i

Intro. Turbulent Flows

ui
~ (t),
u
m/s

Ui

Fig. 1. Typical of velocity fluctuation in turbulent flows.

The mean value of a fluctuation components is zero,
ui

Lim

1
T T

t 0 T

t0

~ U )dt 0
(u
i
i

For time averages to make sense, the integral have to be independent of t0.
U i
0
t
~
u
U i u i
u i
i

0
;
x j
x j
x j
x j

~u
~ (U u )(U u )
u
i
j
i
i
j
j

=0

=0

U iU j U i u j u iU j u i u j
U iU j u i u j

u i u j 0 if ui and uj are correlated.

= 0 if ui and uj are uncorrelated.
2

Intro. Turbulent Flows

~
p
P

p = P + p.
if ~
x i
xi

N-S equations can be written as

u~i ~ u~i
2 u~i
1 ~
p
uj

t
x j
xi
x j x j
~
u
i
0
xi

(1)
(2)

~
~
u
u
j are the instantaneous velocities.
i and

Equation for the mean flow for a turbulent flow

p = P + p and taking a
The momentum equation is obtained by substituting u~ i U i u i and ~
U i
0 ).
time average (
t

Uj

U i
u i
2U i
1 P
uj

x j
x j
xi
x j x j

(3)

The continuity equation becomes:

U i
u i
0 and
0.
xi
xi
~
u
(U i u i )
i
0
0
xi
xi
uj

u j
u i u j
u j
u i
u i
uj
ui

0.
, since u i
x j
x j
x j
x j
x j

Uj

U i
2U i
1 P

ui u j
x j
xi
x j x j x j

Uj

U i
1 P 1 U i

ui u j

x j
xi x j
x j

or
Uj

U i

x j
x j

P ij U i u i u j

x j

(4)

where ij is Kronecker delta. ij = i if i = j, and 0 if i j.

Intro. Turbulent Flows

Equation (4) is the momentum equation for the mean flow. For turbulent flows, it is not
enough equations to solve the problem, because of the attendance of the Reynolds stress
tensors u i u j . This leads to a closure problem.
In general, one can write:
ij u i u j

(5)

11 12 13

where ij 21 22 23 . If ij is symetric, then ij ji and there are six independent

31 32 33
components, instead of nine. The diagonal components of ij are normal stresses:
u12 ; u 22 ; u 32 .
The off-diagonal components of ij are shear stresses, and they play an important role in the
transport of mean momentum by turbulent motion. One of the methods to solve the closure
problem is the use of turbulence models.
How do we estimate or model

ui u j

Length Scales in Turbulent Flows

Turbulent flows are characterized by the existence of several lengths. Consider a laminar
boundary layer flow over a flat plate:
u = u(y)

U
y

x
L
Fig. 2. Laminar boundary layer over a flat plate.

L = convective length scale

U = convective velocity scale
= diffusive length scale
The time scale is then:

L
.
U

Intro. Turbulent Flows

We can also estimate that

L
~

U UL

1/ 2

1
.
Re1L/ 2

(6)

Furthermore, L is related to the convection of momentum, and relates to the molecular

diffusion of momentum deficit across the flow, away from the surface.
Suppose we have a turbulent boundary layer:
U
largest eddy
size
y
u

smallest
eddy size

L
x

Fig. 3. Turbulent boundary layer over a flat plate.

L
convective time scale.
U

~ (u)
and

L
U

u
U

where u is the characteristic velocity fluctuation.

L

~
turbulent diffusion time scale matches the convective time scale.
U
u

What is the smallest eddy size?

or
What is the smallest length scale in the turbulent flow?
Large scales are as big as the width of the flow Interact with the mean flow.
The smallest scales? Kolmogorov length scale.

Intro. Turbulent Flows

Energy
transfer
among
eddies
Large
scale

smallest
eddies

dissipation
to heat

Fig. 4. Energy cascade in turbulent motion.

Turbulence generates new (smaller) length scales till the local Reynolds number becomes
small for viscous dissipation to become significant.
How can we estimate the Kolmogorov length scale ()?
Kolmogorov theory:

~ f(,)

(7)

where = Kolmogorov length scale, = dissipation rate, and = kinematic viscosity

For an equilibrium turbulent boundary layer,
dissipation = energy input
The dissipation () and can be used to obtain the smallest scales of length (), time (),
frequency (fK), and velocity (), in the flow, and are referred to as the Kolmogorov scales
(Tennekes and Lumley, 1972)

= (3/)1/4

(8)

= (/)1/2

(9)

fK = U/(2)

(10)

(11)

Intro. Turbulent Flows

The turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rate plays an important role in turbulent flow
analysis. In an isotropic turbulence, the dissipation rate, , is given by
15 u / x

(12)

Values of u / x 2 can be obtained experimentally using Taylors frozen hypothesis. The

hypothesis states that if the turbulent velocity fluctuations are small compared to the mean
velocity, then the autocorrelation of the fluctuating velocity with time delay will be the
same as the spatial correlation with separation U in the streamwise direction (Bradshaw,
1971). In a mathematical form, the Taylors hypothesis can be expressed as
u
1 u

x
U ( y ) t

(13)

where u / t can usually be obtained from instantaneous velocity measurements.

In addition to the Kolmogorov length scale, the Taylor microscale (Taylor) and integral
length scale () are often used in the analysis of turbulent flows. The Taylor microscale, with
dimension of length, is defined as (after Tennekes and Lumley, 1972)

1/ 2

Taylor

u2

/ x

(14)

By recalling Taylors frozen hypothesis, based on Eq. (14), we can obtain

( ) = ( )

(15)

where ( ) is the spatial correlation with separation ( = U. Figure 5 shows a typical

spatial correlation curve.
The area under the spatial correlation curve is the integral length scale, so that

( ) d

(16)

Intro. Turbulent Flows

The Taylor microscale (Taylor) and the integral length scale ( ) are far larger than the
Kolmogorov length scale ().

1.0

( )

Fig. 5. A typical spatial correlation curve.