Turbulence Prof. E.G.

Tulapurkara
Chapter-1

Chapter 1

Lecture 2

Introduction - 2
Topics

1.2.2 Diffusivity
1.2.3 High Reynolds number
1.2.4 Rotational
1.2.5 Three dimensional
1.2.6 Wide Spectrum
1.2.7 The motion is dissipative
1.2.8 Turbulence is a continuum phenomenon
1.2.9 Feature of Flow

1.2.2 Diffusivity

Turbulent flows have much higher diffusivity than that caused by the molecular motion
i.e. the diffusion of mass, heat and momentum in a turbulent flow is much faster than
when the diffusion takes place by molecular motion. As a first example, consider a room
with a heater in a corner. Let the heater be switched on only for a few seconds. If the
heat were to diffuse purely by molecular motion then it would take several hours before
the temperature in the room becomes uniform at a higher value. However, if the air in
the room is set in turbulent motion, say by switching on a fan for a few seconds, then
the temperature would become uniform in subsequent few seconds. Reference 1.9,
chapter 1 gives a rough estimate of the time taken for heat to diffuse in the two cases.
As a second example, consider a sugar cube kept in water inside a beaker. By
molecular action alone, it may take several hours before the sweetness (or diffusion of
sugar particles) becomes uniform in the water. But, a small turbulent motion created by
brief stirring would cause the sweetness to be distributed uniformly in a very short time.
As a third example, consider the flow past a flat plate as shown in Fig. 1.2a. When the
boundary layer is laminar, the momentum transfer is caused through molecular
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Turbulence Prof. E.G. Tulapurkara
Chapter-1

viscosity. When the boundary layer is turbulent, the momentum transfer is mostly due to
movement of fluid particles due to turbulence. The momentum transfer in this case is
much larger than when the boundary layer is laminar. However, as a consequence of
the higher rate of momentum transfer, the drag of the flat plate is much higher when the
boundary layer is turbulent than when it is laminar. A flow is not turbulent if the diffusivity
is low. Reference 1.9, chapter 1 gives an example. On certain days, especially in cold
weather, long white contrails are seen behind the wing of an airplane. These contrails
are due to condensation of water vapour in the vortices behind the wing.
These contrails persists with nearly the same diameter, for several kilometers. The flow
in the contrails is not turbulent.

1.2.3 High Reynolds number

A flow can attain the turbulent state in a variety of ways e.g. (a) by vigorous
stirring, (b) passing the flow through a grid of rods etc. However, in many cases the
turbulent state is attained as a result of the instability of the laminar state. It is found that
after a certain Reynolds number is exceeded, the laminar flow becomes unstable i.e. a
disturbance to the flow grows and after a distance, called transition region, the flow
becomes turbulent. For example, a laminar boundary layer over a flat plate, developing
in a uniform external stream, becomes sensitive to certain disturbances when Reynolds
number, based on external velocity and the distance from the leading edge, exceeds 5
x 105. This Reynolds number is called critical Reynolds number. The flow does not
become turbulent below the ‘critical Reynolds number’ and hence, it is said that the
turbulent flow occurs at high Reynolds number.
The critical Reynolds number depends on the type of flow. For example, flow in a pipe
becomes turbulent when Re, based on pipe diameter and average velocity in pipe, is
more than 2000.

Remarks:

(i) For a boundary layer the critical Reynolds number and the extent of transition region,
depend on several parameters like Mach number of external stream, surface curvature
and pressure gradient. Hence, the critical Reynolds number in a flow past a curved

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Turbulence Prof. E.G. Tulapurkara
Chapter-1

surface varies from point to point. Transition to turbulence and location of transition
point are important topics from the point of view of computation of turbulent flow past
bodies. A brief outline is given in Appendix D.

(ii) It is observed that flow can be laminar even above the critical Reynolds number. This
is because only certain types of disturbances are amplified after the critical Reynolds
number is exceeded. Hence, if the flow is free from disturbances, a laminar flow can be
observed at Reynolds number higher than the critical Reynolds number. In wind tunnel
experiments, with exceptionally low levels of turbulence, a laminar boundary layer has
been observed upto Reynolds number of 2 x 10 6 (Ref.1.31, chapter 15). Free shear
flows like jets and wakes, where there are no solid boundaries, have low critical
Reynolds number.

The process of hastening the transition after the critical Reynolds number is exceeded,
is referred to as tripping the boundary layer. This can be done by introducing roughness
elements on the surface of the body.

(iii) Instability as mentioned earlier, means that a disturbance to the flow grows and the
flow changes from one state to another. In certain cases when a laminar flow is
disturbed, the next state need not be a turbulent state. For example, consider the flow in
the annulus between a stationary cylinder and a concentric rotating cylinder. At very low
rotational speeds, the velocity distribution, in the annulus between the cylinders, varies
linearly with radius. As the speed of rotation of the outer cylinder increases the flow
undergoes instability and Taylor vortices appear (Ref.1.31, chapter 17). But, the flow is
still laminar i.e. the velocity at a point in the annulus is a known function of time. The
flow pattern in the annulus between the two cylinders changes with further increase in
the rotational speed. Only at considerably high rotational speeds a fully turbulent flow is
observed.
The laminar flow between two plates where, the lower plate is heated, also goes
through several stages before becoming turbulent.

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Turbulence Prof. E.G. Tulapurkara
Chapter-1

1.2.4 Rotational

Vorticity plays an important role in turbulent flows. Recall that the vorticity (  ) is defined
as :
Ω =  × V = ξ i +η j +ζ k (1.11)
Where, V = U i + V j + W k is the velocity vector and
  
= i+ j+ k
x y z
The three components of vorticity are :
W V U W V U
ξ=  ; η=  ; ξ  (1.12)
y z z x x y
Turbulence is also regarded as consisting of a large number of eddies of various sizes.
According to Ref.1.2, chapter 1 an eddy in a turbulent motion is intended to mean a flow
pattern with spatially limited distribution of vorticity of comparatively simple forms like
Hill’s spherical vortex and vortex ring. It is supposed that real turbulent flows are
superposition of many such eddies of different kinds, sizes and orientation. Figure 1.7
shows a jet coming out of a nozzle in stagnant surroundings. The jet is made visible by
injecting smoke into it and illuminating a vertical plane of it by a Laser sheet. Eddies of
various sizes are seen in the picture. However, the eddies change in shape and size
and random vorticity fluctuations is a feature of turbulence. The implication of this
feature, is that in computations, the turbulent flow has to be treated as rotational. It may
be added that the random waves on the surface of oceans which are essentially
irrotational are not turbulent (Reference 1.9, chapter 1).

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Turbulence Prof. E.G. Tulapurkara
Chapter-1

Fig. 1.7 Jet in stagnant surrounding

[Based on Fig. 1(c) of Ref. 1.56a. ‘This figure cannot be

reproduced, shared, altered or exploited commercially in any way
without the permission of Cambridge University Press, as it is
copyrighted material and therefore not subject to the allowances
permitted by a CC-BY licence’]

1.2.5 Three dimensional

Turbulent flows are three dimensional. Even if the mean flow is non-zero in only one or
two directions, the turbulent fluctuations are present in all three directions. For example,
in a fully developed pipe flow, the mean velocity would be non-zero only along the axial
direction ( U ), but, the fluctuating velocities would in all three directions i.e. the velocity
at a point would be :

 
V = U+u' i + v'j + w'k

where u’, v’ and w’ are the fluctuating velocities along X -, Y- and Z- directions. This
feature has implications for both computational and experimental study of turbulent
flows. The computation of turbulent flows, in all its detail, called Direct Numerical
Simulation(DNS), requires that the computational domain is three dimensional. The
experimental techniques for turbulent flows must also be capable of measuring turbulent
fluctuations in all three directions.

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Turbulence Prof. E.G. Tulapurkara
Chapter-1

Remark :
It is observed that certain two dimensional motions display chaotic behaviour after a
certain Reynolds number is exceeded. Further, in the presence of strong magnetic field
or rotary motion, one component of turbulence may be suppressed. Such cases,
referred to as two-dimensional turbulence, are not real turbulence. The mechanisms like
vortex stretching in a real turbulent flow are absent in two dimensional turbulence.
Reference 1.40, chapter 10 may be consulted for details.

1.2.6 Wide spectrum

A turbulent signal can be approximated as superposition of several waves of different
frequencies and amplitudes. To analyse this aspect, a spectrum analysis (see item (VI)
of section 1.3.1 for details) is carried out which shows as to how the energy of the signal
is distributed over different frequencies. For a turbulent signal the spectrum is found to
be continuous (Fig.1.8). According to Prof. A. Prabhu of I.I.Sc Bangalore, India, the
frequency where the energy of the signal becomes negligible (f max in Fig.1.8) is roughly
300 times the local mean velocity. Thus, a laboratory flow with velocity of 20 m/s would
show energy content upto 6000 Hz. Consequently, the instrumentation used for
measuring a turbulent signal must be sensitive over a wide and continuous range of
frequencies. Further, during measurements the data rate and the time duration for
acquisition of the signal should take into account f max. As regards the computation, the
time step used should be in accordance with fmax.
Remark :
A spectrum which consists of peaks at a small number of frequencies is not a turbulent
signal. Such a signal may be obtained in a flow behind a bluff body at low Reynolds
number which is characterized by vortex shedding at regular frequencies.

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Turbulence Prof. E.G. Tulapurkara
Chapter-1

1.2.7 The motion is dissipative

A part of the kinetic energy of the mean motion is converted into the fluctuating motion
and a part of the kinetic energy of the fluctuating motion is dissipated in the form of
heat. Thus, a continuous supply of energy is needed to maintain turbulence. In the
absence of energy supply the turbulence decays. It is shown in chapter 3 that the rate of
shear in the mean motion leads to production of turbulent kinetic energy.

Remarks:
(i) The turbulent motion, created by stirring the fluid, decays after the stirring stops and
gradually the fluid returns to the condition of rest as there is no continuous supply of
energy. Similarly, in the test section of a wind tunnel, where velocity of the stream is
constant, the turbulence decays as there is no shear.
(ii) Random waves like sound wave have a negligible dissipation and are not turbulence
(Reference 1.9, chapter 1).

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Turbulence Prof. E.G. Tulapurkara
Chapter-1

1.2.8 Turbulence is a continuum phenomenon

The turbulent motion can be visualized as the one caused by eddies of different
sizes. Figure 1.7 shows a jet coming out of a nozzle in which eddies of different sizes
are seen. The size of the largest eddy is seen to vary along the height of the jet. This
size is seen to be of the order of the width of the jet at a location. As regards the size of
the smallest eddy, it is observed that the ratio of the size of the smallest eddy to the size
of the largest eddy depends on the Reynolds number of the flow (section 1.3.2
discusses this issue). However, the size of the smallest eddy is found to be much larger
than the mean free path of the molecular motion at normal temperature and pressure.
Thus, a turbulent flow can be treated as continuum. As a further confirmation, the
Navier-Stokes equations, which are based on continuum assumption, are found to give
satisfactory results in turbulent flows of Newtonian fluids.

1.2.9 Feature of flow

The quantities like coefficient of viscosity and thermal conductivity are properties of a
fluid. However, turbulence is a feature of flow and not a fluid property. Comparing the
motion of small eddies in turbulent flow to that of the motion of molecules, a mixing
length hypothesis has been proposed to analyze the turbulent flows. In another
approach, analogous to the molecular viscosity, an eddy viscosity has been proposed.
However, the mixing length and eddy viscosity, though useful in certain computations,
are found to depend on the type of the flow. They also vary from place to place in the
same flow. Thus, the detailed characteristics of the turbulent flow, to be described in the
next section, depend on the flow situation. The characteristics of flows like jets, wakes
and boundary layers are different from each other. The characteristics are also
influenced by the boundary conditions.
Remark :
Brief history of the subject: It is always useful to have an idea about the historical
developments in the subject under study. A historical note is given in Appendix A.

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