Direct Numerical Simulation Of Turbulent Open Channel Flow Over A Poly Disperse Particle Bed

The dispersion of a scalar quantity from point sources located in a Direct Numerical Simulation of turbulent channel flow is studied. An algorithm for tracking fluid particles or molecular (or thermal) markers is developed and tested. Accurate estimates of a number of Lagrangian characteristics of the flow, necessary for the description of the diffusion process, are reported for the case of a point source in the center of the channel. The consequences of molecular diffusivity on the effectiveness of the turbulence to disperse a foreign substance (or heat) are also explored. A new method is proposed for calculating the effect of Peclet number on the Lagrangian property autocorrelation in isotropic turbulence. Computed property autocorrelations, from a simulated experiment of point source diffusion in the center of the channel, are also reported. Finally, results for the diffusion from point sources located at the channel walls are presented and discussed.

Many methods of passive flow control rely on changes to surface morphology. Roughening surfaces to induce boundary layer transition to turbulence and in turn delay separation is a powerful approach to lowering drag on bluff bodies. While the influence in broad terms of how roughness and other means of passive flow control to delay separation on bluff bodies is known, basic mechanisms are not well understood. Of particular interest for the current work is understanding the role of surface dimpling on boundary layers. A computational approach is employed and the study has two main goals. The first is to understand and advance the numerical methodology utilized for the computations. The second is to shed some light on the details of how surface dimples distort boundary layers and cause transition to turbulence. Simulations are performed of the flow over a simplified configuration: the flow of a boundary layer over a dimpled flat plate. The flow is modeled using an immersed boundary as a representation of the dimpled surface along with direct numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations. The dimple geometry used is fixed and is that of a spherical depression in the flat plate with a depth-to-diameter ratio of 0.1. The dimples are arranged in staggered rows separated by spacing of the center of the bottom of the dimples by one diameter in both the spanwise and streamwise dimensions. The simulations are conducted for both two and three staggered rows of dimples. Flow variables are normalized at the inlet by the dimple depth and the Reynolds number is specified as 4000 (based on freestream velocity and inlet boundary layer thickness). First and second order statistics show the turbulent boundary layers correlate well to channel flow and flow of a zero pressure gradient flat plate boundary layers in the viscous sublayer and the buffer layer, but deviates further away from the wall. The forcing of transition to turbulence by the dimples is unlike the transition caused by a naturally transitioning flow, a small perturbation such as trip tape in experimental flows, or noise in the inlet condition for computational flows.

This book contains a collection of the main contributions from the first five workshops held by Ercoftac Special Interest Group on Synthetic Turbulence Models (SIG42. It is intended as an illustration of the sig’s activities and of the latest developments in the field. This volume investigates the use of Kinematic Simulation (KS) and other synthetic turbulence models for the particular application to environmental flows. This volume offers the best syntheses on the research status in KS, which is widely used in various domains, including Lagrangian aspects in turbulence mixing/stirring, particle dispersion/clustering, and last but not least, aeroacoustics. Flow realizations with complete spatial, and sometime spatio-temporal, dependency, are generated via superposition of random modes (mostly spatial, and sometime spatial and temporal, Fourier modes), with prescribed constraints such as: strict incompressibility (divergence-free velocity field at each point), high Reynolds energy spectrum. Recent improvements consisted in incorporating linear dynamics, for instance in rotating and/or stably-stratified flows, with possible easy generalization to MHD flows, and perhaps to plasmas. KS for channel flows have also been validated. However, the absence of "sweeping effects" in present conventional KS versions is identified as a major drawback in very different applications: inertial particle clustering as well as in aeroacoustics. Nevertheless, this issue was addressed in some reference papers, and merits to be revisited in the light of new studies in progress.