Nagi N. Mansour

Direct numerical simulation of turbulent channel flow up to Reτ=590

Numerical simulations of fully developed turbulent channel flow at three Reynolds numbers up to Reτ=590 are reported. It is noted that the higher Reynolds number simulations exhibit fewer low Reynolds number effects than previous simulations at Reτ=180. A comprehensive set of statistics gathered from the simulations is available on the web at http://www.tam.uiuc.edu/Faculty/Moser/channel.

Reynolds-stress and dissipation rate budgets in a turbulent channel flow

The Budgets For The Reynolds Stresses And For The Dissipation Rate Of The Turbulence Kinetic Energy Are Computed Using Direct Simulation Data Of A Turbulent Channel Flow. The Budget Data Reveal That All The Terms In The Budget Become Important Close To The Wall. For Inhomogeneous Pressure Boundary Conditions, The Pressure—Strain Term Is Split Into A Return Term, A Rapid Term And A Stokes Term. The Stokes Term Is Important Close To The Wall. The Rapid And Return Terms Play Different Roles Depending On The Component Of The Term. A Split Of The Velocity Pressure-Gradient Term Into A Redistributive Term And A Diffusion Term Is Proposed, Which Should Be Simpler To Model. The Budget Data Are Used To Test Existing Closure Models For The Pressure—Strain Term, The Dissipation Rate, And The Transport Rate. In General, Further Work Is Needed To Improve the models.

Oscillations of drops in zero gravity with weak viscous effects

Nonlinear oscillations and other motions of large axially symmetric liquid drops in zero gravity are studied numerically by a boundary-integral method. The effect of small viscosity is included in the computations by retaining first-order viscous terms in the normal stress boundary condition. This is accomplished by making use of a partial solution of the boundary-layer equations which describe the weak vortical surface layer. Small viscosity is found to have a relatively large effect on resonant mode coupling phenomena.

Low Reynolds number k-e modelling with the aid of direct simulation data

The constant C(sub mu) and the near-wall damping function f(sub mu) in the eddy-viscosity relation of the kappa-epsilon model are evaluated from direct numerical simulation (DNS) data for developed channel and boundary layer flow at two Reynolds numbers each. Various existing f(sub mu) model functions are compared with the DNS data, and a new function is fitted to the high-Reynolds-number channel flow data. The epsilon-budget is computed for the fully developed channel flow. The relative magnitude of the terms in the epsilon-equation is analyzed with the aid of scaling arguments, and the parameter governing this magnitude is established. Models for the sum of all source and sink terms in the epsilon-equation are tested against the DNS data, and an improved model is proposed.

Topology of fine-scale motions in turbulent channel flow

An investigation of topological features of the velocity gradient field of turbulent channel flow has been carried out using results from a direct numerical simulation for which the Reynolds number based on the channel half-width and the centreline velocity was 7860. Plots of the joint probability density functions of the invariants of the rate of strain and velocity gradient tensors indicated that away from the wall region, the fine-scale motions in the flow have many characteristics in common with a variety of other turbulent and transitional flows: the intermediate principal strain rate tended to be positive at sites of high viscous dissipation of kinetic energy, while the invariants of the velocity gradient tensor showed that a preference existed for stable focus/stretching and unstable node/saddle/saddle topologies. Visualization of regions in the flow with stable focus/stretching topologies revealed arrays of discrete downstream-leaning flow structures which originated near the wall and penetrated into the outer region of the flow. In all regions of the flow, there was a strong preference for the vorticity to be aligned with the intermediate principal strain rate direction, with the effect increasing near the walls in response to boundary conditions.

Compressibility Effects on the Growth and Structure of Homogeneous Turbulent Shear Flow

Compressibility effects within decaying isotropic turbulence and homogeneous turbulent shear flow have been studied using direct numerical simulation. The objective of this work is to increase our understanding of compressible turbulence and to aid the development of turbulence models for compressible flows. The numerical simulations of compressible isotropic turbulence show that compressibility effects are highly dependent on the initial conditions. The shear flow simulations, on the other hand, show that measures of compressibility evolve to become independent of their initial values and are parameterized by the root mean square Mach number. The growth rate of the turbulence in compressible homogeneous shear flow is reduced compared to that in the incompressible case. The reduced growth rate is the result of an increase in the dissipation rate and energy transfer to internal energy by the pressure-dilatation correlation. Examination of the structure of compressible homogeneous shear flow reveals the presence of eddy shocklets, which are important for the increased dissipation rate of compressible turbulence.

An algebraic model for the turbulent flux of a passive scalar

The behaviour of passive-scalar fields resulting from mean scalar gradients in each of three orthogonal directions in homogeneous turbulent shear flow has been studied using direct numerical simulations of the unsteady incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with 128 × 128 × 128 grid points. It is found that, for all orientations of the mean scalar gradient, the sum of the pressure-scalar gradient and velocity gradient-scalar gradient terms in the turbulent scalar flux balance equation are approximately aligned with the scalar flux vector itself. In addition, the time derivative of the scalar flux is also approximately aligned with the flux vector for the developed fields (corresponding to roughly constant correlation coefficients). These alignments lead directly to a gradient transport model with a tensor turbulent diffusivity. The simulation results are used to fit a dimensionless model coefficient as a function of the turbulence Reynolds and Peclet numbers. The model is tested against two different passive-scalar fields in fully developed turbulent channel flow (also generated by direct numerical simulation) and is found to predict the scalar flux quite well throughout the entire channel.

Decay of isotropic turbulence at low Reynolds number

Decay of isotropic turbulence is computed using direct numerical simulations. Comparisons with experimental spectra at moderate and low Reynolds numbers (Rλ<70) show good agreement. At moderate to high Reynolds numbers (Rλ≳50), the spectra are found to collapse with Kolmogorov scaling at high wave numbers. However, at low Reynolds numbers (Rλ<50) the shape of the spectra at the Kolmogorov length scales is Reynolds number dependent. Direct simulation data from flowfields of decaying isotropic turbulence are used to compute the terms in the equation for the dissipation rate of the turbulent kinetic energy. The development of the skewness and the net destruction of the turbulence dissipation rate in the limit of low Reynolds numbers are presented. The nonlinear terms are found to remain active at surprisingly low Reynolds numbers.

Satellite formation in capillary jet breakup

Computations of finite‐amplitude, spatially periodic wave growth on a cylindrical jet have been carried out using a boundary integral method. The initial wave growth is in agreement with Rayleigh’s linear theory. When followed to completion these waves pinch off large drops separated by smaller satellite drops (spherules) that decrease in size with decreasing wavelength. The computed sizes of both drops and satellites agree with experiment. It is found that satellites will form for all unstable wave numbers. The small satellites that are computed at wave numbers near the critical wave number were not predicted by near‐linear analysis but are observed in experimental photographs of jet breakup. Computation of the collapse of elongated satellites shows short waves propagating on their surfaces.

Multiscale Approach to Ablation Modeling of Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablators

A multiscale approach is used to model and analyze the ablation of porous materials. Models are developed for the oxidation of a carbon preform and of the char layer of two Phenolic Impregnated Carbon Ablators (PICA) with the same chemical composition, but with different structures. Oxygen diffusion through the pores of the materials and in depth oxidation and mass loss are first modeled at microscopic scale. The microscopic model is then averaged in set of partial differential equations describing the macroscopic behavior of the material. Microscopic and macroscopic approaches are applied with progressive degrees of complexity to gain a comprehensive understanding of the ablation process. Porous medium ablation is found to occur in a zone of the char layer, called ablation zone, whose thickness is a decreasing function of the Thiele number. The studied PICA materials are shown to display different ablation behaviors, a fact that is not captured by current models that are based on chemical composition only. Applied to Stardust’s PICA, the models explain and reproduce the unexpected drop in density measured in the char layer during Stardust post-flight analyses [Stackpoole, 2008].