Yu-lu Liu

Turbulent Mixing and Evolution in a Stably Stratified Flow with a Temperature Step

Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) is applied to examine the turbulent mixing and evolution in a stably stratified flow with a thermally sharp interface. Turbulent velocity intensities and turbulent kinetic energy are analyzed by considering the mean shear and stratification effects. The evolution of turbulent mixing layer and turbulent structures are mainly investigated. The results show that the streamwise intensities are much larger than the vertical intensities, and vertical fluctuations decay more rapidly at the presence of stratification. The qualitatively computational results suggest that the mixing layer, defined by the mean temperature, inclines to the side with small inlet velocity. The evolution of the half-width of the mixing layer shows two different slopes. The turbulent structure with high vorticity is restricted in the mixing layer especially in strong stratified cases.

SIMULATION OF LAGRANGIAN DISPERSION USING A LAGRANGIAN STOCHASTIC MODEL AND DNS IN A TURBULENT CHANNEL FLOW

The mean square displacements of fluid particles in a turbulent channel flow at Reτ = 100 are investigated using a modified Langevin equation, and are compared with DNS results. Both the Lagrangian integral time scales directly obtained from DNS and the predicted values using an empirical relation between the Eulerian and the Lagrangian integral time scales are used in the modified Langevin equation to test the effects of integral time scales on the dispersion of particles. The results show that the slight variation of the Lagrangian integral time scale has little influence on the dispersion. The agreement between results of the model equation and those of DNS is satisfactory except the streamwise dispersion for intermediate times (20 < t+ < 300), where the results of the model equation are slightly overestimated compared to those of DNS. The cause of such discrepancy is discussed.

Statistics of velocity and temperature fluctuations in two-dimensional Rayleigh-Bénard convection.

We investigate fluctuations of the velocity and temperature fields in two-dimensional (2D) Rayleigh-Bénard (RB) convection by means of direct numerical simulations (DNS) over the Rayleigh number range 10^{6}≤Ra≤10^{10} and for a fixed Prandtl number Pr=5.3 and aspect ratio Γ=1. Our results show that there exists a counter-gradient turbulent transport of energy from fluctuations to the mean flow both locally and globally, implying that the Reynolds stress is one of the driving mechanisms of the large-scale circulation in 2D turbulent RB convection besides the buoyancy of thermal plumes. We also find that the viscous boundary layer (BL) thicknesses near the horizontal conducting plates and near the vertical sidewalls, δ_{u} and δ_{v}, are almost the same for a given Ra, and they scale with the Rayleigh and Reynolds numbers as ∼Ra^{-0.26±0.03} and ∼Re^{-0.43±0.04}. Furthermore, the thermal BL thickness δ_{θ} defined based on the root-mean-square (rms) temperature profiles is found to agree with Prandtl-Blasius predictions from the scaling point of view. In addition, the probability density functions of turbulent energy ɛ_{u^{}} and thermal ɛ_{θ^{}} dissipation rates, calculated, respectively, within the viscous and thermal BLs, are found to be always non-log-normal and obey approximately a Bramwell-Holdsworth-Pinton distribution first introduced to characterize rare fluctuations in a confined turbulent flow and critical phenomena.

Scale analysis of turbulent channel flow with varying pressure gradient

In this paper orthogonal wavelet transformations are applied to decompose experimental velocity signals in fully developed channel flows with varying pressure gradient into scales. We analyze the time series from turbulent data, to obtain the statistical characteristics, correlations between the adjacent scales and the principal scale of coherent structures in different scales by wavelet transformations. The results show that, in the counter gradient transport (CGT) region, skewness factors and flatness factors deviate strongly from the corresponding values of Gaussian distribution on certain scales. PDFs on each scale confirm this observation. Scale-scale correlations show further that the fluctuations on some certain special scales are more intermittent than nearby. Principal scale of coherent structure is coincident with the scales on which the statistical properties depart from Gaussian distribution. These features are the same for different families of wavelets, and it also shows some different features in the region between favorable pressure gradient and adverse pressure gradient.

Intermittency measurement in two dimensional bacterial turbulence

In this paper, an experimental velocity database of a bacterial collective motion, e.g., Bacillus subtilis, in turbulent phase with volume filling fraction 84% provided by Professor Goldstein at Cambridge University (UK), was analyzed to emphasize the scaling behavior of this active turbulence system. This was accomplished by performing a Hilbert-based methodology analysis to retrieve the scaling property without the β-limitation. A dual-power-law behavior separated by the viscosity scale ℓ_{ν} was observed for the qth-order Hilbert moment L_{q}(k). This dual-power-law belongs to an inverse-cascade since the scaling range is above the injection scale R, e.g., the bacterial body length. The measured scaling exponents ζ(q) of both the small-scale (k>k_{ν}) and large-scale (k<k_{ν}) motions are convex, showing the multifractality. A log-normal formula was put forward to characterize the multifractal intensity. The measured intermittency parameters are μ_{S}=0.26 and μ_{L}=0.17, respectively, for the small- and large-scale motions. It implies that the former cascade is more intermittent than the latter one, which is also confirmed by the corresponding singularity spectrum f(α) versus α. Comparison with the conventional two-dimensional Ekman-Navier-Stokes equation, a continuum model indicates that the origin of the multifractality could be a result of some additional nonlinear interaction terms, which deservers a more careful investigation.

EFFECT OF SWEEP AND EJECTION EVENTS ON PARTICLE DISPERSION IN WALL BOUNDED TURBULENT FLOWS

This paper studies the sweep and ejection events in a channel flow with Reτ = 80 by using Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS). The effects of ejection and sweep events on the transport of fluid particles are analyzed separately through a quadrant technique. By analyzing trajectories of the particles released at different wall-normal locations, it is found that the particles from the ejection events mainly move upward while the particles from the sweep events move downward of the flow during short and intermediate diffusion time durations. Numerical results show that the effects of the ejection and sweep events on the mean displacement and the mean square dispersion remain for a long time, one-order of magnitude larger than the streamwise Lagrangian integral scales.

High order lagrangian velocity statistics in a turbulent channel flow with Reτ = 80

The scaling properties of high-order Lagrangian velocity structure functions are investigated numerically for a turbulent flow with a friction-velocity based Reynolds number Reτ. The Lagrangian particles are released from locations of different distances to the wall. The relative scaling exponents ζLU(q) of the longitudinal velocity component are found to increase with the released distance to the wall and to approach asymptotically to theoretical predictions. However, the scaling exponents ζLV(q) of the transverse velocity component are smaller than ζLU(q), indicating a more intermittent nature. Specifically for the release locations in the center region, the relative scaling exponents ζLU(q) agree very well with theoretical predictions.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF THE DISPERSION IN OSCILLATING FLOWS WITH REVERSIBLE AND IRREVERSIBLE WALL REACTIONS

This is a study on the mass transport of a solute or contaminant in oscillating flows through a circular tube with a reactive wall layer. The reaction consists of a reversible component due to phase exchange between the flowing fluid and the wall layer, and an irreversible component due to absorption into the wall. The short-time dispersion characteristics are numerically investigated, incorporating the coupling effects between the flow oscillation, sorption kinetics, and retardation due to phase partitioning. The effects of various dimensionless parameters e.g., (thenumber), Da (the Damkohler number) α (phase partitioning number), Γ (dimensionless absorption number), and δ (dimensionless Stokes boundary layer number) on dispersion are discussed. In particular, it is found that there exist trinal peaks of the breakthrough curves in some cases.

Application of differential constraint method to exact solution of second-grade fluid ∗

A differential constraint method is used to obtain analytical solutions of a second-grade fluid flow. By using the first-order differential constraint condition, exact solutions of Poiseuille flows, jet flows and Couette flows subjected to suction or blowing forces, and planar elongational flows are derived. In addition, two new classes of exact solutions for a second-grade fluid flow are found. The obtained exact solutions show that the non-Newtonian second-grade flow behavior depends not only on the material viscosity but also on the material elasticity. Finally, some boundary value problems are discussed.

THE EXTENDED JACOBIAN ELLIPTIC FUNCTION EXPANSION METHOD AND ITS APPLICATIONS IN WEAKLY NONLINEAR WAVE EQUATIONS

The extended Jacobian elliptic function expansion method is introduced and applied to solve the coupled ZK equations and the coupled KP equations describing two weakly long nonlinear wave models in fluid system. Many types of doubly periodic traveling wave solutions are obtained. Under limiting conditions these solutions are reduced into solitary wave solutions.