Skin-friction drag reduction in turbulent channel flow based on streamwise shear control

It is known that stretching and intensification of a hairpin vortex by mean shear play an important role to create a hairpin vortex packet, which generates the large Reynolds shear stress associated with skin-friction drag in wall-bounded turbulent flows. In order to suppress the mean shear at the wall for high efficient drag reduction (DR), in the present study, we explore an active flow control concept using streamwise shear control (SSC) at the wall. The longitudinal control surface is periodically spanwise-arranged with no-control surface while varying the structural spacing, and an amplitude parameter for imposing the strength of the actuating streamwise velocity at the wall is introduced to further enhance the skin-friction DR. Significant DR is observed with an increase in the two parameters with an accompanying reduction of the Reynolds stresses and vorticity fluctuations, although a further increase in the parameters amplifies the turbulence activity in the near-wall region. In order to study the direct relationship between turbulent vortical structures and DR under the SSC, temporal evolution with initial eddies extracted by conditional averages for Reynolds-stress-maximizing Q2 events are examined. It is shown that the generation of new vortices is dramatically inhibited with an increase in the parameters throughout the flow, causing fewer vortices to be generated under the control. However, when the structural spacing is sufficiently large, the generation of new vortex is not suppressed over the no-control surface in the near-wall region, resulting in an increase of the second- and fourth-quadrant Reynolds shear stresses. Although strong actuating velocity intensifies the near-wall turbulence, the increase in the turbulence activity is attributed to the generation of counter-clockwise near-wall vortices by the increased vortex transport.     

Using digital holographic microscopy for simultaneous measurements of 3D near wall velocity and wall shear stress in a turbulent boundary layer

A digital holographic microscope is used to simultaneously measure the instantaneous 3D flow structure in the inner part of a turbulent boundary layer over a smooth wall, and the spatial distribution of wall shear stresses. The measurements are performed in a fully developed turbulent channel flow within square duct, at a moderately high Reynolds number. The sample volume size is 90 × 145 × 90 wall units, and the spatial resolution of the measurements is 3–8 wall units in streamwise and spanwise directions and one wall unit in the wall-normal direction. The paper describes the data acquisition and analysis procedures, including the particle tracking method and associated method for matching of particle pairs. The uncertainty in velocity is estimated to be better than 1 mm/s, less than 0.05% of the free stream velocity, by comparing the statistics of the normalized velocity divergence to divergence obtained by randomly adding an error of 1 mm/s to the data. Spatial distributions of wall shear stresses are approximated with the least square fit of velocity measurements in the viscous sublayer. Mean flow profiles and statistics of velocity fluctuations agree very well with expectations. Joint probability density distributions of instantaneous spanwise and streamwise wall shear stresses demonstrate the significance of near-wall coherent structures. The near wall 3D flow structures are classified into three groups, the first containing a pair of counter-rotating, quasi streamwise vortices and high streak-like shear stresses; the second group is characterized by multiple streamwise vortices and little variations in wall stress; and the third group has no buffer layer structures.     

Time-resolved PIV measurements of the interaction of polystyrene beads with near-wall-coherent structures in a turbulent channel flow

Time-resolved PIV measurements were performed in a dilute particle-laden flow tracking near-neutrally buoyant polystyrene beads and the velocity field of a near wall turbulent boundary layer. Data were taken in a vertical light sheet aligned in the streamwise direction at the center of a horizontal, closed loop, transparent square water channel facility. In addition, low speed measurements were performed characterizing the effects of the dispersed phase on mean and turbulence flow quantities. Reynolds shear stress slightly differed from clear water conditions whereas fluid mean and rms values were not affected. A case study for several beads revealed a clear relation between their movement and near-wall coherent structures. Several structures having 2D vorticity signatures of near-wall hairpin vortices and hairpin packets, directly affected bead movement. A statistical analysis showed that the mean streamwise velocity of ascending beads lagged behind the mean fluid velocity and bead rms values were higher than fluid ones. Particle Reynolds numbers based on the magnitude of the instantaneous relative velocity vector peaked near the wall; values not exceeding 100, too low for vortex shedding to occur. Quadrant analysis showed a clear preference for ascending beads to reside in ejections while for descending beads the preference for sweeps was less.     

Cross-Stream Vorticity Field Induced by Streamwise Vortices in Unbounded and Wall-Bounded Shear Flows

This computational study examines the unsteady cross-stream vorticity structures that form when one or more streamwise vortices are immersed in homogeneous and boundary-layer shear flows. A quasi-two-dimensional limit is considered in which the velocity and vorticity fields, while still possessing three nonzero components, have vanishing gradient in the streamwise direction. This idealization is suitable to applications such as streamwise vortices that occur along a ship hull or airplane fuselage and it can be used as an idealized representation of the quasi-streamwise vortices in the near-wall region of a turbulent boundary layer. In this quasi-two-dimensional idealization, the streamwise velocity has no effect on the cross-stream velocity associated with the vortex. However, the vortex acts to modify the cross-stream vorticity component, resulting in regions of the flow with strong deviations in streamwise velocity. This paper examines the complex structures that form as the cross-stream vorticity field is wrapped up by the vortex and the effect of these structures on the streamwise velocity field, first for vortices immersed in homogeneous shear flow and then for vortices immersed in a boundary layer along a flat wall. Received 2 January 2002 and accepted 13 August 2002 Published online 3 December 2002 RID="*" ID="*" This project was supported by the Office of Naval Research under Grant Number N00014-01-1-0015. Dr. Thomas Swain is the program manager. Communicated by T.B. Gatski     

Effect of perforation on flow past a conic cylinder at $${\varvec{Re}}~=~100$$: wavy vortex and sign laws

In order to find the intrinsic physical mechanism of the original Kármán vortex wavily distorted across the span due to the introduction of three-dimensional (3-D) geometric disturbances, a flow past a peak-perforated conic shroud is numerically simulated at a Reynolds number of 100. Based on previous work by Meiburg and Lasheras (1988), the streamwise and vertical interactions with spanwise vortices are introduced and analyzed. Then vortex-shedding patterns in the near wake for different flow regimes are reinspected and illustrated from the view of these two interactions. Generally, in regime I, spanwise vortices are a little distorted due to the weak interaction. Then in regime II, spanwise vortices, even though curved obviously, are still shed synchronously with moderate streamwise and vertical interactions. But in regime III, violently wavy spanwise vortices in some vortex-shedding patterns, typically an \(\Omega \)-type vortex, are mainly attributed to the strong vertical interactions, while other cases, such as multiple vortex-shedding patterns in sub-regime III-D, are resulted from complex streamwise and vertical interactions. A special phenomenon, spacial distribution of streamwise and vertical components of vorticity with specific signs in the near wake, is analyzed based on two models of streamwise and vertical vortices in explaining physical reasons of top and bottom shear layers wavily varied across the span. Then these two models and above two interactions are unified. Finally two sign laws are summarized: the first sign law for streamwise and vertical components of vorticity is positive in the upper shear layer, but negative in the lower shear layer, while the second sign law for three vorticity components is always negative in the wake.     

Near-wall model for boundary layer turbulence

The evolution of an intermittently created isolated three-dimensional turbulent eddy near a wall is followed in space and time on the assumption that its structure evolves on three separate time scales, a shear interaction one, a viscous one, and a nonlinear one. The large-time limit of the solution for the shear interaction stage shows many of the observed features of the near-wall turbulence structure such as the formation of shear layers, of streaks, and of streamwise vortices. It also provides initial conditions for the viscous and nonlinear stages showing viscous decay of convected structures and the possibility of a singularity in the nonlinear development. The eddy model is also used to construct a new model for the turbulent shear stress showing strong similarity to Prandtl's mixing-length model.     

The Relaminarization Mechanisms of Turbulent Channel Flow at Low Reynolds Numbers

The mechanisms of laminarization in wall-bounded flows have been investigated by performing direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent channel flows. By decreasing Reynolds numbers systematically, the effects of the low Reynolds number are studied in connection with the near-wall turbulent structure and turbulent statistics. At approximately the critical Reynolds number, the turbulent skin friction is reduced, and the turbulent structure changes qualitatively in the very near-wall region. Instantaneous turbulent structures reveal that streamwise vortices, the cores of which are at y+ 10, disappear, although low speed streaks and Reynolds shear stress are still produced by larger streamwise vortices located in the buffer region y+ > 10. Sweep motions induced by these vortical structures are shifted toward the center of a channel and also significantly deterred, which may heighten the effects of the viscous sublayer over most of the channel section and suppress the regeneration mechanisms of new streamwise vortices in the very near-wall region. To investigate the details of how large-scale coherent vortices affect the viscous sublayer and the relevant small-scale streamwise vortices, a body force is virtually imposed in the wall-normal direction to enhance the large streamwise vortices. As a result, it is found that when they are sufficiently enhanced, the small-scale vortices reappear, and the sweep events are again dominant in the viscous sublayer.     

Dynamics of vortical structures in cylinder/wall interaction with moderate gap ratio

The interaction between the wake of a transverse circular cylinder and the underlying flat-plate boundary layer with a moderate gap ratio G/D=1.0 is investigated using both hydrogen-bubble-based and PIV-based visualization techniques. The spanwise rollers in the cylinder wake are found to be capable of inducing secondary vortices in the near-wall region. The mutual induction from the counter-clockwise rollers, which are closer to the wall, plays a primary role, so that these secondary vortices present linear lift-up motion at first. Their subsequent evolution dominantly determines the characteristics of the wake/boundary-layer interaction. Two different vortex interaction scenarios are observed: the secondary vortices can be either entrained into the rollers or pushed down towards the wall. This leads to a rapid three-dimensional destabilization process, through which streamwise vortices are generated. And it is suggested that these streamwise vortices are the dominant structures to promote the following boundary layer transition.     

Numerical investigation of turbulent channel flow controlled by spatially oscillating spanwise Lorentz force

A formulation of the skin-friction drag related to the Reynolds shear stress in a turbulent channel flow is derived. A direct numerical simulation (DNS) of the turbulent control is performed by imposing the spatially oscillating spanwise Lorentz force. Under the action of the Lorentz force with several proper control parameters, only the periodically well-organized streamwise vortices are finally observed in the near-wall region. The Reynolds shear stress decreases dramatically, especially in the near-wall area, resulting in a drag reduction.     

On the Relation between Fronts and High-Shear Layers in Wall Turbulence

Direct numerical simulation results of turbulent channel flow are analyzed in order to examine the relation between two kinds of near-wall flow structures, namely the instantaneous shear layers and the fronts which are derived from two-point statistics of the streamwise velocity component. The near-wall shear layers are analyzed by flow visualizations and conditional sampling, while the fronts are examined by means of space-time correlations and spatial two-point correlation functions. The present study focuses on the analysis of the propagation speed and the spatial shape of the structures. Concerning the propagation speed it is shown that the results obtained from flow visualizations are in close agreement with the propagation velocities derived from space-time correlation functions. The comparison of VISA results for the instantaneous shear with spatial structures obtained from two-point correlations of the streamwise velocity and the shear gives evidence that the fronts are intimately related to the pronounced near-wall shear layers.     

纵向涡对近壁湍流结构的影响

在封闭水槽中用氢气泡方法观察了纵向涡对近壁湍流结构的影响，涡的下洗侧出现了展向距离较宽、流动较稳定的快斑区，流向速度快；涡的上洗侧出现了含有慢斑的区域，流动结构复杂，流向速度慢，纵向涡使下洗侧速度较快的流体流向壁面，使上洗侧速度较慢的流体远离壁面。     

Transitionally rough zero pressure gradient turbulent boundary layers

Near-wall measurements are performed to study the effects of surface roughness and viscous shear stresses on the transitionally rough regime (5 < k ⁺ < 70) of a zero pressure gradient turbulent boundary layer. The x-dependence is known from the eleven consecutive measurements in the streamwise direction, which allows for the computation of the streamwise gradients in the boundary layer equations. Thus, the skin friction is computed from the integrated boundary layer equation with errors of 3 and 5% for smooth and rough, respectively. It is found that roughness destroys the viscous layer near the wall, thus, reducing the contribution of the viscous stress in the wall region. As a result, the contribution in the wall shear stress due to form drag increases, while the viscous stress decreases. This yields Reynolds number invariance in the skin friction as k ⁺ increases into the fully rough regime. Furthermore, the roughness at the wall reduces the high peak of the streamwise component of the Reynolds stress in the near-wall region. However, for the Reynolds wall-normal and shear stress components, its contribution is not significantly altered for sand grain roughness.     

Modification of near-wall turbulence structure in a shear-driven three-dimensional turbulent boundary layer

 Most high Reynolds number flows of engineering interest are three-dimensional in nature. Key features of three-dimensional turbulent boundary layers (3DTBLs) include: non-colateral shear stress and strain rate vectors, and decreasing ratio of the shear stresses to the turbulent kinetic energy with increasing three-dimensionality. These are indicators that the skewing has a significant effect on the structure of turbulence. In order to further investigate the flow physics and turbulence structure of these complex flows, an innovative method for generating a planar shear-driven 3DTBL was developed. A specialized facility incorporating a relatively simple geometry and allowing for varying strengths of crossflow was constructed to facilitate studies where the skewing is decoupled from the confounding effects of streamwise pressure gradient and curvature. On-line planar particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurements and flow visualization results indicate that the experimental configuration generates the desired complex flow, which exhibits typical characteristics associated with 3DTBLs. Furthermore, spanwise shear results in modification of the near-wall turbulence structure. Analysis of near-wall flow visualization photographs revealed a reduction of mean streak length with increasing spanwise shear, while streak spacing remained relatively constant. In the most strongly sheared case, where the belt velocity is twice that of the freestream velocity, the mean streak length was reduced by approximately 50%. Received: 28 October 1997/Accepted: 4 February 1998     

Response of the streaks, the active and passive eddies in an unsteady channel flow

Spanwise space–time correlations of the wall shear stress and the longitudinal velocity fluctuations in the low buffer layer of an unsteady channel flow are reported. The imposed amplitude is 20% of the centerline velocity and the imposed frequency covers a large range going from the quasi-steady limit to the bursting frequency of the corresponding steady flow. The unsteady spanwise correlation coefficient is investigated both through its own modulation characteristics (amplitude and phase shifts) and those of the resulting streak spacing. A good correspondence is found between the modulation of the streak spacing and that of the ejection period. The data is further analyzed by temporal filtering of the wall shear stress and streamwise velocity fluctuations. It is shown that the large outer-layer structures play a “passive” role in the unsteady response of the near wall turbulence. The inner wall eddies, in return, are amply responsible for the unsteady reaction of both the turbulent wall shear stress and the streamwise velocity intensities in the buffer layer.     

Large eddy simulation of gas-particle turbulent channel flow with momentum exchange between the phases

This paper presents results of a large eddy simulation (LES) combined with Lagrangian particle tracking and a point-force approximation for the feedback effect of particles on the downward turbulent gaseous flow in a vertical channel. The LES predictions are compared with the results obtained by direct numerical simulation (DNS) of a finer computational mesh. A parametric study is conducted for particles with two response times in simulations with and without streamwise gravitational settling and elastic, binary interparticle collisions. It is shown that the classical and the dynamic Smagorinsky turbulence models adequately predict the particle-induced changes in the mean streamwise velocity and the Reynolds stresses of the carrier phase for the range of parameters studied. However, the largest discrepancies between the LES and DNS results are found in the cases of particle-laden flows. Conditional sampling of the instantaneous resolved flow fields indicates that the mechanisms by which particles directly oppose the production of momentum and vorticity of the organized fluid motions are also observed in the LES results. However, the geometric features of the near-wall quasistreamwise vortices are overestimated by the use of both turbulence models compared to the DNS predictions.     

Flow field investigation in rotating rib-roughened channel by means of particle image velocimetry

The turbulent velocity field over the rib-roughened wall of an orthogonally rotating channel is investigated by means of two-dimensional particle image velocimetry (PIV). The flow direction is outward, with a bulk Reynolds number of 1.5 × 10⁴ and a rotation number ranging from 0.3 to 0.38. The measurements are obtained along the wall-normal/streamwise plane at mid-span. The PIV system rotates with the channel, allowing to measure directly the relative flow velocity with high spatial resolution. Coriolis forces affect the stability of the boundary layer and free shear layer. Due to the different levels of shear layer entrainment, the reattachment point is moved downstream (upstream) under stabilizing (destabilizing) rotation, with respect to the stationary case. Further increase in rotation number pushes further the reattachment point in stabilizing rotation, but does not change the recirculation length in destabilizing rotation. Turbulent activity is inhibited along the leading wall, both in the boundary layer and in the separated shear layer; the opposite is true along the trailing wall. Coriolis forces affect indirectly the production of turbulent kinetic energy via the Reynolds shear stresses and the mean shear. Two-point correlation is used to characterize the coherent motion of the separated shear layer. Destabilizing rotation is found to promote large-scale coherent motions and accordingly leads to larger integral length scales; on the other hand, the spanwise vortices created in the separating shear layer downstream of the rib are less organized and tend to be disrupted by the three-dimensional turbulence promoted by the rotation. The latter observation is consistent with the distributions of span-wise vortices detected in instantaneous flow realizations.     

Turbulence production in flow over a wavy wall

Measurements of the spatial and time variation of two components of the velocity have been made over a sinusoidal solid wavy boundary with a height to length ratio of 2a/λ = 0.10 and with a dimensionless wave number of α⁺ = (2π/λ)(v/u ^?) = 0.02. For these conditions, both intermittent and time-mean flow reversals are observed near the troughs of the waves. Statistical quantities that are determined are the mean streamwise and normal velocities, the root-meansquare of the fluctuations of the streamwise and normal velocities, and the Reynolds shear stresses. Turbulence production is calculated from these measurements. The flow is characterized by an outer flow and by an inner flow extending to a distance of about α^?1 from the mean level of the surface. Turbulence production in the inner region is fundamentally different from flow over a flat surface in that it is mainly associated with a shear layer that separates from the back of the wave. Flow close to the surface is best described by an interaction between the shear layer and the wall, which produces a retarded zone and a boundary-layer with large wall shear stresses. Measurements of the outer flow compare favorably with measurements over a flat wall if velocities are made dimensionless by a friction velocity defined with a shear stress obtained by extrapolating measurements of the Reynolds stress to the mean levels of the surface (rather than from the drag on the wall).     

Large eddy simulation of bluff body wake in planar shear flow

Large eddy simulation of planar shear flow past a square cylinder has been investigated. Dynamic Smagorinsky model has been used to model subgrid scale stress. The shear parameter, K, namely the nondimensional streamwise velocity gradient in the lateral direction, is 0.0, 0.1 and 0.2. Reynolds number based on the centerline velocity is fixed at Re=21400. The time and span‐averaged velocity components, pressure coefficient, Reynolds stresses for uniform are in good agreement with the literature. In shear flow the calculated flow structure and mean velocity components are shown to be markedly different from those of the uniform flow. With increasing shear parameter, the cylinder wake is dominated by clockwise vortices. Both the velocity components in shear flow are compared with respective components in uniform flow. Comparison of normal and shear stresses between shear and no shear case have also been presented. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Direct numerical simulation of a particle-laden flow in a flat plate boundary layer

In this paper, a direct numerical simulation of particle-laden flow in a flat plate boundary layer is performed, using the Eulerian–Lagrangian point-particle approach. This is, as far as we know, the first simulation of a particle-laden spatially-developing turbulent boundary layer with two-way coupling. A local minimum of the particle number density is observed in the close vicinity of the wall. The present simulation results indicate that the inertial particles displace the quasi-streamwise vortices towards the wall, which, in turn, enhance the mean streamwise fluid velocity. As a result, the skin-friction coefficient is increased whereas the boundary layer integral thicknesses are reduced. The presence of particles augments the streamwise fluctuating velocity in the near-wall region but attenuates it in the outer layer. Nevertheless, the wall-normal and spanwise velocity fluctuations are significantly damped, and so is the Reynolds stress. In addition, the combined effect of a reduced energy production and an increased viscous dissipation leads to the attenuation of the turbulent kinetic energy.     

Two-point correlation and integral scale of spatially advancing curved channel flow at friction-velocity-based Reynolds number 550

Two-point correlation and integral scale of curved channel turbulent flow were examined for onset and growth of large-scale vortex. Away from the two walls of the straight channel, the two-point correlation of streamwise velocity has large negative values around local minimum at y/δ = 1.6 and those of radial and spanwise components take small negative values at the same area. The large-scale motion in the straight channel is thus indicated to have conspicuous streamwise component and weak secondary motion. In the curved channel, two-point correlation of radial velocity decreased around the minimum away from the wall (y/δ = 1.6) and large negative values extended to the whole channel width. It is thus indicated that the large-scale vortex originated from the large-scale structures with conspicuous streamwise component in the outer-wall side, grew and expanded to the full channel width of the curved part. The integral scale integrating two-point correlation conditionally on the negative values greatly decreased to denote the onset and growth of the large-scale motion quantitatively. The local minima of two-point correlation for radial velocity were used as indicator of the large-scale vortex and near-wall small-scale vortex. The magnitude of it at the channel center area was as low as one thirds of those of near-wall area in the straight channel, and however increased and surpassed those of near-wall area in the curved channel. Therefore, large-scale vortices were weaker than the small-scale motion in the straight part of the channel, and they grew and surpassed the small-scale motion in strength in the curved part of the channel.