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A description of turbulent wall-flow vorticity consistent with mean dynamics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2013

J. C. Klewicki
J. C. Klewicki*
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Melbourne, VIC 3010, Australia Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH 03824, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: joe.klewicki@unh.edu
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Abstract

A depiction of the mean and fluctuating vorticity structure in turbulent wall flows is presented and described within the context of the self-similar properties admitted by the mean dynamical equation. Data from a relatively wide range of numerical and physical experiments are used to explore and clarify the structure postulated. The mean vorticity indicator for the onset of the four-layer regime of the mean dynamics is revealed. With increasing Reynolds number, the mean vorticity is shown to segregate into two increasingly well-defined domains. Half of the mean vorticity concentrates into a near-wall region of width (relative to the overall flow width) that diminishes proportionally to the inverse square root of Reynolds number. The remainder of the mean vorticity is spread, with diminishing amplitude, over an outer domain that approaches the overall flow width at high Reynolds number. Vorticity stretching and reorientation are surmised to be the characteristic mechanisms accounting for the inner domain behaviour of both the mean and fluctuating vorticity. Vorticity dispersion via advective transport is surmised to be the characteristic mechanism in the outer domain. In this domain, the fluctuating enstrophy approaches that of the instantaneous enstrophy with increasing Reynolds number. This underpins an emerging self-similarity between the mean and r.m.s. vorticity in the domain where the mean velocity profile is logarithmic. The Reynolds number dependence of a number of properties associated with the vorticity field is explored and quantified. The study closes with brief account of the combined vortical and mean dynamical structure of turbulent wall flows.

JFM classification

Turbulent Flows: Turbulence theory Turbulent Flows: Turbulent Flows Turbulent Flows: Turbulent boundary layers
Type
Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 737 , 25 December 2013 , pp. 176 - 204
Copyright
©2013 Cambridge University Press 

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