Hostname: page-component-77c89778f8-vpsfw Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-18T13:28:39.281Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Structure functions of temperature fluctuations in turbulent shear flows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2006

R. A. Antonia
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Newcastle, New South Wales 2308, Australia
C. W. Van Atta
Affiliation:
Department of Applied Mechanics and Engineering Sciences, University of California, San Diego

Abstract

Structure functions of turbulent temperature and velocity fluctuations are measured both for the atmosphere, in the surface layer over land, and for the laboratory, in the inner region of a thermal boundary layer and on the axis of a heated jet. Even-order temperature structure functions, up to order eight, generally compare favourably with the analysis of Antonia & Van Atta over the inertial subrange. The Reynolds number dependence of these structure functions, as predicted by the analysis, is in qualitative agreement with the measured data. Odd-order temperature structure functions depart significantly from the isotropic value of zero, particularly at large time delays. This departure is reasonably well predicted, over the inertial subrange, by postulating a simple ramp model for the temperature fluctuations. Assumptions involved in this model are directly tested by measurements in the heated jet. The ramp structure does not seriously affect either the even-order temperature structure functions or the mixed velocity-temperature functions, which include even-order moments of the temperature difference.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1978 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Antonia, R. A. & Atkinson, J. D. 1976 A ramp model for turbulent temperature fluctuations. Phys. Fluids 19, 1273.Google Scholar
Antonia, R. A., Danh, H. Q. & Prabhu, A. 1977 Response of a turbulent boundary layer to a step change in surface heat flux. J. Fluid Mech. 80, 153.Google Scholar
Antonia, R. A., Prabhu, A. & Stephenson, S. E. 1975 Conditionally sampled measurements in a heated turbulent jet. J. Fluid Mech. 72, 455.Google Scholar
Antonia, R. A. & Van atta, C. W. 1975 On the correlation between temperature and velocity dissipation fields in a heated turbulent jet. J. Fluid Mech. 67, 273.Google Scholar
Bean, B. R., Gilmer, R., Grossmann, R. L. & Mcgavin, R. 1972 An analysis of airborne measurements of vertical water vapor during BOMEX. J. Atmos. Sci. 29, 860.Google Scholar
Frenkiel, F. N. & Klebanoff, P. S. 1967 Higher-order correlations in a turbulent field. Phys. Fluids 10, 507.Google Scholar
Frisch, A. S. & Businger, J. A. 1973 A study of convective elements in the atmospheric surface layer. Boundary-Layer Met. 3, 301.Google Scholar
Gurvich, A. S. & Zubkovskii, S. L. 1966 Evaluation of structural characteristics of temperature pulses in the atmosphere. Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 2, 202.Google Scholar
Kaimal, J. C. & Businger, J. A. 1970 Case studies of a convective plume and a dust devil. J. Appl. Met. 9, 612.Google Scholar
Kolmogorov, A. N. 1941 The local structure of turbulence in incompressible viscous fluid for very large Reynolds numbers. C. R. Acad. Sci. USSR 30, 301305.Google Scholar
Kolmogorov, A. N. 1962 A refinement of previous hypotheses concerning the local structure of turbulence in a viscous incompressible fluid at high Reynolds number. J. Fluid Mech. 13, 82.Google Scholar
Mestayer, P. G. 1975 Étude de certaines caractéristiques statistiques locales d'une couche limite turbulente à grand nombre de Reynolds. Thèse Docteur–Ingénieur, Université d'Aix–Marseille, France.
Mestayer, P. G., Gibson, C. H., Coantic, M. F. & Patel, A. S. 1976 Local isotropy in heated and cooled turbulent boundary layers. Phys. Fluids 19, 1279Google Scholar
Monji, N. 1973 Budgets of turbulent energy and temperature variance in the transition zone from forced to free convection. J. Met. Soc. Japan 51, 133.Google Scholar
Oboukhov, A. M. 1962 Some specific features of atmospheric turbulence. J. Fluid Mech. 13, 77.Google Scholar
Paquin, J. E. & Pond, S. 1971 The determination of the Kolmogorov constants for velocity, temperature and humidity fluctuations from second- and third-order structure functions. J. Fluid Mech. 50, 257.Google Scholar
Park, J. T. 1976 Inertial subrange turbulence measurements in the marine boundary layer. Ph.D. thesis, University of California, San Diego.
Stellema, L., Antonia, R. A. & Prabhu, A. 1975 A constant current resistance thermometer for the measurement of mean and fluctuating temperatures in turbulent flows. Charles Kolling Res. Lab., Dept. Mech. Engng, Univ. Sydney, Tech. Note FD-12.Google Scholar
Taylor, R. J. 1958 Thermal structures in the lowest layers of the atmosphere. Austr. J. Phys. 11, 168.Google Scholar
Van Atta, C. W. 1974 Influence of fluctuations in dissipation rates on some statistical properties of turbulent scalar fields. Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 10, 712.Google Scholar
Van Atta, C. W. 1977 Effect of coherent structures on structure functions of temperature in the atmospheric boundary layer. Arch. Mech. 29, 161.Google Scholar
Van Atta, C. W. & Park, J. T. 1972 Statistical self-similarity and inertial subrange turbulence. In Lecture Notes in Physics, vol. 12. Statistical Models and Turbulence (ed. M. Rosenblatt & C. W. Van Atta), p. 402. Springer.
Yaglom, A. M. 1949 On the local structure of a temperature field in a turbulent flow. Dokl. Akad. Nauk S.S.S.R. 69, 743.Google Scholar
Yeh, T. T. 1971 Spectral transfer and higher-order correlations of velocity and temperature fluctuations in heated grid turbulence. Ph.D. thesis, University of California, San Diego.