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NASA NTRS1998

Numerical Study of Rotating Turbulence with External Forcing

Direct numerical simulation at 256(exp 3) resolution have been carried out to study the response of isotropic turbulence to the concurrent effects of solid-body rotation and numerical forcing at the large scales. Because energy transfer to the smaller scales is weakened by rotation, energy input from forcing gradually builds up at the large scales, causing the overall kinetic energy to increase. At intermediate wavenumbers the energy spectrum undergoes a transition from a limited k(exp -5/3) inertial range to k(exp -2) scaling recently predicted in the literature. Although the Reynolds stress tensor remains approximately isotropic and three-components, evidence for anisotropy and quasi- two-dimensionality in length scales and spectra in different velocity components and directions is strong. The small scales are found to deviate from local isotropy, primarily as a result of anisotropic transfer to the high wavenumbers. To understand the spectral dynamics of this flow we study the detailed behavior of nonlinear triadic interactions in wavenumber space. Spectral transfer in the velocity component parallel to the axis of rotation is qualitatively similar to that in non-rotating turbulence; however the perpendicular component is characterized by a greatly suppressed energy cascade at high wavenumber and a local reverse transfer at the largest scales. The broader implications of this work are briefly addressed.

Yeung, P. K.↗

NASA NTRS1996

LES, DNS, and RANS for the Analysis of High-Speed Turbulent Reacting Flows

A filtered density function (FDF) method suitable for chemically reactive flows is developed in the context of large eddy simulation. The advantage of the FDF methodology is its inherent ability to resolve subgrid scales (SGS) scalar correlations that otherwise have to be modeled. Because of the lack of robust models to accurately predict these correlations in turbulent reactive flows, simulations involving turbulent combustion are often met with a degree of skepticism. The FDF methodology avoids the closure problem associated with these terms and treats the reaction in an exact manner. The scalar FDF approach is particularly attractive since it can be coupled with existing hydrodynamic computational fluid dynamics (CFD) codes.

Colucci, P. J.↗

NASA NTRS1982

Comparison of three-dimensional turbulent boundary-layer calculations with experiment

A numerical simulation is carried out of the incompressible three-dimensional turbulent boundary-layer experiments of van den Berg and Elsenaar (1972), Dechow (1977), and Muller (1982). The simulation is effected by integrating the boundary-layer equations together with an algebraic eddy-viscosity turbulence model. With this computational method, the downstream portion of the flow treated by van den Berg and Elsenaar, where the crossflow is large, cannot be predicted. It is believed that this flow is significantly influenced by elliptic flow-field effects. Even though Dechow's experiment also indicated departures from the boundary-layer concept, the calculations made here agree reasonably well with the mean-flow development up to separation. The normal pressure gradients in Muller's experiment are found to be negligible in regions with large skewing, making it possible to test turbulence models using the boundary-layer equations. The simulation of this flow compares favorably with the experimental data throughout the flow field.

Muller, U. R.↗

NASA NTRS2012

Dipole Alignment in Rotating MHD Turbulence

We present numerical results from long-term CPU and GPU simulations of rotating, homogeneous, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, and discuss their connection to the spherically bounded case. We compare our numerical results with a statistical theory of geodynamo action that has evolved from the absolute equilibrium ensemble theory of ideal MHD turbulence, which is based on the ideal MHD invariants are energy, cross helicity and magnetic helicity. However, for rotating MHD turbulence, the cross helicity is no longer an exact invariant, although rms cross helicity becomes quasistationary during an ideal MHD simulation. This and the anisotropy imposed by rotation suggests an ansatz in which an effective, nonzero value of cross helicity is assigned to axisymmetric modes and zero cross helicity to non-axisymmetric modes. This hybrid statistics predicts a large-scale quasistationary magnetic field due to broken ergodicity , as well as dipole vector alignment with the rotation axis, both of which are observed numerically. We find that only a relatively small value of effective cross helicity leads to the prediction of a dipole moment vector that is closely aligned (less than 10 degrees) with the rotation axis. We also discuss the effect of initial conditions, dissipation and grid size on the numerical simulations and statistical theory.

Shebalin, John V.↗

NASA NTRS2011

Broken Ergodicity in MHD Turbulence in a Spherical Domain

Broken ergodicity (BE) occurs in Fourier method numerical simulations of ideal, homogeneous, incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence. Although naive statistical theory predicts that Fourier coefficients of fluid velocity and magnetic field are zero-mean random variables, numerical simulations clearly show that low-wave-number coefficients have non-zero mean values that can be very large compared to the associated standard deviation. In other words, large-scale coherent structure (i.e., broken ergodicity) in homogeneous MHD turbulence can spontaneously grow out of random initial conditions. Eigenanalysis of the modal covariance matrices in the probability density functions of ideal statistical theory leads to a theoretical explanation of observed BE in homogeneous MHD turbulence. Since dissipation is minimal at the largest scales, BE is also relevant for resistive magnetofluids, as evidenced in numerical simulations. Here, we move beyond model magnetofluids confined by periodic boxes to examine BE in rotating magnetofluids in spherical domains using spherical harmonic expansions along with suitable boundary conditions. We present theoretical results for 3-D and 2-D spherical models and also present computational results from dynamical simulations of 2-D MHD turbulence on a rotating spherical surface. MHD turbulence on a 2-D sphere is affected by Coriolus forces, while MHD turbulence on a 2-D plane is not, so that 2-D spherical models are a useful (and simpler) intermediate stage on the path to understanding the much more complex 3-D spherical case.

Shebalin, John V.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Effects of forward velocity on turbulent jet mixing noise

Flight simulation experiments were conducted in an anechoic free jet facility over a broad range of model and free jet velocities. The resulting scaling laws were in close agreement with scaling laws derived from theoretical and semiempirical considerations. Additionally, measurements of the flow structure of jets were made in a wind tunnel by using a laser velocimeter. These tests were conducted to describe the effects of velocity ratio and jet exit Mach number on the development of a jet in a coflowing stream. These turbulence measurements and a simplified Lighthill radiation model were used in predicting the variation in radiated noise at 90 deg to the jet axis with velocity ratio. Finally, the influence of forward motion on flow-acoustic interactions was examined through a reinterpretation of the 'static' numerical solutions to the Lilley equation.

Plumblee, H. E., Jr.↗

NASA NTRS1993

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.

Blaisdell, G. A.↗

NASA NTRS1990

Simulations and observations of cloudtop processes

Turbulent entrainment at zero mean shear stratified interfaces has been studied extensively in the laboratory and theoretically for the classical situation in which density is a passive tracer of the mixing and the turbulent motions producing the entrainment are directed toward the interface. It is the purpose of the numerical simulations and data analysis to investigate these processes and, specifically, to focus on the following questions: (1) Can local cooling below cloudtop play an important role in setting up convective circulations within the cloud, and bringing about entrainment; (2) Can Cloudtop Entrainment Instability (CEI) alone lead to runaway entrainment under geophysically realistic conditions; and (3) What are the important mechanisms of entrainment at cloudtop under zero or low mean shear conditions.

Siems, S. T.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

On Characterization of Laminar to Turbulent Transitional Flow in the Truncated IHF Semi-Elliptical Nozzle

This paper reports computational analysis and experimental data to characterize the laminar to turbulent flow transition in a high-enthalpy panel test facility at NASA Ames Research Center. The recently developed facility configuration uses a truncated version of an existing semi-elliptical nozzle in the 60-MW Interaction Heating Facility, and it provides testing capability for panel test articles as large as 43.2 cm x 43.2 cm (17 in x 17 in). A water-cooled calibration plate, which is attached to the semi-elliptical nozzle bottom surface and instrumented with twenty Gardon-gage heat flux calorimeters and twelve pressure gages, is used to characterize the convective heating environment over the panel test articles. The present analysis comprises computational fluid dynamics simulations of the nonequilibrium flowfield in the facility nozzle and test box, and the flowfields over panel test articles, and comparisons with the measured test data. Both laminar and turbulent simulations are performed. Constant current studies are conducted: the measured data are grouped at the same arc current levels with varying mass flow rates, and they are compared with corresponding computations. For all currents considered, these studies indicate that the semi-elliptical nozzle flow is transitional at relatively higher mass flow rates within the facility operating envelope. An approximate facility map for the transitional flow characterization is developed, showing laminar and transitional to turbulent flow regions.

Arc-jets↗

NASA NTRS1985

Effects of wall curvature on turbulence statistics

A three-dimensional, time-dependent, direct numerical simulation of low-Reynolds number turbulent flow in a mildly curved channel was performed, and the results examined to determine the mechanism by which curvature affects wall-bounded turbulent shear flows. A spectral numerical method with about one-million modes was employed, and no explicit subgrid scale model was used. The effects of curvature on this flow were determined by comparing the concave and convex sides of the channel. The observed effects are consistent with experimental observations for mild curvature. The most significant difference in the turbulence statistics between the concave and convex sides is in the Reynolds shear stress. This is accompanied by significant differences in the terms of the Reynolds shear stress balance equations. In addition, it was found that stationary Taylor-Goertler vortices were present and that they had a significant effect on the flow by contributing to the mean Reynolds shear stress, and by enhancing the difference between the wall shear stresses.

Moser, R. D.↗

NASA NTRS1995

The Evolution of Plane Wakes Subjected to Irrotational Strains

Three direct numerical simulations of time-evolving turbulent plane wakes developing in the presence of various irrotational plane strains have been generated. A pseudospectral numerical method with up to 26 million modes is used to solve the equations in a reference frame moving with the irrotational strain. The initial condition for each simulation is taken from a previous turbulent self-similar plane wake direct numerical simulation at a velocity deficit Reynolds number, Re, of about 2000. Three different plane strains (of the same magnitude) are imposed. In the first two simulations the strain is in a plane normal to the streamwise wake direction (the two cases having strain of opposite sign); in the third the wake is compressed in the streamwise direction and stretched in the inhomogeneous cross-stream direction. The two flows that are stretched in the cross-stream direction experience an exponential increase of Re; flow visualization indicates many small-scale vortices with little or no organized large-scale structure. In the flow that is compressed in the cross-stream direction Re decays exponentially and the layer appears to be relaminarizing. The evolution of several turbulence statistics in each of these flows is examined.

Rogers, M. R.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

On Characterization of Laminar to Turbulent Transitional Flow in the Truncated IHF Semi-Elliptical Nozzle

This paper reports computational analysis and experimental data to characterize the laminar to turbulent flow transition in a high-enthalpy panel test facility at NASA Ames Research Center. The recently developed facility configuration uses a truncated version of an existing semi-elliptical nozzle in the 60-MW Interaction Heating Facility, and it provides testing capability for panel test articles as large as 43.2 cm x 43.2 cm (17 in x 17 in). A water-cooled calibration plate, which is attached to the semi-elliptical nozzle bottom surface and instrumented with twenty Gardon-gage heat flux calorimeters and twelve pressure gages, is used to characterize the convective heating environment over the panel test articles. The present analysis comprises computational fluid dynamics simulations of the nonequilibrium flowfield in the facility nozzle and test box, and the flowfields over panel test articles, and comparisons with the measured test data. Both laminar and turbulent simulations are performed. Constant current studies are performed: the measured data are grouped at the same arc current levels with varying mass flow rates, and they are compared with corresponding computations. For all currents studied, these studies indicate that the semi-elliptical nozzle flow is transitional at relatively higher mass flow rates within the facility operating envelope.

Arc-jets↗

NASA NTRS1994

Pressure and higher-order spectra for homogeneous isotropic turbulence

The spectra of the pressure, and other higher-order quantities including the dissipation, the enstrophy, and the square of the longitudinal velocity derivative are computed using data obtained from direct numerical simulation of homogeneous isotropic turbulence at Taylor-Reynolds numbers R(sub lambda) in the range 38 - 170. For the pressure spectra we find reasonable collapse in the dissipation range (of the velocity spectrum) when scaled in Kolmogorov variables and some evidence, which is not conclusive, for the existence of a k(exp -7/3) inertial range where k = absolute value of K, is the modulus of the wavenumber. The power spectra of the dissipation, the enstrophy, and the square of the longitudinal velocity derivative separate in the dissipation range, but appear to converge together in the short inertial range of the simulations. A least-squares curve-fit in the dissipation range for one value of R(sub lambda) = 96 gives a form for the spectrum of the dissipation as k(exp 0)exp(-Ck eta), for k(eta) greater than 0.2, where eta is the Kolmogorov length and C is approximately equal to 2.5.

Pullin, D. I.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Reynolds Stress Balance in Plane Wakes Subjected to Irrotational Strains

Direct numerical simulations of time-evolving turbulent plane wakes developing in the presence of various irrotational plane strains have been generated. A pseudospectral numerical method with up to 25 million modes is used to solve the equations in a reference frame moving with the irrotational strain. The initial condition for each simulation is taken from a previous turbulent self-similar plane wake direct numerical simulation at a velocity deficit Reynolds number, R(sub e), of about 2,000. All the terms in the equations governing the evolution of the Reynolds stresses have been calculated. The relative importance of the various terms is examined for the different strain geometries and the behavior of the individual terms is used to better assess whether the strained wakes are evolving self-similarly.

Rogers, Miichael M.↗

NASA NTRSDate not supplied

The Influence of Adaptive Mesh Refinement on the Prediction of Vortex Interactions about a Generic Missile Airframe

The complex interaction of forebody and wing vortices significantly impacts missile aerodynamics. The formation of these vortices involves smooth regions of the geometry or geometric discontinuities like leading edges, trailing edges, tips, and corners. Regions of supersonic flow and complex shock topologies interact with boundary layers and vortices. Smooth-body separation and 3D viscous effects strain current Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) techniques. The quantification and control of discretization error is critical to obtaining reliable simulation results and often turbulence model assessments are made in the presence of unquantified (and potentially large) discretization errors. Two mesh adaptation schemes are applied to steady RANS simulations. Multiscale unstructured mesh adaptation is applied to control interpolation error estimates of the Mach field, which resolves boundary layers, vortices, and shocks. A dual-mesh approach with overset communication is applied between an expert-crafted near-body unstructured mesh and an adaptive off-body Cartesian mesh refined with Q-criterion scaled by the strain tensor magnitude. A generic missile configuration is examined in a supersonic flow field to show the interaction of mesh adaptation and turbulence model. Turbulence model modifications for rotational correction and a quadratic constitutive relationship show a strong influence on adaptive mesh refinement and predicted rolling moment.

slender body aerodynamics↗

NASA NTRS1999

Streamwise Vorticity Generation in Laminar and Turbulent Jets

Complex streamwise vorticity fields are observed in the evolution of non-circular jets. Generation mechanisms are investigated via Reynolds-averaged (RANS), large-eddy (LES) and direct numerical (DNS) simulations of laminar and turbulent rectangular jets. Complex vortex interactions are found in DNS of laminar jets, but axis-switching is observed only when a single instability mode is present in the incoming mixing layer. With several modes present, the structures are not coherent and no axis-switching occurs, RANS computations also produce no axis-switching. On the other hand, LES of high Reynolds number turbulent jets produce axis-switching even for cases with several instability modes in the mixing layer. Analysis of the source terms of the mean streamwise vorticity equation through post-processing of the instantaneous results shows that, complex interactions of gradients of the normal and shear Reynolds stresses are responsible for the generation of streamwise vorticity which leads to axis-switching. RANS computations confirm these results. k - epsilon turbulence model computations fail to reproduce the phenomenon, whereas algebraic Reynolds stress model (ASM) computations, in which the secondary normal and shear stresses are computed explicitly, succeeded in reproducing the phenomenon accurately.

Demuren, Aodeji O.↗

NASA NTRS2007

Tandem Cylinder Noise Predictions

In an effort to better understand landing-gear noise sources, we have been examining a simplified configuration that still maintains some of the salient features of landing-gear flow fields. In particular, tandem cylinders have been studied because they model a variety of component level interactions. The present effort is directed at the case of two identical cylinders spatially separated in the streamwise direction by 3.7 diameters. Experimental measurements from the Basic Aerodynamic Research Tunnel (BART) and Quiet Flow Facility (QFF) at NASA Langley Research Center (LaRC) have provided steady surface pressures, detailed off-surface measurements of the flow field using Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV), hot-wire measurements in the wake of the rear cylinder, unsteady surface pressure data, and the radiated noise. The experiments were conducted at a Reynolds number of 166 105 based on the cylinder diameter. A trip was used on the upstream cylinder to insure a fully turbulent shedding process and simulate the effects of a high Reynolds number flow. The parallel computational effort uses the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes solver CFL3D with a hybrid, zonal turbulence model that turns off the turbulence production term everywhere except in a narrow ring surrounding solid surfaces. The current calculations further explore the influence of the grid resolution and spanwise extent on the flow and associated radiated noise. Extensive comparisons with the experimental data are used to assess the ability of the computations to simulate the details of the flow. The results show that the pressure fluctuations on the upstream cylinder, caused by vortex shedding, are smaller than those generated on the downstream cylinder by wake interaction. Consequently, the downstream cylinder dominates the noise radiation, producing an overall directivity pattern that is similar to that of an isolated cylinder. Only calculations based on the full length of the model span were able to capture the complete decay in the spanwise correlation, thereby producing reasonable noise radiation levels.

Lockard, David P.↗

NASA NTRS1991

The compressible mixing layer

The capability of turbulence modeling correctly to handle natural unsteadiness appearing in compressible turbulent flows is investigated. Physical aspects linked to the unsteadiness problem and the role of various flow parameters are analyzed. It is found that unsteady turbulent flows can be simulated by dividing these motions into an 'organized' part for which equations of motion are solved and a remaining 'incoherent' part represented by a turbulence model. Two-equation turbulence models and second-order turbulence models can yield reasonable results. For specific compressible unsteady turbulent flow, graphic presentations of different quantities may reveal complementary physical features. Strong compression zones are observed in rapid flow parts but shocklets do not yet occur.

Vandromme, Dany↗