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A brief introduction to turbulence

Bassi Andrea
1 febbraio 2019

Indice

1 Features of turbulence 1
1.1 What is turbulence? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2 Elements of statistical analysis for the study of turbulence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2.1 Ensemble average . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.2.2 Reynolds decomposition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1

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1 Features of turbulence
1.1 What is turbulence?

Many denitions of turbulence have been given, some referring to the typical random-like behavior, some
other concerned on the chaotic variations in both time and space (Hinze, 1975), others referring to the
three-dimensional chaotic vorticity and others again to the always present unsteadiness.
For sure we know what laminar ows are: it is a ow characterized by ordered motion in which dierent
adjacent layers of particles slide past each other without mixing.
We previously stated that turbulence has something in common with chaos, however this needs some
specications. Turbulence is not chaos in the sense in which chaos is analyzed and studied by dynamical
systems scholars. However turbulence does resemble chaos and share many features in common such
as (i) spatial and temporal intermittency, (ii) coherent structures, (iii) dissipative nature, (iv) sensitive
dependence on the initial and upstream conditions, and nally (v) near-fractal distribution of scales.
Other features are (vi) tridimensionality, (vii) intrinsic unsteadiness and (viii) eectiveness in transporting
and exchanging energy and momentum.
The Reynolds number of a ow is the ratio of the order of magnitude of inertia forces with respect to
viscous forces and it is a good indicator of the ow regime: under a certain value of critical Reynolds
denoted with Recrit the ow can be considered laminar, while above that value a complicated series of
events take place which eventually leads to a radical change of the ow character, leading to a transition
state. At very high Re the ow is turbulent and we can observe its main characteristics.
One of the rst questions that may arise is why does the ow behave in this way? What causes this
chaotic-like behavior? We can begin to study such problems by looking at the Navier Stokes equations
and conservation equations as well as the EoS of the involved uids. But in order to better investigate
the subject we need a peculiar method typical of random-like problems: the stochastic method. It
involves a set of statistical techniques that will help us tackle the problem.

1.2 Elements of statistical analysis for the study of turbulence

Let's now analyze and see some of the statistical methods that will be used in order to properly and more
easily analyze turbulent ows.

1.2.1 Ensemble average

The rst statistical tool that we'll study is the ensemble average. The whole idea is based on the existence
of independent statistical events.
Just like we could do by ipping a coin multiple times we can imagine to have a number N of statistically
independent perfectly equal experiments to determine the value of a variable φ at a certain time in a
dened location.
We dene the ensemble average of φ and denote it either with Φ or hφi as
N
1 X
Φ = hφi = lim φi (1.1)
N →∞ N
i=1

In real life it is impossible to obtain the ensemble average experimentally, since we can never have an
innite number of independent realizations. The most we can ever obtain is the arithmetic mean for the
number of realizations we have. In addition to that, it is also generally dicult for turbulent problems
to repeat an experiment with the intention of making it equal to a previous one.
For these reasons the arithmetic mean can also referred to as the estimator for the true mean or ensemble
average.

1.2.2 Reynolds decomposition

The second of these techniques is the so called Reynolds decomposition. It involves the decomposition of
the real measured value of φ(x, t) as the sum of an average value and a uctuating component. The rst
value can be obtained through an ensemble average estimator or through a steady mean value. In fact,

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another way of obtaining an average value for φ, this time making it not dependent to time variations
(and therefore not suitable for all problems dealing with turbulence), is the integral time mean:
Z
1
Φ = hφi = φ(x, t)dt (1.2)
∆T ∆T

However we calculate this value, the core of the Reynolds decomposition is, as dened above the following
expression:
φ(x, t) = Φ(x, t) + φ0 (x, t) (1.3)

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