Turbulence Modeling in a Nutshell

Gerald Recktenwald March 26, 2008

Associate Professor, Mechanical and Materials Engineering Department Portland State University, Portland, Oregon, gerry@me.pdx.edu

Turbulence is a Hard Problem

Unsteady Many length scales Energy transfer between scales: Large eddies break up into small eddies Steep gradients near the wall

ME 4/548: Turbulence Modeling in a Nutshell

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Engineering Model: Flow is Steady-in-the-Mean (1)

2 1.8 1.6 1.4 1.2 1 0.8 0.6 0.4 0.2 0 0 0.5 1 t 1.5 2 u

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Engineering Model: Flow is Steady-in-the-Mean (2)

Reality: Turbulent ows are unsteady: uctuations at a point are caused by convection of eddies of many sizes. As eddies move through the ow the velocity eld at a xed point changes. Model: When measured with a slow sensor (e.g. Pitot tube) the velocity at a point is apparently steady. Treat ow variables (velocity components, pressure, temperature) as time averages (or ensemble averages). These averages are steady (ignorning ensemble averaging of periodic ows).
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Engineering Model: Enhanced Transport (1)

Turbulent eddies enhance mixing: e.g. pollutants spread more rapidly in a turbulent ow than a laminar ow. Transport in turbulent ow is much greater than in laminar ow As a result of enhanced local transport, mean proles tend to be more uniform except near walls. Near walls, gradients of velocity, temperature (and other scalars (e.g., chemical concentration) are steep. Visualize two-layer: high viscosity in core of pipe and low viscosity near the wall Cartoon view only!
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Engineering Model: Enhanced Transport (2)

Turbulence models are a way to account for enhanced mixing while treating the ow as steady-in-the-mean Apparent eect of turbulence is to increase the eective viscosity, thermal conductivity, and diusivity. Enhanced transport coecients are properties of the ow, not real thermophysical transport coecients. Most commonly used turbulence models provide a way to compute the eective transport coecients, e.g. the turbulence viscosity.

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Reynolds Decomposition

u=U +u Turbulence kinetic energy k =

v =V +v

w =W +w

1 1 uk uk = uu +v v +ww 2 2

(1)

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k model

Eective viscosity e = + t To relate t to the Reynolds stresses, and assume that Vt k so that t = C
mk 1/2

(2)

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k model
Solve two additional eld equations. One for k and one for , the turbulence dissipation rate. The turbulence is assumed to be isotropic |u | = |v | = |w | then 3 k= uu 2 isotropic turbulence

|u | = |v | = |w | is a consequence of isotropy, not the denition of it. Additional boundary conditions TI = and turbulence length scale
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|u | U