COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD)

Module – 15

Turbulent flow and its modeling

Module – 15

Turbulent flow and its modeling

• Introduction to Turbulence
• Characteristics and scales of turbulence
• Overview of turbulence models: RANS, LES, and DNS
Introduction to Turbulence
➢ There is no fixed definition of Turbulence! Turbulent flow has distinct characteristics!

➢ A Fluid motion in which velocity, pressure, and other flow quantities fluctuate irregularly in time and space.

➢ “Turbulent Fluid motion is an irregular condition of flow in which the various quantities show a random
variation with time and space coordinates, so that statistically distinct average values can be observed.”

➢ Turbulent flow is a type of fluid (gas or liquid) flow in which the fluid undergoes irregular fluctuations, or
mixing, in contrast to laminar flow, in which the fluid moves in smooth paths or layers. In turbulent flow the
speed of the fluid at a point is continuously undergoing changes in both magnitude and direction.

➢ It is an irregular flows in which eddies, swirls, and flow instabilities occur. It is governed by high momentum
convection and low momentum diffusion.
Introduction to Turbulence
Introduction to Turbulence

➢ 3D, unsteady, irregular motion of particles in a practically chaotic manner

➢ Flow field is a random process.
➢ Contrast to the laminar state.

Instantaneous
flow velocity
Reynolds Experiment
Laminar Flow
Low Re Flow: Fluid particles
exhibits no disturbance
Transition:
Increased Reynolds Number.
Ordered 2D & 3D structures
appears due to flow instabilities
Turbulent:
High Reynolds Number.
Flow exhibits random 3D
unsteady structures.

First experiment on turbulence: Flow of liquid with in a

glass channel, Dye is injected at the left side. Laminar
flows show no dispersion of dye, Transitional flows
shows orderly structures. Turbulence shows random 3D
structures.

Osborne Reynolds conducted his famous experiment

demonstrating laminar and turbulent flow in 1883.
Reynolds Experiment

Osborne Reynolds conducted his famous experiment

demonstrating laminar and turbulent flow in 1883.
Laminar to Turbulent

➢ At a Reynolds number less than the critical value, Viscous force is higher than the inertial force such that
viscous force damps out all the disturbance caused in the flow & the kinetic energy of flow is not enough to
sustain the random fluctuations against the viscous damping and in such cases laminar flow continues to
exist.

➢ At somewhat higher Reynolds number than the critical Reynolds number, the kinetic energy of flow is
large and supports the growth of fluctuations and transition to turbulence takes place.
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow

Irregularity
• Irregular, random and chaotic.
• Flow consists of a spectrum of eddy sizes.
• No exact definition of turbulent eddy.
• Deterministic & described by NS equation.
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow

Non-repeatability
• Sensitive to initial and boundary conditions
• Averages over large intervals of space and time may be very well
defined and stable.

Diffusivity
• Causes rapid mixing & increased rate of heat, mass and
momentum transfer
• Spreading rate of boundary layers, jets increases.
• Increases the resistance (wall friction) in internal flows.
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow

Diffusivity
• Increased mixing makes the velocity profile much flatter than in
laminar flow.

• Increased velocity and temperature gradients.

• Pressure drop & heat transfer in a pipe?
• Drag experienced by a flat plate?
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow

Low Reynolds Number

• At a Reynolds number less than the critical, the kinetic energy of flow is not enough to sustain the random
fluctuations against the viscous damping and in such cases laminar flow continues to exist.
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow

3D Vortical Fluctuations

• Highly Rotational.
• Vortex Dynamics plays an important role.
• Energy is transferred from large to small scales by the interation of eddies.
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow

Dissipative

• Dissipates the energy!

• Kinetic energy in the small eddies are transformed into thermal
energy due to viscous shear stress.
• Due to steeper gradient near the wall, the shear stress is greater.

Length & Time Scale in Turbulent Flow

• Wide range of length scales (also the time scales) present.

Characteristics of Turbulent Flow

• Turbulence is important in almost all technical flows.

• Effects of turbulence:-

➢ Enhances mixing and entrainment.

➢ Dissipates kinetic energy into heat.

➢ Increases friction losses.

➢ Increases heat transfer.

➢ Delays flow separation under pressure gradients.

➢ Generates Noise.

Reference: ANSYS Officials

Energy Cascade

Cascade of Turbulence

− Turbulence eddies are created at largest flow scale.

− Large eddies extract energy from mean flow.

− Largest eddies are of size of mixing layer thickness.

− Eddies get stretched and thereby reduced in size. This leads

to an energy transfer to smaller and smaller eddies.

− Smallest eddies are then dissipated into heat by molecular

viscosity.
Reference: ANSYS Officials
− Smallest eddies are of Kolmogorov size.
Turbulence Modeling
Why model Turbulence?

➢ Most engineering flows we study is turbulence.

➢ Turbulence spans wide spatial and temporal scales.

➢ When described in terms of eddies, non-linear interaction is complex cannot

be attacked statistically.

➢ Generating turbulence information by solving the full Navier-Stokes

equations is extremely computationally expensive. Impossible for industry
level application.

➢ Only the effects of the turbulence on the mean flow are usually sought.

➢ Resolving the details of turbulent fluctuations is not required for many

engineering applications.
Type of Turbulence Modeling
Turbulence Modeling
Turbulence Modeling

Different approaches to simulate turbulence

DNS: direct numerical simulation

Full resolution
No modeling required
→ Too expensive for practical flows

LES: large eddy simulation

Large eddies directly resolved, smaller ones modeled

→ Less expensive than DNS, but very often still too expensive for
practical applications

RANS: Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes simulation

Solution of time-averaged equations

→ Most widely used approach for industrial flows Reference: ANSYS Officials
Turbulence Modeling

No single model is universally accepted for all classes of problems.

Summary

➢Turbulent flow is an irregular flows in which eddies, swirls, and flow instabilities occur. It is governed by
high momentum convection and low momentum diffusion.

➢Reynolds number is used to study the state of flow i.e. laminar or turbulent.

➢Turbulent flow has wide and distinct characteristics such as wide range of scale, irregular, random,
chaotic, enhance mixing, delay flow separation, enhance heat transfer, increase noise.

➢Turbulent flow is indeed governed by NV-Stokes Equation.

➢Generating turbulence information by solving the full Navier-Stokes equations is extremely

computationally expensive. Impossible for industry level application.

➢No single Turbulence model is universally accepted for all classes of problems.