Study on local topology model of low/high streak structures in wall-bounded turbulence by tomographic time-resolved particle image velocimetry

The relationship between the in the logarithmic law （log-law） region of bursting event and the low/high-speed streak a turbulent boundary layer is investigated. A tomographic time-resolved particle image velocimetry （TRPIV） system is used to measure the instantaneous three-dimensional-three-component （3D-3C） velocity field. The momentum thickness based Reynolds number is about 2 460. The topological information in the log-law region is obtained experimentally. It is found that the existence of the quadrupole topological structure implies a three-pair hairpin-like vortex packet, which is in connection with the low/high-speed streak. An idealized 3D topological model is then proposed to characterize the observed hairpin vortex packet and low/high-speed streak.

Coherent structures over riblets in turbulent boundary layer studied by combining time-resolved particle image velocimetry(TRPIV),proper orthogonal decomposition(POD),and finite-time Lyapunov exponent(FTLE)

Time-resolved particle image velocimetry（TRPIV） experiments are performed to investigate the coherent structure＇s performance of riblets in a turbulent boundary layer（TBL） at a friction Reynolds number of 185. To visualize the energetic large-scale coherent structures（CSs） over a smooth surface and riblets, the proper orthogonal decomposition（POD） and finite-time Lyapunov exponent（FTLE） are used to identify the CSs in the TBL. Spatial-temporal correlation is implemented to obtain the characters and transport properties of typical CSs in the FTLE fields. The results demonstrate that the generic flow structures, such as hairpin-like vortices, are also observed in the boundary layer flow over the riblets, consistent with its smooth counterpart. Low-order POD modes are more sensitive to the riblets in comparison with the high-order ones,and the wall-normal movement of the most energy-containing structures are suppressed over riblets. The spatial correlation analysis of the FTLE fields indicates that the evolution process of the hairpin vortex over riblets are inhibited. An apparent decrease of the convection velocity over riblets is noted, which is believed to reduce the ejection/sweep motions associated with high shear stress from the viscous sublayer. These reductions exhibit inhibition of momentum transfer among the structures near the wall in the TBL flows.

Is a direct numerical simulation(DNS)of Navier-Stokes equations with small enough grid spacing and time-step definitely reliable/correct?

Turbulence is strongly associated with the vast majority of fluid flows in nature and industry.Traditionally,results given by the direct numerical simulation(DNS)of Navier-Stokes(NS)equations that relate to a famous millennium problem are widely regarded as‘reliable’benchmark solutions of turbulence,as long as grid spacing is fine enough(i.e.less than the minimum Kolmogorov scale)and time-step is small enough,say,satisfying the Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy condition(Courant number<1).Is this really true?In this paper a two-dimensional sustained turbulent Kolmogorov flow driven by an external body force governed by the NS equations under an initial condition with a spatial symmetry is investigated numerically by the two numerical methods with detailed comparisons:one is the traditional DNS,the other is the‘clean numerical simulation’(CNS).In theory,the exact solution must have a kind of spatial symmetry since its initial condition is spatially symmetric.However,it is found that numerical noises of the DNS are quickly enlarged to the same level as the‘true’physical solution,which finally destroy the spatial symmetry of the flow field.In other words,the DNS results of the turbulent Kolmogorov flow governed by the NS equations are badly polluted mostly.On the contrary,the numerical noise of the CNS is much smaller than the‘true’physical solution of turbulence in a long enough interval of time so that the CNS result is very close to the‘true’physical solution and thus can remain symmetric,which can be used as a benchmark solution for comparison.Besides,it is found that numerical noise as a kind of artificial tiny disturbances can lead to huge deviations at large scale on the two-dimensional Kolmogorov turbulence governed by the NS equations,not only quantitatively(even in statistics)but also qualitatively(such as spatial symmetry of flow).This highly suggests that fine enough spatial grid spacing with small enough time-step alone could not guarantee the validity of the DNS of the NS equations:it is only a necessary condition but not sufficient.All of these findings might challenge some of our general beliefs in turbulence:for example,it might be wrong in physics to neglect the influences of small disturbances to NS equations.Our results suggest that,from physical point of view,it should be better to use the Landau-Lifshitz-Navier-Stokes(LLNS)equations,which consider the influence of unavoidable thermal fluctuations,instead of the NS equations,to model turbulent flows.

Surface currents measured by GPS drifters in Daya Bay and along the eastern Guangdong coast

GPS-based surface drifters were used to investigate the surface currents in Daya Bay and along the eastern Guangdong coast in China.Surface current vectors were measured based on the GPS location and corresponding time information sent by drifters through the mobile phone network.The analysis of data from 120 drifters,deployed in late spring 2018 in the case-study region,shows that the drifters are generally capable of capturing the surface(tidal and residual)currents.The drifter trajectories suggest an anticlockwise surface current inside Daya Bay and a north-eastward current along the eastern Guangdong coast,where the coastal current along the eastern Guangdong coast is faster than that inside Daya Bay.The surface currents in the investigated region follow an irregular semidiurnal cycle due to the influence of the tidal current,while the currents inside Daya Bay are strongly affected by the topography.According to the harmonic analysis,an irregular semidiurnal type of tidal current is evident at a study grid inside Daya Bay,with an Eulerian residual current speed of 9.0 cm/s and a direction of 276°.The Lagrangian residual current outside Daya Bay moves north-eastward with a mean speed of 22 cm/s along the eastern Guangdong coast,while the current inside Daya Bay moves northward to the bay head with a mean speed of about 8.0 cm/s,which agrees well with the one reported in other literatures.