Key structure in laminar-turbulent transition of boundary layer with streaky structures

A numerical simulation is performed to find out a key vortical structure in the laminar-turbulent transition. A low-speed streak is generated inside a laminar boundary layer using an isolated cuboid roughness, aimed at providing an environment unstable to outer disturbances. Then, a short duration jet is issued into the boundary layer. When the jet velocity is low, some vortices appear in the boundary layer, but the transition of the boundary layer does not take place.However, when the jet velocity exceeds a certain threshold, two vortices newly appear above the elongated legs of a V-shaped vortex and only one of them is stretched and survives. After that,vortices are generated one after another around the survived one. By comparing the decayed and the survived vortices, it is found that the difference in their heights is the key characteristic which leads to the transition.

Laminar-Turbulent Bifurcation Scenario in 3D Rayleigh-Benard Convection Problem

We are considering two initial-boundary value problems for Rayleigh-Benard convection in Oberbeck-Boussinesq approximation for incompressible fluid in 3D-rectangular domain with 4:4:1 geometric ratio with periodicity in two directions and cubic domain with 1:1:1 ratio and zero velocity and temperature gradient boundary conditions. For this purpose, we use two numerical method: one is a Pseudo-Spectral-Galerkin method with trigonometric-Chebyshev polynomials and the other is finite element/volume method with WENO interpolation for advection term. Numerical methods are presented shortly and are benchmarked against known DNS data and against one another (for quasi-periodic domain problem). Then we perform stability analysis using analytical expression for main stationary solutions and eigenvalue numerical analysis by applying Implicitly Restarted Arnoldi (IRA) method. The IRA is used to perform linear stability analysis, find bifurcations of stationary points and analyze eigenvalues of monodromy matrices. Thus characteristic exponents of the system for time periodic solutions (limited cycles of various periods and resonance invariant tori) are computed. We show, numerically, the existence of multistable rotes to chaos through chaotic fractal attractors, full Feigenbaum-Sharkovski cascades and multidimensional torus attractors (Landau-Hopf scenario). The existence of these attractors is shown through analysis of phase subspaces projections, Poincare sections and eigenvalue analysis of numerically computed DNS data. These attractors burst into chaos with the increase of Rayleigh number either through resonance and phase-locking or through emergence of singular chaotic attractors.

Inherent mechanism of breakdown in laminar-turbulent transition of plane channel flows

Laminar-turbulent transition is an old yet unsolved problem. Notwithstanding the great effort made, there is an important question that seems not to have been addressed yet, that is, what is the inherent mechanism of breakdown that eventually leads to transition? The conventional idea is that the transition starts from the amplification of disturbances, and when the disturbances become larger, higher harmonics will be generated due to nonlinear effect, making the flow more and more complicated, and finally turbulent. Though the scenario seems clear, yet there is a missing link, that is, what happens in the breakdown process. Here we show by analyzing the results from direct numerical simulations that the change of stability characteristics of the mean flow profile plays a key role in the breakdown process.

A dual-eddy EMMS-based turbulence model for laminar-turbulent transition prediction

Turbulence is a century-old physics problem,and the prediction of laminar-turbulent transition remains a major challenge in computational fluid dynamics(CFD).This paper proposes a new conceptual multiscale-structure flow system consisting of a nonturbulent part and two types of turbulent eddies with different properties.The stability criterion for turbulent transition flows,based on the principle of compromise-in-competition between viscosity and inertia,is used to obtain model closure.The multiscale-structure concept and stability criterion are the characteristics of the dual-eddy energy-minimization multiscale(EMMS)-based turbulence model.The solved heterogeneous structure parameters and energy dissipation rate are analyzed,which reveal the laminar-turbulent transition process.To validate the dual-eddy EMMS-based turbulence model,three benchmark problems,namely,the transitional flows over the flat plate boundary layer with zero pressure gradient,NACA0012,and Aerospatiale-A airfoils,were simulated.The simulation was performed by combining the optimized results from the proposed model with the equations of the well-known κ-ω shear stress transfer(SST)turbulence model.The numerical results show that the dual-eddy EMMS-based turbulence model improves the prediction in the laminar-turbulent transition process.This demonstrates the soundness of using the multiscale-structure concept in turbulent flows to establish the turbulence transition model by considering the principle of compromise-in-competition between viscosity and inertia.

Extension of Near-Wall Domain Decomposition to Modeling Flows with Laminar-Turbulent Transition

The near-wall domain decomposition method(NDD)has proved to be very efficient for modeling near-wall fully turbulent flows.In this paper the NDD is extended to non-equilibrium regimeswith laminar-turbulent transition(LTT)for the first time.The LTT is identified with the use of the e^(N)-method which is applied to both incompressible and compressible flows.TheNDD ismodified to take into account LTT in an efficientway.In addition,implementation of the intermittency expands the capabilities of NDD to model non-equilibrium turbulent flows with transition.Performance of the modified NDD approach is demonstrated on various test problems of subsonic and supersonic flows past a flat plate,a supersonic flow over a compression corner and a planar shock wave impinging on a turbulent boundary layer.The results of modeling with and without decomposition are compared in terms of wall friction and show good agreement with each other while NDD significantly reducing computational resources needed.It turns out that the NDD can reduce the computational time as much as three times while retaining practically the same accuracy of prediction.

Universal threshold of the transition to localized turbulence in shear flows

Experimental and numerical studies have shown similarities between localized turbulence in channel and pipe flows.By scaling analysis of a disturbed-flow model,this paper proposes a local Reynolds number Re M to characterize the threshold of transition triggered by finite-amplitude disturbances.The Re M represents the maximum contribution of the basic flow to the momentum ratio between the nonlinear convection and the viscous diffusion.The lower critical Re M observed in experiments of plane Poiseuille flow,pipe Poiseuille flow and plane Couette flow are all close to 323,indicating the uniformity of mechanism governing the transition to localized turbulence.

Computational fluid dynamics simulation of Hyperloop pod predicting laminar–turbulent transition

Three-dimensional compressible flow simulationswere conducted to develop a Hyperloop pod. Thenovelty is the usage of Gamma transition model, in whichthe transition from laminar to turbulent flow can be predicted.First, a mesh dependency study was undertaken,showing second-order convergence with respect to themesh refinement. Second, an aerodynamic analysis for twodesigns, short and optimized, was conducted with thetraveling speed 125 m/s at the system pressure 0.15 bar.The concept of the short model was to delay the transitionto decrease the frictional drag;meanwhile that of theoptimized design was to minimize the pressure drag bydecreasing the frontal area and introduce the transitionmore toward the front of the pod. The computed resultsshow that the transition of the short model occurred moreon the rear side due to the pod shape, which resulted in 8%smaller frictional drag coefficient than that for the optimizedmodel. The pressure drag for the optimized designwas 24% smaller than that for the short design, half ofwhich is due to the decrease in the frontal area, and theother half is due to the smoothed rear-end shape. The totaldrag for the optimized model was 14% smaller than that forthe short model. Finally, the influence of the systempressure was investigated. As the system pressure and theReynolds number increase, the frictional drag coefficientincreases, and the transition point moves toward the front,which are the typical phenomena observed in the transitionregime.

On properties of the deterministic turbulence and reproducibility of its instantaneous and statistical characteristics

As known from previous studies, is a post-transitional flow that is turbulent the deterministic turbulence （DeTu） according to the generally accepted statistical characteristics but possesses, meanwhile, a significant degree of determinism, i.e., reproducibility of its instantaneous structure. It is found that the DeTu can occur in those cases when transition is caused by convective instabilities; in boundary layers, in particular. The present paper is devoted to a brief description of history of discovering the DeTu phenomenon, as well as to some recent advance in investigation of instantaneous and statistical properties of such turbulent boundary layer flows.

Linear Instability of the Supersonic Boundary Layer on a Compliant Surface

In the paper the influence of flexible covering properties on the linear development of disturbances in a supersonic boundary layer is investigated for Mach numbers M = 1.0, 2.0, 5.3, 6.0. As a model of a covering the porous plate closed by a flexible film is used. In the absence of gas in pores it is established that the flexible covering stabilizes boundary layer in the area of large Reynolds numbers and destabilizes it at small Reynolds numbers. Joint influence of the thickness and tension of a film leads to an appearance of additional unstable waves. For filled with gas pores the researches are conducted as taking into account losses of energy of disturbances in pores and in their absence. Calculations without power losses indicate possibility of existence of an absolute instability of the boundary layer on the flexible surface. The damping properties of a flexible covering connected with power losses in pores reduce their stabilizing role.

Adjoint-based robust optimization design of laminar flow wing under flight condition uncertainties

It is an inherent uncertainty problem that the application of laminar flow technology to the wing of large passenger aircraft is affected by flight conditions.In order to seek a more robust natural laminar flow control effect,it is necessary to develop an effective optimization design method.Meanwhile,attention must be given to the impact of crossflow(CF)instability brought on by the sweep angle.This paper constructs a robust optimization design framework based on discrete adjoint methods and non-intrusive polynomial chaos.Transition prediction is implemented by coupled Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes(RANS)and simplified e^(N)method,which can consider both Tollmien-Schlichting(TS)wave and crossflow vortex instability.We have performed gradient enhancement processing on the general Polynomial Chaos Expansion(PCE),which is advantageous to reduce the computational cost of single uncertainty propagation.This processing takes advantage of the gradient information obtained by solving the coupled adjoint equations considering transition.The statistical moment gradient solution used for the robust optimization design also uses the derivatives of coupled adjoint equations.The framework is applied to the robust design of a 25°swept wing with infinite span in transonic flow.The uncertainty quantification and sensitivity analysis on the baseline wing shows that the uncertainty quantification method in this paper has high accuracy,and qualitatively reveals the factors that dominate in different flow field regions.By the robust optimization design,the mean and standard deviation of the drag coefficient can be reduced by 29%and 45%,respectively,and compared with the deterministic optimization design results,there is less possibility of forming shock waves under flight condition uncertainties.Robust optimization results illustrate the trade-off between the transition delay and the wave drag reduction.