Structure of the velocity gradient tensor in turbulent shear flows. Pumir, A. Physical Review Fluids, 2(7):74602, American Physical Society, 4, 2017.
Structure of the velocity gradient tensor in turbulent shear flows [link]Website  doi  abstract   bibtex   3 downloads  
The expected universality of small-scale properties of turbulent flows implies isotropic properties of the velocity gradient tensor in the very large Reynolds number limit. Using direct numerical simulations, we determine the tensors formed by n = 2 and 3 velocity gradients at a single point in turbulent homogeneous shear flows, and in the log-layer of a turbulent channel flow, and we characterize the departure of these tensors from the corresponding isotropic prediction. Specifically, we separate the even components of the tensors, invariant under reflexion with respect to all axes, from the odd ones, which identically vanish in the absence of shear. Our results indicate that the largest deviation from isotropy comes from the odd component of the third velocity gradient correlation function, especially from the third moment of the derivative along the normal direction of the streamwise velocity component. At the Reynolds numbers considered (R_lambda ~ 140), we observe that these second and third order correlation functions are significantly larger in turbulent channel flows than in homogeneous shear flow. Overall, our work demonstrates that a mean shear leads to relatively simple structure of the velocity gradient tensor. How isotropy is restored in the very large Reynolds limit remains to be understood.
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 title = {Structure of the velocity gradient tensor in turbulent shear flows},
 type = {article},
 year = {2017},
 pages = {74602},
 volume = {2},
 websites = {http://link.aps.org/doi/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.2.074602},
 month = {4},
 publisher = {American Physical Society},
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 abstract = {The expected universality of small-scale properties of turbulent flows implies isotropic properties of the velocity gradient tensor in the very large Reynolds number limit. Using direct numerical simulations, we determine the tensors formed by n = 2 and 3 velocity gradients at a single point in turbulent homogeneous shear flows, and in the log-layer of a turbulent channel flow, and we characterize the departure of these tensors from the corresponding isotropic prediction. Specifically, we separate the even components of the tensors, invariant under reflexion with respect to all axes, from the odd ones, which identically vanish in the absence of shear. Our results indicate that the largest deviation from isotropy comes from the odd component of the third velocity gradient correlation function, especially from the third moment of the derivative along the normal direction of the streamwise velocity component. At the Reynolds numbers considered (R_lambda ~ 140), we observe that these second and third order correlation functions are significantly larger in turbulent channel flows than in homogeneous shear flow. Overall, our work demonstrates that a mean shear leads to relatively simple structure of the velocity gradient tensor. How isotropy is restored in the very large Reynolds limit remains to be understood.},
 bibtype = {article},
 author = {Pumir, Alain},
 doi = {10.1103/PhysRevFluids.2.074602},
 journal = {Physical Review Fluids},
 number = {7}
}

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