5 results
Direct numerical simulation of a hypersonic transitional boundary layer at suborbital enthalpies
- M. Di Renzo, J. Urzay
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- Journal:
- Journal of Fluid Mechanics / Volume 912 / 10 April 2021
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 11 February 2021, A29
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A Mach-10 hypersonic boundary layer of air overriding a cold, isothermal, non-catalytic flat wall, and with a stagnation enthalpy of $21.6\ \textrm {MJ}\ \textrm {kg}^{-1}$, is analysed using direct numerical simulations. The calculations include multicomponent transport, equilibrium vibrational excitation and chemical kinetics for air dissociation. The initially laminar boundary layer undergoes transition to turbulence by the resonance of a two-dimensional mode injected by a suction-and-blowing boundary condition imposed over a narrow spanwise porous strip. The ensuing turbulent boundary layer has a momentum Reynolds number of 3826 near the outflow of the computational domain. The relatively low temperature of the free stream renders the air chemically frozen there. However, the high temperatures generated within the boundary layer by viscous aerodynamic heating, peaking at a wall-normal distance $y^\star \simeq 10\text {--}20$ in semi-local viscous units, lead to air dissociation in under-equilibrium amounts equivalent to 4 %–7 % on a molar basis of atomic oxygen, along with smaller concentrations of nitric oxide, which is mainly produced by the Zel'dovich mechanism, and of atomic nitrogen, the latter being mostly in steady state. A statistical analysis of the results is provided, including the streamwise evolution of (a) the skin friction coefficient and dimensionless wall heat flux; (b) the mean profiles of temperature, velocity, density, molar fractions, chemical production rates and chemical heat-release rate; (c) the Reynolds stresses and root-mean-squares of the fluctuations of temperature, density, pressure, molar fractions and chemical heat-release rate; and (d) the temperature/velocity and mass-fraction/velocity correlations.
Spatially localized multi-scale energy transfer in turbulent premixed combustion
- J. Kim, M. Bassenne, C. A. Z. Towery, P. E. Hamlington, A. Y. Poludnenko, J. Urzay
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- Journal:
- Journal of Fluid Mechanics / Volume 848 / 10 August 2018
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 04 June 2018, pp. 78-116
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A three-dimensional wavelet multi-resolution analysis of direct numerical simulations of a turbulent premixed flame is performed in order to investigate the spatially localized spectral transfer of kinetic energy across scales in the vicinity of the flame front. A formulation is developed that addresses the compressible spectral dynamics of the kinetic energy in wavelet space. The wavelet basis enables the examination of local energy spectra, along with inter-scale and subfilter-scale (SFS) cumulative energy fluxes across a scale cutoff, all quantities being available either unconditioned or conditioned on the local instantaneous value of the progress variable across the flame brush. The results include the quantification of mean spectral values and associated spatial variabilities. The energy spectra undergo, in most locations in the flame brush, a precipitous drop that starts at scales of the same order as the characteristic flame scale and continues to smaller scales, even though the corresponding decrease of the mean spectra is much more gradual. The mean convective inter-scale flux indicates that convection increases the energy of small scales, although it does so in a non-conservative manner due to the high aspect ratio of the grid, which limits the maximum scale level that can be used in the wavelet transform, and to the non-periodic boundary conditions, which exchange energy through surface forces, as explicitly elucidated by the formulation. The mean pressure-gradient inter-scale flux extracts energy from intermediate scales of the same order as the characteristic flame scale, and injects energy in the smaller and larger scales. The local SFS-cumulative contribution of the convective and pressure-gradient mechanisms of energy transfer across a given cutoff scale imposed by a wavelet filter is analysed. The local SFS-cumulative energy flux is such that the subfilter scales upstream from the flame always receive energy on average. Conversely, within the flame brush, energy is drained on average from the subfilter scales by convective and pressure-gradient effects most intensely when the filter cutoff is larger than the characteristic flame scale.
Multi-scale statistics of turbulence motorized by active matter
- J. Urzay, A. Doostmohammadi, J. M. Yeomans
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- Journal:
- Journal of Fluid Mechanics / Volume 822 / 10 July 2017
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 08 June 2017, pp. 762-773
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A number of micro-scale biological flows are characterized by spatio-temporal chaos. These include dense suspensions of swimming bacteria, microtubule bundles driven by motor proteins and dividing and migrating confluent layers of cells. A characteristic common to all of these systems is that they are laden with active matter, which transforms free energy in the fluid into kinetic energy. Because of collective effects, the active matter induces multi-scale flow motions that bear strong visual resemblance to turbulence. In this study, multi-scale statistical tools are employed to analyse direct numerical simulations (DNS) of periodic two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) active flows and to compare the results to classic turbulent flows. Statistical descriptions of the flows and their variations with activity levels are provided in physical and spectral spaces. A scale-dependent intermittency analysis is performed using wavelets. The results demonstrate fundamental differences between active and high-Reynolds-number turbulence; for instance, the intermittency is smaller and less energetic in active flows, and the work of the active stress is spectrally exerted near the integral scales and dissipated mostly locally by viscosity, with convection playing a minor role in momentum transport across scales.
Subgrid-scale backscatter in reacting and inert supersonic hydrogen–air turbulent mixing layers
- J. O’Brien, J. Urzay, M. Ihme, P. Moin, A. Saghafian
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- Journal:
- Journal of Fluid Mechanics / Volume 743 / 25 March 2014
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 March 2014, pp. 554-584
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This study addresses the dynamics of backscatter of kinetic energy in the context of large-eddy simulations (LES) of high-speed turbulent reacting flows. A priori analyses of direct numerical simulations (DNS) of reacting and inert supersonic, time-developing, hydrogen–air turbulent mixing layers with complex chemistry and multicomponent diffusion are conducted here in order to examine the effects of compressibility and combustion on subgrid-scale (SGS) backscatter of kinetic energy. The main characteristics of the aerothermochemical field in the mixing layer are outlined. A selfsimilar period is identified in which some of the turbulent quantities grow in a quasi-linear manner. A differential filter is applied to the DNS flow field to extract filtered quantities of relevance for the large-scale kinetic-energy budget. Spatiotemporal analyses of the flow-field statistics in the selfsimilar regime are performed, which reveal the presence of considerable amounts of SGS backscatter. The dilatation field becomes spatially intermittent as a result of the high-speed compressibility effect. In addition, the large-scale pressure-dilatation work is observed to be an essential mechanism for the local conversion of thermal and kinetic energies. A joint probability density function (PDF) of SGS dissipation and large-scale pressure-dilatation work is provided, which shows that backscatter occurs primarily in regions undergoing volumetric expansion; this implies the existence of an underlying physical mechanism that enhances the reverse energy cascade. Furthermore, effects of SGS backscatter on the Boussinesq eddy viscosity are studied, and a regime diagram demonstrating the relationship between the different energy-conversion modes and the sign of the eddy viscosity is provided along with a detailed budget of the volume fraction in each mode. A joint PDF of SGS dissipation and SGS dynamic-pressure dilatation work is calculated, which shows that high-speed compressibility effects lead to a decorrelation between SGS backscatter and negative eddy viscosities, which increases for increasingly large values of the SGS Mach number and filter width. Finally, it is found that the combustion dynamics have a marginal impact on the backscatter and flow-dilatation distributions, which are mainly dominated by the high-Mach-number effects.
Dynamics of thermal ignition of spray flames in mixing layers
- D. Martínez-Ruiz, J. Urzay, A. L. Sánchez, A. Liñán, F. A. Williams
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- Journal:
- Journal of Fluid Mechanics / Volume 734 / 10 November 2013
- Published online by Cambridge University Press:
- 10 October 2013, pp. 387-423
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Conditions are identified under which analyses of laminar mixing layers can shed light on aspects of turbulent spray combustion. With this in mind, laminar spray-combustion models are formulated for both non-premixed and partially premixed systems. The laminar mixing layer separating a hot-air stream from a monodisperse spray carried by either an inert gas or air is investigated numerically and analytically in an effort to increase understanding of the ignition process leading to stabilization of high-speed spray combustion. The problem is formulated in an Eulerian framework, with the conservation equations written in the boundary-layer approximation and with a one-step Arrhenius model adopted for the chemistry description. The numerical integrations unveil two different types of ignition behaviour depending on the fuel availability in the reaction kernel, which in turn depends on the rates of droplet vaporization and fuel-vapour diffusion. When sufficient fuel is available near the hot boundary, as occurs when the thermochemical properties of heptane are employed for the fuel in the integrations, combustion is established through a precipitous temperature increase at a well-defined thermal-runaway location, a phenomenon that is amenable to a theoretical analysis based on activation-energy asymptotics, presented here, following earlier ideas developed in describing unsteady gaseous ignition in mixing layers. By way of contrast, when the amount of fuel vapour reaching the hot boundary is small, as is observed in the computations employing the thermochemical properties of methanol, the incipient chemical reaction gives rise to a slowly developing lean deflagration that consumes the available fuel as it propagates across the mixing layer towards the spray. The flame structure that develops downstream from the ignition point depends on the fuel considered and also on the spray carrier gas, with fuel sprays carried by air displaying either a lean deflagration bounding a region of distributed reaction or a distinct double-flame structure with a rich premixed flame on the spray side and a diffusion flame on the air side. Results are calculated for the distributions of mixture fraction and scalar dissipation rate across the mixing layer that reveal complexities that serve to identify differences between spray-flamelet and gaseous-flamelet problems.