Turbulence

In the famous Reynolds’s experiment, we can see that the dye is forming layers with the
adjacent fluid and flowing in an ordered manner. As the flow velocity is increased, the colored
dye diffuses with the flow and gets mixed with the flow as seen in the above figure. This is
effectively the characteristics of turbulence.

At low velocities or low Reynolds number, viscous effects are predominant and any
perturbations in the flow such as velocity are damped out. At high velocities or high Reynolds
number, the inertial effects are predominant and any perturbations in the flow are amplified.
Thus in a laminar flow disturbances are not allowed to grow and the effects die down
eventually. In a turbulent flow, the disturbances are amplified and this causes mixing of fluids,
and the flow becomes random and disordered.

One of the important characteristics of turbulence is the strong mixing in the flow. In a
turbulent flow, there is random variation in the transport variable such as velocities. These
fluctuating components interact with each, which results in momentum and energy transfer
and in strong mixing of the flow. Thus diffusivity is a characteristic of turbulent flows.

The range of length scale and time scale in a turbulent flow varies largely. Turbulent flow has
rotating masses of fluids called eddies. These eddies are varying in the lengths. In a typical
channel flow, the larger eddies which are of length of the system scale extract kinetic energy
from the mean flow because of variation in the transport properties. The smaller eddies extract
energy from the larger eddies. So the energy cascading is from the largest eddy of length of
system scale to the smallest eddy of molecular scale. The smaller eddy dissipates the turbulent
kinetic energy in the form of viscous dissipation.

Therefore in turbulent flow analysis, to accurately determine the results from simulation, the
physics of the largest eddy and the smallest eddy should be captured effectively. This is highly
challenging because of the random nature of the flow.

The numerical analysis of instantaneous values of transport variables is not feasible in turbulent
analysis cause of the random nature of the flow. The random nature of the flow makes it highly
sensitive to initial conditions. A slight variation within numerical error can change the entire
solution to a different orbit. Therefore statistical methods are employed to analyze turbulent
flows. The complexities in the turbulent flow can be simplified by considering the average form
of Navier Stokes equation which is also known as Reynolds average Navier Stokes equation.

Reynolds Average Navier Stokes Equation (RANS)

The Reynolds average of the momentum equation looks similar to the original N-S equations
except that there is an extra term on the RHS as shown in figure below.

The extra term has the dimensions of stress. To explain the physical meaning of it, let us
consider velocity fluctuations in x direction. This interacts with the velocity components in y
direction, which results in exchange of momentum and results in additional stress. This is called
as Reynolds stress or turbulent stress.

In the above RANS equation, there are 10 unknowns which include 3 velocity components, one
pressure and 6 Reynolds stress components. However, we have just 4 known equations which
are one continuity equation and 3 momentum equations. The number of unknowns is greater
than the known equations. Thus it is necessary to obtain additional or model additional
equation for the turbulent term to close the equations. This is called closure problem in
turbulence.

The turbulence models are classified based on the number of additional transport equations
required to model the Reynolds stress tensor. Turbulence models are mainly classified into
Eddy viscosity model and Reynolds stress transport model.

No. of equations required Name of the model

Zero Mixing length
One Spalart-Allmaras model
Two -K-E model
-K-w model
-SST
Seven Reynolds stress model

Eddy Viscosity Models

Reynolds stress can be resolved into isotropic and anisotropic stresses similar to deviatory and
hydraulic stresses in regular stress tensor. Therefore the sum of isotropic and anisotropic
stresses would give us the total Reynolds stress. Isotropic stresses are expressed as turbulent
kinetic energy, while anisotropic stresses are expressed in terms of product of deformations
and eddy viscosity or turbulent viscosity. This can be combined in the RHS of the N-S equation.
This would result in two parts; one is pressure term with turbulent kinetic energy while the
other is viscous term consisting of sum of turbulent viscosity (mu t) and laminar viscosity.

This makes the average N-S equation look similar to unaveraged N-S equation except that the
mu is replaced by mu effective. This equation can be closed by modeling turbulent viscosity (mu
t).
Mixing length model

The kinetic theory of gases is applied to the mixing length model where analogy is derived
between the mean free path of molecules and mixing length. The fluctuation in velocity is of
the order given by product of velocity gradient and the length over which they interact.

With further simplification we get the expression for turbulent viscosity in terms of the mixing
length and velocity gradient. Therefore, by specifying the mixing length or system length we get
the turbulent viscosity, without the need for any additional equations. By using this value in the
RANS equation, makes the equation closed.

This model can be applied in cases where the characteristic system lengths are reported such as
fully developed pipe and channel flows, boundary layer flows, axisymmetric jets and wakes.
Because of its easy implementation and cheaper in terms of computing resources, it is feasible
to employ this model in simple flows. However, this model fails completely in flows wherein the
turbulent length scales varies or in flows with recirculation or separated flows.

Spalart –Allmaras model

Spalart – Allmaras model involves solving the transport equation for turbulent viscosity. The
equations are modeled to obtain the turbulent eddy viscosity. This model is designed for wall
bound flows such as flow over aero foils taking into consideration high variation in the pressure
gradient. It can also be applied to flows with mild separation and circulation. The model solves
a single equation which consists of the convective, diffusive as well as terms for production and
dissipation of turbulent viscosity.

The model cannot be applied for massively separated flows such as those in cut water regions,
free shear flows where roughness of wall is neglected and in decaying turbulence cases.

Since the model uses just one additional equation, it is less memory intensive and gives good
accuracy for wall bounded flows with good convergence.

K-W Model

K-w model is a two equation model which solves the transport equation with two additional
equations which models K (turbulent kinetic energy) and w (specific turbulence dissipation). W
is the rate at which turbulence kinetic energy is converted into thermal internal energy per unit
volume per unit time. It is modeled as the ratio of turbulence dissipation to turbulent kinetic
energy multiplied by model constant, which is also referred to as normalized dissipation. The
eddy viscosity can be calculated from k and w.

K-w model uses wall functions and therefore using additional memory space for solving. Also
due to use of w, it becomes more sensitive to initial conditions and the model is difficult to
converge.

The application of K-w models includes cases such as internal flows, flows exhibiting high
curvature, separated flows in aero foils, and jet flows.

Shear Stress Transport Model (SST)