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The evolution of unforced and weakly damped two-dimensional turbulence over random rough topography presents two extreme states. If the initial kinetic energy E is sufficiently high, then the topography is a weak perturbation, and evolution is determined by the spontaneous formation and mutual interaction of coherent axisymmetric vortices. High-energy vortices roam throughout the domain and mix the background potential vorticity (PV) to homogeneity, i.e., in the region between vortices, which is most of the domain, the relative vorticity largely cancels the topographic PV. If E is low, then vortices still form but they soon become locked to topographic features: Anticyclones sit above topographic depressions and cyclones above elevated regions. In the low-energy case, with topographically locked vortices, the background PV retains some spatial variation. We develop a unified framework of topographic turbulence spanning these two extreme states of low and high energy. A main organizing concept is that PV homogenization demands a particular kinetic energy level E#. E# is the separator between high-energy evolution and low-energy evolution. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Liutex vector is new quantity introduced to represent the rigid-body rotation part of fluid motion and thus to define and identify vortices in various flows. In this work, the intermittency and power-law similarity of the Liutex vector in homogeneous, isotropic turbulence and a turbulent channel are explored. First, we found that the Liutex vector is more intermittent than the vorticity vector in the considered turbulent flows, which indicates that an iso-surface of a Liutex magnitude with an appropriate threshold could capture the major rotating motions or vortical motions of the flow. Second, the three-dimensional energy spectrums of velocity, vorticity (enstrophy spectrum) and the Liutex vector in homogeneous isotropic turbulence are shown to exhibit power laws of −5/3, 1/3 and 1/3 in the inertial subrange, respectively, whilst the Liutex energy spectrum particularly satisfies an additional −10/3 power law in the viscous subrange. This viscous similarity of the Liutex vector is the only power law that survived from the wall presence and is argued to originate from the fact that the Liutex vector represents the rigid part of fluid motion and is free from any shear contamination. The existence of such a viscous similarity law indicates a certain coherence of the small scales of turbulence and could possibly help understand and model turbulence. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unsteady cavitating turbulent flow around a NACA66 hydrofoil was simulated using a mass transfer cavitation model and a modified filter-based turbulence model in this paper. The modified filter-based turbulence model can accurately predict the pressure coefficient in midplane and shedding frequency of the unsteady cloud cavitation than standard κ – 𝜀 model and filter-based turbulence model. The time evolution of transient cavitation cloud structure predicted by the three-turbulence model was compared. The result which was predicted by the modified filter-based turbulence model is in good agreement with the experimental results. The time evolution of re-entrant jet had been analyzed. The instantaneous wall-pressure evolution on the suction surface (SS) predicted by the modified filter-based turbulence model had been analyzed. The cavitation-vortex interaction had been analyzed in this study. The different effects on the cavitation-vortex interaction of the vortex stretching term, vortex dilatation term and baroclinic torque term in the transport equation of vorticity had been discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract The rotary-type energy recovery device (RERD) is a promising energy recovery device which can significantly reduce the energy consumption of the Reverse Osmosis system in seawater desalination. A two-dimensional particle image velocimetry (PIV) measurement has been carried out in our previous study to visualize and understand the flow dynamics in the duct of the RERD. Based on the PIV experimental results, a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) method was applied to study flow characteristics and mixing process in the RERD. Three different turbulence modeling approaches (standard k - ε , RNG k - ε , and Realizable k - ε) were compared and validated by PIV experimental data. As a result, the simulation method was able to capture major features of the flow characteristic in the duct, such as the jet flow and the vortex structure. The Realizable k - ε turbulence model, presenting a good agreement with the experimental data, was recommended for analyzing the detailed information of flow characteristics. The simulation results revealed a swirling flow formed in the duct. This three-dimensional flow structure caused high flow turbulence and significant mass transfer in the mixing zone. These results would be beneficial to researchers in better understanding the mixing process in the duct of the RERD. Highlights • Three different k - ε turbulence model results were compared with experimental data. • Numerical results enriched the finding of the "entrance effect" observed by PIV method. • The Realizable k - ε model showed better predictions of vortex structures in the duct center. • A high concentration gradient and a swirling flow were in the duct transverse plane. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper focuses on the multi-scale wake structures of a new asymmetric side mirror of a race car, which can generate the aerodynamic downforce. The turbulent wake generated by symmetric bluff bodies of triangle and semi-cylinder and an asymmetric bluff body (called CT-cylinder) were experimentally investigated and were compared. Firstly, the instantaneous velocity and vorticity were quantitatively measured by high-speed PIV at a Reynolds number of 14,440 in the circulating water channel. Then a one- and two-dimensional wavelet multi-resolution techniques were used to analyze the instantaneous velocity and vorticity in order to decompose turbulent structures into a number of subsets based on their central frequencies. It is found that the CT-cylinder wake generates the asymmetric flow structures and separation region that is smaller than that of the triangle wake. The contribution to vorticity concentration comes from the large-scale structure of CT-cylinder wake in the ( x , y )-plane, and the intermediate-scale structure of the CT-cylinder wake dominates the flow structure in the ( x , z )-plane. There is no evident difference among the three wakes in the relatively small-scale structures. The large-scale structures of three wakes exhibit the main contributions to the Reynolds shear stress, accounting for almost 82–92%. However, the small-scale structures make less contribution to Reynolds shear stresses. The phase-averaging and spectral analyses indicate that the CT-cylinder wake generates the relatively smaller vortices and smaller separation region and the CT-cylinder wake exhibits lower fluctuation in the shear layer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]