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New direct numerical simulation data of a fully-developed axially rotating pipe at Re = 5300 and Re = 19, 000 is used to examine the performance of the second-moment closure elliptic blending Reynolds stress model for a range of rotation rates from N=0 to N=3. In agreement with previous studies (using alternative second-moment closure models), the turbulence suppression observed by the DNS is over-predicted. This over-prediction is greatest at Re = 5, 300 and most noticeable in the poor prediction of the ut wt turbulent shear-stress component. At N=3 the flow is completely relaminarized in contrast to the DNS that is only partly relaminarized. The accuracy of the second-moment closure model is superior to the two-equation k − ω SST model which predicts pure solid-body rotation, however, both are equally poor at the highest rotation rates. The accuracy of each model is also assessed for the initial portion of a rotating pipe where in contrast to the fully- developed rotating pipe flow the turbulent suppression is under-predicted compared to the DNS. It is clear that greater work is required to understand the root cause of the poor prediction by these second-moment closure models and further DNS and experimental work is underway to assist this effort.
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A Closure for the Virtual Origin of Turbulent Plumes
Abstract An isolated source of surface buoyancy, be it a campfire or burning city, gives rise to a turbulent plume. Well above the surface, the plume properties asymptote to the well-known solutions of Morton, Taylor, and Turner (MTT), but a closure is still lacking for the virtual origin. A closure for the virtual origin is sought here in the case of a turbulent plume sustained by a circular source of surface buoyancy in an unstratified and unsheared fluid. In the high-Reynolds-number limit, it is argued that all such plumes asymptote to a single solution. Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of this solution exhibits a virtual origin located a distance below the surface equal to 1.1 times the radius of the buoyancy source. This solution is compared to the previously used assumption that the MTT plume is fully spun up at the surface, and that assumption is found to give buoyancies that are off by an order of magnitude. With regards to the citywide firestorm triggered by the nuclear attack on Hiroshima, it is found that the spun-up-at-surface MTT solution would have trapped radioactive soot within about a hundred meters of the surface, whereas the DNS solution presented here corroborates observations of the plume reaching well into the troposphere.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2127071
- PAR ID:
- 10367260
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Meteorological Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
- Volume:
- 79
- Issue:
- 5
- ISSN:
- 0022-4928
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- p. 1459-1471
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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