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Rotating and swirling turbulence comprises an important class of flows, not only due to the complex physics that occur, but also due to their relevance to many engineering applications, such as combustion, cyclone separation, mixing, etc. In these types of flows, rotation strongly affects the characteristics and structure of turbulence. However, the underlying turbulent flow phenomena are complex and currently not well understood. The axially rotating pipe is an exemplary prototypical model problem that exhibits these complex turbulent flow physics. By examining the complex interaction of turbulent structures within rotating turbulent pipe flow, insight can be gained into the behavior of rotating flows relevant to engineering applications. Direct numerical simulations are conducted at a bulk Reynolds number up to Re_D = 19,000 with rotation numbers ranging from N = 0 to 3. Coherence analysis, including Proper Orthogonal Decomposition and Dynamic Mode Decomposition, are used to identify the relevant (highest energy) modes of the flow. Studying the influence of these modes on turbulent statistics (i.e. mean statistics, Reynolds stresses, turbulent kinetic energy, and turbulent kinetic energy budgets) allow for a deeper understanding of the effects of coherent turbulent flow structures in rotating flows.
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Characterizing the onset of transitional and turbulent flow regimes in pipe flows using instantaneous time-frequency-based analysis
Accurately identifying the onset of transitional and turbulent flow within any pipe flow environment is of great interest. Most often, the critical Reynolds number (Re) is used to pinpoint the onset of turbulence. However, the critical Re is known to be highly variable, depending on the specifics of the flow system. Thus, for flows (e.g., blood flows), where only one realization (i.e., one mean Re) exists, the presence of transitional and turbulent flow behaviors cannot be accurately determined. In this work, we aim to address this by evaluating the extent to which instantaneous time-frequency (TF)-based analysis of the fluctuating velocity field can be used to evaluate the onset of transitional and turbulent flow regimes. Because current TF analysis methods are not suitable for this, we propose a novel “wavelet-Hilbert time-frequency” (WHTF) method, which we validate herein. Using the WHTF method, we analyzed the instantaneous dominant frequency of three planar particle image velocimetry-captured pipe flows, which included one steady and two pulsatile with Womersley numbers of 4 and 12. For each case, data were captured at Re's spanning 800–4500. The instantaneous dominant frequency analysis of these flows revealed that the magnitude, size, and coherence of two-dimensional spatial frequency structures were uniquely different across flow regimes. Specifically, the transitional regime maintained the most coherent, but lowest magnitude frequency structures, while the laminar regime had the highest magnitude, lowest coherence, and smallest frequency structures. Overall, this study demonstrates the efficacy of TF-based metrics for characterizing the progression of transition and turbulent flow development.
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- Award ID(s):
- 2335760
- PAR ID:
- 10566246
- Publisher / Repository:
- AIP Publishing
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Physics of Fluids
- Volume:
- 36
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 1070-6631
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0226070
