Academic literature on the topic 'Transitional channel flow'

The transitional regime of plane channel flow is investigated above the transitional point below which turbulence is not sustained, using direct numerical simulation in large domains. Statistics of laminar-turbulent spatio-temporal intermittency are reported. The geometry of the pattern is first characterized, including statistics for the angles of the laminar-turbulent stripes observed in this regime, with a comparison to experiments. High-order statistics of the local and instantaneous bulk velocity, wall shear stress and turbulent kinetic energy are then provided. The distributions of the two former quantities have non-trivial shapes, characterized by a large kurtosis and/or skewness. Interestingly, we observe a strong linear correlation between their kurtosis and their skewness squared, which is usually reported at much higher Reynolds number in the fully turbulent regime.

AbstractDirect numerical simulations (DNS) are performed of a transient channel flow following a rapid increase of flow rate from an initially turbulent flow. It is shown that a low-Reynolds-number turbulent flow can undergo a process of transition that resembles the laminar–turbulent transition. In response to the rapid increase of flow rate, the flow does not progressively evolve from the initial turbulent structure to a new one, but undergoes a process involving three distinct phases (pre-transition, transition and fully turbulent) that are equivalent to the three regions of the boundary layer bypass transition, namely, the buffeted laminar flow, the intermittent flow and the fully turbulent flow regions. This transient channel flow represents an alternative bypass transition scenario to the free-stream-turbulence (FST) induced transition, whereby the initial flow serving as the disturbance is a low-Reynolds-number turbulent wall shear flow with pre-existing streaky structures. The flow nevertheless undergoes a ‘receptivity’ process during which the initial structures are modulated by a time-developing boundary layer, forming streaks of apparently specific favourable spacing (of about double the new boundary layer thickness) which are elongated streamwise during the pre-transitional period. The structures are stable and the flow is laminar-like initially; but later in the transitional phase, localized turbulent spots are generated which grow spatially, merge with each other and eventually occupy the entire wall surfaces when the flow becomes fully turbulent. It appears that the presence of the initial turbulent structures does not promote early transition when compared with boundary layer transition of similar FST intensity. New turbulent structures first appear at high wavenumbers extending into a lower-wavenumber spectrum later as turbulent spots grow and join together. In line with the transient energy growth theory, the maximum turbulent kinetic energy in the pre-transitional phase grows linearly but only in terms of ${u}^{\ensuremath{\prime} } $, whilst ${v}^{\ensuremath{\prime} } $ and ${w}^{\ensuremath{\prime} } $ remain essentially unchanged. The energy production and dissipation rates are very low at this stage despite the high level of ${u}^{\ensuremath{\prime} } $. The pressure–strain term remains unchanged at that time, but increases rapidly later during transition along with the generation of turbulent spots, hence providing an unambiguous measure for the onset of transition.

Velocimetry, heat transfer, and pressure drop experiments are reported for laminar/transitional air flow in a channel containing rectangular transverse ribs located along one channel wall. The geometry is intended to represent an array of low profile electronic packages. At fixed pumping power per unit channel volume, the heat transfer rate per unit volume is independent of rib-to-rib spacing and increases with decreasing wall-to-wall spacing. The fully developed, rib-average heat transfer coefficient is found to be linearly related to the maximum streamwise rms turbulence measured above the rib-tops. Linear correlations, in terms of a descriptor of the rms streamwise turbulence, are shown to unify heat transfer/pressure drop data for channels containing either two-or three-dimensional protrusions.