On the universality of local dissipation scales in turbulent channel flow

S. C.C. Bailey, B. M. Witte

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

9 Scopus citations

Abstract

Well-resolved measurements of the small-scale dissipation statistics within turbulent channel flow are reported for a range of Reynolds numbers from to 4000. In this flow, the local large-scale Reynolds number based on the longitudinal integral length scale is found to poorly describe the Reynolds number dependence of the small-scale statistics. When a length scale based on Townsend's attached-eddy hypothesis is used to define the local large-scale Reynolds number, the Reynolds number scaling behaviour was found to be more consistent with that observed in homogeneous, isotropic turbulence. The Reynolds number scaling of the dissipation moments up to the sixth moment was examined and the results were found to be in good agreement with predicted scaling behaviour (Schumacher et al., Proc. Natl Acad. Sci. USA, vol. 111, 2014, pp. 10961-10965). The probability density functions of the local dissipation scales (Yakhot, Physica D, vol. 215 (2), 2006, pp. 166-174) were also determined and, when the revised local large-scale Reynolds number is used for normalization, provide support for the existence of a universal distribution which scales differently for inner and outer regions.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)234-252
Number of pages19
JournalJournal of Fluid Mechanics
Volume786
DOIs
StatePublished - Dec 1 2015

Bibliographical note

Publisher Copyright:
© 2015 Cambridge University Press.

Keywords

  • turbulence theory
  • turbulent boundary layers
  • turbulent flows

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Condensed Matter Physics
  • Mechanics of Materials
  • Mechanical Engineering
  • Applied Mathematics

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