Multiscale turbulence is a class of turbulent flows in which the chaotic motion of the fluid is forced at different length and/or time scales.[1][2] This is usually achieved by immersing in a moving fluid a body with a multiscale, often fractal-like, arrangement of length scales. This arrangement of scales can be either passive[3][4] or active[5]
As turbulent flows contain eddies with a wide range of scales, exciting the turbulence at particular scales (or range of scales) allows one to fine-tune the properties of that flow. Multiscale turbulent flows have been successfully applied in different fields.,[6] such as:
Reducing acoustic noise from wings by modifying the geometry of spoilers;[7]
Enhancing heat transfer from impinging jets passing through grids;[8]
Multiscale turbulence has also played an important role into probing the internal structure of turbulence.[15] This sort of turbulence allowed researchers to unveil a novel dissipationlaw in which the parameter in
is not constant, as required by the Richardson-Kolmogorovenergy cascade. This new law[15] can be expressed as , with , where and are Reynolds numbers based, respectively, on initial/global conditions (such as free-stream velocity and the object's length scale) and local conditions (such as the rms velocity and integral length scale). This new dissipation law characterises non-equilibrium turbulence apparently universally in various flows (not just multiscale turbulence) and results from non-equilibrium unsteady energy cascade. This imbalance implies that new mean flow scalings exist for free shear turbulent flows, as already observed in axisymmetric wakes[15][16]
References
↑Laizet, S.; Vassilicos, J. C. (January 2009). "Multiscale Generation of Turbulence". Journal of Multiscale Modelling01 (1): 177–196. doi:10.1142/S1756973709000098.
↑Nagata, K.; Sakai, Y.; Inaba, T.; Suzuki, H.; Terashima, O.; Suzuki, H. (2013). "Turbulence structure and turbulence kinetic energy transport in multiscale/fractal-generated turbulence". Physics of Fluids25 (6): 065102–065102–26. doi:10.1063/1.4811402. Bibcode: 2013PhFl...25f5102N.
↑Thormann, A.; Meneveau, C. (February 2014). "Decay of homogeneous, nearly isotropic turbulence behind active fractal grids". Physics of Fluids26 (2): 025112. doi:10.1063/1.4865232. Bibcode: 2014PhFl...26b5112T.
↑Laizet, Sylvain; Sakai, Yasuhiko; Christos Vassilicos, J. (1 December 2013). "Special issue of selected papers from the second UK–Japan bilateral Workshop and First ERCOFTAC Workshop on Turbulent Flows Generated/Designed in Multiscale/Fractal Ways, London, March 2012". Fluid Dynamics Research45 (6). doi:10.1088/0169-5983/45/6/061001. Bibcode: 2013FlDyR..45f1001L.
↑Nedić, J.; Ganapathisubramani, B.; Vassilicos, J. C. (1 December 2013). "Drag and near wake characteristics of flat plates normal to the flow with fractal edge geometries". Fluid Dynamics Research45 (6). doi:10.1088/0169-5983/45/6/061406. Bibcode: 2013FlDyR..45f1406N.
↑Laizet, S.; Vassilicos, J. C. (23 December 2014). "Stirring and scalar transfer by grid-generated turbulence in the presence of a mean scalar gradient". Journal of Fluid Mechanics764: 52–75. doi:10.1017/jfm.2014.695. Bibcode: 2015JFM...764...52L.
↑Goh, K. H. H.; Geipel, P.; Lindstedt, R. P. (September 2014). "Lean premixed opposed jet flames in fractal grid generated multiscale turbulence". Combustion and Flame161 (9): 2419–2434. doi:10.1016/j.combustflame.2014.03.010. Bibcode: 2014CoFl..161.2419G.