DOI: 10.1615/TSFP7
VELOCITY STATISTICS AND STRUCTURE IN PIPE TURBULENCE DERIVED FROM A SIMPLE CRITICAL-LAYER MODEL
ABSTRAKT
We describe the development of a simple forcing-response analysis of the Navier-Stokes equations that predicts important structural and scaling features of wall turbulence. In particular, we propose an economical explanation for the meandering appearance of very large scale motions observed in turbulent pipe flow, and likewise demonstrate that hairpin vortices are predicted, using a simple linear superposition of modes derived from the model. The computationally cheap approach explains and predicts vortical structures and velocity statistics of turbulent flows that have previously been identified only in experiments or by direct numerical simulation. This new capability has clear implications for modeling, simulation and control of a ubiquitous class of wall flows.