Turbulence
Pronunciation
\ˈtər-byə-lən(t)s\
Function
- noun
- Date: 1595
Definition
the quality or state of being turbulent: as
- a : great commotion or agitation <emotional turbulence>
- b : irregular atmospheric motion especially when characterized by up-and-down currents
- c : departure in a fluid from a smooth flow.
Description
In fluid dynamics, turbulence or turbulent flow is a fluid regime characterized by chaotic, stochastic property changes. This includes low momentum diffusion, high momentum convection, and rapid variation of pressure and velocity in space and time. Flow that is not turbulent is called laminar flow.
While there is no theorem relating Reynolds number to turbulence, flows with high Reynolds numbers usually become turbulent, while those with low Reynolds numbers usually remain laminar. For pipe flow, a Reynolds number above about 4000 will most likely correspond to turbulent flow, while a Reynold's number below 2100 indicates laminar flow. The region in between (2100 < Re < 4000) is called the transition region. In turbulent flow, unsteady vortices appear on many scales and interact with each other. Drag due to boundary layer skin friction increases. The structure and location of boundary layer separation often changes, sometimes resulting in a reduction of overall drag. Although laminar-turbulent transition is not governed by Reynolds number, the same transition occurs if the size of the object is gradually increased, or the viscosity of the fluid is decreased, or if the density of the fluid is increased.
Turbulence causes the formation of eddies of many different length scales. Most of the kinetic energy of the turbulent motion is contained in the large scale structures. The energy "cascades" from these large scale structures to smaller scale structures by an inertial and essentially inviscid mechanism. This process continues, creating smaller and smaller structures which produces a hierarchy of eddies. Eventually this process creates structures that are small enough that molecular diffusion becomes important and viscous dissipation of energy finally takes place. The scale at which this happens is the Kolmogorov length scale.
Turbulent diffusion is usually described by a turbulent diffusion coefficient. This turbulent diffusion coefficient is defined in a phenomenological sense, by analogy with the molecular diffusivities, but it does not have a true physical meaning, being dependent on the flow conditions, and not a property of the fluid, itself. In addition, the turbulent diffusivity concept assumes a constitutive relation between a turbulent flux and the gradient of a mean variable similar to the relation between flux and gradient that exists for molecular transport. In the best case, this assumption is only an approximation. Nevertheless, the turbulent diffusivity is the simplest approach for quantitative analysis of turbulent flows, and many models have been postulated to calculate it. For instance, in large bodies of water like oceans this coefficient can be found using Richardson's four-third power law and is governed by the random walk principle. In rivers and large ocean currents, the diffusion coefficient is given by variations of Elder's formula.
When designing piping systems, turbulent flow requires a higher input of energy from a pump (or fan) than laminar flow. However, for applications such as heat exchangers and reaction vessels, turbulent flow is essential for good heat transfer and mixing.
While it is possible to find some particular solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations governing fluid motion, all such solutions are unstable at large Reynolds numbers. Sensitive dependence on the initial and boundary conditions makes fluid flow irregular both in time and in space so that a statistical description is needed. Russian mathematician Andrey Kolmogorov proposed the first statistical theory of turbulence, based on the aforementioned notion of the energy cascade (an idea originally introduced by Richardson) and the concept of self-similarity. As a result, the Kolmogorov microscales were named after him. It is now known that the self-similarity is broken so the statistical description is presently modified [1]. Still, the complete description of turbulence remains one of the unsolved problems in physics. According to an apocryphal story Werner Heisenberg was asked what he would ask God, given the opportunity. His reply was: "When I meet God, I am going to ask him two questions: Why relativity? And why turbulence? I really believe he will have an answer for the first."[2] A similar witticism has been attributed to Horace Lamb (who had published a noted text book on Hydrodynamics)—his choice being quantum electrodynamics (instead of relativity) and turbulence. Lamb was quoted as saying in a speech to the British Association for the Advancement of Science, "I am an old man now, and when I die and go to heaven there are two matters on which I hope for enlightenment. One is quantum electrodynamics, and the other is the turbulent motion of fluids. And about the former I am rather optimistic."[3]
References and notes
- https://www.weizmann.ac.il/home/fnfal/KRSPhysTodayApr2006.pdf
- https://www.eng.auburn.edu/users/thurobs/Turb.html Turbulence
- https://www.fortunecity.com/emachines/e11/86/fluid.html Turbulent Times for Fluids. It's important to notice that turbulence is completely a different case from instability.
- U. Frisch. Turbulence: The Legacy of A. N. Kolmogorov. Cambridge University Press, 1995.[1]
- J. Mathieu and J. Scott An Introduction to Turbulent Flow. Cambridge University Press, 2000.
[edit]Further reading
General
- Falkovich, Gregory and Sreenivasan, Katepalli R. Lessons from hydrodynamic turbulence, Physics Today, vol. 59, no. 4, pages 43-49 (April 2006).[2]
- U. Frisch. Turbulence: The Legacy of A. N. Kolmogorov. Cambridge University Press, 1995.[3]
- T. Bohr, M.H. Jensen, G. Paladin and A.Vulpiani. Dynamical Systems Approach to Turbulence, Cambridge University Press, 1998.[4]
- P.E. Dimotakis [5] High-speed digital-image data acquisition, processing, and Visualization system for turbulent mixing and combustion 2007
Original scientific research papers
- Kolmogorov, Andrey Nikolaevich (1941). "The local structure of turbulence in incompressible viscous fluid for very large Reynolds numbers". Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences 30: 299–303. (Russian), translated into English by Kolmogorov, Andrey Nikolaevich (July 8 1991). "The local structure of turbulence in incompressible viscous fluid for very large Reynolds numbers". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences 434 (1980): 9–13.
- Kolmogorov, Andrey Nikolaevich (1941). "Dissipation of energy in locally isotropic turbulence". Proceedings of the USSR Academy of Sciences 32: 16–18. (Russian), translated into English by Kolmogorov, Andrey Nikolaevich (July 8 1991). "The local structure of turbulence in incompressible viscous fluid for very large Reynolds numbers". Proceedings of the Royal Society of London, Series A: Mathematical and Physical Sciences 434 (1980): 15–17.
