It has been shown in many studies that turbulent flows are highly dependent on their initial conditions. This thesis explores turbulent flow using direct numerical simulation (DNS) in a variety of situations, and culminates in the development of physically realizable initial conditions. The reaction of isotropic homogeneous turbulent flow to the instantaneous insertion of a wall is investigated using two-point correlations. A model with which to predict the behavior of the two-point correlations is also proposed. The proposed model utilizes a reflection technique that with a linear operation, it accurately predicts the behavior of the non-linear two point correlations. The model works exceedingly well for correlations involving wall-perpendicular velocities, but does not predict correlations involving only wall-parallel velocities as well. A vorticity approach is covered, in an effort to highlight which parts of the correlation decomposition are important to the prediction of the correlations after wall imposition. The vorticity study also helps highlight why the proposed linear model predicts the flow. The impact of the initial conditions on axisymmetric contraction flow of turbulent flow is examined, and as a consequence new initial conditions are developed based off of a physically realizable flow condition. The development of the new-initial conditions and the resulting fields are covered, as well as a study on the value of the turbulent decay exponent associated with decay of isotropic turbulent velocity fields.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UMASS/oai:scholarworks.umass.edu:theses-1321 |
| Date | 01 January 2009 |
| Creators | Nilsson, Michael A |
| Publisher | ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst |
| Source Sets | University of Massachusetts, Amherst |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Masters Theses 1911 - February 2014 |
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