Abstract
In most turbulent flows there exist ‘coherent structures’ (CS) where the velocity and vorticity have a characteristic structures and where the large scale distributions of velocity and vorticity remain coherent — even as the structures move through and interact with the surrounding fluid. There appear to be two distinct approaches to describing coherent structures which reflect the different flows fields in which they occur, viz:
-
(a)
Dynamical coherent structures are isolated regions where the vorticity is large and has a characteristic form and which have their own dynamical life and could exist in isolation (Hussain 1986). One approach to analyzing the dynamics of CS is to consider how typical forms of these vortex structures interact with each other and with the ambient shear flow. In the absence of a general theory for covering most kinds of vortex interaction it will be necessary to conduct many such computations to obtain general concepts from them (some aspect of these dynamical interaction were reviewed by Hunt 1987a,b).
-
(b)
‘Kinematic’ coherent structures are regions of characteristic turbulent motion with similar features and similar spatial distributions in all realisations of a particular turbulent flow. Different definitions have been given for these structures based on different properties such as orthogonality, peak velocity, Reynolds stress, strain rate versus vorticity, pressure, etc. (Lumley 1967, Adrian and Moin 1988, Blackwelder and Kaplan 1976, Wray and Hunt 1990). Such a classification has practical aspects, such as the identification of straining and recirculating regions which are significant for mixing, surface deformation, reaction, etc., as well as dynamical aspects, such as the characterisation of production and dissipation regions for energy and enstrophy.
Keywords
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution.
Buying options
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Learn about institutional subscriptionsPreview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
References
Adrian, R.J. & Moin, P. 1988 Stochastic estimation of organized turbulent structure: homogeneous shear flow.J. Fluid Mech.190, 531–559.
Batchelor, G.K. 1953 The theory of homogeneous turbulence. Cambridge University Press.
Blackwelder R.F. & Kaplan R.E. 1976 On the wall of the turbulent boundary layer.J. Fluid Mech.76, 89–112.
Champagne, F.H., Harris, V.G. & Corrsin, S. 1970 Experiment on nearly homogeneous turbulent shear flow.J. Fluid Mech.41, 81–139.
Fung, J.C.H. 1990 Ph.D dissertation University of Cambridge.
Fung, J.C.H., Hunt, J.C.R., Malik, N.A. and Perkins, R.J. 1990 Kinematic simulation of homogeneous turbulent flows generated by unsteady random Fourier modes. Submitted toJ. Fluid Mech.
Hunt, J.C.R. 1987a Vorticity and vortex dynamics in complex turbulent flow. Proc. CANCAM.Trans. Can. Soc. Mech. Engng.11, 21–35.
Hunt, J.C.R. 1987b Coherent structures — comments on mechanisms. NASA Report CTR-S87.
Hunt, J.C.R., Moin, P. & Wray, A.A. 1988 Eddies, stream and convergence zones in turbulent flows.NASA Report CTR-S88.
Hunt, J.C.R. & Carruthers, D.J. 1990 Rapid distortion theory and the ‘problem’ of turbulence. To appear inJ. Fluid Mech.
Gaster, M, Kit, E. & Wygnanski, I. 1985 Large-scale structures in a forced turbulent mixing layer.J. Fluid Mech.150, 23–39.
Ho, C.M. & Huerre, P. 1984 Perturbed free shear layers.Ann. Rev.Fluid Mech.16, 365–424.
Hussain, A.K.M.F. 1986 Coherent structures and turbulence.J. Fluid Mech.173, 303–356.
Lee, M.J., Kim, J. & Moin, P. 1987 Turbulent structure at high shear rate. InSixth Symposium on Turbulence Shear Flows, Toulouse, France (ed. F. Durst et al.), pp. 22.6.1–22. 6. 6.
Lessen, M. 1979 On the power laws for turbulent jets, wakes and shearing layers and their relationship to the principle of marginal instability.J. Fluid Mech.88, 535–540.
Liu, J.T.C. 1989 Contributions to the understanding of large-scale coherent structures in developing free turbulent shear flows. Adv.Appl. Mech.26, 535–540.
Kline, S.J., Reynolds, W.C., Schraub, F.A. & Runstadler, P.W. 1967 The structure of turbulent boundary layers.J. Fluid Mech.30 741773.
Lumley, J. 1965 The structure of inhomogeneous turbulent jets. In Atmospheric Turbulence and Radio Waves Propagation: Proc. of intern. Collq., Moscow, (eds. A.N. Yaglom & V.I. Tatarsky ), pp. 166–178. Publishing House ((NAUKA)): Moscow.
Moffatt, H.K. 1965 The interaction of turbulence with strong wind shear. In Atmospheric Turbulence and Radio Waves Propagation: Proc. of intern. Collq., Moscow, (eds. A.N. Yaglom & V.I. Tatarsky ), pp. 139–156. Publishing House ((NAUKA)): Moscow.
Monin, A.S. Yaglom, A.M. 1971 Statistical Fluid Mechanics. Vol. I, MIT Press.
Rogallo, R.S. 1981 Numerical experiments in homogeneous turbulence.NASA Tech. Memo. 81315.
Rogers, N.M. & Moin, P. 1987 The structure of the vorticity field in homogeneous turbulent flows.J. Fluid Mech.176, 33–66.
Townsend, A.A. 1970 Entrainment and the structure of turbulent flow.J. Fluid Mech.41, 13–46.
Wray, A.A. & Hunt, J.C.R. 1990 Algorithms for classification of turbulent structures. In Proc. IUTAM Symp. on Topological Fluid Mechanics. Cambridge University Press.
Wyngaard, J.C. & Cote, O.R. 1972 Modelling buoyancy driven mixed layer.J. Atmos. Sci.33, 1974–1988.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 1991 Springer Science+Business Media Dordrecht
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Carruthers, D.J., Fung, J.C.H., Hunt, J.C.R., Perkins, R.J. (1991). The emergence of characteristic (coherent?) motion in homogeneous turbulent shear flows. In: Metais, O., Lesieur, M. (eds) Turbulence and Coherent Structures. Fluid Mechanics and Its Applications, vol 2. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7904-9_3
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-015-7904-9_3
Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht
Print ISBN: 978-90-481-4063-3
Online ISBN: 978-94-015-7904-9
eBook Packages: Springer Book Archive