Thesis Dynamics and Structure of Stably
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THESIS DYNAMICS AND STRUCTURE OF STABLY STRATIFIED TURBULENCE Submitted by Simon Schaad Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering In partial fulfillment of the requirements For the Degree of Master of Science Colorado State University Fort Collins, Colorado Fall 2012 Master’s Committee: Advisor: Subhas Karan Venayagamoorthy Pierre Y. Julien Lakshmi Prasad Dasi ABSTRACT DYNAMICS AND STRUCTURE OF STABLY STRATIFIED TURBULENCE The dynamics and turbulent structures of stably stratified turbulence are explored via direct numerical simulations (DNS). The structural features of stratified turbu- lence and its relationship to the flow dynamics has been the subject of many recent investigations. In strongly stratified turbulent flows, the formation of large-scale quasi-horizontal vortices in layers with strong vertical variability has been observed in laboratory experiments. Enstrophy isosurfaces of strongly stable flows indicate the emergence of randomly distributed ‘pancake’-like structures with near horizontal orientation at later times. The strongly stratified simulations are diffusive and dom- inated by linear internal waves. The results suggest a decoupling between horizontal and vertical dynamics as the vertical dynamics can be described using rapid-distortion theory (RDT) while horizontal dynamics continue to be dominated by non-linear ef- fects not captured by RDT. The integral flux Richardson number for decaying turbulence is the ratio of back- ground potential energy gain to turbulent kinetic energy loss. The traditional flux- based formulation converges upon this ratio only when integrations are performed over an entire event, while the irreversible formulation converges rapidly without er- ror from reversible effects. Mixing efficiency is a property of the flow for energetic flow but becomes a property of the fluid for diffusive flows and subject to Prandtl number effects. RDT models predict the flux Richardson number scales as the inverse Prandtl number at the diffusive limit when the Prandtl number is greater than unity. Mixing efficiency comparisons between DNS and physical grid-tow experiments reveal a large discrepancy for strong stratification, which is attributed in part to the low Reynolds numbers attained in both DNS and grid-tow experiments. Overturns are unstable conditions where heavier fluid resides above lighter fluid. The collapse of these local instabilities produce additional patches of turbulence and ii mixing making overturns an important mechanism in stratified turbulence. The over- turning structures in strongly stratified flow resemble the quasi-horizontal vorticity structures and were found to be correlated with increased horizontal vorticity. The Thorpe scale, a measure of overturning structure height, and the Ozmidov scale equate only at the critical condition where inertial and buoyancy effects are equal (i.e. the turbulent Froude number is unity). The error of inferred dissipation rates from equat- ing the Thorpe and Ozmidov scales was found to be up to two orders of magnitude. iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This thesis would not have been possible without the guidance and teachings from my advisor Dr. Karan Venayagamoorthy. Studying fluid mechanics at CSU has been a fantastic journey and I would like to acknowledge Dr. Venayagamoorthy and his fluid mechanics research group for their support and help with the ideas presented in this work. Thanks to Ben Mater for his help, useful feedback, and collaboration on the overturning length scale ideas in Sec. (4.3). And thanks to Farid Karimpour for helping me solve those tricky calculus problems. I would like to acknowledge Dr. Pierre Julien and Dr. Prasad Dasi for generously volunteering their time to be on my committee and read my thesis. Thanks to Lobo, Argos, and Hayek for their loyal company, Caesar for warming my lap, Gaius for spilling drinks on my laptop, and Sawyer for his loud, 3-legged thumping. Of course this thesis could not have been possible without the loving support from my family (albeit far removed from Colorado). Most importantly, thanks to Emily Chryst for her love, patience, and sharing her life with me. iv DEDICATION Dedicated to my muse, my friend, and my love; Emily v TABLE OF CONTENTS 1 Introduction 1 1.1 Background.................................... 1 1.2 Objectives..................................... 2 1.3 Thesislayout ................................... 2 1.4 Research presentations and publications . ........ 3 2 Literature Review 4 2.1 Introduction.................................... 4 2.2 Equationsofmotion ............................... 5 2.2.1 Governingequations ........................... 5 2.2.1.1 Navier-Stokes equations . 5 2.2.1.2 Continuity equation . 7 2.2.1.3 Density transport equation . 7 2.2.1.4 Non-dimensional form of governing equations . ... 8 2.2.2 Energetics................................. 9 2.2.2.1 Turbulent kinetic energy . 9 2.2.2.2 Turbulent potential energy . 10 2.2.2.3 Totalenergy .......................... 12 2.3 Turbulentmixing................................. 13 2.3.1 Mixing efficiency and flux Richardson number . 14 2.3.2 Physicalexperiments. 16 2.4 Lengthandtimescales............................. 18 2.4.1 Kolmogorovscales ............................ 19 2.4.2 Batchelorscale .............................. 20 2.4.3 Taylormicroscale............................. 20 2.4.4 Buoyancyfrequency ........................... 20 2.4.5 Turbulent length and time scale . 22 2.4.6 Ozmidovscale .............................. 23 2.4.7 Buoyancyscale .............................. 23 2.4.8 Thorpescale ............................... 23 2.4.9 Ellisonscale................................ 24 2.5 Non-dimensionalparameters. 24 2.5.1 Initial Richardson number and Froude number . 25 vi 2.5.2 Reynolds number and Peclet number . 25 2.5.3 BuoyancyReynoldsnumber. 26 2.6 Direct Numerical Simulations . 27 2.6.1 Descriptionofcode............................ 28 2.6.2 Initialconditions . .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 30 2.6.3 Rapid-DistortionTheory. 30 3 Dynamics and Structure 31 3.1 Introduction.................................... 31 3.2 Validation..................................... 31 3.2.1 Resolutionissues ............................. 32 3.2.2 Comparisonwithpreviouswork. 35 3.3 Dynamicsandenergetics. 37 3.3.1 Energetics................................. 37 3.3.2 Dissipation ................................ 38 3.3.3 Taylor and turbulent Reynolds numbers . 40 3.3.4 Formulations of flux Richardson number . 41 3.4 Flowregimes ................................... 42 3.4.1 Scaling regimes of mixing efficiency . 43 3.4.2 BuoyancyReynoldsnumber. 45 3.4.3 Regimes of buoyancy Reynolds number . 47 3.5 Coherentturbulentstructures . ..... 49 3.6 Diffusivity..................................... 58 3.6.1 Prandtlnumbereffects. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 59 3.6.2 Comparison with physical experiments . 63 3.7 Rapid-DistortionTheory. 64 3.7.1 Decoupling of horizontal and vertical dynamics . ....... 65 3.7.2 Reynoldsnumbereffects. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. 66 3.7.3 Prandtl number effects, revisited using RDT simulations....... 70 3.8 Conclusion .................................... 71 4 Overturns 76 4.1 Introduction.................................... 76 4.2 Overturningstructures. 76 4.2.1 Overturns and stratification . 77 4.2.2 Overturnsandvorticity . 77 vii 4.2.3 Investigation of an overturn . 82 4.3 Overturninglengthscales . 83 4.3.1 TheThorpescale............................. 83 4.3.2 Thorpe-Ozmidovrelation . 86 4.3.3 Inferreddissipation. 89 4.3.4 Other important length scale relations . ..... 90 4.4 Conclusion .................................... 92 5 Conclusion 95 5.1 Summaryofstudies ............................... 95 5.2 ConclusionsfromChapter3 . 95 5.3 ConclusionsfromChapter4 . 97 5.4 Recommendationsforfuturework . 98 References 100 A Description of simulations and models 106 A.1 Summaryofruns................................. 106 A.2 DescriptionofDNScode. 111 A.3 DescriptionofRDTcode ............................ 112 B Thorpe scale post-processing 114 B.1 Ensemble-averageThorpescale . 114 B.2 3DThorpescale ................................. 115 B.3 Tabulatedresults................................ 118 Glossary 119 viii LIST OF TABLES A.1 MainDNSstudy ................................. 108 A.2 ReynoldsnumberDNSstudy . 109 A.3 ReynoldsnumberRDTstudy . 109 A.4 Inviscidandnon-diffusiveRDTstudy . 110 A.5 PrandtlnumberRDTstudy. 110 A.6 SubroutinesandfilesofDNScode . 111 B.1 Thorpescaleresults .............................. 118 ix LIST OF FIGURES 2.1 Buoyancy forces in stable and unstable stratification . ........... 11 2.2 Density profile mixing in physical experiment . ........ 17 3.1 Modelspectrum ................................. 33 3.2 Energy cascades with length scales . ..... 34 3.3 Gridindependence ................................ 36 3.4 Validation with Ri and Pr variation . 36 3.5 Evolution of ensemble-average energetics . ......... 38 3.6 Horizontal and vertical kinetic energy . ....... 39 3.7 Evolution of dissipation rates . ..... 39 3.8 EvolutionofReynoldsnumbers . 41 3.9 Integrated buoyancy flux and potential energy dissipation rate . 42 3.10 Comparison of mixing efficiency formulations . ........ 43 3.11 Rehmann&Koseffscalingregimes . 45 3.12 Evolution of buoyancy Reynolds number . ...... 46 3.13 Regimes of buoyancy Reynolds number . ..... 48 3.14 Isotropicenstrophystructures . ....... 52 3.15 Pancakeenstrophystructures . ..... 53 3.16 Evolution of enstrophy structures . ....... 54 3.17 Cross-sections of enstrophy fields . ....... 55 3.18 Evolution of horizontal vorticity structures . ..........