Optimal+transient+growth+in+turbulent+pipe+flow.pdfVIP

Appl. Math. Mech. -Engl. Ed., 36(8), 1057–1072 (2015) Applied Mathematics DOI 10.1007/s10483-015-1963-7 and Mechanics c Shanghai University and Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2015 (English Edition) Optimal transient growth in turbulent pipe flow∗ † Yang SONG, Chunxiao XU, Weixi HUANG , Guixiang CUI Key Laboratory of Applied Mechanics, Department of Engineering Mechanics, Tsinghua University, Beijing 100084, China Abstract The optimal transient growth process of perturbations driven by the pressure gradient is studied in a turbulent pipe flow. A new computational method is proposed, based on the projection operators which project the governing equations onto the sub- space spanned by the radial vorticity and radial velocity. The method is validated by comparing with the previous studies. Two peaks of the maximum transient growth am- plification curve are found at different Reynolds numbers ranging from 20 000 to 250 000. The optimal flow structures are obtained and compared with the experiments and DNS results. The location of the outer peak is at the azimuthal wave number n = 1, while the location of the inner peak is varying with the Reynolds number. It is observed that the velocity streaks in the buffer layer with a spacing of 100δv are the most amplified flow structures. Finally, we consider the optimal transient growth time and its dependence on the azimuthal wave length. It shows a self-similar behavior for perturbations of different