Dynamics of propagating turbulent pipe flow structures. Part II Relaminarization.pdf

a r X i v : p h y s i c s / 0 6 0 8 2 5 9 v 2 [ p h y s i c s .f l u - d y n ] 2 3 J a n 2 0 0 7 Dynamics of propagating turbulent pipe flow structures. Part II: Relaminarization A. Duggleby, K.S. Ball, and M.R. Paul Department of Mechanical Engineering, Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University Blacksburg, Virginia 24061? (Dated: February 2, 2008) The dynamical behavior of propagating structures, determined from a Karhunen-Loe?ve decomposi- tion, in turbulent pipe flow undergoing reverse transition to laminar flow is investigated. The tur- bulent flow data is generated by a direct numerical simulation started at a fully turbulent Reynolds number of Reτ = 150, which is slowly decreased until Reτ = 95. At this low Reynolds number the high frequency modes decay first, leaving only the decaying streamwise vortices. The flow under- goes a chugging phenomena, where it begins to relaminarize and the mean velocity increases. The remaining propagating modes then destabilize the streamwise vortices, rebuild the energy spectra, and eventually the flow regains its turbulent state. Our results capture three chugging cycles be- fore the flow completely relaminarizes. The high frequency modes present in the outer layer decay first, establishing the importance of the outer region in the self-sustaining mechanism of wall bound turbulence. I. INTRODUCTION In part I the effect of drag reduction on propagat- ing turbulent flow structures by spanwise wall oscillation was studied.1 A second instance where drag reduction is seen is in a relaminarizing flow. As the turbulence dies, so does the Reynolds stress generation, and thus, for a constant pressure gradient driven flow, the flow rate in- creases. As we will show, the flow does not immedi- ately relaminarize, but instead goes through a series of chugging motions. In these chugging motions, the flow loses its turbulent inertial range, losing the high frequen- cies first. Before the flow has completely relaminarized,