Direct simulations of low-Reynolds-number turbulent flow in a rotating channel

Abstract

Direct numerical simulations of fully developed pressure-driven turbulent flow in a rotating channel have been performed. The unsteady Navier–Stokes equations were written for flow in a constantly rotating frame of reference and solved numerically by means of a finite-difference technique on a 128 × 128 × 128 computational mesh. The Reynolds number, based on the bulk mean velocity Um and the channel half-width h, was about 2900, while the rotation number Ro = 2|Ω|h/Um varied from 0 to 0.5. Without system rotation, results of the simulation were in good agreement with the accurate reference simulation of Kim, Moin & Moser (1987) and available experimental data. The simulated flow fields subject to rotation revealed fascinating effects exerted by the Coriolis force on channel flow turbulence. With weak rotation (Ro = 0.01) the turbulence statistics across the channel varied only slightly compared with the nonrotating case, and opposite effects were observed near the pressure and suction sides of the channel. With increasing rotation the augmentation and damping of the turbulence along the pressure and suction sides, respectively, became more significant, resulting in highly asymmetric profiles of mean velocity and turbulent Reynolds stresses. In accordance with the experimental observations of Johnston, Halleen & Lezius (1972), the mean velocity profile exhibited an appreciable region with slope 2Ω. At Ro = 0.50 the Reynolds stresses vanished in the vicinity of the stabilized side, and the nearly complete suppression of the turbulent agitation was confirmed by marker particle trackings and two-point velocity correlations. Rotational-induced Taylor-Görtler-like counter-rotating streamwise vortices have been identified, and the simulations suggest that the vortices are shifted slightly towards the pressure side with increasing rotation rates, and the number of vortex pairs therefore tend to increase with Ro.