Abstract
This paper presents an attempt to realize experimental isotropicturbulence at low Reynolds number. For this aim an experimentalapparatus, a turbulence chamber “Box”, was designed and built togenerate a turbulent flow field in the center of the chamber. Theturbulent airflow field was generated by eight electrical fans placedsymmetrically at the eight internal corners of the externally cubicchamber. The turbulence intensity was controlled by the fans speed.Laser Doppler velocimeter (LDV) in single and two-point velocitymeasurements was used to fully characterize the turbulent field insidethe chamber. The main results indicate that the turbulence ishomogeneous and isotropic with a quasi-zero mean velocity within aspherical region of 20 mm radius from the center of the chamber. Themeasured turbulent integral length scale was found to be constant andindependent of the turbulence intensity (or fans speed). Furthermore, anoticeable spectral inertial subrange as prescribed by the Kolmogorovtheory has not been observed at the range of Reynolds number exploredhere, where Reλ < 100. But rather a scaling region characterized by anexponent that is lower than the Kolmogorov value, −5/3, has beenidentified. Moreover, the value of this exponent showed no definedtrend, while the width of the inertial scaling region expands as themicroscale Reynolds number increases.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Taylor, G.I., Statistical theory of turbulence. Proceedings of the Royal Society A 151 (1935) 421–478.
Bachelor, G.K. and Townsend, A.A., Decay of vorticity in isotropic turbulence. Proceedings of the Royal Society A 190 (1947) 534–550.
Batchelor, G.K. and Townsend, A.A., Decay of isotropic turbulence in the initial period. Proceedings of the Royal Society A 193 (1948) 539–558.
Corrsin, S., Turbulence: Experimental methods. Encyclopedia of Physics 8 (1963) 568–590.
Comte-Bellot, G. and Corrsin, S., The use of a contraction to improve the isotropy of grid generated turbulence. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 25 (1966) 657–682.
Comte-Bellot, G. and Corrsin, S., Simple Eulerian time correlation of full-and narrow-band velocity signals in grid generated, isotropic turbulence. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 48 (1971) 273–337.
Kistler, A.L. and Vrebalovich, T., Grid turbulence at large Reynolds numbers. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 6 (1966) 37–47.
Hinze, J.O., Turbulence, second edition. McGraw-Hill, New York (1975).
Tennekes, H. and Lumely, J.L., A First Course in Turbulence. MIT Press, Cambridge, MA (1973).
Comte-Bellot, G., Fluid Mechanics Notes, Ecole Central de Lyon, France (1983).
Roach, The generation of nearly isotropic turbulence by means of grids. International Journal of Heat Fluid Flow 8 (1986) 82–92.
Mohamed, M.S. and LaRue, J.C., The decay power law in grid-generated turbulence. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 219 (1990) 195–214.
Mydlarski, L. and Warhaft, Z., On the onset of high-Reynolds-number grid-generated wind tunnel turbulence. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 320 (1996) 331–368.
Mydlarski, L. and Warhaft, Z., Passive scalar statistics in high-Peclet-number grid turbulence. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 358 (1998) 135–175.
Makita, H. and Sassa, K., Active Turbulence Generation in a Laboratory Wind Tunnel. Advances in Turbulence, Springer-Verlag, Berlin (1991).
Makita, H., Realization of a large-scale turbulence field in a small wind tunnel. Fluid Dynamics Research 8 (1991) 53–64.
Wang, H. and George, K.W., The integral scale in homogeneous isotropic turbulence. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 459 (2002) 429–443.
Semenov, E.S., Measurements of turbulence characteristics in a closed volume with artificial turbulence. Combustion, Explosion, and Shock Waves 1 (1965) 57–62.
Ohta, Y., Shimoyama, K. and Ohigashi, S., Vaporization and combustion of single liquid fuel droplets in a turbulent environment. Bulletin of the JSME 18 (1975) 47–56.
Fansler, T.D. and Groff, E.G., Turbulence characteristics of a fan-stirred combustion vessel. Combustion and Flame 80 (1990) 350–354.
Kwon, S., Wu, M.S., Driscoll, J.F. and Faeth, G.M., Flame surface properties of premixed flames in isotropic turbulence: measurements and numerical simulation. Combustion and Flame 88 (1992) 221–238.
Andrews, G.E., Bradley, D. and Lwakabamba, S.B., Turbulence and turbulent flame propagation-A critical appraisal. Combustion and Flame 24 (1975) 285–304.
Abdel-Gayed, R.G. and Bradley, D., Dependence of turbulent burning velocity on turbulent Reynolds number and ratio of laminar burning velocity to RMS turbulent velocity. The Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 16 (1976) 1725–1735.
Atzler, F. and Lawes, M., Burning velocities in droplet suspensions. ILASS-Europe, Manchester, July 6–8, 1998.
Gillespie, L., Lawes, M., Sheppard, C.G.W. and Woolley, R., Aspects of laminar and turbulent burning velocity relevant to SI engines. SAE Technical Paper 2000–01–0192 (2000).
Birouk, M. and Gökalp, I., A new correlation for turbulent mass transfer from liquid droplets. International Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 45 (2002) 37–45.
Birouk, M., Chauveau, C. and Gökalp, I., Turbulence effects on the combustion of single hydrocarbon droplets. The Proceedings of the Combustion Institute 28 (2000) 1015–1021.
Birouk, M., Turbulence effects on the vaporization and burning of n-alkane hydrocarbon droplets. Ph.D. Thesis, University of Orléans, France (1996).
Menon, R., Jenson, L. and Buddhavarapu, J., Comparaison of signal extraction techniques in LDV signal processing. Laser Velocimetry Advances and Applications. SPIE 2052 (1993) 35–42.
Doudou, A., Ph.D. Thesis, University of Rouen, France (1990).
Jones, R.H., Aliasing with unequally spaced observations. Journal of Applied Metrology 11 (1972) 245–254.
Mayo, W.T., Spectrum measurements with laser velocimeters. In: Proceedings of Dynamic Flow Conference, Baltimore, MD (1978).
Mayo, W.T., Shay, M.T. and Ritter, S., The development of new digital data processing techniques for turbulence measurements with a laser velocimeter. Final Report AEDC-TR-74–53 (1974).
Gaster, M. and Roberts, J.B., Spectrum analysis of randomly sampled signals. J. Inst. Math. Applies 15 (1975) 195–216.
Gamard, S. and George, K.W., Reynolds number dependence of energy spectra in the overlap region of isotropic turbulence. Flow, Turbulence and Combustion 63 (1999) 443–477.
Saddoughi, S.G. and Veeravalli, S.V., Local isotropy in turbulent boundary layers at high Reynolds number. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 268 (1994) 333–372.
Saddoughi, S.G., Local isotropy in complex turbulent boundary layers at high Reynolds number. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 348 (1997) 201–245.
Sreenivasan, K.R. and Dhruva, B., Is there scaling in high-Reynolds-number turbulence. Progress of Theoretical Physics, Suppl. 130 (1998) 103–120.
Batchelor, G.K., The Theory of Homogeneous Turbulence. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (1956).
Betchov, R., An inequality concerning the production of vorticity in isotropic turbulence. Journal of Fluid Mechanics 1 (1957) 497–506.
Dumas, R., Contribution a l'étude des spectres de turbulence. Ph.D. Thesis, Université d'Aix-Marseille, France (1962).
Szablewski, W., One-dimensional spectra of the turbulence energy of homogeneous isotropic turbulence. Zeitschrift für angewandte Mathematik und Mechanik (ZAMM) 66(12) (1985) 585–594.
Ruetsh, G.R. and Maxy, M.R., The evolution of small-scale features in homogeneous isotropic turbulence. Physics of Fluids 4 (1992) 2747–2760.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Birouk, M., Sarh, B. & Gökalp, I. An Attempt to Realize Experimental Isotropic Turbulence at Low Reynolds Number. Flow, Turbulence and Combustion 70, 325–348 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1023/B:APPL.0000004974.74706.6d
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1023/B:APPL.0000004974.74706.6d