Abstract
A mixture fraction formulation to perform direct numerical simulations of a disperse and dilute two-phase system consisting of water liquid and vapor in air in local thermodynamic equilibrium using a two-fluid model is derived and discussed. The goal is to understand the assumptions intrinsic to this simplified but commonly employed approach for the study of two-layer buoyancy reversing systems like the cloud-top mixing layer. Emphasis is placed on molecular transport phenomena. In particular, a formulation is proposed that recovers the actual nondiffusive liquid-phase continuum as a limiting case of differential diffusion. High-order numerical schemes suitable for direct numerical simulations in the compressible and Boussinesq limits are described, and simulations are presented to validate the incompressible approach. As expected, the Boussinesq approximation provides an accurate and efficient description of the flow on the scales (of the order of meters) that are considered.
Article PDF
Similar content being viewed by others
Avoid common mistakes on your manuscript.
References
Albrecht B.A., Penc R.S., Schubert W.H.: An observational study of cloud-topped mixed layers. J. Atmos. Sci. 42, 800–822 (1985)
Aliseda A., Cartellier A., Hainaux F., Lasheras J.: Effect of preferential concentration on the settling velocity of heavy particles in homogeneous isotropic turbulence. J. Fluid Mech. 468, 77–105 (2002)
Andrejczuk M., Grabowski W.W., Malinowski S.P., Smolarkiewicz P.K.: Numerical simulation of cloud-clear air interfacial mixing. J. Atmos. Sci. 61, 1726–1739 (2004)
Andrejczuk M., Grabowski W.W., Malinowski S.P., Smolarkiewicz P.K.: Numerical simulation of cloud-clear air interfacial mixing: effects of cloud microphysics. J. Atmos. Sci. 63, 3204–3225 (2006)
Bannon P.R.: Theoretical formulation for models of moist convection. J. Atmos. Sci. 59, 1967–1982 (2002)
Bilicki Z., Giot M., Kwidzinski R.: Fundamentals of two-phase flow by the method of irreversible thermodynamics. J. Atmos. Sci. 28, 1983–2005 (2002)
Blyth A.: Entrainment in cumulus clouds. J. Appl. Meteorol. 32, 626–641 (1993)
Bretherton C.S.: A theory for nonprecipitating moist convection between two parallel plates. Part I: thermodynamics and linear solutions. J. Atmos. Sci. 44, 1809–1827 (1987)
Carpenter, M.H., Kennedy, C.A.: Fourth-order 2N-storage Runge-Kutta schemes. Tech. Rep. TM-109112, NASA Langley Research Center (1994)
Carpenter M.H., Gottlieb D., Abarbanel S.: The stability of numerical boundary treatments for compact high-order finite-difference schemes. J. Comput. Phys. 108, 272–295 (1993)
Caughey S.J., Crease B.A., Roach W.T.: A field study of nocturnal stratocumulus II Turbulence structure and entrainment. Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 108, 125–144 (1982)
Cook A.W., Dimotakis P.E.: Transition stages of Rayleigh-Taylor instability between miscible fluids. J. Fluid Mech. 443, 69–99 (2001)
Crowe C.T., Troutt T.R., Chung J.N.: Numerical models for two-phase turbulent flows. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 28, 11–43 (1996)
Deardorff J.W.: Cloud top entrainment instability. J. Atmos. Sci. 37, 131–147 (1980)
Dimotakis P.E.: Turbulent mixing. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 37, 329–356 (2005)
Drew D.A.: Mathematical modeling of two-phase flow. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 15, 261–291 (1983)
Druzhinin O., Elghobashi S.: Direct numerical simulation of bubble-laden turbulent flows using the two-fluid formulation. Phys. Fluids 10(3), 685–697 (1998)
Einstein A.: Investigations on the Theory of the Brownian Movement. Dover Publications Inc., Mineola (1956)
Elghobashi S.: On predicting turbulent laden flows. Appl. Sci. Res. 52, 309–329 (1994)
Erlebacher G., Hussaini M.Y., Kreiss H.O., Sarkar S.: The Analysis and Simulation of Compressible Turbulence. Theor. Comput. Fluid Dyn. 2, 73–95 (1990)
Fernando H.J.S.: Turbulent mixing in stratified fluids. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 23, 455–493 (1991)
Ferrante A., Elghobashi S.: On the accuracy of the two-fluid formulation in direct numerical simulation of bubble-laden turbulent boundary layers. Phys. Fluids 19(045105), 1–8 (2007)
Flatau P.J., Walko R.L., Cotton W.R.: Polynomial fits to saturation vapor pressure. J. Appl. Meteor. 31, 1507 (1992)
Grabowski W.W.: Cumulus entrainment, fine-scale mixing and buoyancy reversal. Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 119, 935–956 (1993)
Grabowski W.W.: Entrainment and mixing in buoyancy-revesing convection with applications to cloud-top entrainment instability. Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 121, 231–253 (1995)
Gresho P.M.: Incompressible fluid dynamics: some fundamental formulation issues. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 23, 413–453 (1991)
Kravchenko A.G., Moin P.: On the effect of numerical errors in large-eddy simulations of turbulent flows. J. Comput. Phys. 131, 310–322 (1997)
Kuo H., Schubert W.H.: Stability of cloud-topped boundary layers. Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 114, 887–916 (1988)
Kurowski M.J., Malinowski S.P., Grabowski W.: A numerical investigation of entrainment and transport within a stratocumulus-topped boundary layer. Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 135, 77–92 (2009)
Lehmann K., Siebert H., Wendish M., Shaw R.: Evidence for inertial droplet clustering in weakly turbulent clouds. Tellus B 59(1), 57–65 (2007)
Lele S.K.: Compact finite difference schemes with spectral-like resolution. J. Comput. Phys. 103, 16–42 (1992)
Lodato G., Domingo P., Vervisch L.: Three-dimensional boundary conditions for direct and large eddy simulation of compressible viscous flows. J. Comput. Phys. 227, 5105–5143 (2008)
Mashayek F.: Droplet–turbulence interactions in low-Mach-number homogeneous shear two-phase flows. J. Fluid Mech. 367, 163–203 (1998)
Maxey M., Riley J.: Equations of motion for a small rigid sphere in a nonuniform flow. Phys. Fluids 26(4), 883–889 (1983)
Mellado J.P., Sarkar S., Zhou Y.: Large-eddy simulation of Rayleigh-Taylor turbulence with compressible miscible fluids. Phys. Fluids 17, 076,101 (2005)
Mellado J.P., Stevens B., Schmidt H., Peters N.: Buoyancy reversal in cloud-top mixing layers. Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 135, 963–978 (2009)
Mellado J.P., Wang L., Peters N.: Gradient trajectory analysis of a scalar field with external intermittency. J. Fluid Mech. 626, 333–365 (2009)
Millán, G.: Aerothermochemistry. Tech. rep., INTA, Madrid . A report based on the course conducted by Prof. Theodore von Kármán at the university of Paris (1958)
Moin P., Mahesh K.: Direct numerical simulation: A tool in turbulence research. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 30, 539–578 (1998)
Ooyama K.V.: A thermodynamic foundation for modeling the moist atmosphere. J. Atmos. Sci. 47, 2580–2593 (1990)
Ooyama K.V.: A dynamic and thermodynamic foundation for modeling the moist atmosphere with parameterized microphysics. J. Atmos. Sci. 58, 2073–2102 (2001)
Pantano C., Sarkar S., Williams F.A.: Mixing of a conserved scalar in a turbulent reacting shear layer. J. Fluid Mech. 481, 291–328 (2003)
Peters N.: Turbulent Combustion. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge (2000)
Ramshaw J.D.: Brownian motion in a moving fluid. Phys. Fluids 22(9), 1595–1601 (1979)
Ramshaw J.D.: Brownian motion in multiphase flow. Theor. Comput. Fluid Dynamics 14, 195–202 (2000)
Randall D.A.: Conditional instability of the first kind upside-down. J. Atmos. Sci. 37, 125–130 (1980)
Satoh M.: Conservative scheme for a compressible nonhydrostatic model with moist processes. Mon. Weather Rev. 131, 1033–1050 (2003)
Shaw R.A.: Particle–turbulence interactions in atmospheric clouds. Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech. 35, 183–227 (2003)
Shy S.S., Breidenthal R.E.: Laboratory experiments on the cloud-top entrainment instability. J. Fluid Mech. 214, 1–15 (1990)
Siems S.T., Bretherton C.S.: A numerical investigation of cloud-top entrainment instability and related experiments. Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 118, 787–818 (1992)
Siems S.T., Bretherton C.S., Baker M.B., Shy S., Breidenthal R.E.: Buoyancy reversal and cloud-top entrainment instability. Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 116, 705–739 (1990)
Spyksma K., Bartello P., Yau M.K.: A Boussinesq moist turbulence model. J. Turbulence 7(32), 1–24 (2006)
Squires K., Eaton J.: Preferential concentration of particles by turbulence. Phys. Fluids A 3(5), 1169–1178 (1991)
Stevens B.: Entrainment in stratocumulus-topped mixed layers. Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 128, 2663–2690 (2002)
Stevens B.: Atmospheric moist convection. Annu. Rev. Earth Planet. Sci. 33, 605–643 (2005)
Stevens B., Lenschow D.H., Faloona I., Moeng C.H., Lilly D.K., Blomquist B., Vali G., Bandy A., Campos T., Gerber H., Haimov S., Morley B., Thorton C.: On entrainment rates in nocturnal marine stratocumulus. Q. J. Roy. Meteorol. Soc. 129(595), 3469–3493 (2003)
Thompson K.W.: Time-dependent boundary conditions for hyperbolic systems, II. J. Comput. Phys. 89, 439–461 (1990)
Wang L., Maxey M.R.: Settling velocity and concentration distribution of heavy particles in homogeneous isotropic turbulence. J. Fluid Mech. 256, 27–68 (1993)
Williams F.A.: Combustion Theory, 2nd edn. Addison Wesley, New York (1985)
Wilson, R.V., Demuren, A.O., Carpenter, M.: Higher-order compact schemes for numerical simulation of incompressible flows. Tech. Rep. CR-1998-206922, NASA Langley Research Center (1998)
Yamaguchi T., Randall D.A.: Large-eddy simulation of evaporatively driven entrainment in cloud-topped mixed layers. J. Atmos. Sci. 65, 1481–1504 (2008)
Zhang D.Z., Prosperetti A.: Momentum and energy equations for disperse two-phase flows and their closure for dilute suspensions. Int. J. Multiph. Flow 23(3), 425–453 (1997)
Open Access
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Additional information
Communicated by M. Y. Hussaini
Rights and permissions
Open Access This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Noncommercial License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0), which permits any noncommercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author(s) and source are credited.
About this article
Cite this article
Mellado, J.P., Stevens, B., Schmidt, H. et al. Two-fluid formulation of the cloud-top mixing layer for direct numerical simulation. Theor. Comput. Fluid Dyn. 24, 511–536 (2010). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00162-010-0182-x
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00162-010-0182-x