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The PVC technique – a method to estimate the dissipation length scale in turbulent flows

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  10 December 1997

CHIH-MING HO  and
YITSHAK ZOHAR
CHIH-MING HO
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical, Aerospace & Nuclear Engineering, University of California at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024-1597, USA
YITSHAK ZOHAR
Affiliation:
Department of Mechanical Engineering, Hong Kong University of Science & Technology, Clear Water Bay, Kowloon, Hong Kong
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Abstract

A time-averaged length scale can be defined by a pair of successive turbulent-velocity derivatives, i.e. [dnu(x)/ dxn]′/ [dn+1u(x)/ dxn+1]′. The length scale associated with the zeroth- and the first-order derivatives, u′/u′x, is the Taylor microscale. In isotropic turbulence, this scale is the average length between zero crossings of the velocity signal. The average length between zero crossings of the first velocity derivative, i.e. u′x/u′xx, can be reliably obtained by using the peak-valley-counting (PVC) technique. We have found that the most probable scale, rather than the average, equals the wavelength at the peak of the dissipation spectrum in a plane mixing layer (Zohar & Ho 1996). In this study, we experimentally investigate the generality of applying the PVC technique to estimate the dissipation scale in three basic turbulent shear flows: a flat-plate boundary layer, a wake behind a two-dimensional cylinder and a plane mixing layer. We also analytically explore the quantitative relationships among this length scale and the Kolmogorov and Taylor microscales.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 352 , 10 December 1997 , pp. 135 - 159
Copyright
© 1997 Cambridge University Press

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