Introduction

What is Fluid Dynamics?

What is Fluid Dynamics?

 Science of Fluid Motion

 Fluid flow is studied by

 Experimental Fluid Dynamics

 Theoretical Fluid Dynamics

 Numerically: CFD

 Sufficient knowledge required

What is CFD?
What is CFD?

Computational
Fluid
Dynamics
What is CFD?

Analysis of system involving fluid flow, heat transfer and

associated phenomena such as chemical reactions by means
of
 Mathematical Modeling (Partial Differential Equations)
 Numerical Methods (Discretization & Solution Techniques)
 Software Tools (Pre, Solver & Post Processing Utilities)

Virtual Flow
Laboratory
What is CFD?

 High performance computing  Made CFD possible

Why CFD?
Why CFD?

Results of CFD Analysis used in

 Conceptual studies of new designs

 Detailed product development

 Troubleshooting

 Redesign
CFD Applications
CFD Applications – Automotive

 Aerodynamics
 Brake cooling
 Climate and Comfort
control
 Engine flow and
combustion
 Flow induced noise
 Fuel systems
 Power train
 Rotating machinery
CFD Applications – Aerospace & Defence

 Gas turbine engines

 Missiles
 Rocket and Scramjet
engines
 Spacecraft
 Aerodynamics
 Propulsion and
Power
 Heat Transfer
 Fluid Structure
Interaction [FSI]

1
CFD Applications – FSI

 Interaction between
complex fluid flow
and complex
structural and/or
thermal behavior

Fig.: Reed Valve

Displacement,
Temperature,
boundary velocity
Structural CFD
analysis analysis
Pressure,
Heat Flux,
HTC
CFD Applications – Turbo machinery

 Fan
 Blower
 Turbine

Fan hub, blade, shroud

Mini air system

simulation for room
Wind turbine – wake effect air-conditioner
CFD Applications – Power Generation

 Boilers
 Burners
 Coal Handling
 Combustors
 Duct flows
 Hydro power
 Silencers
 Wind boxes
CFD Applications – Oil and Gas

 Burners
 Furnaces
 Deep water
Technology
 Drilling
 Downhole analysis
 Emission control
 Offshore rigs
 Pipeline flow analysis
 Oil spill clean up
CFD Applications – Chemical

 Combustion
 Filtration
 Fluid Handling
 Heat and Mass
Transfer
 Pumps
 Reactions
 Refining operations
 Waste handling
Fluidized bed
coater  Water treatment
CFD other Applications
 Biomedical
 Healthcare and Pharmaceutical
 Electronics
 Marine
 Glass processing
 Home and Security
 Environmental and Water quality
 Metals, Minerals and Mining
 Sports Equipment
Experiments Vs Simulations
Experiments Vs Simulations

 CFD gives an insight into flow patterns that are difficult,

expensive or impossible to study using Experiments
Experiments Simulations
Quantitative description of flow Quantitative Prediction of flow
phenomena using Measurements phenomena using Simulations
• for a single quantity at a time • for all desired quantities
• at a limited number of locations • with high resolution in space and
and duration time
• for a laboratory scale model • for the actual flow domain
• for a limited range of problems • for virtually any problem and
and operating conditions realistic operating conditions
Error Sources: Measurement Error Sources: Modeling,
Errors, Flow disturbances by the Discretization, Iteration,
probes Implementation
Experiments Vs Simulations

 CFD does not replace the measurements completely

 CFD can reduce the amount of experimentation and
the overall cost
Experiments Simulations

Expensive Cheaper
Slow Fast
Sequential Parallel
Single- Purpose Multi- Purpose

 Equipment and Personnel are difficult to transport

 CFD software is portable, easy to use and modify
History of CFD
History of CFD: 1930 to 1950s

 Earliest numerical solution: for flow past a cylinder (1933)

A. Thom, ‘The Flow Past Circular Cylinders at Low
Speeds’, Proc. Royal Society, A141, pp. 651-666,
London, 1933
 Kawaguti obtains a solution for flow around a cylinder, in
1953 by using a mechanical desk calculator, working 20
hours per week for 18 months
History of CFD: 1960 to 1970s

 During the 1960s the theoretical division at Los Alamos

contributed many numerical methods that are still in use
today, such as the following methods:
 Particle-In-Cell (PIC)
 Marker-and-Cell (MAC)
 Vorticity-Stream function Methods
 Arbitrary Lagrangian-Eulerian (ALE)
 k- turbulence model
History of CFD: 1930 to 1970s

 During the 1970s a group working under D. Brian Spalding,

at Imperial College, London, develop:
 Parabolic flow codes (GENMIX)
 Vorticity-Stream function based codes
 The SIMPLE algorithm
 The form of the k- equations that are used
today
 Upwind differencing
 ‘Eddy break-up’ and ‘presumed pdf’ combustion
models
History of CFD: 1980 to 1990s

 In 1980 Suhas V. Patankar published “Numerical Heat

Transfer and Fluid Flow”, probably the most influential
book on CFD
 Previously, CFD was performed using academic, research
and in-house codes. When one wanted to perform a CFD
calculation, one had to write a program
 This is the period during which most commercial CFD
codes originated
How CFD works?
Steps involved in Modeling
 Creation of the geometry.
 Division of geometry into a
computational mesh
 Application of mass balance, force Cross sectional view of
the 3D Supersonic intake
balance and energy balance
principles to small computational
cells
 Solution of variables such as
velocity, pressure, density,
temperature, stresses,
displacements etc. at various
points in the geometry
Steps involved in Modeling

 Pre-Processing

 Analysis

 Post-Processing
Pre-Processing
Pre-Processing

 Creation of Geometry
 Grid generation
 Selection of the physical and chemical phenomena
that need to be modeled
 Definition of fluid properties
 Specification of appropriate boundary conditions
Pre-Processing - Geometry

Creation of Geometry – the computational domain

 Selection of an
appropriate
Cross sectional view of the 3D coordinate
Supersonic intake  Determine the
domain size and
shape
 Simplifications, if
any
Pre-Processing – Grid Generation

 Sub-division of the domain into a number of smaller, non-

overlapping sub-domains
 Called grid/ mesh of cells/ control volumes/ elements

Cells/ control
volumes/ elements
Grid/ Mesh
Pre-Processing – Grid Generation

 Selection of grid type and types of cells

tetrahedron pyramid
triangle

hexahedron
prism or wedge
quadrilateral
Pre-Processing – Grid Generation

 Degree of grid resolution

 Depends on the flow features to be captured
 Examples:
 Boundary layer
 Flow separation
 Recirculation

air fuel
Pre-Processing – Grid Generation
 Number of cells
 Computer memory
tet
mesh
hex
mesh

Hybrid mesh for

an IC engine
valve port
Pre-Processing – Selection of physical and
chemical phenomena

 Compressible/ Incompressible flow

 Laminar/ Turbulent flow

 Steady/ Unsteady

 Combustion

 Fluid Structure interaction

 Single phase/ Multiphase flow

Incompressible & Compressible flows

 Incompressible Flow  ρ is constant

 Compressible Flow  ρ is variable
 Incompressible flow occurs when the Mach number of the
flow is < 0.3
 If the density changes by more than 5% or more, the flow
is considered to be Compressible flow
 Pressure variation is strong in compressible flow whereas
in incompressible flow, it is very less

air

fuel

HSTDV
Flow through Backward Facing Step
Laminar flow

 Smooth
 Steady
 No eddies
 No swirl

 Layers of fluid seem to slide by one another

 Occurs at low velocities
 Solved using the conservation equations
Turbulent flow

 Irregular and fluctuating

 Unsteady
 Eddies are present
 Eddies interact with

each other as they move around

 Occurs at high velocities
 Solved using the time averaged conservation
equations
Reynolds Number

 Primary parameter used to decide the flow type

 Inertia Force / Viscous Force
 Inertia Force = ρv2/D
 Viscous Force = μv/D2
Reynolds Number

 High Reynolds number

Transition to
Turbulent flow
occurs at Re >
2300
 Boundary layer over a flat plate

 Re = 60000 at point A
 Re = 5 x 105 at point B
Pre-processing – Selection of material
properties

Fluid/ Solid
 Density
 Specify capacity
 Thermal conductivity
 Viscosity
Typical flow boundary conditions

u=0, v=0, w=0

(no slip-condition on the wall)

Far stream b.c.  u=U, v=0,w=0, p=p


No-slip b.c.
Exit b.c.
extrapolation
Symmetry
v=0, y-der. = 0
Inlet
b.c.
Governing Equations

 Represent mathematical statements of the Conservation

laws of physics

 The mass of a fluid is conserved (Continuity equation)

 The rate of change of momentum equals the sum of the

forces on a fluid particle (Newton’s second law)

 The rate of change of energy is equal to the sum of the

rate of heat addition to and the rate of work done on a
fluid particle (First law of thermodynamics)
Discretization

 Finite Difference Method (FDM)

 Finite Volume Method (FVM)
 Finite Element Method (FEM)
Finite Difference Method (FDM)

 Oldest Method
 Easiest Method for simple Geometries
 Differential equations are converted into difference
expressions
 Not suitable for complex flows

Ti1  Ti
or
dx x x

i-1 i i+1
Finite Volume Method (FVM)

 Conservation equations in integral form

 The solution domain is subdivided into a finite number of
control volumes
 Conservation equations are applied to each control volume
 Suitable for simple and complex geometries
Boundary node
Packages:
Control volume Fluent
CFX
Computational node TASCflow
Finite Element Method (FEM)
 While FDM and FVM were applied for flow/ thermal problems,
FEM was initially developed for structural problems
 In this method, a large structure is divided into small elements
and characteristic of each element is written as a matrix
contribution
 By adding contributions of all elements, we get the matrix
equation for the whole geometry

Packages:
ANSYS
ABACUS
Analysis
 Conserved equations solved iteratively
 Convergence is reached when
 Changes in the solution variables from one iteration to
the next are negligible
 Overall property conservation is achieved
 Accuracy depends on
 Accuracy of physical model
 Grid resolution
 Problem setup
Post-Processing

Visualization

 To see overall flow pattern

 To check separation
 Shocks location
 To identify key flow features
 To check whether boundary conditions and
physical models are appropriate
Visualization tools
 Grid plot
 Vector plot
 Contour plot
 Stream line and path line
 Isosurface
 XY plots
 Animations
Post-Processing

Visualization tools
 Grid plot
 Vector plot
 Contour plot
 Stream line and path line tet
mesh
 Isosurface hex
mesh

 XY plots
 Animations

wedge mesh
Visualization tools
 Grid plot
 Vector plot
 Contour plot
 Stream line and path line
 Isosurface
 XY plots
 Animations
Post-Processing

Visualization tools
 Grid plot
 Vector plot
 Contour plot
 Stream line and path line
 Isosurface
 XY plots
 Animations
Visualization tools
 Grid plot
 Vector plot
 Contour plot
 Stream line and path line
 Isosurface
 XY plots
 Animations
Post-Processing

Visualization tools
 Grid plot
 Vector plot
 Contour plot
 Stream line and path line
 Isosurface
 XY plots
 Animations
Visualization tools
 Grid plot
 Vector plot
 Contour plot
 Stream line and path line
 Isosurface
 XY plots
 Animations
Post-Processing

Visualization tools
 Grid plot
 Vector plot
 Contour plot
 Stream line and path line
 Isosurface
 XY plots
 Animations
Numerically reporting tools
 Flux balances
 Surface integrals
 Volume integrals
 Averages
 Forces and moments
CFD Process
Geometry Physics Mesh Solve Reports Post-
Processing

Select Heat Unstructured Steady/ Forces Contours

Geometry Transfer Unsteady Report
ON/OFF

Compressible Structured Iterations/ XY Plot Vectors

Geometry ON/OFF Steps
Parameters

Domain Flow Convergent Verification Streamlines

Shape and properties Limit
Size

Viscous Precisions Validation

Model

Boundary Numerical
Conditions Scheme
Step - 1
Geometry Physics Mesh Solve Reports Post-
Processing

Select
Geometry

Geometry
Parameters

Domain
Shape and
Size
Step - 2
Geometry Physics Mesh Solve Reports Post-
Processing

Heat
Transfer
ON/OFF

Compressible
ON/OFF

Flow
properties

Viscous
Model

Boundary
Conditions

Initial
Conditions
Step - 3
Geometry Physics Mesh Solve Reports Post-
Processing

Unstructured

Structured
Step - 4
Geometry Physics Mesh Solve Reports Post-
Processing

Steady/
Unsteady

Iterations/
Steps

Convergent
Limit

Precisions

Numerical
Scheme
Step - 4
Geometry Physics Mesh Solve Reports Post-
Processing

Steady/
Unsteady

Iterations/
Steps

Convergent
Limit

Precisions

Numerical
Scheme
Step - 4
Geometry Physics Mesh Solve Reports Post-
Processing

Steady/
Unsteady

Iterations/
Steps

Convergent
Limit

Precisions

Numerical
Scheme
Step - 4
Geometry Physics Mesh Solve Reports Post-
Processing

Steady/
Unsteady

Iterations/
Steps

Convergent
Limit

Precisions

Numerical
Scheme
Step - 5
Geometry Physics Mesh Solve Reports Post-
Processing

Forces
Report

XY Plot

Verification

Validation
Geometry Physics Mesh Solve Reports Post-
Processing

Contours

Vectors

Streamlines
Summary

 CFD - a numerical method used to find fluid flow and heat

transfer
 CFD gives an insight into flow patterns that are difficult,
expensive or impossible to study using Experiments
 CFD – widely used in many fields
 CFD – important for fundamental researches and
Research & Applications in industries
 More reliable if the input data, physics of the model,
boundary conditions & discretization methods are proper
Governing Equations
 Represent mathematical statements of Conservation
laws of physics
 The mass of a fluid is conserved
 The rate of change of momentum equals the sum of
theforces on a fluid particle (Newton’s second law)
 The rate of change of energy is equal to the sum of
the rate of heat addition to and the rate of work done
on a fluid particle (First law of thermodynamics)
Models of the flow

Conservation form of Non- Conservation form

governing equation of governing equation
Conservation & Non-conservation forms
Conservation Form:
 Forms of governing equations that are directly
obtained from a flow model which is fixed inspace
Non-Conservation Form:
 Forms of governing equations that are directly
obtained from a flow model which is moving with
the flow
Total or Substantive Derivative
 It is physically time rate of change following a moving
fluid element

Convective Derivative –
Local Derivative – physically the time rate of
physically the time rate change due to the movement of
of change at a fixed the fluid element from one
point location to another in the flow
field where the flow properties
are spatially different
Divergence of Velocity
 It is physically time rate of change of the volume of the
moving fluid element, per unit volume
Assumptions in deriving governing equations
 Continuum
 Analysis at macroscopic length scale
 Molecular structure of matter and molecular motions
may be ignored
 Behavior of fluid expressed in terms of macroscopic
properties – Pressure, Velocity, Density, Temperature
and their space and time derivatives
 The values are average over suitably large numbers of
molecules
Assumptions in deriving governing equations
 A Fluid particle or point in a fluid is the smallest possible
element of fluid whose macroscopic properties are not
influenced by individual molecules
 The element under
consideration is so small
that fluid properties at the
faces can be expressed
accurately enough by
means of the first two
terms of a Taylor Series
 Turbulent Flow and its Modeling

 Understanding turbulence is of great importance to

engineers

 Not able to predict turbulent behavior with any

degree of reliability, even in very simple flow
situations

 Almost all fluid flows which we encounter in daily

life is turbulent
 Why to study Turbulence?

Examples:
 Flow around cars, aeroplanes and buildings
 Boundary layers and wake around and afterbluff
bodies such as cars, aeroplanes and buildings
 Flow and combustion in IC engines, gasturbines,
combustors
 Air movements in rooms
 Flow around chimney
Why to study Turbulence?

Wake of Submarine Swirl & Eddies in a Fast Flowing River

Examples:

Ash Plume of Outer Layer of Sun

Volcano
Source: http://www.cora.nwra.com/~werne/eos/text/turbulence.htm
What is Turbulence?
 3D, unsteady, irregular motion of particles in a
practically chaotic manner
 Flow field is a random process
 Contrast to the laminar state

ū - Mean velocity
u’(t) -Fluctuating
Reynold’s Experiment

Laminar
Flow Turbulent Flow
Re < 2000
 Maintains Stability  Dye filament explode
 Mixing is molecular  Rapidly mix across the
tube
 Concentration
gradient is so small
What is Turbulence?
 Turbulent fluctuations are macroscopic in nature
and are subjected to continuum laws

 Turbulence viewed as superposition of eddies

of varying sizes
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow
 Irregularity

 Non-repeatability
 Diffusivity
 High Reynolds number
 Three dimensional vorticity fluctuations
 Dissipation
 Continuum
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow
 Irregularity

 Irregular, random and chaotic

 Flow consists of a spectrum of eddy sizes
 No exact definition of turbulent eddy
 Deterministic & described by NS equation

Source : http://www.biophysics.uwa.edu.au/turbulence/animations
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow
 Non-repeatability

 Sensitive to initial and boundary conditions

 Averages over large intervals of space and

time may be very well defined and stable
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow
 Diffusivity  Causes rapid mixing & increased
rate of heat, mass and momentum transfer
 Spreading rate of boundary layers, jets
increases
 Increases the resistance (wall friction) in
internal flows
 This is a single most important aspect of
turbulence from a engineering point of view
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow

 Momentum Diffusivity  = l + t (m2/s)

 Thermal Diffusivity α = αl + αt (m2/s)
 Mass Diffusivity D = Dl + Dt (m2/s)

 l , αl and Dl  Molecular level fluid properties.

These depend on type of fluid, temperature level,
etc.,

 t , αt and Dt  Depend on flow geometry, flow

conditions, etc.,
Turbulence is a
 t ≈ αt ≈ Dt for all fluids feature of flow
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow

 Increased mixing makes the velocity profile

much flatter than in laminar flow

Figure: Comparison of velocity profiles

 Increased velocity and temperature gradients

 Pressure drop & heat transfer in a pipe?
 Drag experienced by a flat plate?
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow
 High Reynolds number

Transition to
Turbulent flow
occurs at Re >
2300
Boundary layer over a flat plate
 Re = 60000 at point A
 Re = 5 x 105 at point B
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow
 Three Dimensional Vorticity Fluctuations

 Highly Rotational
 Vortex Dynamics plays an important role
 Energy is transferred from large to small scales
by the interaction of vortices
 2D Flow?

Vortices

Source: http://www.math.waikato.ac.nz/~seano/research/turbulence-pictures.html
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow
 Continuum
 Small turbulent scales in the flow are very
much larger than molecular scale

 Flow scales exceed the molecular scales by

three or more orders of magnitude

 Knudsen number < 0.01 for continuum

Characteristics of Turbulent Flow
 Dissipation
 Always dissipative
 Kinetic energy in the small eddies are
transformed into thermal energy due to
viscous shear stress
 Due to steeper gradient near the wall, the
shear stress is greater
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow

 Used to characterize the flows

 Wide range of length scales (also the time scales)

present
 Eddies:

Smallest eddy
Largest eddy
Characteristics of Turbulent Flow

 Dissipation
 Cascading process
Energy mopped
up due to
Extracts energy
viscous
from the mean
dissipation
flow

Figure: Cascade process with a spectrum of eddies

Length Scales in Turbulent Flows

Largest Eddy Smallest Eddy

Length Scale l 
Velocity scale u v

 Time scale can be formulated if length scale and

velocity scale are known
 Statistical representation of turbulent flows

 Homogeneous Turbulence:
 Turbulence statistics are independent of
coordinate translation.
 In other words, turbulence statistics are
position independent

 Isotropic Turbulence:
 Turbulence statistics are independent of
rotation and reflection of coordinates and
translation invariant
 Isotropic turbulence is homogeneous
 Time averaging
 Space averaging
 Ensemble averaging
Types of averaging

 Time averaging
 At a given location, measure the property
as a function of time and then take the
average
 Mathematical representation
 Space averaging
 At a given time, average over position

 Ensemble averaging
 Statistical average of repeated
experiments under different condition
Why Model Turbulence?

 Most engineering flows we study is turbulence

 Turbulence spans wide spatial and temporal scales
 When described in terms of eddies, non-linear interaction
is complex  cannot be attacked statistically
 Generating turbulence information by solving the full
Navier-Stokes equations remains incomplete  Leading
to modeling
 Only the effects of the turbulence on the mean flow are
usually sought
Turbulence Modeling

 The Navier-Stokes equations do still describe a turbulent flow

including all the turbulent eddy details
 In principle, one could solve these directly (numerically) and
obtain full details of the turbulent flow field (averaging the
results to obtain mean velocities, etc., if desired)
 However, a consideration of the range of scales involved
shows this is not actually possible, with current technology,
for most flows of engineering interest
Turbulence Modeling

 Trying to find approximate simplified solutions for the Navier-

Stokes equations in the manner that either describes
turbulence in terms of mean properties or limits the
spatial/temporal resolution requirements associated with
the full model
 Turbulence modeling is therefore about manipulating
equations and creating closed models in the form that allows
us to simulate turbulence interaction under our own
conditions.
 For example, a set of equations describing mean properties
would allow us to perform steady-state simulations when
only mean properties are of interest
Types of Turbulence Modeling

 Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS)

 Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes Equations (RANS)
 Zero equation model
 One Equation model
 Two equation model
 Reynolds stress equation model
 Algebraic stress model
 Space filtered equations
 Large Eddy Simulation (LES)
Choosing a Turbulence Model

 No single model is universally accepted for all classes

of problems
 Depends on
 Physics encompassed in the flow
 Level of accuracy required
 Available computational resources
 Amount of time available for simulation
Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS)

 Strictly speaking, DNS is not a turbulence model at all

 Most straightforward approach to the solution of turbulent
flows
 Governing equations are discretized and solved
numerically
 Completely free of modeling assumptions
 Does not use any averaging technique
 Errors introduced only by numerical approximation
 Useful tool for the study of transitional and turbulent flow
physics
Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS)
 Eddy sizes  metres to microns
 Fluctuations  seconds to microseconds
 Thus, for capturing the effects of the whole range of
eddies,
mesh size < smallest significant eddy
time step < smallest eddy time scale
 For any practical problem, the number of grid points
required may be of the order of 1012 and several million
time steps may be required
 Computer resources are immense. Very powerful andvery
fast and parallel computing are needed
Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS)
 To resolve all scales - too many grids and short time
marching needed
 Number of grid points required  (Re)9/4
 Number of time-steps ≈ (Re)-1/2
 Cost of the computation scales  (Re)3
 The grid requirements increases rapidly with Re
 Limited to simple geometries at low Re
 More recent channel flow simulations at Re ≈ 40000
have been reported
 These were performed on a 2048 processor machine,
required 6×106 processor hours (the entire machine for
around 4 months), and produced around 25TB
Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS)
 . . . but this is the best way of gathering detailed
information on turbulent interaction; mean properties, first
and second moments, two-point correlations etc.in full
fields
 Unrealistically expensive for flows of engineering interest
 . . . but still has a role: gathering data for model evaluation
and fundamental understanding of turbulent interaction
 Compared to experiments, much more reliable and
complete data sets, including correlations and
visualization
 Can be used to guide turbulence model development
 It is not a tool for everyday engineering use
Reynolds Time Averaging

 For turbulent flow, because of the fluctuations, every velocity

and pressure term in the continuity and momentum equations
is a rapid varying function of time and space
 Cannot handle such instantaneous fluctuating variables
 Attention is toward the average or mean values of velocity,
pressure, shear stress etc., in the turbulent flow
 Fine details of all the turbulent eddies are not required
Boussinesq Approach
 Many turbulent models based on this approach
 Relates Reynolds stress to mean velocity
gradients
Turbulence was found to increase with mean
velocity gradient

 Important parameter that needs determination

will be the eddy viscosity
Boussinesq Approach
 Low computational cost

 Spalart-Allmaras model  One transport

equation to solve μt
 k-ε and k-ω models  Two transport equations
to solve μt as a function of
turbulent kinetic energy (k) and
turbulence dissipation rate (ε)
 Assumes μt is isotropic (non-directional) which is
not strictly true
Zero Equation Model
Mixing Length Model
 Proposed by Prandtl

 Describe the stresses by means of simple

algebraic formula for μt as a function of position

 An eddy travels a mixing

length of lm before giving up
its momentum completely
by mixing with main flow lm

 Analogy with the kinetic

theory of gases Eddy
Zero Equation Model: Mixing Length Model
 For molecules,
Kinematic viscosity l = λ.vrms
where λ = mean free path
 Similarly, for eddies,
Turbulent Diffusivity t = lmv’

eddy viscosity (μt) = ρlmv’

 Velocity scale can be expressed in terms of
mixing length lm and mean velocity gradient
 Zero Equation Model: Mixing Length Model
 v’ = lm

 Thus, if mixing length is known, t can be found

 Models assuming lm  zero equation,

algebraic
model
Assuming, lm  y &
 = constant
Zero Equation Model: Mixing Length Model

Where,  is the local boundary

layer thickness and w is the
local wall shear stress
Zero Equation Model: Mixing Length Model

 Easy to implement and

cheap
 Good prediction forsimple
flows where experimental
correlation for the mixing Wake behind a long
length exist slender circular cylinder

 Examples: Jets, mixing layers, wakes and boundary

layers
 The celebrated “law of the wall” for turbulent pipe and
channel flows is a successful application of mixing
length theory
Zero Equation Model: Mixing Length Model

 Completely incapable of describing flows with

separation and recirculation
 Cannot switch over from one type of region to another
within a single flow
 History effect of turbulence is not considered
 Not computing any turbulent quantities
 Require adhoc prescription of lm
One Equation Model
K-Model

 Eddy viscosity μt = ρ lm v’
 Velocity fluctuation v’ = k
where k is turbulent kinetic energy

Eddy viscosity μt = ρ lm k

For turbulent kinetic energy, a separate transport

equation is derived
One Equation Model: K-Model

 Eddy viscosity

 Length scales lm are typically prescribed in a

similar fashion to the mixing-length
Two Equation Model

 The main drawback of the k one-equation model is the

incomplete representation of the two scales required to
build the eddy viscosity
 Two-equation models are the work-horse of
engineering simulations today
 Two-equation models are popular because it accounts
for transport of both the velocity and length-scale and
can be tuned
k-ε Turbulence Model
 Standard k-ε model

 RNG (Renormalization Group) k-ε model

 Realizable k-ε model
 The major differences between these models are
 the method of calculating turbulent viscosity
 the turbulent Prandtl numbers governing the
turbulent diffusion of k and ε
 the generation and destruction term in the ε
equation
Reynolds Stress Model
 Boussinesq approach  Predicts turbulent kinetic
energy to a reasonable accuracy but theindividual
Reynolds stresses are poorlyrepresented
 Transport equations are derived for Reynolds
stresses and for turbulent fluxes
 Reynolds Stresses: -ρ
 Turbulent fluxes: -ρCp u’T’, -ρCp v’T’, -ρCp w’T’
 For each of the above quantities, a transport
equation can be obtained
Reynolds Stress Model
 This approach involves additional 6 differential
equations to be solved for the 6 Reynolds stresses
and more equations for the turbulentstresses
 Transport equations derived by Reynolds
averaging the product of the momentum equation
with a fluctuating property
 It involves more computations
 Good for predicting complex flows
Reynolds Stress Model
 Can capture the anisotropic effects in the
turbulence flow (eg) high swirling flows,secondary
flows
 The grid points used are not as large as thecases
in DNS and LES
 Computationally more economical than DNS and
LES
LES Approach

 Intermediate between DNS and RANS

 Lesser number of grids than DNS
 More accurate and greater degree of predictive
realism than RANS in the prediction of the motion
of large scale flow structures
 More suitable to study highly three-dimensional or
separated flows, especially those in which the
gradient transport hypothesis and consequently
one and two-equation models of turbulence fails
 Involves the direct 3D time dependentcomputation
 provides a more natural approach
to unsteady flows of practical systems
LES Approach

 Computes unsteady velocity and pressure fields

 Captures turbulent mixing and unsteady flow
features accurately
 Standard tool to study the dynamics of turbulent
flames  yields more accurate and complete
results (especially in terms of wave number &
frequency resolution), at a fraction of the cost of
DNS
 Able to predict highly non-equilibrium events such
as ignition, lift-off, flashback or extinction
LES Approach

 LES is a method of calculating large scale flow directly and

subgrid scale flow indirectly
 Decompose the variables into large scale and subgrid scale
(SGS) components
 To separate the large scales from the smaller ones, LES is
based on the definition of a filtering operation
 Filter function determines the size and structure of the small
scales
 In LES, the contribution of the large, energy carrying
structures to momentum and energy transfer is computed
exactly, and only the effect of the smallest scales of
turbulence is modeled
Comparison of DNS, LES and RANS
 DNS requires no modeling, but it demands resolution from
the large scales all the way through at least the beginning
of the dissipation scales
 LES requires modeling of part of the inertial sub-range and
the beginning of the dissipation scales
RANS requires modeling of everything from the integral
scale into the dissipation range – only mean quantities are
directly computed