Multidimensional Turbulence Spectra- Properties of Turbulent Vortices

Conference poster, 2012

Detailed description of turbulence is necessary to predict chemical engineering processes and develop new models. Strong nonlinear or very fast phenomena, e.g. mixing, coalescence and break up, are not correctly described using average turbulence properties. This is due to the fact that they interact with single turbulent vortices. Results from development of a vortex tracking method and analysis of a number of turbulent vortices including turbulent kinetic energy, lifetime, and growth rate are presented in this paper. One striking observation was that the lifetimes of turbulent vortices close to the walls were much larger than expected from RANS modeling.