zyxwvutsrq

zyxwvutsrqpon
zyxwvuts
J . Fluid Mech. (1993), vol. 257, pp. 65-95
Copyright 0 1993 Cambridge University Press

Direct numerical simulation of turbulent flow

in a square duct
By A S M U N D HUSERT AND SEDAT B I R I N G E N
z
zy
Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, University of Colorado, Boulder,
CO 80309, USA
65

zy
(Received 22 May 1992 and in revised form 3 March 1993)

A direct numerical simulation of a fully developed, low-Reynolds-number turbulent

flow in a square duct is presented. The numerical scheme employs a time-splitting
method to integrate the three-dimensional, incompressible Navier-Stokes equations
using spectral/high-order finite-difference discretization on a staggered mesh ; the
nonlinear terms are represented by fifth-order upwind-biased finite differences. The
unsteady flow field was simulated at a Reynolds number of 600 based on the mean
friction velocity and the duct width, using 96 x 101 x 101 grid points. Turbulence
statistics from the fully developed turbulent field are compared with existing
experimental and numerical square duct data, providing good qualitative agreement.
Results from the present study furnish the details of the corner effects and near-wall
effects in this complex turbulent flow field; also included is a detailed description of the
terms in the Reynolds-averaged streamwise momentum and vorticity equations.
Mechanisms responsible for the generation of the stress-driven secondary flow are
studied by quadrant analysis and by analysing the instantaneous turbulence structures.
It is demonstrated that the mean secondary flow pattern, the distorted isotachs and the
anisotropic Reynolds stress distribution can be explained by the preferred location of
an ejection structure near the corner and the interaction between bursts from the two
intersecting walls. Corner effects are also manifested in the behaviour of the
pressure-strain and velocity-pressure gradient correlations.

1. Introduction
Turbulent flow along a streamwise corner is of considerable engineering interest,
with relevance to flow in the root region of a lifting section, complex flow in
turbomachinery and heat exchangers, flows in ducts with non-circular cross-section,
and flows in open channels and rivers. These complex turbulent flows have two
inhomogeneous directions and are characterized by the existence of secondary flows of
the second kind (as classified by Prandtl 1926) which are secondary mean flows created
by the turbulent motion. Although this type of secondary flow is relatively weak (about
2-3 YOof the streamwise bulk velocity), its effects on wall shear stress distribution, heat
transfer rates, or transport of passive tracers are quite significant (Demuren 1990).
Secondary flow of the second kind is most frequently studied by considering turbulent
flow in a square duct because of its relatively simple geometry which also provides an
excellent case to test and develop turbulence models. The mean transverse secondary
flow that occurs in this geometry is well defined and consists of eight streamwise
vortices, two counter-rotating in each corner, with the flow directed toward the corners
from the duct centre along the corner bisector, and toward the duct centre along the
1- Current address: DNV Technica, N-1322 Hsvik, Norway.
66 zyxw A . Huser and S . Biringen
wall bisector. An explanation of the origin of secondary flows of the second kind was
first offered by Prandtl (1926), who suggested that in a region of isotach curvature,
secondary flows are created by turbulent velocity fluctuations. Prandtl postulated that
in these regions velocity fluctuations are greater parallel to the isotachs than normal to
the isotachs, causing flow toward the concave side of the isotachs. In a later

zy
description, Prandtl(l952) explained the distorted isotachs by the convection of mean
velocity toward regions with low shear (e.g. along the corner bisector in square duct
flow) from regions with high shear (e.g. along the walls in square duct flow). This
results in an increased mean velocity along the corner bisector and reduced mean
velocity near the wall bisector (as opposed to laminar flow), as first documented
experimentally by Nikuradse (1930). In order to investigate the convection of mean

zyxw
streamwise velocity by the secondary flow, Gessner (1973) analysed the terms in the

zyxwvu
total kinetic energy equation along the corner bisector. Accordingly, energy loss due
to a positive turbulent shear stress gradient along the corner bisector is compensated
by an increase in total energy in the streamwise mean velocity. Gessner (1973)
concluded that the anisotropy of the primary shear stress is the main cause of the
increased streamwise velocity in the corners.
A review of experimental work and turbulene models describing secondary flows is
given by Demuren & Rodi (1984). In their study, calculations were performed using an

zyxwvu
algebraic Reynolds stress model. The results showed the difficulties involved in
modelling the secondary flows produced by a fine balance between the secondary
Reynolds stress gradients.
Experimental studies of simple turbulent shear flows have demonstrated that
streamwise vorticity is primarily created during a bursting event observed as low-speed
streaks and ejections (Kline et al. 1967). In the square duct flow, bursting is also the
dominating event. Secondary flow of the second kind contains mean streamwise
vortices, produced by three-dimensional mean strain rates. Although significant effort
has been devoted into the physical and phenomenological description of secondary
flows of the second kind, a satisfactory explanation of the mechanisms causing these
effects is still not available; consequently no turbulence model at the present time is
fully capable of predicting the turbulence characteristics of secondary flows. Because
the bursting event is central to turbulence production (Lumley 1991) and because the
ejection structure contains most of the turbulence energy (Moin & Moser 1989), in the
present work we attempt to explain the creation of mean streamwise vortices in the
square duct flow by analysing these processes.
Direct numerical simulation (DNS) of simple shear flows has proven to be an
effective and important tool for studying turbulence structures and near-wall effects.
Used in connection with experiments and theoretical models, DNS provides turbulence
modellers with the ability to validate concepts and theories (Launder 1990). Earlier
DNS work has primarily concentrated on turbulent channel flow (Kim, Moin & Moser
1987) and zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer (Spalart 1985), documenting near-
wall effects on turbulent wall-bounded flows with one inhomogeneous direction. Moser
& Moin (1987) performed the DNS of a curved channel flow, highlighting the
centrifugal force influence on turbulent channel flow. In contrast to these studies, in
which there is only one inhomogeneous direction, the present work considers a
geometry with two inhomogeneous directions and focuses on ‘new’ effects resulting
from the complex interaction of turbulence structures in the vicinity of the corners. The
description of these new effects motivates the present work, leading to the cause of the
distorted isotachs and the creation of mean secondary flows. Simultaneously with the
present work, Gavrilakis (1992) performed a DNS of the square duct at a low Reynolds
 zyxw
zyxw
zyxw
zyxwv
Turbulent flow in a square duct
number, providing a detailed description of the mean flow in the transverse plane and
67

turbulence statistics along the wall bisector. Gavrilakis (1992) also calculated the terms
in the mean streamwise vorticity equation, but did not report the mechanisms
responsible for the new effects due to the presence of the corner.
The objective of this work is to develop an efficient numerical solution procedure for
the three-dimensional, time-dependent, incompressible Navier-Stokes equations and
to perform a DNS of the square duct flow at a Reynolds number in the well-established
turbulent regime, providing a database from which turbulence statistics and the
characteristics of the Reynolds-averaged flow field are obtained. The DNS data base
is then used to provide a detailed description of the corner influence on turbulence
statistics and on the origin of the secondary flows of the second kind.

zyxwvu
2. Problem definition and scales
We consider fully developed, incompressible turbulent flow in a square duct; the
geometry and coordinate system are displayed in figure 1. The governing equations are
the three-dimensional, time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations,

zyxwvut
au 1
-+u.VU = -Vp+--V2u+&,
at Re,
and the continuity equation,

z
v-u= 0. (2)
Equations (1) and (2) are written in non-dimensional form, where the mean friction
velocity, u,, and the duct width, D, are used as the velocity and lengthscales,
respectively. With this non-dimensionalization, the Reynolds number is defined as

zyxwvu
Re, = u,D/u. The lengthscale used here is the hydraulic diameter and this is four times
the hydraulic radius, which is the lengthscale commonly used in channel flow (D= 48).
The kinematic viscosity is given by v ; the mean pressure gradient is -4i, where i
represents the unit vector in the streamwise direction; the fluctuating pressure is given
by p = P/@u,2), where P is the dimensional pressure and p is the density. No-slip
boundary conditions are imposed on the solid walls and the flow is assumed to be
periodic in the x-direction.
The data base used in the present work was obtained from two runs, the
computational parameters for which are given in table 1. The Reynolds number in both
calculations was Re, = 600 which is in the fully developed turbulent regime. The
following algebraic stretching was implemented along the wall-normal directions
(Anderson, Tennehill & Pletcher 1984, p. 249),

where a = (b + I)/@- l), Nu is the number of grid points in the y-direction and
b = 1.1 is a stretchingparameter. Figure 2 displays the energy spectra for the coarse grid
calculation (Run A, table 1) obtained at points along the wall bisector; in this figure
a, is the x-directional wavenumber, a, = 2zn/l,, n = 0, 1, ...,iNz - 1, where 1, = L,/D
is the non-dimensional computational box length and N , is the number of grid points
along the x-direction. This figure exhibits only a marginal buildup of energy in the high
wavenumbers, indicating that even at this low resolution, the present numerical code
accurately captures the energy spectra, especially for the large-scale effects.
The streamwise two-point correlation lengths represent the characteristic length of
the longest turbulence structures in the streamwise direction and the computational
68 zyxw
zyxwvut A . Huser and S. Biringen

zyxwvutsrqp
zyxwvutsr
zyxwvutsr
z, w

1. Geometry and coordinate system.

FIGURE

100 zyxwvuts
, L -- -.. ii.;.. '
.'L .'-..-.=

z
-

~ ~ ~ 1 -0 - 4 -

Y
-0.0057
- . . .. ... 0.019 \

zyxwvutsrq
10-6 -
- - - 0.035
0.055 \
_ _ 0.51
0.14 \
10-8 ' ' ' I \ ,

zyxwv
Run Grid [tot At Re*
A 81 x81 x 64 15 0.001 10620
B 100x100~96 10 0.0008 10320
TABLE
1. Computational parameters and bulk Reynolds numbers from runs A and B.
Re, = 600, I, = 6.4.
 zyxw
zyxw
zyxw z
zyxwvutsrqponm Turbulentjow in a square duct 69

zyxwvutsrqpo
zyxwvutsrqp
1 .o
F'a

Ruu
0.5 zyxwv - 0.0099

....
_-
Y

0.024
0.041
0.062
0

t. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . t . . . . .
0 1 2 3
X

zyxwv
3. Two-point correlation coefficient, R,,, at selected points along the wall bisector;
FIGURE
z = 0.51.

domain must be able to capture these structures. Sample results from the present
coarse-grid calculations indicate that the correlation coefficients are close to zero at
x = :Zx = 3.2 (figure 3). Consequently no further computer resources were committed
to study the influence of the domain length and 1, = 6.4 was used throughout this
work. In comparison, in the recent study of Gavrilakis (1992) a box length of
1, = 31.4 was used, whereas the large-eddy simulation of Madabhushi & Vanka (1991)
was performed with ,Z = 6.4, as in the present work. On the basis of very favourable
comparisons of the present results with existing square duct and channel flow data we
assert that the influence of the shorter computational domain is marginal in the present
calculations which accurately capture the characteristic effects creating secondary
flows.

3. The numerical procedure

The Navier-Stokes equations, (l), and the continuity equation, (2), were advanced
in time by using a time-splitting method (Kim & Moin 1984) improved with a
RungeKutta formulation of the time-stepping procedure (Le & Moin 1991). The time-
splitting method involves uncoupling of (1) and (2) so that first, the momentum
equations are solved independently of the pressure field, and second the velocities are
corrected by a pseudo-pressure field, which satisfies a divergence-free velocity field.
With the Runge-Kutta formulation, the uncoupled Navier-Stokes equations are
obtained as

Here li" is the intermediate velocity field; m = 1,2,3 denote the substeps in the
Runge-Kutta scheme. The superscript m - 1 denotes the last substep in the previous
time-step, At is the total Runge-Kutta time step, N = - a(u, uj)/i3xj+ (l/Re,) (a2u/i3x2)
contains the nonlinear terms and the x-directional viscous diffusion term, with the
nonlinear terms written in index notation; the coefficients /3, y, and assume constant
values at each Runge-Kutta substep and these values are given elsewhere (Le & Moin
1991). The diffusion operator, Viz = az/i3y2+aa/az2, is applied only along the wall-
normal directions. The x-directional diffusion term is solved explicitly together with the
70 zyxwvutsr
zyxw
zyx
zy
zyxwvut A . Huser and S. Biringen
nonlinear terms in order to save storage and computer time. With this Runge-Kutta
scheme, numerical stability was maintained up to a Courant number, C d 4. This
Courant number is greater than the upper limit obtained from the linear stability
analysis (Le & Moin 1991) which is C < d 3 , indicating that this linear criterion is not
very strict in the calculation of the present flow. Calculations performed with smaller
time steps corresponding to C < 4 3 gave identical results with C < 4 indicating the
time accuracy of the present results.
Boundary conditions for the intermediate velocities parallel to the walls are given by
u.p = 0, wherep denotes the unit direction parallel to the walls. No corrections were
applied to the intermediate slip velocities, as the present non-corrected boundary

zyxw
conditions were found to introduce negligible errors in previous studies (Huser &
Biringen 1992; Gresho 1990).
All the finite differences used to represent the first and second derivatives in the wall-
normal directions were obtained by a Lagrangian polynomial method developed in this
work. This method obtains the finite-differencecoefficients of any order on a stretched,
staggered grid, including one-sided and biased differences (Huser 1992).
The convective (nonlinear) terms, represented by a(u, !,)/ax,, are responsible for
transporting energy in the wavenumber space causing aliasing errors whenever spectral
or finite-difference methods are used to discretize these terms when the finest scales are
not resolved. According to Rai & Moin (199 I), these errors can be minimized by using
high-order upwind-biased finite differences as opposed to central differences and
spectral methods. Consequently, in the present simulations, fifth-order upwind-biased
differences were used for the convective terms in all the three directions.
The time-splitting method involves the implicit solution of the momentum and the
pressure equations which are Helmholtz- and Poisson-type equations, respectively.
These equations were efficiently solved by the tensor product method (Huser &
Biringen 1992). The momentum equations were solved by using fourth-order central
differences for the viscous terms providing a nine-point stencil in the wall-normal
directions. Along the streamwise direction, because the flow is periodic, the pseudo-
spectral Fourier method was implemented to calculate the viscous terms and to solve
the pseudo-pressure equation. When discretizing the pseudo-pressure equation in the
wall-normal directions, fourth-order central differences were used, and the coefficient
matrices were constructed by applying consistent divergence (div) and gradient (grad)
operators on a staggered mesh. The second-derivative operator was found by
combining the div and the grad operators resulting in the use of a 13-point stencil for
the interior points in the wall-normal directions. By using consistent operators in the
pseudo-pressure equation and when updating the velocities, divergence was satisfied to
machine accuracy. The details of the application of this method to the present problem
are available in Huser (1992).
A low-order version of the solution proedure was tested extensively on two-
dimensional cavity problems, obtaining good agreement with bench-mark solutions
(Huser & Biringen 1992).

4. Turbulence statistics and mean flow budgets

zyx
The fully developed flow in the duct was obtained by perturbing the laminar mean
flow with a random velocity field, and the code was run until a statistically steady state
was obtained. Steady state was reached after t = TuJD w 60 time units and was
identified by a constant mean value of the total kinetic energy and a linear mean shear
stress profile. This transient period corresponds to a distance of about 13000 travelled
 0.5

0.4 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
0.4

0.3

0.2 zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
0.2

0.1

FIGURE
0.1 0.2 zyxwvut
.

Z
.

zy
zyxwvu
zyxwvuts
0.3
. .
0.4
, ,
0.5
0.1

0
zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPON
0.1 0.2
Z
0.3 0.4

4. Ensemble-averaged mean velocities, Run A : (a) ii-contours, increment = 2;

(b) F, w velocity vectors.
0.5 zyxwvutsrqpon

by a particle on the centreline of the duct. This distance is much longer than the
entrance length which is about 80D (Gessner, Po & Emergy 1979). Long-term statistics
were obtained from runs A and B (table 1) when the flow was fully developed.
In this section we present the mean flow properties and one-point correlations from
runs A and B which are compared with existing experimental and computational data.
All the terms in the mean streamwise momentum and vorticity budgets are also
presented. Specificallywe focus on the effects of the corner on turbulent stress gradients
and on the mean convection.
Long-term statistics were obtained by averaging the flow field in the homogeneous
direction, x, and in time; in the following discussion, the averaged values are generally
indicated by an overbar and a prime indicates turbulent fluctuation quantities.
4.1. Mean flow properties
The long-term statistics for Run A were obtained over a time-period (t,,, = 15) which
corresponds to the time it would take a particle at the channel centre to travel a
distance equal to about 3300. The distributions are ensemble averaged over the eight
similar triangles that form when the wall and corner bisectors are drawn. This resultant
flow field is displayed in figure 4, in which only the lower left quadrant of the duct
cross-section is shown. In order to obtain the best statistical averages, the mean
properties were ensemble averaged when compared with experiments.
Figure 4(b) displays the secondary flow velocity vectors, revealing the two
streamwise, counter-rotating vortices in each corner that characterize this flow. For the
present low-Reynolds-numbercomputations, the vortex centres are closer to the corner
and the secondary flow is weaker near the wall bisector than in higher-Reynolds-
number experiment (Brundrett & Baines 1964). Figure 4(a) shows that the isotachs are
bent toward the corner, indicating a magnitude increase for a. At the wall bisector, the
present results exhibit a local maximum for ii whereas a local minimum exists in high-
Reynolds-number experiments (Brundrett & Baines 1964) (table 2 lists the Reynolds
numbers of the computational and experimental studies referred to in this paper). The
occurrence of a local ii maximum at the wall bisector is a low-Reynolds-numbereffect
(Gessner 1973; Gavrilakis 1992). By plotting the ensemble-averaged skin friction
72 zyxw
zyxwvutsr A . Huser and S. Biringen

zyxwvutsrq
1.5

-
7,
-
7,
zy
zyxw
1.0

0.5
x Gavrilakis (1992)

zyxwv
- RunA

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

Y
FIGURE
5. Ensemble-averaged wall stress variation.

zyxwvuts
Reference Investigation Re, Re,

zyxwvutsrqp
Present, run B duct, DNS 10320 600
Madabushi & Vanka (1991) duct, LES 5810 360
Gavrilakis ( 1 992) duct, DNS 4410 300
Gessner et al. (1979) duct, experiment 250000 10550
Brundrett & Bains (1964) duct, experiment 83 000 3 860
Kim et al. (1987) channel, DNS 13 200 720
B a h t et al. (1991) boundary layer, experiment Re, = 27650
TABLE 2. Works considered in this paper and their Reynolds numbers. The Reynolds number Re,
is based on the boundary-layer thickness and the free-stream velocity.

variation as a function of the distance along the wall, it is observed that the local
maximum in ii also yields a maximum in 7, at the wall bisector (figure 5). In figure 5
the distribution of 7 , / 7 , obtained from the present simulations is compared with data
from Gavrilakis (1992), which also attains its maximum value at the wall bisector.
Variations between these distributions could be due to the Reynolds-numberdifferences

zyxw
manifested by a steeper gradient in 7,/5, towards the corner at the higher Reynolds
number of the present study.

zyx
Except for a 2.8% difference in bulk Reynolds numbers (table l), mean velocities
obtained from the fine-grid calculation are very similar to the coarser grid results
obtained in run A. The finer resolution in run B provides more accurate results
indicated by a higher friction factor, which is f = 8u,2/Ui = 0.027 in run B and
f = 0.026 in run A. The experimentally found friction factor is f = 0.030 (Hartnett,
Koh & McComas 1962).
The mean streamwise velocity profile along the wall bisector (z = 0.5) is plotted in
wall coordinates in figure 6 and compared with the low-Reynolds-number large-eddy
simulation of Madabhushi & Vanka (1991), and the data from the DNS of Gavrilakis
(1992). The mean velocity profile is also compared with the law of the wall, which reads
1
ii= -lny++5.5, (6)
K

where K = 0.41 is the von Karmbn constant and y+ = yRe,. In figure 6 , where the
variables are normalized with the local friction velocity, the overshoot from the ‘log
 z
zyxwvuts zyxwv 73

-
U
zyxwvut
25

zyxwv
10
_-

-
15 -
1

I
-
' . ' I

zyxwvutsr
I.-.-Law of the wall

zyxwvutsr
RmA
20 - - Run B
x

0
Gavrilakis
Madabhushi & Vanka
I I

-
-

5- -

zyxwvutsrq
0
-
, ' . I
.-.
I

6. Comparing mean streamwise velocity along the wall bisector with the law of the wall
FIGURE
I L

zyxw
and previous square duct work.

0.6 :(4 - Run A

- - Run B -

A Gessner & Emery (1981)

0 Brundrett & Bains (1964)

0.4 - x Gavrilakis (1992) -

8 - 0

0.2 - A A A A -
0
8 A
0 A
A A

0
A
d -- jr -- ---- - __ _"
A
I
X

0.5

0.4

0.3
442
0.2

zyxw
0.1

7. Comparison of secondary velocity vectors: (a) along the wall bisector;

FIGURE
and (b) along the corner bisector.
74 zyxwvutsr
zy A . Huser and S. Siringen
law’, (6), is likely the result of stronger turbulence production near the walls away from
the corners in duct flow compared to channel and boundary-layer flows (see $4.2).
Gavrilakis (1992) also argued that the square duct geometry influences the log law even

zyxw
though his data show a closer fit when normalized by the local friction velocity in figure
6 . The coarse-grid resolution near the wall bisector (due to the stretched mesh parallel

zyx
to the wall) may also have influenced the mean velocity profile in this region. In figure
6 , a comparison between runs A and B reveals that the overshoot from the log law is

zy
slightly reduced with the finer grid.
In figure 7, the secondary velocity distributions along the corner and the wall
bisector are compared with experiments (Brundrett & Baines 1964 and Gessner &
Emery 1981) and simulations (Gavrilakis 1992). The present values of Bare significantly
lower than the experimental results along the wall bisector (see figure 7a). In the low-
Reynolds-number simulation of Gavrilakis (1992) negative v are observed for y < 0.1,
which do not exist in the present results where the Reynolds number is higher (see table
2). The low B-velocity at the wall bisector in the present results is a low-Reynolds-
number effect occurring together with the local maximum wall shear stress at this
location. According to figure 7 (b), the level of the secondary velocity along the corner
bisector compares well with experiments. Using this velocity as a measure of the
strength of the secondary flow, figure 7(b)indicates that when normalized by the mean
friction velocity, the strength of the secondary flow is independent of the Reynolds
number (Launder & Ying 1972). In figure 7, results from runs A and B are also
compared, exhibiting a marginal difference.
4.2. Turbulence intensities
The near-wall behaviour of the turbulence intensities, normalized by the local friction
velocity, is displayed in figure 8 (a-c) where the y+ distributions at the wall bisector are

zy
compared with data from the channel flow DNS (Kim et al. 1987), boundary-layer
measurements (Balint, Wallace & VukoslavEeviC 1991) and square duct DNS results
(Gavrilakis 1992) (table 2). Figure S(a-c) displays that in the viscous sublayer for
y+ < 10, turbulence intensities from the present calculationsprovide excellent agreement
with the other data (Kim et al. 1987 and Gavrilakis), indicating the universality of the
inner scaling here. Away from the wall, it is observed that the maximum value in ur,,

zy
is highest in the present square duct flow (figure 8a), whereas further away from the
wall, in the log region (y+ > 40), the boundary-layer flow (Balint et al. 1991) has the
highest value. All the components of the turbulent intensity increase with the
Reynolds number in the log region of wall-bounded turbulent flows (Willmarth 1975
and Balint et al. 1991). The differences in y+ distributions outside the viscous sublayer
in figure 8 (a-c) could be the result of Reynolds-number differences, different flow-field
geometries as well as numerical and experimental errors. In the present results the urms
decrease with increasing grid resolution (figure 8a). This was also observed by Rai &
Moin (1991), indicating that the upwind-biased scheme has a tendency to overpredict
the maximum value in u,,, when the computation is under-resolved.
4.3. Mean streamwise momentum equation
For the square duct flow, the Reynolds-averaged streamwise momentum equation is
written as

In this non-dimensional equation, u, and D are used as the velocity and length scales
respectively. Equation (7) applies to a fully developed turbulent flow and is averaged
 zyxwv
zyx
zyxwv
Turbulent flow in a square duct

zyxw
75

zyxw
zyxwvutsr
zyxwvutsrq
Kim et a/. (1987)

zyxwvutsr
A Balint et al. (1991)
4 x Gavrilakis (1992)
Urms
3

zyxwv
2 - -A -- - - -
0
1
I . , . , . , . , , , . , .

0 20 40 60 80
Y+
2.0

1.5

1 .o

0.5

r-----q
Y+
2.0

1.5

Wrms 1.o

0.5

0 20 40 60 80
Y+
8. Comparison of r.m.s. fluctuations along the wall bisector normalized by the local
FIGURE
friction velocity: (a) urm8;(b) v,,,,~; (c) w,,,.

in both the homogeneous x-direction and in time. Consequently, all the x- and t-
derivatives vanish except for dp/dx, which is the constant driving pressure gradient.
The terms in the a-equation, (7), are plotted in figure 9(a-c) at different locations. All
the budget-terms were calculated directly as they appear in (7) in which the convection
76 zyxwvuts
z zyxw
zyxwv
. .
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

-- a n i a y
- - Convection
-a;TtJlaz
Viscous diffusion
+ + + dpIdx+ Balance

++++++ + + + + + + + + + + +-+-+-+ + + +
-

-40
I![
0 zyxwvuts
, ,

zyxw
zyxw
, , , .,,
0.1
, , , , , , ., , I

0.2
, , , , , , , , ,

Y
,,,
0.3
, , , , , , ,

0.4
I , , , , , , , , ,I
0.5

-20

20

zyxwvut
3 -10
0

- /
/

zyx
cl
-20
'.\ / ' -_ .-,
L u. ,. ,, , , , , , , .. - .
\% -..., , , _ l , , , , , , , , ,, , , , , , , , , , , 3
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Y
9. Ensemble-averaged g-budget distribution at different locations; (a) wall bisector,
FIGURE
z = 0.5; (b) corner bisector, z = y ; (c) z = 0.027.

terms (the left-hand side) balance all the other terms. Along the wall bisector (figure 9 a)
for y > 0.2, the sum of the primary Reynolds shear stress gradients (the two first terms
on the right-hand side of (7)) balances the pressure gradient, and the contribution from
convection in figure 9(a) is small. The low convection along the wall bisector is
 0.5
zyxw
zyxwvu
z
zyxwvutsr Turbulent flow in a square duct 77

0.4

0.3
Y
0.3
0.2

zyxwvutsrq
0.2

FIGURE
0.1

0 zyxwvu
zyxwv
zyxwvu
0.1 0.2
Z
0.3 0.4 0.5
0.1

0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

10. Primary Reynolds stress contours in the lower left quadrant of thsransverse plane from
Run B; every fifth grid-line is dashed: (a) u'Z-contours,increment = 1.0; (b) u'd-contours, increment
= 0.1.

associated with the low-Reynolds-numbereffect (see figure 7 a) which is characterized

zyxwv
by a relatively weak &velocity in this region.
The contour plots in figure 10 and the distributions in figure 11 delineate how the

zyxwvuts
primary Reynolds stresses are influenced by the corner. The primary normal stress (?)
is significantly reduced in the regions near the corner bisector (figures 10a and 11c),
consistent with the reduced a-gradient here (see figure 44. Also, considering the
horizontal wall, the peak value of u'2 is at z fi: 0.31, and not at z = 0.5, as in the high-
Reynolds-number experiment of Brundrett & Baines (1964). This is a low-Reynolds-
number effect related to the reduced &velocity at the wall bisector. The contour plots
of UluI display asymmetric behaviour (figure lob), where the reduced lu'dl at the wall
bisector ( z = 0.5) compared to its value at z = 0.35 is a manifestation of the low-
Reynolds-number effect. The shear stress, u'd,increases and reaches a maximum
value near the vertical wall when this is approached horizontally from z = 0.5 for
0.03 < y < 0.3. The positive at the vertical wall (also illustrated on figure 11b) is
probably associated with bursting events from this wall and with the organization
of the ejection structures near the corner; this issue is investigated further in $ 5 .
The distributions of (figure 11b) are similar to the distributions of &' so that
mof)
- = n ( z ) . A contour plot of is therefore obtained by a 90' rotation of the
u'd-contour plot in the (y,z)-plane.
Toward the corner where the secondary velocities are stronger, mean convection
becomes significant. Figure 9(b) indicates that near the corner, along the corner
bisector, mean convection balances both the viscous diffusion (the last term on the
right-hand side of (7)) and the turbulent shear stress gradients. This negative
convection represents a loss in the ii-momentum equation, with a minimum value at
y = z = 0.04 (figure 9b). The same effect was also found by Gessner (1973)
who investigated the total kinetic energy equation. Accordingly, the positive primary
shear stress gradient along the corner bisector causes energy loss, which is compensated
by momentum gain due to mean convection.
The viscous diffusion of u is reduced along the corner bisector due to the reduced a-
gradients but it is still significant (figure 9b). In the vicinity of the corner, the turbulent
78 zyxwvutsr
zyxw A . Huser and S. Biringen

zyxwvutsrq Y

zyxwvutsrq
12

---
zy
10 - - / - - - -

-
#'2 zyxwvutsrq
8

4
-._
_.__ -

zyx
2

0 0.1 0.2
Y
zyx
zy
0.3 0.4 0.5

FIGURE11. Primary Reynnolds stress distribution at different z-locations: (a) uIL)*; (b) u";

shear stress gradients generally contribute to momentum loss in the a-budget (figure
9 b) as opposed to momentum gain caused by - 8 m p y at the wall bisector (figure 9 a).
(c) p.

The resulting negative convection is also observed along- the vertical wall near the
corner (figure 9c) generated by a faster decrease in -&'w'/az than the increase of the
 Turbulentflow in a square duct z
zyxwv
zyxw 79

FIGURE
0
1 ” 1 ’
0.1
i ‘I

zyxwvut
zyxwvutsrq
zyxwvu
zyxwv
i
0.2
I ’

z
I

0.3
‘ I I ’

0.4
I i
0.5 0 0.1 0.2
Z
0.3

12. Secondary RTnolds stress contours in the l o w a e f t quadrant of the transverse plane
from Run B : (a) o’2-contours,increment = 0.1 ; (b) o’w’-contours, increment = 0.01.
0.4 0.5

zyxwvu
viscous diffusion term toward the horizontal wall. Along the vertical wall for y > 0.15,
reduced viscous effects and increased shear stress gradients cause positive convection
in this region (figure 9c), which in turn, reduces the streamwise momentum. It is
interesting to note that, according to figure lO(u), the turbulence level attains a

zy
maximum value in these positive @-convectionregions, despite the reduced a-shear. The
maximum u’2 at this location is caused by the relatively high turbulent primary shear
stress. The turbulence production is proportional to both the mean velocity shear and
the turbulent shear stresses. The maximum primary shear stress occurs where the
convection is highest, and not at the location where the maximum &shear occurs. This
suggests that in addition to the mean shear, aii/ay, the mean convection, aaa/8y7
should be accounted for in turbulent shear stress closure models.
In summary, the inhomogeneous distribution of turbulence production via the
primary turbulent shear stresses instigates convection of the @-velocity,distorting the
isotachs, as first explained by Prandtl (1952).
4.4.Mean streamwise uorticity equation
The mean streamwise vorticity equation is obtained by eliminating pressure from the
mean secondary flow momentum equations and substituting the mean streamwise
vorticity, a5 = aw/ay-au/-/az; this equation reads (Perkins 1970)

Equation (8) demonstrates the importance of the secondary Reynolds stresses to the
mean streamwise vorticity production, and the estimation of these terms has been the
subject of several investigations (Brundrett & Baines 1964; Gessner & Jones 1965;
Perkins 1970; Madabushi & Vanka 1991; and Gavrilakis 1992). Gessner & Jones
(1965) first found that both secondary Reynolds stress terms (the first two terms on the
right-hand side of (8)) contribute to the production of secondary flow. This was also
confirmed by Perkins (1970), who argued that the secondary - - flow is generated by the
difference between the secondary normal stresses (u12 - d2), and that the secondary
shear stress term, ( a z / / a z 2 - P / 3 y 2 ) ~acts
, like a transport term in (8).
80 zyxwvu
zyxwvut A . Huser and S. Biringen

zyxwv
zyxwvutsrqpon
zyxwvu
zyxwvutsrq
1 (b)
Y

zyxw
zy
Z

1.5

-
w'2 1.0 - 0.036

0.5

0 zyxwvutsr
I
----_ _ - -
0.1
Y
I ,

0.2
c

.....

........................ .................
_

r
_

( . . I . .

' ,
0.3
_ _

.......
-

0.4
_ _ _

.....
I . , > ,
_

0.5
_

zy
-0.15 k2
t
- 0 0. 2 0 ~0.1~ " " 0.2
" ~ " ~ 0.3~ ~ ~ ~0.4~ " " 0.5
" ~ " ~ " " ~ ~ ~
Y
FIGURE
13. Secondary ReynoMs stressdistribution at different z-locations:
(a) v ' 2 ; (b) w ' 2 ; (c) u'w'.

zyxw
Contour plots and y-distributions of the secondary normal stress, @ (figures 12a
and 13a), display asymmetric behaviour. Owing to the greater damping effect of the
horizontal wall, @ has a lower value here than the near vertical wall. Because of flow-
field symmetry, the *-distribution is obtained by a 90" rotation of the p-distribution
(figure 13b). Note that the y-gradient of 3near the corner for y < 0.1 is significantly
 zyxw
z
zyxwv
Turbulent $ow in a square duct 81

t' " ' ' . ' " I ' " ' " " "

z
zyxwv
" "

-Production by normal stress

" "

Production by shear stress

Viscous diffusion
" ' ' ' . " " ' I ' ' " ' " zy
''I

0 0.1 0.2
Y
0.3 0.4 0.5 zyxw

FIGURE
14. Ensemble-averaged @,-budget distribution at two z-locations: (a) z = 0.015;
(b) z = 0.1 ; ( c ) z = 0.1 plotted versus y+ coordinates.

reduced compared to the gradient along the wall bisector (see figure 13a). This
illustrates one of the secondary effects which produce the secondary flow, and can be
zyx
explained by an energy transfer from the 3-component to the w'2-component
(opposite above the corner bisector). More detail on the characteristics of this energy
 zyxwvutsr
zyxw
zyxwvut
zyxwv
82 A . Huser and S . Biringen
transfer process is provided in $7. Contours and distributions of the secondary shear
stress,m, in the (y,z)-plane are presented in figure 12(b) and 13(c), and display a
significant minimum value near the corner.
The y-distributions of the four terms in (8) are plotted in figure 14(a-c) for two z-
locations. The balance, denoted by a + at each grid point, indicates small deviations

zy
from zero except for the two grid points near the wall (see figure 14c). This error is due

zy
to the calculation of the viscous diffusion term during post-processing, which involves
the use of one-sided finite differences at the wall for the calculation of third-order
derivatives of the velocity field. At z = 0.1 the distributions reach peak values near the
wall where the maximum production of streamwise vorticity takes place (Madabushi

zyxwvut
& Vanka 1991 and Gavrilakis 1992). Figure 14(a) presents the distribution of these
terms near the vertical wall at z = 0.015; the convection has a minimum at y M 0.09
where the vorticity is negative. Normal stress gradients decrease the magnitude of the
vorticity here in agreement with the results of Gavrilakis (1992). Figure 14(b, c)
demonstrates how the negative vorticity is produced below the corner bisector : near the
wall for y+ c 18 (figure 14c) negative vorticity is produced by the secondary normal

zyxwvu
stress and for y+ > 18 negative streamwise vorticity is produced by the secondary shear
stress by transporting it outward from the wall.
Near the horizontal wall is, is positive owing to the no-slip boundary conditions; this
is caused by strong positive viscous diffusion together with the positive shear stress
gradient (y’ < 20 in figure 14c). As noted by Gavrilakis (1992) this indicates the
importance of the viscous diffusion, which was assumed to be negligible by Demuren
& Rodi (1984).

5. Quadrant analysis
In the previous section, it was shown how the anisotropic Reynolds stresses were
responsible for the convection of streamwise velocity and vorticity. In this section,
quadrant analysis - -
is used to describe the mechanisms which create the off-diagonal
Reynolds stresses (u’v’,u’w‘ and m). By connecting specific turbulence structures to

zy
the generation of the anisotropic Reynolds stresses, we intend to provide a physical
understanding of the generation of secondary flow of the second kind.
Quadrant analysis generally provides information about the total turbulence
production from various events which occur in a turbulent flow (Kim et al. 1987) by
dividing the Reynolds shear stress into four categories according to the signs of the
fluctuating velocities (figure 15). In this analysis, for the square duct, positive d-and
w’-velocities always point away from the nearest wall in the y- and z-directions,

zyxw
-
respectively. In wall-bounded turbulent flows, Q2 and Q4 events for the primary shear
stress, - u’v’, are associated with low-speed ejections and high-speed sweeps,
respectively. The other events are not associated with any particular turbulence
structure when there is only one inhomogeneous direction. In the present flow, because
there are two inhomogeneous directions, the Q1 and 43 events are also associated with
turbulence structures as are the 4 2 and 44 events. Note that in the present flow,
Ql-Q4 events describe the creation of both and which act in the y- and z-
directions, respectively whereas the Q 1 , 4 4 , events are related to the generation of
secondary shear stress (m). In the subsequent analysis, results from Run B are
ensemble averaged and presented for the lower left quadrant of the duct.
 42

43
zyxwv
zyxwv
zyxwv
zyxw
zyxwv
Q1

44
? zyx Q2,

Q33
Q1S

Q 4 S
zyxwvut
5
83

zyx
5.1. Primary shear stress correlations

zyx
In this section, quadrant analysis is employed to identify the constribution from the
ejection and sweep events to the production of and u "correlations. Instantaneous
pictures of the ejection structure, discussed in the next section, illustrate two counter-
rotating streamwise vortices existing in the shear layer near the wall, with the rotational
directions pointing upward from the wall between the vortices. This forces low-
momentum fluid at the wall to enter the high-speed core of the flow, and the flow
between the vortices is a 4 2 event with negative u' and positive d . The sweeps, which
are more difficult to visualize because they are not directly associated with streamwise
vortices, are associated with an inrush of high-momentum fluid towards the wall region
and are 44 events with positive u' and negative d.The time evolution of a burst event
was schematically described by Lumley (199 1) by a proper orthogonal decomposition
(POD) analysis of the near-wall region analysing the effect of the bursts on streamwise
vortices. The burst event occurs in an aperiodic manner where one cycle starts with two
counter-rotating vortices which suddenly increase the updraft between them, ejecting
low-momentum fluid into the high-speed core of the flow. The vortices further drift
apart and a gentle downdraft occurs between them, recognized as a sweep. The cycle
continues with the start of two new ejections, one on each side of the old one, shifted
one burst period in the spanwise direction. One burst period occupies one streamwise
vortex and was found to be around Az+ = 100 using wall coordinates, where wall
coordinates are given by z+ = zRe, (Kline et al. 1967).
In the square duct, it is reasonable to assume that the same turbulence structures are
present as in channel flow, and the average deviation of these structures (from channel
flow characteristics) creates the turbulence characteristics of the secondary flow ; these
deviations are largest in the corners where the anisotropies are largest.
In figure 16(u) and 16(b), the contribution of Q-events to the total =-distribution
(along y ) is presented at two z-locations, z = 0.5 and 0.135. A comparison of these

zyxwvutsr
figures reveals that 4 3 events are most influenced by the corner effects. The 4 3 events
are created by the correlation between -u' and - d , so that the ejection event is
responsible for this correlation because of the negative u'. The strength of 4 3 events
increases when going from the wall bisector towards the vertical wall. Consequently,
these events must be created by ejections from the vertical wall, resulting in the increase
ofa in this region.
In the previous section we showed that the mean convection of the streamwise
velocity was created by both the and the =-stresses. The --correlation is zero
in channel flow owing to the homogeneous z-direction, but in the present flow the
84 zyxw
zyxwvutsr A . Huser and S. Biringen

zyxwvuts
zyxw
-
-
behaviour of u’w’ beomes important. Contribution from the different quadrants to
u’w’-production above the horizontal wall is illustrated in figure 17. The ejection events
(Q2 and Q3) in figure 17 represent the upper part of an ejection structure, where Q2
belongs to the right eddy and 4 3 belongs to the left eddy (looking downstream). At the
wall bisector (figure 17a), each quadrant contributes significantly to this stress
component, but the sum is zero; we will refer to this effect as ‘the cancelling effect’.
Toward the vertical wall where deviation from the homogeneity in the z-direction
becomes important, figure 17(b) depicts the Q-events which contribute to the total
u”-stress. Accordingly, close to the horizontal wall is positive, created by strong
Q1 and Q3 events; also, further away from the wall, negative u’w’ is primarily created
by 4 2 events. Close to the corner below the corner bisector, both streaks and-ejections
contribute to positive u’w’. The contribution from ejections create positive u’w’ because
 zyxw
zy
zyxwv Turbulent$ow in a square duct 85

u'w' zyxwvutsr
zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA

-o.6 '
0zyxw
zyxwv 0.1 0.2
Y
0.3 0.4
~

0.5

0.6

0.4

0.2

-0.4

-0.6

zyxwvu
-0.8

-1.0 -1
0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5
Y
17. Reynolds shear stress, m,from each quadrant as a function of y ;
FIGURE
(a) z = 0.5; (b) z = 0.135.

4 3 events are stronger than 4 2 events, and this suggests that the ejections from the
horizontal wall on average bend toward the vertical wall. This difference between Q2
and 4 3 events can also be explained by the average location of the first ejection from
the horizontal wall measured from the origin; the left streamwise vortex in this ejection
rotates counterclockwise, so that the 4 3 events dominate the 4 2 events.
Owing to its direct connection to the mean streamwise momentum equation, the
distribution of as a function of z above the horizontal wall is perhaps the most
- of streamwise velocity. In figure 18(a) the Q-
useful quantity to describe the convection
events contributing to the total u'd-correlation are plotted as a function of z at
y = 0.042. From the total (figure 18a, solid line) the z-gradient of -m
is found to be positive for 0 < y < 0.02, negative for 0.02 < y < 0.14 and positive for
0.14 < y < 0.3 (see the budget distributions in figure 9c). At this cross-section close to
86 zyxwv
zyxw
A . Huser and S. Biringen

-
U’W’ zyxwvutsrq
-0.8 4
0

0.2 1
zyxwvutsrqpo
zyxwvuts
zyxwvutsrqzy
0.1 0.2
z
0.3 0.4
1
0.5

0.1

u“ -0.1

-0.2

-0.3

FZI
-0.4 4
0 0.1

18. Reynolds shear stress, m,

0.2
Z
0.3 0.4

zyx 5

from each quadrant as a function of z at y = 0.042; (a) all

u’w’ quadrant events; (b) comparing contribution from sweeps (Q1 +Q4) and ejections (Q2+43).

- -
the corner, typically the ejection event dominates the streak event in the production of
u’w’ (figure 18b); the total contribution to the u‘w‘-correlation from the sum of 4 2 and
43 events is generally twice the contribution from the sum of Q1 and - Q4. It is noted
that the contributions from the individual quadrant events creating u’w’ above the
horizontal wall are comparable in magnitude to the quadrant events creating n,but
owing to the cancelling effect of the =-events, their sum is reduced; maxlu‘wll is
about 40 YOof max Iu’v’I.
In summary, the positive above the horizontal wall with a maximum between
( y , z ) = (0.025,O.l) and (0.025,0.2) is caused primarily by ejections from this wall. Two
related effects contribute to this phenomenon. Because there can be no ejections from
the comer, the first ejection from the horizontal wall near the corner will ensure that
4 3 events will be dominant. Also, the interactions between ejections from both walls
 0.2

0.1 -
- zyxwvu
zy
zyx
(4

4'
/"
- ----:-.
_-___----*
--..
---._
.__-.-. - +-ow

--
--ST;--.
-=:-:%%.,..~~ulIII-
---.-
.:-
Q4
-.-.- Q2s
.: :.::,&
v" total
c'

v'w' 0 x.
,i
zyxwvutsrqponmlkjihgfedcbaZYXWVUTSRQPONMLKJIHGFEDCBA
~

.!
c-!. c
i:. ~,Y.,~,~,Y,IIY...-~-.-.-.-'
-0.1 - <>. . -. y.:F+
i.: -, - ,
%,,-. -. -.-,*,::.:.--.*
......................

-0.2 'I

(b)

zy
zyxwvuts
will bend the ejection stem toward the perpendicular wall, creating 4 3 events. In $6,

zyxwv
zy
instantaneous flow field structures will be presented in order to further illustrate the
second effect.
5.2. Secondary shear stress correlation
m.

zyxwv
In this section, the quadrant analysis is extended to the secondary shear stress,
The importance of this quantity- -the fact that together with the difference between
lies in

z
the secondary normal stresses (vr2- w") it contributes to the production and transport
of mean streamwise vorticity.
Contributions to the secondary stress from the individual Q-events are also
significant when there is only one inhomogeneous direction, but for such flows the sum
is zero (the cancelling effect). Figure 19(a) illustrates the Q-event contributions to the
secondary shear stress at the wall bisector in the square duct flow. The turbulence
88 zyxwvutsrq
zyxw
zyxw
zyxwvutsr A . Huser and S.Biringen

-,

zyxwvutsrq
/
/.A-

0.5

zyxwvutsrq
0.4

0.3
Y
0.2

0.1 zyxwvutsr
0

FIGURE
zyxwvu 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5 0.6

20. Instantaneous velocity, pressure, and streamwise vorticity distributions in the

transverse plane: (a) U/u,-contours, increment = 2; (b) u, w velocity vectors.

events creating the v"-shear stress are most likely to be associated streamwise vortices;
41, and 42, events are created by secondary flows directed up from the wall with an
angle in either the right or left direction (looking downstream), respectively, and the
43, and 44, events are similarly created by the downward motion towards the wall.
These streamwise vortices are created by ejections, and owing to the lack of ejections
from the corner (origin), turbulence fluctuations in the corner bisector direction are
reduced. Figure 19 (b) shows that the turbulence fluctuations perpendicular to the
corner bisector (represented by 42, and 44, events) are maintained until around
z = 0.05 when the corner is approached from the wall bisector at z = 0.5, whereas the
contribution of the 41, and 43, events start to decrease at around z = 0.3. The reason
why the 42, contribution is maintained closer to the comer (figure 19b) may also be

zy
due to the interaction between ejections from both walls tilting the ejection stem
toward the perpendicular wall. The combined effect of no ejections from the corner and
the tilted ejection stems causes the Q2,and 44, events to be stronger than the Q1, and
4 3 , events, resulting in a negative u'w'-correlation.
This analysis indicates that the magnitude of the v"-correlation is significant in the
corner region and is about 20% of the maximum primary shear stress (lu'vll).

6. Instantaneous flow structures

In this section we present an illustrative cross-sectionof the instantaneous turbulence
structures which contribute to the production of shear stresses.
We consider the instantaneous streamwise velocity contours and secondary velocity
vectors at a cross-section in the (y,z)-plane (figure 20). First we examine an ejection
which is not influenced by the sidewalls which appears at z = 0.5 near the horizontal
wall; the characteristic mushroom-like shape is depicted in figure 20(a) and two
counter-rotating vortices exist at the same place in figure 20(b).
Near the corner, several ejections can be observed. The strongest ejection, whose
mushroom shape is evident in figure 20(a), starts from the vertical wall at around
y = 0.25. The velocity vectors display two counter-rotating vortices, one below and one
above this ejection structure. The lower vortex is most pronounced, and it appears that
this vortex interacts with another ejection structure from the horizontal wall. Figure
 zyxw
zyxw Turbulent JEow in a square duct 89
20(a) indicates that an ejection event is starting at around z = 0.25 from the horizontal

zyxwvut
wall, and the stem of this ejection stretches out toward the vertical wall and joins the
lower vortex belonging to the stronger ejection from the vertical wall.
It must be emphasized that these instantaneous pictures only serve as an example of
typical turbulence structures in this flow which are responsible for the interactions
between ejections from both walls; this interaction results in the bending of the ejection
stems.

7. Pressure-velocity correlations
In second-order turbulence closures, modelling of the pressurevelocity correlations
is the key to a successful model. In this section, we investigate the behaviour of the
pressure-velocity correlations as they relate to the production of secondary flow and
to the distortion of the isotachs.
The influence of pressure fluctuations on the Reynolds stress transport equations is
contained in the velocity-pressure gradient correlation,

and each term is written

4 j zyxwv
In turbulence models, niiis usually split into a pressure-strain correlation and a
pressure-diffusion correlation (by the chain rule) :
= @+
, q,

zyxwvu
zyxwvu
pressure-diffusion,

where s& = #h.@xi+au,/i3xj) is the fluctuating strain rate, and atj is the Kronecker
delta.
7.1. Diagonal pressure-strain terms
The reduced 3gradient, a?/i3yY, near the corner along the horizontal wall (see figure
12a), which becomes an important contributor to the source of the streamwise vorticity
(equation (8)) can be explained by the redistribution of p-energy to p-energy
through the pressure-strain (or velocity-pressure gradient) correlations. This effect is
similar to the ‘splatting’ effect that occurs in the vicinity of a solid boundary (Moin &
Kim 1982). The difference between the ‘splatting’ effect and this ‘corner’ effect can be
observed in figure 21 (a, b) in which the diagonal terms in the pressure-strain tensor are

zyx
plotted as a function of y at two z-locations: in the first location both the corner and
the splatting effects are present and in the other location only the splatting effect

zyx
is present. Near the corner, where both effects coexist, at z = 0.064 (figure 21 a),
&@ becomes a loss to the ?-budget for y < 0.05. This loss is distributed only to the
d2-budgetfor 0.02 < y c 0.05 constituting the corner effect, even though the strongest
contribution to is from the u’2-component through @,,.The splatting effect takes
place for y < 0.02, where 3-energy is distributed to both d 2and p,in figure 21 (a).
Further away from the corner, where only the splatting effect is present (figure 21 b),
this effect is observed close to the wall for y < 0.02 with a negative @22, increased QI1
and an increased @33, Also, the distributions of @22 and @,, cross-over on the corner
bisector, indicated by the vertical lines in figure 21 ; above the corner bisector, energy
transfer is from w12 to p.This corner effect can be explained by the interactions
4 FLM 257
 zyxwvuts zyxw
zy
90

zy
zy0.04 -

zyxwvutsrqpo
0.02

-0.02
-,' -
I
L

-
- \

.......
\
I

...... --..
.

....
.

zyxwv
- -1
. . ,

.- _ _ - -
* - - . ,

*
I

---
. '

........

-2
___
' ,

*
.

@I 1
.

J
'

J
' ,

/
.

-__----
. zyxwvutsrqp
..
(a) 1

... .-..
-0.04 - ......... -
I . . . . 8 . , . . 8 . , . . I . . s . 1 :--.
..-

I . . " I ' " ' 1 ' " ' , ' . . .

(b)
-

-
zy
-
- ---
- _ - - - - - - _ _ -- 1

...... ...........................
.... ......
-

-0.04 - .

zyxwvuts
. '... . . .,..: . , -
, , , , , , , I

FIGURE
21. Diagonal terms in the pressure-strain tensor at two z-locations : (a) z = 0.064;
(b) z = 0.198. The vertical line indicates the corner bisector.

between ejections arising from both walls consecutively. The upward motion in an
ejection from the horizontal wall is bent toward the vertical wall when an ejection has
taken place here. The ejection from the vertical wall will cause a downdraft to the
corner caused by the streamwise eddy near the corner. This downdraft will influence
the ejection from the horizontal wall and bend its ejection stem toward the vertical
wall. Because of this bending, energy is transferred from the u' to the w'-component;
in $6, this scenario is illustrated by considering the instantaneous flow field. This
interaction of the ejections also results in the -u"-correlation near the corner. It
should be stressed that the underlying reason for the interaction of ejections giving a
mean secondary flow is the lack of bursts from the corner, causing the ejections to be
'locked' at locations away from the corner.
7.2. Transport terms
In second-order turbulence closures, the pressurestrain correlation (equation (1 1)) is
usually modelled directly, and the pressure-diffusion term is modelled together with
the turbulent transport term,
 zyxwvu
zyxw
z
Turbulent flow in a square duct 91

E
zyxwvut
zyxwvut 0.05 0.10 0.15
Y
0.20 0.25 0.30

8
*- zyxwvutsrqponml
I
0.05

cn zyxwvutsrq
A-0.05
zyxwvutsrq
0
-

-
'. 6
x...'

zy
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

However, results from DNS of turbulent channel flow indicate that n,, not cDgj, should
be modelled directly because near the wall, Gij and the pressure transport term TG are
opposite-valued and cancel each other when added (Mansour, Kim & Moin 1988).
Modelling of l7,may be easier than modelling of cDij because the pressure transport

zyxw
term acts differently than the turbulent transport term and lumping them together in
a model for (q2+ Tr'.) will require the model to describe two different effects. For the
square duct flow, the two transport terms, T,, and T;,, are plotted in figure 22(a)
indicating that the differences are indeed quite significant; q, displays the diffusion
process which it represents, whereas Tf, acts in the direction opposite to q2.The sum,
ITl, = TFz+cD12,acts as a redistributive term, and in fact the main part of the
redistributed gain in the budget for z < 0.2, below the corner bisector, comes
through the pressure transport term, Tr3 (for y < 0.06 in figure 22b).
7.3. Off-diagonal velocity-pressure gradient correlations
The off-diagonal velocity-pressure gradient correlations contribute strongly to the
anisotropic shear stresses (Huser 1992). A complex intehction between the three off-
diagonal shear stress terms was found to be a part of the corner effect.
Considering first the effect that also occur in turbulent channel flow, in figure 23 (a,
4-2
92 zyxwvutsr 0.04

ni
jzyxw
0.02

zyx
q
i zyxw
0.03 F
zyx
zyxwvut _./.-.-.-
/ * / -
_c.
zyxwvut
/'
/'
/.
(b)
,
.,
,-
-
_-.- - =-

-
3

FIGURE
zyxwvu
zyxwv
Y
23. Off-diagonal velocity-pressure gradient terms from the primary shear stress budgets :
(a) at z = 0.5 and z = 0.19; (b) at z = 0.022.

dashed line) the distribution of IT,, at z = 0.5 is plotted. This distribution compares
well qualitatively with data from Mansour et al. (1988), where positive U12is a loss to
the production of --.

zyx
For z < 0.3, the effect of the corner becomes pronounced, and
the distributions at z = 0.19 (figure 23a) indicate that U,, is reduced. The reduction of
P,, occurs simultaneously with a gain to the u"-budget through ITl, for y <- 0.06
(figure 23 a, chain-dashed line), which is one of the mechanisms by which positive u'w'-
shear stress is produced (see contour plots of m, figure lob. Note that the m-
contours are obtained from the u"-contours by rotating u " 90" in the transverse
plane). The connection between u"- and m-stresses can also be observed in the
distribution plot of U,, and 17,, parallel to the vertical wall at z = 0.022 (figure 23b).
The reduced n1,along the vertical wall for z < 0.2 is probably responsible for the
positive n1, at the same location. There is a role reversal for the velocity-pressure
gradient terms from the duct centre to the corner; at the duct centre, 17,, is positive,
but acts as a loss to the negative shear stress (-=), whereas near the corner, 17,, is
a gain to the positive shear stress (m) (figure 23b).
Considering the a-momentum budget (94.3, figure 9 c) along the vertical wall, it can
be noted that both the reduced magnitude of and the positive u12.'I create a relative
loss to this equation (for y < 0.2) through the terms -am/& and - a m / a y ; for 0.05
< y < 0.2 both the turbulent shear stress terms decrease as the corner is approached
 zyxw
zyxw
zyxwvuzy
zyxw
zyxw Turbulent flow in a square duct
resulting in a decreasing @-convection.This reduced &convection becomes negative
93

near the vertical wall. The positive iz-convection along the vertical (or horizontal) wall,
with a maximum value at y = 0.3 (see figure 9 c ) , is caused by the large magnitude of

zyxwvu
combined with a low u1zi'.
Summarizingthe off-diagonal pressure-velocity correlation effects in the square duct
flow, the present results indicate that negative iz-convection in the corner is partly
created by the velocity-pressure gradient interactions between the two primary shear
stresses. This reduction of @-convectiontoward the corner, caused by the redistribution
from u/zil to u " via nI2and n,, (below the corner bisector), - is - similar to the
production of streamwise vorticity due to energy transfer from d2to w ' ~described in
the previous section. This effect is also caused by the arrangement of the primary shear
stress production terms; no turbulence model is needed for these terms because they
are given by the dependent variables in the governing equations.

8. Conclusions
A new solution procedure for the calculation and analysis of three-dimensionaltime-
dependent incompressible flow in a square duct has been developed. The numerical
solution of the Navier-Stokes equations incorporates a projection method and the
decoupled equations are solved semi-implicitly by a Runge-Kutta method. Spatial
discretization is done by fourth-order central and fifth-order upwind-biased finite
differences and by the Fourier pseudo-spectral method.
The present calculations were performed at a Reynolds number Re, = 600 (based on
the mean friction velocity and the duct width) which is in the fully turbulent regime.
At this Reynolds number secondary flows and the isotach distortions are accurately
predicted ; low-Reynolds-number effects in the simulation are relatively weak and are
manifested in the reduction of the secondary flow near the wall bisector compared to
high-Reynolds-number experiments. The main secondary effect, which is responsible
for the creation of the secondary flows both at high and low Reynolds numbers, is
clearly captured in the simulations and is the main topic of the present work.
Turbulence statistics along the wall bisector are computed and compared with data
from other wall-bounded turbulent flows, displaying excellent agreement in the viscous
sublayer. It is evident from the present results that there is stronger turbulence
production along the walls away from the corner compared to channel and boundary-
layer flows. This relatively strong turbulence production near the wall bisector
combined with the low turbulence production along the corner bisector produce
positive and negative convection of the mean streamwise velocity at the respective
locations, as evident from the terms in the Reynolds-averaged streamwise velocity
equation. Convection of streamwise velocity is responsible for the distorted isotachs
and can only occur in the presence of the secondary flows. The terms in the Reynolds-
averaged streamwise vorticity equation unveil the mechanism by which the secondary
flow is produced by the secondary Reynolds stresses.
An explanation of the mechanisms responsible for the creation of secondary flows
of the second kind and the distorted isotachs is offered by considering the dominant
turbulence structures in the flow. These (dominant) ejection structures are produced
during a bursting event and contain two streamwise counter-rotating vortices. On the
horizontal wall the preferred rotational sense of the leftmost streamwise vortex in an
ejection that can occur close to the left corner determines the mean rotational sense of
the secondary flow in that octant. The reduced mean shear at the corner bisector
prohibits ejections from occurring here and thereby allows a mean secondary flow
94 zyxwvutsr
zyxw A . Huser and S. Biringen
toward the corner from the core of the duct. The strong ejections along the walls away
from the corner promotes a relatively low streamwise velocity compared to the
streamwise velocity at the corner bisector, explaining the distorted isotachs.

zyxwv
zyx
The characteristic anisotropic Reynolds stress distribution can also be explained by
considering the ejection structures and by the ‘new’ effects that are observed in the

zy
zyxw
vicinity of the corner. Considering the lower left corner of the square duct, the new
effects are observed as nonlinear interactions between simultaneous ejections from
both walls. These interactions tilt the ejection stems toward the perpendicular wall,
creating positive primary shear stress (m m,
and above and below the corner
bisector, respectively) and negative secondary shear stress (--vIWI at the corner
bisector). This tilting of the ejection stem also redistributes energy from to w12 (at
the horizontal wall in the lower left corner) where v is the vertical and w is the
horizontal velocity. This effect is manifested by the behaviour of the pressure-velocity
correlation tensor near the corner.
The magnitudes of and reach about 40 % and 20 %, respectively of the
maximum correlation, and the quadrant analysis indicates that the ejection
structures contribute most to this anisotropy. Other effects, including sweep events,
also contribute, indicating the complexity of the flow.

The authors thank S. Gavrilakis who provided valuable information from his work
on square duct flows. The first author acknowledges The Fulbright Foundation, The
Norwegian Space Agency and The Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and
Industrial Research (NTNF) for financial support. Cray Research and NCAR are also
acknowledged for providing computer time. Partial support for this study was
provided by ONR Grant ONR-00014-91-J-1086 with J. A. Fein as the Technical
Monitor.

ANDERSON,

BALINT,
D. A., TENNEHILL,
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