THE STRUCTURE OF TURBULENT SHEAR FLOW BY A, A. TOWNSEND, F.R.S. Reader in Experimental Fluid Mechanics University of Cambridge SECOND EDITION CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS CAMBRIDGE LONDON NEW YORK NEW ROCHELLE MELBOURNE SYDNEYPublished by the Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge The Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge CB2 {RP 32 East 57th Street, New York, NY 10022, USA 296 Beaconsfield Parade, Middle Park, Melbourne 3206, Australia © Cambridge University Press 1976 Library of Congress Catalogue Card Number: 74-14441 ISBN 0 521 20710 X hard covers ISBN 0 521 29819 9 paperback First published 1956 Second edition 1976 First paperback edition 1980 ‘Transferred to digital printing 19991a 1.2 1.3 14 1.5 16 17 18 21 2.2 23 24 25 2.6 27 3A 3.2 33 34 35 3.6 3.7 CONTENTS Preface page xi 1 THE STATISTICAL DESCRIPTION OF TURBULENT FLOW Introduction The development of a theory for turbulent flow The statistical description of turbulent flow Notation for turbulent flows Three-dimensional correlation and spectrum functions One-dimensional correlation and spectrum functions Correlations and spectra with time delay Homogeneity and symmetry of turbulent flows 2 THE EQUATIONS OF MOTION FOR TURBULENT FLOW Assumption of a continuous fluid The equations of fluid motion Approximate forms of the equations of motion Mean value equations for momentum, energy and heat Energy dissipation by viscosity Conductive dissipation of temperature fluctuations The relation between the pressure and velocity fields 3 HOMOGENEOUS TURBULENT FLOWS Introduction Eddy interactions in homogeneous turbulence Experimental approximations to homogeneous turbulence Isotropic turbulence: general Reynolds number similarity in isotropic turbulence Self-preserving development in isotropic turbulence Space-time correlations in isotropic turbulence Rawew- 28 32 33 36 38 al a3 43 45 49 st 53 59 62vi CONTENTS 3.8. The Taylor approximation of frozen flow 3.9 The tendency to isotropy of homogeneous turbulence 3.10 Uniform distortion of homogeneous turbulence 3.11 Irrotational distortion of grid turbulence 3.12 Unidirectional, plane shearing of homogencous turbulence 3.13 Local isotropy and equilibrium of small eddies 3.14 Measurement of spectrum and structure functions 3.15 Energy transfer in the inertial subrange 3.16 The equilibrium spectrum in the viscous subrange 3.17 Local isotropy in non-Newtonian fluids 4 INHOMOGENEOUS SHEAR FLOW 4.1 Large eddies and the main turbulent motion 4.2 Structural similarity of the main turbulent motion 4.3 Nature of the main turbulent motion 4.4 Generation and maintenance of the main motion 4.5 Flow inhomogeneity and the large eddies 4.6 The dependence of Reynolds stress on mean velocity 4.7 Statistical distributions of velocity fluctuations 5 TURBULENT FLOW IN PIPES AND CHANNELS 5.1. Introduction 5.2 Equations of motion for unidirectional mean flow 5.3. Reynolds number similarity in pipe and channel flow 5.4 Wall similarity in the region of constant stress 5.5. Flow over rough walls 5.6 Mean flow in the central region 5.7 The turbulent motion in constant-stress equilibrium layers 5.8 Eddy structure in equilibrium layers 5.9 Motion in the viscous layer next the wall 5.10 Fluctuations of pressure and shear stress on a wall 5.11 The magnitude of the Karmén constant 5.12 Turbulent flow and flow constants 66 m 4% 80 88 93 99 103 105 106 118 120 122 124 126 130 131 133 135 140 145 150 156 163 “165 168 169CONTENTS 5.13 Similarity flows in channels and pipes of varying widths 5.14 Equilibrium layers with variable stress 8.15 Equilibrium layers with linear distributions of stress 5.16 Equilibrium layers with surface transpiration 5.17 Equilibrium layers with variable direction of flow 6 FREE TURBULENT SHEAR FLOWS 6.1 General properties of free turbulence 6.2 Equations of motion: the boundary-layer approximation. 6.3 Integral constraints on free turbulent flows 6.4 Self-preserving development of free turbulent flows 6.5 The distributions of mean velocity and Reynolds stress 6.6 The balance of turbulent kinetic energy 6.7 The bounding surface of free turbulent flows 6.8 Distributions of turbulent intensity and Reynolds stress 6.9 Flow constants for self-preserving jets and wakes 6.10 The flow constants of plane mixing layers 6.11 The entrainment of ambient fluid 6.12 Basic entrainment processes 6.13 Entrainment eddies in plane wakes 6.14 Mechanism of the entrainment eddies 6.15 Control of the entrainment rate 6.16 Fluctuations outside the turbulent flow: sound radiation 6.17 Irrotational fluctuations in the near field 6.18 Development of nearly self-preserving flows 6.19 Development of a jet in a moving stream of constant velocity 7 BOUNDARY LAYERS AND WALL JETS 7.1. Wall layers in general 7.2. Self-preserving development of wall layers 7.3. General properties of self-preserving wall layers 7.4 Flow parameters of self-preserving wall layers 7.5 Development of self-preserving wall jets 7.6 Development of self-preserving boundary layers 472 176 180 184 186 188 188 193 195 201 205 214 220 227 230 232 241 243 247 248 251 252 255 259 262 263 266 268 2mviii CONTENTS 7.7 Boundary-layer development with zero wall stress 7.8 Wall layers with convergent flow 7.9. Almost self-preserving development 7.10 Layers with nearly uniform velocity in the free stream 7.11 Turbulent flow in self-preserving boundary layers 7.12 Development of boundary layers in arbitrary external conditions 7.13 Boundary-layer development after a sudden change of external conditions 7.14 Development in a region of strong adverse pressure gradient 7.15 Layer development after a sudden change of roughness 7.16 Boundary layers with three-dimensional mean flow 7.17 Three-dimensional flow with negligible Reynolds stresses 7.18 Homogencous three-dimensional flow — the Ekman layer 7.19 Secondary flow in a boundary layer with a free edge 7.20 Lateral variations of stress in boundary layers 7.21 Periodic structure of flow near the viscous layer 8 TURBULENT CONVECTION OF HEAT AND PASSIVE CONTAMINANTS 8.1 Governing equations and dimensional considerations 8.2. Diffusion by continuous movements: effect of molecular diffusive transport 8.3 Eulerian description of convective flows: mean valuc equations and correlation functions 8.4 Local forms of the Richardson number 8.5. Spectrum functions and local similarity 8.6 Scattering of light by density fluctuations in a turbulent flow 8.7 Self-preserving development of temperature fields in forced convection flows 8.8 Forced convection in wall flows 8.9 Rates of heat transfer in forced convection 8.10 Convection in a constant-stress layer after an abrupt change in wall flux or temperature 8.11 Longitudinal diffusion in pipe flow 276 280 283 287 289 294 298 301 307 312 316 318 323 328 331 334 336 338 MI 342 348 350 352 356 361 364CONTENTS ix 8.12 Natural convection and energy transfer 366 8.13 Buoyant plumes and thermals 366 8.14 The effect of buoyancy forces on turbulent motion 372 8.15 Horizontal wall layers with heat transport 375 8.16 Nature of turbulence in strongly stable flows 378 8.17 Transient behaviour of boundary layers with heat transfer 379 8.18 Convective turbulence 380 8.19 Heat convection between horizontal, parallel planes 381 8.20 Heat transfer in Benard convection 384 8.21 Similarity and structure of Benard convection 386 8.22 Natural convection in wall layers 390 9 TURBULENT FLOW WITH CURVATURE OF THE MEAN VELOCITY STREAMLINES 9.1 Mean value equations for curved flow: the analogy between the effects of flow curvature and density stratification 393 9.2. Couette flow between rotating cylinders 398 9.3 Flow with the outer cylinder stationary 400 9.4 Turbulent motion with the outer cylinder stationary 404 9.5. Flow with the outer cylinder rotating 407 References 413 Index 425PREFACE Since my original monograph was published, so much new material has appeared that I am amazed to read my statement that (around 1950) ‘experimental knowledge...was being accumulated very rapidly’. In the last ten years, papers have been appearing at sucha rate that I must extend apologies to all those whose work I have either not read, ignored, or used without realising the origin. In spite of a considerable increase in size and the inclusion of sections on convection, the same approach is followed - to develop a con- sistent view of the nature of turbulence from observations of simple flows and then to use it to interpret and predict the behaviour of a variety of flows of more general interest. Although my current views have been developed from those I held in 1956, they have undergone considerable change. Perhaps I should thank especially Dr H. L. Grant who, as my research student, began the process by demolishing a complete chapter before the ink was wholly dry. No doubt, I shall trouble some readers by my habit of omitting the density from most equations and by changing to the meteor- ological practice of using ‘z’ to denote displacement in the direction of shear. I offer them my sympathy but not my repentance. My thanks are offered to the Cambridge University Press for their incredible patience, to many friends whose cries of ‘When will it appear?’ have flattered me into continued activity, and to Pro- fessor G. K. Batchelor for a line of tactful harassment. At the moment, I am more pleased than even my wife to have completed the writing,CHAPTER THE STATISTICAL DESCRIPTION OF TURBULENT FLOW 1.1 Introduction One of the few phenomena in the field of fluid motion that find their way into physics text-books is the existence of a critical velocity for the flow of a viscous fluid through a circular pipe. The critical velocity separates a regime of steady laminar flow from a regime of highly irregular turbulent flow in which the flow resistance is considerably greater than is indicated by the Poiseuille equation. The difference between the two kinds of flow can be seen if a filament of dye is injected near the centre-line of the pipe. In laminar flow, the filament remains straight and coherent but, with the onset of turbulent flow, it meanders, winds itself up into tight coils and is diffused rapidly over the whole section of the pipe. Although the transition from laminar to turbulent flow is not as simple as this and similar de- scriptions make it appear, the phenomenon illustrates very well the fundamental differences in character between laminar and turbulent flow, particularly the ability of a turbulent flow to transmit larger shear stresses and to diffuse heat and matter more rapidly than the corresponding laminar flow. It is well known that the differences arise from an intricate and eddying motion of the fluid which con- vects momentum, heat and matter from one part of the flow to another, the direction of net transport being in general down the gradient of the quantity concerned, Formally, the overall effect is equivalent to increasing greatly the effective coefficients of viscosity, heat conductivity and diffusion, and it is natural to draw an analogy between the turbulent motion and the molecular motion that is responsible for transport phenomena in gases. A similarity does exist but the analogy is imperfect in two important respects. First, at any moment the motion of a gas molecule is affecting the motion of at most one other molecule and mixing on the microscopic scale takes place freely. Turbulent diffusive movements of fluid particles2 TURBULENT SHEAR FLOW are essentially part of the general motion of the fluid and the direct effect is to mingle rather than to mix parcels of fluid from different parts of the flow. Complete mixing depends on molecular diffusion which is intensified by increases of concentration gradient caused by mingling. Secondly, the turbulent motion is retarded by viscous stresses and requires a continuous supply of energy to maintain it, obtained from the working of the mean flow against the turbulent Reynolds stresses. The turbulent motion so depends for its kinetic energy on one of the quantities that it diffuses, the momentum of the mean flow, and the diffusing processes cannot be considered as small perturbations of an already existing motion as in the kinetic theory of gases. The necessary connection between the diffusion and the supply of energy to the turbulent motion is a fundamental characteristic of turbulent flow. As a consequence of the irregularity and complexity of the motion, it is only practicable to consider mean values of functions of the instantaneous and local values of the fluid velocities and pressures, and all theoretical and experimental work uses mean values. For many years after Osborne Reynolds’s formulation of the problem, measurements were confined to mean values of velocity and temperature and few measurements of the fluctuations were made. The theories developed at this time used speculative models of the fluid motion, sometimes derived by considering properties of the equations of fluid motion and sometimes by dimensional reasoning and analogies with the kinetic theory of gases. The most important were the various forms of the mixing-length theory developed by L. Prandtl and by G. I. Taylor, which served a purpose in providing a framework for current theoretical and experimental work, but they were admittedly incomplete and contained internal inconsistencies. About forty years ago, H. L. Dryden, A. M. Kuethe and others developed the hot-wire anemometer, making available for the first time a convenient means of studying the fluctuations of velocity, and its exploitation has provided detailed knowledge of the turbulent motion in a variety of flows. With so much information, it should now be possible to devise a physical theory of turbulence, based ondynamically consistentassumptions about the motionandcap- able of describing with fair accuracy the structure and properties of the simpler flows. The following account is an attempt in that direction.STATISTICAL DESCRIPTION 3 1.2 The development of a theory for turbulent flow Turbulent flow forms such a complicated mathematical problem that its solution must lean heavily on experimental data. One dis- advantage is that experimental measurements commonly concern those quantities that are easy to measure rather than those that have an easily understood significance, and the sheer volume and detail of the data may be a bar to the understanding of the physical processes involved. The description of turbulent flow that is the theme of this book has grown in an irregular and haphazard way that may be appropriate to the subject but is a little difficult to follow in the course of its development. Its basis is a number of general principles and hypotheses about turbulent motion and it is convenient to introduce them as the results of study of a group of simple turbulent flows which lack one or more of the usual character istics of ‘complete’ flows. The generalisations are of two kinds, those postulating the existence of various kinds of similarity and those dealing with the nature and mechanism of turbulent flow. Most of the first group are in no way new, having been at least implicit in most work for more than sixty years, but, without detailed assumptions about the nature of the motion, they lead to a number of important results which have been claimed to verify particular views about turbulent flow. Generalisations of the second kind depend on particular views of the structure and dynamics of tur- bulent motion, and their justification depends mostly on the success with which they may be used to predict the quantitative behaviour of turbulent flows. It is important to know which predictions about a particular flow may be derived solely from the similarity hy- potheses before applying those assuming a particular kind of turbulent motion. It is also important not to apply the second kind of generalisation to the wrong kind of flow, a consideration that leads to a classification of turbulent flows by the restrictions placed on energy transfer from the mean flow to the fluctuations by the boundary conditions of the whole flow. 1,3 The statistical description of turbulent flow The methods of statistical mechanics are used in the deseription of turbulent motion to the extent that use is made only of statistical4 TURBULENT SHEAR FLOW mean values of the flow variables, i.e. of particle position, particle velocity, pressure and so on, but there are important differences. Unlike the molecular motion of gases, the motion at any point in a turbulent flow affects the motion at other distant points through the pressure field, and an adequate description cannot be obtained by considering only mean values associated with single fluid particles. This might be put by saying that turbulent motion is less random and more organised than molecular motion, and that to describe the organisation of the flow requires mean values of functions of the flow variables for two or more particles or at two or more positions. Even in the simplest (statistically) of turbulent flows - isotropic turbulence - the number of these functions necessary in the theory is large and, for normal turbulent flows whose asymmetry imposes still more organisation, an even larger number seems to be neces- sary. All this is true ‘ut, if the development of the theory is to be guided by experimental measurements, use must be made of prac- ticable specifications that are very incomplete by the standards of the unaided theory. A flow may be specified either in the Lagrangian way by X(Xo, fo; #), the position at time ¢ of a particle which was at position Xo at time fo or in the Eulerian way by u(x, /), the velocity of the particle which is at position x at time t. No two realisations of a turbulent flow are identical and the complete statistical description is contained in the distribution function for the flow specification X(Xo, fo; 1), which is the density in function-space of the points representing the realisations of the flow. In practice, measurements of Lagrangian flow quantities are extremely difficult and Eulerian ones are almost always used. If the distribution function for the Eulerian specification is F[a(x, 1)], the statistical or ensemble average of M[u(x, 1)], a function of the flow field in space and time, is (Mlu(x, \I> = J Flu(x, 1] Miu(x, nav, the integration being over function space. For some flows and for some measurements, the probability average may be the only possible average, but the majority of flows studied in the laboratory are statistically stationary with respect to time, i.e. in a co-ordinate system moving with a suitable uniform velocity, usually zero, the velocity components at a fixed point are stationary random functions