Large-eddy simulation of turbulent flow in a concentric annulus with rotation of an inner cylinder

Abstract

Large-eddy simulations of the turbulent flow in a concentric annulus with inner wall rotation were performed at Re-Dh = 8900 for three rotation rates (N = 0.2145, 0.429 and 0.858). The main emphasis of this work was on the destabilization of the near-wall turbulent structures due to rotation of the inner wall. The turbulent structures close to the inner wall were scrutinized by computing the lower-order statistics. The anisotropy invariant map for the Reynolds stress tensor and the invariant function revealed that rotation of the inner wall altered the anisotropy of the turbulent structure. The probability density functions of the velocity fluctuations and the splat/anti-splat process were examined to create a more complete picture of the contributions of the flow events to turbulent production. The present numerical results indicate that the alteration of the turbulent structures can be attributed to the destabilizing effect of rotation of the inner wall, which gives rise to an augmentation of sweep and ejection events. (C) 2004 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.