Turbulent spots and waves in a model for plane Poiseuille flow

Maher Lagha (1)

1 LadHyX - Laboratoire d'hydrodynamique

The structure of a turbulent spot in plane Poiseuille flow is investigated using a model derived from the Navier-Stokes equations through a Galerkin method. The mean profile of the streamwise velocity inside the turbulent spot has the characteristic flat profile of a turbulent Poiseuille flow. The waves developing at the wing tips of the spot have an asymmetric streamwise velocity with respect to the channel centerline, whereas their associated wall-normal velocity component is symmetric. On the outskirts of the spot, a large-scale flow occupying the full gap between the plates is observed. It is characterized by a streamwise inflow toward the spot and a spanwise outflow from the spot. A detailed comparison with the numerical simulations and the experiments in the literature shows that these results are in fair agreement with the main features of the transitional plane Poiseuille flow. © 2007 American Institute of Physics.

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Maher Lagha. Turbulent spots and waves in a model for plane Poiseuille flow. Physics of Fluids, 2007, 19 (12), pp.124103. ⟨10.1063/1.2821912⟩. ⟨hal-01023346⟩