Investigation of Turbulent Kinetic Energy Redistribution in a Channel Flow Using Direct Numerical Simulation

In this study, the turbulent kinetic energy redistribution process is investigated. To this aim, the direct numerical simulation (DNS) of incompressible flow of a Newtonian fluid through a channel at a shear Reynolds number of Reτ = 180 is used to produce a flow data base. Then, these data are statistically analyzed. The turbulent kinetic energy redistribution is studied using the pressure-strain-rate correlation tensor. Pressure and strain-rate fluctuations as well as the correlation coefficient between them are analyzed. An equation for the strain-rate fluctuations is derived whose terms are calculated based on the simulation results. Then, using a semi-analytical solution, the pressure-strain-rate correlation is computed and compared with the DNS results. The results of this research quantitatively show that the pressure strain-rate correlation transfers the kinetic energy that is produced in the stream wise component to the other two components.