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An investigation of channel flow with a smooth air–water interface

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Abstract

Experiments and numerical simulation are used to investigate fully developed laminar and turbulent channel flow with an air–water interface as the lower boundary condition. Laser Doppler velocimetry measurements of streamwise and wall-normal velocity components are made over a range of Reynolds number based upon channel height and bulk velocity from 1100 to 4300, which encompasses the laminar, transitional and low Reynolds numbers turbulent regimes. The results show that the airflow statistics near the stationary wall are not significantly altered by the air–water moving interface and reflect those found in channel flows. The mean statistics on the water interface side largely exhibit results similar to simulated Poiseuille–Couette flow (PCF) with a solid moving wall. For second-order statistics, however, the simulation and experimental results show some discrepancies near the moving water surface, suggesting that a full two-phase simulation is required. A momentum and energy transport tubes analysis is investigated for laminar and turbulent PCFs. This analysis builds upon the classical notion of a streamtube and indicates that part of the energy from the pressure gradient is transported towards the stationary wall and is dissipated as heat inside the energy tubes, while the remainder is transmitted to the moving wall. For the experiments, the airflow energy is transmitted towards the water to overcome the drag force and drive the water forward; therefore, the amount of energy transferred to the water is higher than the energy transferred to a solid moving wall.

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Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the support of the Australian Research Council. We would also like to thank Dr Laadhari and Dr Tsukahara for making their DNS data available. We are also grateful to make this contribution in celebration of Lex Smits’ illustrious career.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of Melbourne, Parkville, VIC, 3010, Australia

    Reza Madad, John Elsnab, Cheng Chin, Joseph Klewicki & Ivan Marusic

  2. Department of Mechanical Engineering, University of New Hampshire, Durham, NH, 03824, USA

    Joseph Klewicki

Authors
  1. Reza Madad
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  2. John Elsnab
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  3. Cheng Chin
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  4. Joseph Klewicki
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  5. Ivan Marusic
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to John Elsnab.

Additional information

This article belongs to a Topical Collection of articles entitled Extreme Flow Workshop 2014. Guest Editors: I. Marusic and B. J. McKeon.

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Madad, R., Elsnab, J., Chin, C. et al. An investigation of channel flow with a smooth air–water interface. Exp Fluids 56, 128 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-015-1985-8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00348-015-1985-8

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