On generating initial conditions for turbulence models: the case of Rayleigh–Taylor instability turbulent mixing

Abstract

A new approach to generate initial conditions for RANS simulations of Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) turbulence is presented. The strategy is to provide profiles of turbulent model variables when it is suitable for the turbulence model to be started, and then use these profiles for the turbulence model initialization. The generation of turbulence model variable profiles is achieved with a two-step process. In the first step, a nonlinear modal model assuming small amplitude initial perturbations, incompressible and inviscid fluids is used to track the growth of modes that exist in a given initial perturbation spectrum, and also modes generated by mode interactions. The amplitude development of each mode represents the penetration distance of the light fluid into the heavy fluid (bubble penetration), for a given mode perturbation. The penetration distance of heavy fluid into the light fluid (spike penetration), for a given mode perturbation, is inferred from the bubble's height by an empirical relation valid for small initial amplitudes, and established by DNS simulations that depend on a nondimensional time, and the density contrast (Atwood number). It is hypothesized that the bubble front position of the RT mixing layer can be approximated by the largest penetration distance among all existing modes. The spike front position is approximated in the same fashion. The nonlinear model is evaluated by comparing the bubble front height evolution predicted by the model against the bubble front height predicted by an incompressible implicit large eddy simulations (ILES) code. Comparisons of results for “top-hat” and two-band initial perturbation spectra at Atwood numbers, A_T =0.3 and A_T =0.5 for the former, and A_T =0.01 and A_T =0.5 for the latter, show reasonable agreement. In the second step, the bubble and spike front positions, their derived velocities, and simplified profiles of the mixture fraction distribution of each fluid between the bubble and spike fronts are used with a two-fluid approximation to derive profiles for the turbulence model variables. When initialized with modal model profiles at start time τ₀, (i.e., the time when the turbulence model variable profiles are inferred from the modal model results), the RANS simulations provide at all times τ>τ₀ profiles that show good agreement with ILES simulations. The procedure for determining the time at which the RANS model should be started is a representative use, other parameters can be used depending on the application. In this paper, for the purpose of demonstration of the full strategy, τ₀ is taken as the time at which the mixing layer growth rate parameter α has reached its asymptotic value in the corresponding ILES simulation.

Keywords:

• Rayleigh–Taylor instability
• turbulence
• mixing
• initial conditions
• RANS simulation

Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank Drs. T. Wei and D. Livescu for graciously sharing their simulation data and for invaluable discussions. The corresponding author also thanks Dr. V. Dupont for her help and suggestions regarding the model. This work was funded by the Laboratory Directed Research and Development Program at Los Alamos National Laboratory through directed research project number LDRD-20090058DR.