Effects of spanwise system rotation on turbulent stripes in a plane Poiseuille flow

Abstract

In the transitional channel flow, the large-scale intermittent structure of localised turbulence, which is called the turbulent stripe pattern, can be found in the form of stripe arrangement. The structure of the turbulent stripe pattern is an oblique laminar–turbulent banded pattern and is inclined with respect to the streamwise direction. We performed direct numerical simulation at a transitional Reynolds number and very low-rotation numbers, and focused on the turbulent stripe pattern in the plane Poiseuille flow subjected to spanwise system rotation. We captured the turbulent stripe pattern in a rotating channel flow and found the augmentation and diminution of the turbulent stripe pattern were affected by the spanwise rotation. The contents of the discussion are the spatial size of the turbulent stripe pattern on the basis of the instantaneous flow fields, the energy spectra, and various statistics relating to the spanwise velocity component that characterise the turbulent stripe pattern. The turbulent stripe pattern was found to contain kinetic energy that was larger in very weakly rotating flows than in the static system. It was also found that the magnitude of the spanwise secondary flow increases, while the quasi-laminar region is wider at a very lowrotation number.

Keywords:

• Coriolis instability
• direct numerical simulation
• turbulent channel flow
• subcritical transition
• system rotation

Acknowledgements

The present simulations were performed by SX-9 at the Cyberscience Centre, Tohoku University.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Additional information

Funding

This work was partially supported by Grants-in-Aid for Scientific Research Young Scientists (B) [grant number 22760136] from the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS).