No Arabic abstract
We derive an analytical connection between kinetic relaxation rate and bulk viscosity of a relativistic fluid in d spatial dimensions, all the way from the ultra-relativistic down to the near non-relativistic regime. Our derivation is based on both Chapman-Enskog asymptotic expansion and Grads method of moments. We validate our theoretical results against a benchmark flow, providing further evidence of the correctness of the Chapman-Enskog approach; we define the range of validity of this approach and provide evidence of mounting departures at increasing Knudsen number. Finally, we present numerical simulations of transport processes in quark gluon plasmas, with special focus on the effects of bulk viscosity which might prove amenable to future experimental verification.
Viscous heating can play an important role in the dynamics of fluids with strongly temperature-dependent viscosities because of the coupling between the energy and momentum equations. The heat generated by viscous friction produces a local temperature increase near the tube walls with a consequent decrease of the viscosity and a strong stratification in the viscosity profile. The problem of viscous heating in fluids was investigated and reviewed by Costa & Macedonio (2003) because of its important implications in the study of magma flows. Because of the strong coupling between viscosity and temperature, the temperature rise due to the viscous heating may trigger instabilities in the velocity field, which cannot be predicted by a simple isothermal Newtonian model. When viscous heating produces a pronounced peak in the temperature profile near the walls, a triggering of instabilities and a transition to secondary flows can occur because of the stratification in the viscosity profile. In this paper we focus on the thermal and mechanical effects caused by viscous heating. We will present the linear stability equations and we will show, as in certain regimes, these effects can trigger and sustain a particular class of secondary rotational flows which appear organised in coherent structures similar to roller vortices. This phenomenon can play a very important role in the dynamics of magma flows in conduits and lava flows in channels and, to our knowledge, it is the first time that it has been investigated by a direct numerical simulation.
We consider the question of fundamental limitations on the performance of eddy-viscosity closure models for turbulent flows, focusing on the Leith model for 2D Large-Eddy Simulation. Optimal eddy viscosities depending on the magnitude of the vorticity gradient are determined subject to minimum assumptions by solving PDE-constrained optimization problems defined such that the corresponding optimal Large-Eddy Simulation best matches the Direct Numerical Simulation. The main finding is that with a fixed cutoff wavenumber $k_c$, the performance of the Large-Eddy Simulation systematically improves as the regularization in the solution of the optimization problem is reduced and this is achieved with the optimal eddy viscosities exhibiting increasingly irregular behavior with rapid oscillations. Since the optimal eddy viscosities do not converge to a well-defined limit as the regularization vanishes, we conclude that the problem of finding an optimal eddy viscosity is not in fact well posed.
Acoustic wave attenuation due to vibrational and rotational molecular relaxation, under simplifying assumptions of near-thermodynamic equilibrium and absence of molecular dissociations, can be accounted for by specifying a bulk viscosity coefficient $mu_B$. In this paper, we propose a simple frequency-dependent bulk viscosity model which, under such assumptions, accurately captures wave attenuation rates from infrasonic to ultrasonic frequencies in Navier--Stokes and lattice Boltzmann simulations. The proposed model can be extended to any gas mixture for which molecular relaxation timescales and attenuation measurements are available. The performance of the model is assessed for air by varying the base temperature, pressure, relative humidity $h_r$, and acoustic frequency. Since the vibrational relaxation timescales of oxygen and nitrogen are a function of humidity, for certain frequencies an intermediate value of $h_r$ can be found which maximizes $mu_B$. The contribution to bulk viscosity due to rotational relaxation is verified to be a function of temperature, confirming recent findings in the literature. While $mu_B$ decreases with higher frequencies, its effects on wave attenuation become more significant, as shown via a dimensionless analysis. The proposed bulk viscosity model is designed for frequency-domain linear acoustic formulations but is also extensible to time-domain simulations of narrow-band frequency content flows.
We simulated two particle-based fluid models, namely multiparticle collision dynamics and dissipative particle dynamics, under shear using reverse nonequilibrium simulations (RNES). In cubic periodic simulation boxes, the expected shear flow profile for a Newtonian fluid developed, consistent with the fluid viscosities. However, unexpected secondary flows along the shear gradient formed when the simulation box was elongated in the flow direction. The standard shear flow profile was obtained when the simulation box was longer in the shear-gradient dimension than the flow dimension, while the secondary flows were always present when the flow dimension was at least 25% larger than the shear-gradient dimension. The secondary flows satisfy the boundary conditions imposed by the RNES and have a lower rate of viscous dissipation in the fluid than the corresponding unidirectional flows. This work highlights a previously unappreciated limitation of RNES for generating shear flow in simulation boxes that are elongated in the flow dimension, an important consideration when applying RNES to complex fluids like polymer solutions.
The nonlinear and nonlocal coupling of vorticity and strain-rate constitutes a major hindrance in understanding the self-amplification of velocity gradients in turbulent fluid flows. Utilizing highly-resolved direct numerical simulations of isotropic turbulence in periodic domains of up to $12288^3$ grid points, and Taylor-scale Reynolds number $R_lambda$ in the range $140-1300$, we investigate this non-locality by decomposing the strain-rate tensor into local and non-local contributions obtained through Biot-Savart integration of vorticity in a sphere of radius $R$. We find that vorticity is predominantly amplified by the non-local strain coming beyond a characteristic scale size, which varies as a simple power-law of vorticity magnitude. The underlying dynamics preferentially align vorticity with the most extensive eigenvector of non-local strain. The remaining local strain aligns vorticity with the intermediate eigenvector and does not contribute significantly to amplification; instead it surprisingly attenuates intense vorticity, leading to breakdown of the observed power-law and ultimately also the scale-invariance of vorticity amplification, with important implications for prevailing intermittency theories.