Mixing in turbulent flows: An overview of physics and modelling

Abstract

Turbulent flows featuring additional scalar fields, such as chemical species or temperature, are common in environmental and industrial applications. Their physics is complex because of a broad range of scales involved; hence, efficient computational approaches remain a challenge. In this paper, we present an overview of such flows (with no particular emphasis on combustion, however) and we recall the major types of micro-mixing models developed within the statistical approaches to turbulence (the probability density function approach) as well as in the large-eddy simulation context (the filtered density function). We also report on some trends in algorithm development with respect to the recent progress in computing technology.