Wavelet analysis on turbulent structure in drag-reducing channel flow based on direct numerical simulation

Abstract

Direct numerical simulation has been performed to study a polymer drag-reducing channel flow by using a discrete-element model. And then, wavelet analyses are employed to investigate the multiresolution characteristics of velocity components based on DNS data. Wavelet decomposition is applied to decompose velocity fluctuation time series into ten different frequency components including approximate component and detailed components, which show more regular intermittency and burst events in drag-reducing flow. The energy contribution, intermittent factor, and intermittent energy are calculated to investigate characteristics of different frequency components. The results indicate that energy contributions of different frequency components are redistributed by polymer additives. The energy contribution of streamwise approximate component in drag-reducing flow is up to 82%, much more than 25% in the Newtonian flow. Feature of turbulent multiscale structures is shown intuitively by continuous wavelet transform, verifying that turbulent structures become much more regular in drag-reducing flow. © 2013 Xuan Wu et al.