Turbulent diffusion of chemically reacting flows: Theory and numerical simulations

Compressibility effects in turbulent transport of the temperature field

Compressibility effects in a turbulent transport of temperature field are investigated by applying the quasilinear approach for small Péclet numbers and the spectral τ approach for large Péclet numbers. The compressibility of a fluid flow reduces the turbulent diffusivity of the mean temperature field similarly to that for the particle number density and magnetic field. However, expressions for the turbulent diffusion coefficient for the mean temperature field in a compressible turbulence are different from those for the mean particle number density and the mean magnetic field. The combined effect of compressibility and inhomogeneity of turbulence causes an increase of the mean temperature in the regions with more intense velocity fluctuations due to a turbulent pumping. Formally, this effect is similar to a phenomenon of compressible turbophoresis found previously [J. Plasma Phys. 84, 735840502 (2018)JPLPBZ0022-377810.1017/S0022377818000983] for noninertial particles or gaseous admixtures. The gradient of the mean fluid pressure results in an additional turbulent pumping of the mean temperature field. The latter effect is similar to the turbulent barodiffusion of particles and gaseous admixtures. The compressibility of a fluid flow also causes a turbulent cooling of the surrounding fluid due to an additional sink term in the equation for the mean temperature field. There is no analog of this effect for particles.

Generation of a large-scale vorticity in a fast-rotating density-stratified turbulence or turbulent convection

We find an instability resulting in generation of large-scale vorticity in a fast-rotating small-scale turbulence or turbulent convection with inhomogeneous fluid density along the rotational axis in anelastic approximation. The large-scale instability causes excitation of two modes: (i) the mode with dominant vertical vorticity and with the mean velocity being independent of the vertical coordinate; (ii) the mode with dominant horizontal vorticity and with the mean momentum being independent of the vertical coordinate. The mode with the dominant vertical vorticity can be excited in a fast-rotating density-stratified hydrodynamic turbulence or turbulent convection. For this mode, the mean entropy is depleted inside the cyclonic vortices, while it is enhanced inside the anticyclonic vortices. The mode with the dominant horizontal vorticity can be excited only in a fast-rotating density-stratified turbulent convection. The developed theory may be relevant for explanation of an origin of large spots observed as immense storms in great planets, e.g., the Great Red Spot in Jupiter and large spots in Saturn. It may be also useful for explanation of an origin of high-latitude spots in rapidly rotating late-type stars.

Surface-averaged quantities in turbulent reacting flows and relevant evolution equations

While quantities conditioned to an isosurface of reaction progress variable c, which characterizes fluid state in a turbulent reacting flow, have been attracting rapidly growing interest in the recent literature, a mathematical and physical framework required for research into such quantities has not yet been elaborated properly. This paper aims at filling two fundamental gaps in this area, i.e., (i) ambiguities associated with a definition of a surface-averaged quantity and (ii) the lack of rigorous equations that describe evolutions of such quantities. In the first (theoretical) part of the paper, (a) analytical relations between differently defined (area-weighted and unweighted) surface-averaged quantities are obtained and differences between them (quantities) are discussed, (b) a unified method for deriving an evolution equation for bulk area-weighted surface-averaged value of a local characteristic ϕ of a turbulent reacting flow is developed, and (c) the method is applied for deriving evolution equations for the bulk area-weighted surface-averaged reaction-surface density |∇c|, local reaction-wave thickness 1/|∇c|, and local displacement speed S_{d}, i.e., the speed of an isosurface of the c(x,t) field with respect to the local flow. In the second (numerical) part of the paper, direct numerical simulation data obtained recently from a highly turbulent reaction wave are analyzed in order to (1) highlight substantial differences between area-weighted and unweighted surface-averaged quantities and (2) show that various terms in the derived evolution equations are amenable to accurate numerical evaluation in spite of appearance of the so-called zero-gradient points [C. H. Gibson, Phys. Fluids 11, 2305 (1968)PFLDAS0031-917110.1063/1.1691820] in a highly turbulent medium. Finally, the obtained analytical and numerical results are used to shed light on the paradox of local flame thinning and broadening which is widely discussed in the turbulent combustion literature.

Turbulent transport in reaction-diffusion systems

The impact of turbulent advection in reaction-diffusion systems is investigated for the viscous range of scales. We show that the population size can increase exponentially even in systems with density saturation, at the expense of exponential propagation of the reaction front. Exact expressions for scaling exponents of the density and population size are calculated in different intermediate asymptotics of the process. The system appears to demonstrate high intermittency.