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Investigation of species-mass diffusion in binary-species boundary layers at high pressure using direct numerical simulations

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 October 2021

Takahiko Toki
Affiliation:
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USA
Josette Bellan*
Affiliation:
California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91125, USAJet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109, USA
*
†Email address for correspondence: josette.bellan@jpl.nasa.gov

Abstract

Direct numerical simulations of single-species and binary-species temporal boundary layers at high pressure are performed with special attention to species-mass diffusion. The working fluids are nitrogen or a mixture of nitrogen and methane. Mean profiles and turbulent fluctuations of mass fraction show that their qualitative characteristics are different from those of streamwise velocity and temperature, due to the different boundary conditions. In a wall-parallel plane near the wall, the streamwise velocity and temperature have streaky patterns and the fields are similar. However, the mass fraction field at the same location is different from the streamwise velocity and temperature fields indicating that species-mass diffusion is not similar to the momentum and thermal diffusion. In contrast, at the centre and near the edge of the boundary layer, the mass fraction and temperature fields have almost the same pattern, indicating that the similarity between thermal and species-mass diffusion holds away from the wall. The lack of similarity near the wall is traced to the Soret effect that induces a temperature-gradient-dependent species-mass flux. As a result, a new phenomenon has been identified for a non-isothermal binary-species system – uphill diffusion, which in its classical isothermal definition can only occur for three or more species. A quadrant analysis for the turbulent mass flux reveals that near the wall the Soret effect enhances the negative contributions of the quadrants. Due to the enhancement of the negative contributions, small species-concentration fluid tends to be trapped near the wall.

Information

Type
JFM Papers
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2021. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Figure 1.Sketch of initial profiles of mean streamwise velocity, temperature and mass fractions.

Figure 1

Table 1.List of computational cases and conditions. All symbols are defined in the text.

Figure 2

Table 2.Species thermodynamic critical properties, $T_c$ and $p_c$, and reduced properties, $T_r$ = $T/T_c$ and $p_r$ = $p/p_c$.

Figure 3

Table 3.Grid resolution and maximum resolution normalized using the Kolmogorov scale $\eta _{K}$.

Figure 4

Figure 2.Time history of the friction Reynolds number in B-T300-600-p60.

Figure 5

Figure 3.Time histories of the grid resolutions in wall units in B-T300-600-p60: (a) $\Delta x^{+}$ and $\Delta z^{+}$; (b) $\Delta y_{1}^{+}$.

Figure 6

Figure 4.Comparison of mean velocity and velocity fluctuations at the different computational time in B-T300-600-p60: (a) mean streamwise velocity, (b) streamwise velocity fluctuation, (c) wall-normal velocity fluctuation and (d) spanwise velocity fluctuation.

Figure 7

Figure 5.Mean profiles of (a) streamwise velocity, (b) temperature, (c) mass fraction of methane and (d) density, all at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500.$ Single-species cases are indicated by dashed lines; binary-species cases are indicated by solid lines. Cases with the same temperature arrangement and pressure have lines of the same colour.

Figure 8

Figure 6.Comparison at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$ of normalized mean profiles of velocity, temperature and mass fraction of methane: (a) B-T300-600-p60, (b) B-T300-600-p80 and (c) B-T300-600-p60-shifted.

Figure 9

Figure 7.Velocity fluctuations at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$ in (a) streamwise, (b) wall-normal and (c) spanwise directions. The legend is the same as in figure 5. Circles represent the DNS results from the incompressible constant-property boundary layer study of Schlatter & Örlü (2010).

Figure 10

Figure 8.Fluctuations at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$ of (a) temperature, (b) mass fraction of methane and (c) density. Mass fraction profiles are only shown for the binary-species cases.

Figure 11

Figure 9.Turbulent kinetic energy budget for cases (a) S-T300-300-p60, (b) S-T300-300-p80, (c) S-T300-600-p60, (d) S-T300-600-p80, (e) B-T300-600-p60, ( f) B-T300-600-p80 and (g) B-T300-600-p60-shifted, all at $Re_{\tau } \approx 500$. Quantities have been non-dimensionalized by $\tau ^{2} _{w}/\bar {\mu }$. Symbols represent the DNS results from the incompressible constant-property boundary layer study of Schlatter & Örlü (2010).

Figure 12

Figure 10.Instantaneous snapshot at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$ in the $y^{+}=10$ ($y/\delta _{99}=0.02$) wall-parallel plane for B-T300-600-p60. (a) Streamwise velocity, (b) temperature and (c) mass fraction of methane.

Figure 13

Figure 11.Instantaneous snapshot at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$ in the $y^{+}=250$ ($y/\delta _{99}=0.5$) wall-parallel plane for B-T300-600-p60. (a) Streamwise velocity, (b) temperature and (c) mass fraction of methane.

Figure 14

Figure 12.Instantaneous snapshot at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$ in the $y^{+}=450$ ($y/\delta _{99}=0.92$) wall-parallel plane for B-T300-600-p60. (a) Streamwise velocity, (b) temperature and (c) mass fraction of methane.

Figure 15

Figure 13.Instantaneous snapshot at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$ in the $x/\delta _{99}=3.25$ plane for B-T300-600-p60. (a) Streamwise velocity, (b) temperature and (c) mass fraction of methane.

Figure 16

Figure 14.Species-mass flux of the mean flow field as a function of the outer scaling $y/\delta _{99}$ (a,c,e) and as a function of the wall unit $y^{+}$ (b,d, f): for cases (a,b) B-T300-600-p60, (c,d) B-T300-600-p80 and (e, f) B-T300-600-p60-shifted, all at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$.

Figure 17

Figure 15.Diagram illustrating the classification of mass diffusion events.

Figure 18

Figure 16.Joint probability density function of $J_{mol,y}$ and $J_{sor,y}$ at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$ for B-T300-600-p60: (a) at $y^{+}=0.3$, (b) $y^{+}=10$, (c) $y^{+}=30$ and (d) $y^{+}=50$. The solid white lines are null axes, and the white broken line is given by $J_{sor,y}=-J_{mol,y}$.

Figure 19

Figure 17.Turbulent Prandtl number and turbulent Schmidt number at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$ as a function of the outer scaling $y/\delta _{99}$ (a,c) and as a function of the wall unit $y^{+}$ (b,d): (a,b) turbulent Prandtl number and (c,d) turbulent Schmidt number. The legend is the same as in figure 5.

Figure 20

Figure 18.Quadrant contributions to Reynolds stress, turbulent heat flux and turbulent mass flux of methane in B-T300-600-p60 at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$.

Figure 21

Figure 19.Sketch of quadrant contributions.

Figure 22

Figure 20.Ratio of negative and positive quadrant contributions at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$. Here $\bar {\rho }\widetilde {v^{\prime \prime }\theta ^{\prime \prime }}_{1+3}$ is the sum of the Q1 and Q3 contributions and $\bar {\rho }\widetilde {v^{\prime \prime }\theta ^{\prime \prime }}_{2+4}$ is the sum of the Q2 and Q4 contributions: (a) B-T300-600-p60, (b) B-T300-600-p80 and (c) B-T300-600-p60-shifted. The legend is as in figure 18.

Figure 23

Figure 21.Stability curves for the initial profiles. The lines of S-T300-300-p60 and B-T300-600-p60 overlap those of S-T300-300-p80 and B-T300-600-p80. The legend is the same as in figure 5.

Figure 24

Figure 22.One-dimensional spectra at $y^{+}=10$ for several cases at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$: streamwise spectra of (a) $u$, (b) $v$, (c) $w$, (d) $T$, (e) $Y_{\textrm {CH}4}$; spanwise spectra of ( f) $u$, (g) $v$, (h) $w$, (i) $T$, (j) $Y_{\textrm {CH}4}$. The legend is the same as in figure 5.

Figure 25

Figure 23.One-dimensional spectra at $y/\delta _{99}=0.5$ for several cases at $Re_{\tau }\approx 500$: streamwise spectra of (a) $u$, (b) $v$, (c) $w$, (d) $T$, (e) $Y_{\textrm {CH}4}$; spanwise spectra of ( f) $u$, (g) $v$, (h) $w$, (i) $T$, ( j) $Y_{\textrm {CH}4}$. The legend is the same as in figure 5.