Roughness-induced critical phenomenon analogy for turbulent friction factor explained by a co-spectral budget model

Drawing on an analogy to critical phenomena, it was shown that the Nikuradse turbulent friction factor (ft) measurements in pipes of radius R and wall roughness r can be collapsed onto a one-dimensional curve expressed as a conveyance law ft Re1/4 = go (χ), where Re is the bulk Reynolds number and χ = Re3/4 (r/R). The implicit function go (·) was conjectured based on matching two asymptotic limits of ft. However, the connection between go (·) and the phenomenon it proclaims to represent - turbulent eddies - remains lacking. Using models for the wall-normal velocity spectrum and return-to-isotropy for pressure-strain effects to close a co-spectral density budget, a derivation of go (·) is offered. The proposed method explicitly derives the solution for the conveyance law and provides a physical interpretation of χ as a dimensionless length scale reflecting the competition between the viscous sublayer thickness and characteristic height of roughness elements. Applications of the proposed method to other published measurements spanning roughness and Reynolds numbers beyond the original Nikuradse range are further discussed.

Duke Scholars

Author Gabriel G. Katul Civil and Environmental Engineering