Wall layer, turbulent flow

Mass and heat transfer to the walls in turbulent flows is a complex mixture of molecular transport and transport by turbulent eddies. The generally assumed analogy between mass and heat transfer by assuming Sh = Nu, is not valid for turbulent flows [26]. Simulations and measurements have shown that there is a laminar film close to the surface where most of the mass transfer resistance for high Sc liquids is located. This fUm is located below y+ = 1 and for low Sc fluids, and for heat transfer the whole boundary layer is important [27]. 

Applying a two-layer turbulent flow model, in which the turbulent flow structures are modelled differently for the bulk and wall regions. 

Figure 48.4 A narrow layer of stationary fluid, the laminar sublayer, persists next to the wall during turbulent flow.

For turbulent flow of a fluid past a solid, it has long been known that, in the immediate neighborhood of the surface, there exists a relatively quiet zone of fluid, commonly called the Him. As one approaches the wall from the body of the flowing fluid, the flow tends to become less turbulent and develops into laminar flow immediately adjacent to the wall. The film consists of that portion of the flow which is essentially in laminar motion (the laminar sublayer) and through which heat is transferred by molecular conduction. The resistance of the laminar layer to heat flow will vaiy according to its thickness and can range from 95 percent of the total resistance for some fluids to about I percent for other fluids (liquid metals). The turbulent core and the buffer layer between the laminar sublayer and turbulent core each offer a resistance to beat transfer which is a function of the turbulence and the thermal properties of the flowing fluid. The relative temperature difference across each of the layers is dependent upon their resistance to heat flow. 

For the turbulent flow of water in layer form down the walls of vertical tubes the dimensional equation of McAdams, Drew, and Bays [Trans. Am. Soc. Mech. Eng., 62, 627 (1940)] is recommended ... 

Essentially, except for once-through boilers, steam generation primarily involves two-phase nucleate boiling and convective boiling mechanisms (see Section 1.1). Any deposition at the heat transfer surfaces may disturb the thermal gradient resulting from the initial conduction of heat from the metal surface to the adjacent layer of slower and more laminar flow, inner-wall water and on to the higher velocity and more turbulent flow bulk water. 

When a fluid flowing at a uniform velocity enters a pipe, the layers of fluid adjacent to the walls are slowed down as they are on a plane surface and a boundary layer forms at the entrance. This builds up in thickness as the fluid passes into the pipe. At some distance downstream from the entrance, the boundary layer thickness equals the pipe radius, after which conditions remain constant and fully developed flow exists. If the flow in the boundary layers is streamline where they meet, laminar flow exists in the pipe. If the transition has already taken place before they meet, turbulent flow will persist in the... 

In streamline flow, E is very small and approaches zero, so that xj p determines the shear stress. In turbulent flow, E is negligible at the wall and increases very rapidly with distance from the wall. LAUFER(7), using very small hot-wire anemometers, measured the velocity fluctuations and gave a valuable account of the structure of turbulent flow. In the operations of mass, heat, and momentum transfer, the transfer has to be effected through the laminar layer near the wall, and it is here that the greatest resistance to transfer lies. 

When a fluid flowing with a uniform velocity enters a pipe, a boundary layer forms at the walls and gradually thickens with distance from the entry point. Since the fluid in the boundary layer is retarded and the total flow remains constant, the fluid in the central stream is accelerated. At a certain distance from the inlet, the boundary layers, which have formed in contact with the walls, join at the axis of the pipe, and, from that point onwards, occupy the whole cross-section and consequently remain of a constant thickness. Fulty developed flow then exists. If the boundary layers are still streamline when fully developed flow commences, the flow in the pipe remains streamline. On the other hand, if the boundary layers are already turbulent, turbulent flow will persist, as shown in Figure 11.8. 

The expressions for the shear stress at the walls, the thickness of the laminar sub-layer, and the velocity at the outer edge of the laminar sub-layer may be applied to the turbulent flow of a fluid in a pipe. It is convenient to express these relations in terms of the mean velocity in the pipe, the pipe diameter, and the Reynolds group with respect to the mean velocity and diameter. 

A review on drag-reducing polymers is given in the literature [1359]. It has been suggested that drag reduction occurs by the interactions between elastic macromolecules and turbulent-flow macrostructures. In turbulent pipe flow, the region near the wall, composed of a viscous sublayer and a buffer layer, plays a major role in drag reduction. 

With turbulent flow, the major temperature drop occurs across the thin layer of gas at the tube wall. The coefficient h depends on the viscosity 17, the thermal conductivity... 

Phase-averaged values of 4 in a plane midway between two baffles of a stirred tank have been plotted in Fig. 1 (from Hartmann et al., 2004a) for two different SGS models (Smagorinsky and Voke, respectively) in LES carried out in a LB approach. The highest values, i.e., the strongest deviations from isotropy, occur in the impeller zone, in the boundary layers along wall and bottom of the tank, and at the separation points at the vessel wall from which the anisotropy is advected into the bulk flow. In the recirculation loops, the turbulent flow is more or less isotropic. 

Consider a fully developed turbulent flow through a pipe of circular cross section. A turbulent boundary layer will exist with a thin viscous sublayer immediately adjacent to the wall, beyond which is the buffer or generation layer and finally the fully turbulent outer part of the boundary layer. 

Equations 2.58, 2.70 and 2.71 enable the velocity distribution to be calculated for steady fully developed turbulent flow. These equations are only approximate and lead to a discontinuity of the gradient at y+ = 30, which is where equations 2.70 and 2.71 intersect. The actual profile is, of course, smooth and the transition from the buffer zone to the fully turbulent outer zone is particularly gradual. As a result it is somewhat arbitrary where the limit of the buffer zone is taken often the value y+ = 70 rather than j + = 30 is used. The ability to represent the velocity profile in most turbulent boundary layers by the same v+ - y+ relationships (equations 2.58, 2.70 and 2.71) is the reason for calling this the universal velocity profile. The use of in defining v+ and y+ demonstrates the fundamental importance of the wall shear stress. 

Turbulent mass transfer near a wall can be represented by various physical models. In one such model the turbulent flow is assumed to be composed of a succession of short, steady, laminar motions along a plate. The length scale of the laminar path is denoted by x0 and the velocity of the liquid element just arrived at the wall by u0. Along each path of length x0, the motion is approximated by the quasi-steady laminar flow of a semiinfinite fluid along a plate. This implies that the hydrodynamic and diffusion boundary layers which develop in each of the paths are assumed to be smaller than the thickness of the fluid elements brought to the wall by turbulent fluctuations. Since the diffusion coefficient is small in liquids, the depth of penetration by diffusion in the liquid element is also small. Therefore one can use the first terms in the Taylor expansion of the Blasius expressions for the velocity components. The rate of mass transfer in the laminar microstructure can be obtained by solving the equation... 

The complexities of turbulent flow are outside the province of this book. However, there are two further properties of laminar convective flow that are relevant to understanding the electrochemical situation. The first is easily understood by considering an excellent illustration of it—river flow. It is a matter of common observation that rivers (which flow convectively as a result of being pushed by gravity) move at maximum rale in the middle. At the river bank there is hardly any flow at all. This observation can be transferred to the flow of liquid through a pipe. The flow reaches a maximum velocity in the center. The liquid actually in contact with the walls of the pipe does not flow at all. The stationary layer is a few micrometers in thickness, about 1 % of the thickness of the diffusion layer set up by natural convection in an unstirred solution when an electrode reaction in steady state is occurring. 

Figure 2.4b shows, conceptually, the velocity distribution in steady turbulent flow through a straight round tube. The velocity at the tube wall is zero, and the fluid near the wall moves in laminar flow, even though the flow of the main body of fluid is turbulent. The thin layer near the wall in which the flow is laminar is called the laminar sublayer or laminar film, while the main body of fluid where turbulence always prevails is called the turbulent core. The intermediate zone between the laminar sublayer and the turbulent core is called the buffer layer, where the motion of fluid may be either laminar or turbulent at a given instant. With a relatively long tube, the above statement holds for most of the tube length, except for... 

Deposition of wax following crystallisation depends on the temperature differential between the bulk crude stream and the pipewall, and the Reynolds number. The larger the temperature differential, the greater the chance of wax deposition since molecular diffusion of dissolved wax to the pipewall intensifies as a result of the increase in wax concentration near the pipewall brought about by the temperature differential. With respect to Reynolds number, maximum wax accumulation is expected in the transition range (Reynolds number between 2000 and 4000). At low (laminar) flew, the net transport of wax to the wall 1s reduced by a relatively thick laminar layer adjacent to the pipewall and during turbulent flow, wax build-up 1s limited by erosion. 

Inertial forces of the fluid increase with density and the square of velocity (pv2) while viscous forces decrease with increasing diameter of tube (nv/d) and increase with viscosity and velocity. High Reynolds numbers (Re>4000) result in turbulent flow with low Reynolds number (Re<2000) the flow is laminar. Laminar flow results from formation of layers of fluid with different velocities after a certain flow distance, as illustrated in Figure 2.10A. Flow at the walls is zero and increases approaching the center of the tubes. The laminar flow pattern results from layers of mobile phase with different velocities travelling parallel to each other. The maximum flow at the center is twice the average flow velocity of the fluid. Molecules in the fluid can exchange between fluid layers by molecular diffusion. Most open tubular columns operate under laminar flow conditions. 

Keulegan (K13) applied the semiempirical boundary-layer concepts of Prandtl and von K arm an to the case of turbulent flow in open channels, taking into account the effects of channel cross-sectional shape, roughness of the wetted walls, and the free surface. Most of the results are applicable mainly to deep rough channels and bear little relation to the flow of thin films. 

Constant-Stress Layer in Flowing Fluids. In the boundary layer of a fluid flowing over a solid wall. Ihe shear stress varies with distance from Ihe wall bul ii may be considered nearly constant within a small fraction of the layer thickness. The concept is of particular importance in turbulent flow where it leads lo a theoretical derivation of the law of ihe wall," the logarithmic distribution of mean velocity. The constant stress layer is ihe best-known example of the equilibrium flow s near a wall. 

At velocities greater than the critical, the fluid velocity profile in the conduit is uniform across the conduit diameter except for a thin layer of fluid at the conduit wall. This boundary layer continues to move in laminar flow. In connection with flow measurement, most flowmeters have constant coefficients under turbulent flow conditions. Some flowmeters have the advantage of constant coefficients over Reynolds Number ranges encompassing both turbulent and laminar flows. See also Fluid and Fluid Flow and Reynolds Number. 

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