Genesis of longitudinal vortices in near-wall turbulence (Q1288728)

The boundary layers on transport vehicles and in industrial devices are invariably turbulent, with drastically increased drag and heat transfer at solid surfaces due to near-wall vertical coherent structures. The authors address vortex regeneration using direct numerical simulations of the Navier-Stokes equations. To establish the most frequently occurring vortex geometry, the authors average a large number of properly aligned vortex realizations. The streak instability is considered, and it is obtained that lifted streaks are indeed linearly unstable. The direct numerical simulation shows that streak instability is the dominant mechanism of vortex generation, and thus of the turbulence production.