
248 Turbulent Flows
its limits of integration. The correction of this (Kraichnan, 1964, 1965, 1966; Edwards,
1968) is most easily carried out in a Lagrangian reference frame and has been termed
the Lagrangian history direct interaction (LHDI) model.
A direct Lagrangian approach is difficult, and closure approximations become
virtually impossible in such a frame. To simplify these matters, Kraichnan (1966) has
introduced a further model, the abridged Lagrangian interaction (ALI) model, which
introduces an approach somewhere between the Eulerian and Lagrangian models. To
illustrate this, consider the notation fxt
0
t, which reads as “the property f at time t
of a fluid particle that was at x at time t
0
.” Thus, if z is the current position of a fluid
particle and v its velocity,
vxt
0
t =
zxt
0
t
t
(10.8.3)
As a simple example, consider an irrotational vortex and flow in a square corner. Then z =
x
2
1
+x
2
2
cos + sin + 0 for the vortex, with =
t−t
0
x
2
1
+x
2
2
=tan
−1
x
1
x
2
as the circulation, and z = x
1
e
−kt−t
0
x
2
e
−kt−t
0
0 for the square corner.
Eulerian mechanics integrates along a line where t =t
0
, while Lagrangian mechanics
integrates along the line t
0
= constant. ALI is an approach that integrates the equations
first along the line t = t
0
and then along a line of constant t. This results in a model
that is approximately Lagrangian in character but yet is simple enough to allow a DI
closure approximation.
ALI is extremely complicated and difficult to work with. To get around this,
Kraichnan (1970, 1971) modified EDI in a purely Eulerian framework to arrive at an
almost-Markovlan model that is invariant to a Galilean transformation. He called it the
test field model (TFM). TFM is much more efficient in computing time than ALI, in
that TFM implies an exponential time dependency, whereas ALI must compute the time
dependency. It is thought also that TFM may represent the diffusion of a scalar passive
better than does ALI (Leslie, 1973, Chapter 12). In a series of computations (Herring
and Kraichnan, 1972) where the predictions of these various models were compared
with computer solutions (Orszag and Patterson, 1972) and experiments (Grant, Stewart,
and Moillet, 1962), the following conclusions were reached:
1. At low turbulent Reynolds numbers, all quantum theory models are usable. The
accuracy depends on which quantity is being compared, and no one model stands
out as being obviously better. The skewness factor, which is particularly sensitive
to differences in the models, turns out to be best predicted by a version of TFM.
2. At high turbulent Reynolds numbers, the models that are not Galilean-invariant
fail completely, and only TFM and ALI are usable. These seem to agree quite
well with each other. Because the TFM model is much simpler than ALI, the
comparison favors TFM.
10.9 Large Eddy Models
In 1973 a group at Stanford University begin a long-term project to study the large-scale
end of the turbulence spectrum (Kwak, Reynolds, and Ferziger 1975) by simulation on
a supercomputer. The original calculations were done on a grid with 16
3
points, but
this was later increased to 32
3
points and more. Reasonable agreement was made with
previous experimental results, as long as strong filtering was done on the numerical
results. Experiments such as this are useful for testing turbulent flow models and also to