ENERGY-TRANSFER IN NUMERICALLY SIMULATED WALL-BOUNDED TURBULENT FLOWS

Using velocity fields obtained in direct numerical simulations of turb ulent convection and of turbulent channel flow, the energy transfer pr ocess among lateral scales of motion in these low Reynolds number flow s is analyzed. In all cases the energy is transferred most effectively between scales of similar size. As a result, the subgrid-scale energy transfer is caused almost exclusively by interactions between resolve d scales and subgrid scales characterized by wave numbers not greater than twice the cutoff wave number. The scale dependence of forward and inverse energy transfers contributing to the total subgrid-scale eddy viscosity is discussed. The local energy transfer between small scale s is strongly affected by the nonlocal interactions characterized by a scale separation greater than a factor of 2 in wave number. However, the direct energy transfer between scales satisfying this condition is one order of magnitude less than the local energy transfer between sc ales of similar size.