Coherent large-scale structures from the linearized Navier-Stokes equations

Abstract

The wall-normal extent of the large-scale structures modelled by the linearized Navier–Stokes equations subject to stochastic forcing is directly compared to direct numerical simulation (DNS) data. A turbulent channel flow at a friction Reynolds number of 𝜏Re𝜏=2000 is considered. We use the two-dimensional (2-D) linear coherence spectrum (LCS) to perform the comparison over a wide range of energy-carrying streamwise and spanwise length scales. The study of the 2-D LCS from DNS indicates the presence of large-scale structures that are coherent over large wall-normal distances and that are self-similar. We find that, with the addition of an eddy viscosity profile, these features of the large..