البوابة
من طرف Steady vs unsteady flow
Hydrodynamics simulation of the Rayleigh-Taylor instability [1]
When all the time derivatives of a flow field vanish, the flow is considered to be steady. Otherwise, it is called unsteady. Whether a particular flow is steady or unsteady, can depend on the chosen frame of reference. For instance, laminar flow over a sphere is steady in the frame of reference that is stationary with respect to the sphere. In a frame of reference that is stationary than the governing equations of the same problem without taking advantage of the steadiness of the flow field.
Although strictly unsteady flows, time-periodic problems can often be solved by the same techniques as steady flows. For this reason, they can be considered to be somewhere between steady and unsteady.
[edit] Laminar vs turbulent flow
Turbulence is flow dominated by recirculation, eddies, and apparent randomness. Flow in which turbulence is not exhibited is called laminar. It should be noted, however, that the presence of eddies or recirculation does not necessarily indicate turbulent flow--these phenomena may be present in laminar flow as well. Mathematically, turbulent flow is often represented via Reynolds decomposition, in which the flow is broken down into the sum of a steady component and a perturbation component.
It is believed that turbulent flows obey the Navier-Stokes equations. Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS), based on the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations, makes it possible to simulate turbulent flows with moderate Reynolds numbers (restrictions depend on the power of computer and efficiency of solution algorithm). The results of DNS agree with the experimental data.
Most flows of interest have Reynolds numbers too high for DNS to be a viable option (see: Pope), given the state of computational power for the next few decades. Any flight vehicle large enough to carry a human (L > 3 m), moving faster than 72 km/h (20 m/s) is well beyond the limit of DNS simulation (Re = 4 million). Transport aircraft wings (such as on an Airbus A300 or Boeing 747) have Reynolds numbers of 40 million (based on the wing chord). In order to solve these real life flow problems, turbulence models will be a necessity for the foreseeable future. Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations (RANS) combined with turbulence modeling provides a model of the effects of the turbulent flow, mainly the additional momentum transfer provided by the Reynolds stresses, although the turbulence also enhances the heat and mass transfer. Large Eddy Simulation (LES) also holds promise as a simulation methodology, especially in the guise of Detached Eddy Simulation (DES), which is a combination of turbulence modeling and large eddy simulation.
