APPLICATION OF SUCCESSIVE PLANE STRAINS TO GRID-GENERATED TURBULENCE

A grid-generated turbulence is subjected to a pure plane strain and the principal axes of the Reynolds stress tensor become those of the strain. This “oriented” homogeneous turbulence is then submitted to a new strain the principal axes of which have a different orientation. We show that in such a situation it is possible to observe a transfer of energy from the fluctuating motion to the mean one. Such transfer is necessarily associated with a forced decay of the anisotropy of the motion. A detailed analysis of the reorientation of the principal axes of the Reynolds stress tensor in the frame of those of the second strain gives an explanation of the evolution of the principal axes of the Reynolds stress tensor in a shear flow. © 1979, Cambridge University Press