Vorticity Generation by Rough Walls in 2D Decaying Turbulence

In this work we present Lattice Boltzmann simulations of a decaying vortex array in a 2D rectangular domain, which is bounded by a random rough wall from one side. In order to separate the effects of the collisions with the rough wall, the opposite (smooth) rigid wall is placed at a larger distance from the center of the vortex array. Periodic boundary condition is imposed in the perpendicular direction. Well defined random roughness is generated by the widely studied Wolf-Villain surface growth algorithm. The main finding is that collisions with a rough wall generate excess vorticity compared with a smooth boundary, while the kinetic energy decreases monotonously. A proper measure is the integrated excess enstrophy, which exhibits an apparent maximum at an "optimal" roughness range. Numerical values of the excess enstrophy are very sensitive to a particular configuration (wall shape and vortex lattice randomization), however the "optimal" roughness exhibits surface features of similar characteristic sizes than that of the decaying vortices.