Methods for measuring energy dissipation rate in anisotropic turbulence

Abstract

Energy dissipation rate is an important parameter for nearly every experiment on turbulent flow. Mathematically precise relationships between energy dissipation rate and other measurable statistics for the case of anisotropic turbulence are useful to experimentalists. Such relationships are obtained for which the measurable statistics are the 3rd-order and 2nd-order velocity structure functions as well as the acceleration-velocity structure function. The relationships are derived using the Navier-Stokes equation without approximation. Approximate versions are obtained on the basis of local stationarity and local homogeneity. The latter are valid for arbitrary Reynolds numbers for the case of stationary, homogeneous turbulence. Precise use of the mathematics requires care noted in the Discussion section.