Effects of Taylor-Gortler vortices on turbulent flows in a spanwise-rotating channel

Fully developed turbulent channel flow with system rotation in the spanwise direction has been studied by direct numerical simulation at Re-m = 2800 and 7000 with 0 <= Ro(m) <= 0.5. The width of the computational domain is adjusted for each case to contain two pairs of Taylor-Gortler (TG) vortices. Under a relatively low rotation rate, the turbulent vortical structures are strongly influenced by the TG vortices. A conditional average method is employed to investigate the effects of these TG vortices on turbulence. In the upwash region where the fluid is pumped away from the pressure wall by the TG vortices, turbulence is found to be enhanced, while the opposite scenario occurs in the downwash region where the fluid is shifted toward the pressure wall. The statistics along the centerlines of the two regions of a TG vortex are presented in detail. Through the budget analysis of the transport equation of vorticity fluctuations, we found that the wall-normal stretching term caused by the TG vortices plays an important role in initiating the differences of turbulence intensities between the two regions, which are further augmented by the Coriolis force term in the streamwise direction. Meanwhile, the shear stress on the suction wall is observed to fluctuate in a quasi-periodic manner at Re-m = 7000 and Ro(m) = 0.3, which is also revealed to be induced by the TG vortices. Such quasi-periodicity is not found at Re-m = 2800 and Ro(m) = 0.3, where turbulence on the suction side is strongly suppressed by rotation. Published by AIP Publishing.