Eduction of near wall flow structures responsible for large deviations of the momentum–heat transfer analogy and fluctuations of wall transfer rates in turbulent channel flow

In this paper we analyze the flow structures responsible for large local instantaneous deviations of the conventional momentum–heat transfer analogy and large fluctuations of the wall shear stress and the wall heat flux in a forced convection turbulent channel flow at low-Reynolds numbers (Re = 4570, Pr = 0.7). The analysis was carried out using a database obtained from a direct numerical simulation performed with a second-order finite volume code. The ensemble averaged velocity and temperature profiles and profiles of the turbulence intensities and turbulent heat fluxes agree well with direct numerical simulations available in the literature. When the flow was statistically fully developed, we recorded the time evolution of the velocities and temperatures near one wall of the channel. The near wall structures responsible for the extreme values of the deviations were educed by a conditional sampling technique. Results show that extreme values of the wall shear stress and wall heat transfer rates, as well as departures from the conventional analogy between momentum and heat transfer, occur within the high-speed streaks on the wall and are associated with fluctuations of the streamwise pressure gradient. These large fluctuations on the wall are produced by the combined effect of two quasi-parallel counterrotating streamwise vortices.