Energy transfer process of anisothermal wall-bounded flows

•Turbulent flows subject to high temperature gradients are considered.•The influence of the “temperature gradients” on the energy transfer process is determined.•Inverse energy cascade in an anisotropic flow is observed.

Strong temperature gradients introduce a major external agency into the wall-bounded turbulent flows. In these flows, the temperature field and the turbulent velocity field are highly correlated. In fact, standard RANS turbulent models are not able to accurately reproduce these flows. In order to improve the performance of the models, we need to understand how the energy is produced, transferred, and dissipated in a strong anisothermal wall-bounded flow. This letter presents a first detailed investigation on the roles played by each contributor in the energy transfer equation.