Education of coherent structures in a numerically simulated plane wake

Coherent structures (CS) are educed using a conditional sampling technique involving alignment of vorticity patches of largest size and strength; hence a dominant CS is educed. A numerically simulated spatially evolving wake of a flat plate is used as the database, and the inflow condition for the simulated wake includes random velocity perturbations which emulate turbulent conditions at a plate exit in the laboratory. In addition to previously educed properties such as coherent vorticity and production, and incoherent Reynolds stress and turbulence intensity, other measures such as coherent pressure and passive scalar distributions are also studied. In spite of the geometry difference, the near-wake dynamics of the plate seem quite similar to that of a cylinder. (from Authors)