The Shannon entropy is a rigorous measure to evaluate the complexity in dynamical systems. Shannon entropy can be directly calculated from any set of experimental or numerical data and yields the uncertainty of a given dataset. Originating from information theory, the concept can be generalized from assessing the uncertainty in a message to any dynamical system. Following the concept of ergodicity, turbulence forms another class of dynamical systems, which is generally assessed using statistical measures. The quantification of resolution quality is a crucial aspect in assessing turbulent-flow simulations. While a vast variety of statistical measures for the evaluation of resolution is available, measures closer representing the dynamics of a turbulent systems, such as the Wasserstein metric or the Ljapunov exponent become popular. This study investigates how the Shannon entropy can lead to useful insights in the quality of turbulent-flow simulations. The Shannon entropy is calculated based on distributions, which enables the direct evaluation from unsteady flow simulations or by post-processing. A turbulent channel flow and a planar turbulent jet are used as validation tests. The Shannon entropy is calculated for turbulent velocity- and scalar-fields and correlations with physical quantities, such as turbulent kinetic energy and passive scalars, are investigated. It is shown that the spatial structure of the Shannon entropy can be related to flow phenomena. This is illustrated by the investigation of the entropy of the velocity fluctuations, passive scalars and turbulent kinetic energy. Grid studies reveal the Shannon entropy as a converging measure. It is demonstrated, that classical turbulent-kinetic-energy-based quality measures struggle with the identification of insufficient resolution, while the Shannon entropy has demonstrated potential to form a solid basis for LES quality assessment.
The present study deals with the application of a sub-grid activity sensor to an eddy viscosity type base model in the context of Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The coherent structure function is used to build this sensor in combination with explicit test filtering. The proposed sensor features two main advantages: First, it attenuates the sub-grid scale dissipation of the base model for transitional flows. Depending on local conditions, the sensor is essentially blending the eddy viscosity between zero and the value resulting from the standard Smagorinsky model. Second, the sensor rectifies the incorrect near-wall scaling of the standard Smagorinsky model. Application of the sensor requires no averaging (in the homogeneous direction) and is easy to implement, and the additional computational cost is insignificant. In order to assess the model, three different configurations have been examined: laminar-to-turbulent transition in the Taylor–Green vortex, wall-dominated channel flows, and a free planar jet flow including passive scalar mixing. Based on a posteriori LES, it has been found that the new sensor-enhanced Smagorinsky model often outperforms established eddy viscosity models from the literature, such as the standard Smagorinsky model and the sigma model, as well as the LES without the explicit sub-grid model.
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