Direct numerical simulation(DNS) of forcing homogeneous isotropic turbulence with polymers was performed.In order to understand the polymers effect on turbulent coherent structures,proper orthogonal decomposition was performed to identify coherent structures based on DNS data,so as to analyze the remarkable difference due to the addition of polymers.The results showed that the numbers for eigenmodes required for capturing coherent structures were 32 and 24 for the Newtonian fluid and polymer solution flows,respectively,which means the decrease of the complexity in polymer solution flow.Through the POD energy spectrum,it was found that the turbulent kinetic energy is distributed onto a large number of eigenmodes whether in the Newtonian fluid flow or polymer solution flow,suggesting that polymer solution flow is still turbulent in one aspect.Besides,the POD eigenmodes were investigated,which found that the small-scale structures are inhibited in polymer solution flow.
Direct numerical simulation of decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence （DHIT） of a polymer solution is performed. In order to understand the polymer effect on turbulence or additive-turbulence interaction, we directly investigate the influence of polymers on velocity gradient tensor including vorticity and strain. By visualizing vortex tubes and sheets, we observe a remarkable inhibition of vortex structures in an intermediate-scale field and a small-scale field but not for a large scale field in DHIT with polymers. The geometric study indicates a strong relevance among the vorticity vector, rate-of-strain tensor, and polymer conformation tensor. Joint probability density functions show that the polymer effect can increase ＂strain generation resistance＂ and ＂vorticity generation resistance＂, i.e., inhibit the generation of vortex sheets and tubes, ultimately leading to turbulence inhibition effects.
