On consistency conditions for rotating turbulent flows

Consistency conditions for the prediction of turbulent flows in a rotating frame are examined. It is shown that the dissipation rate should vanish along with the eddy viscosity in the limit of rapid rotations. The latter result is also true when the eddy viscosity is anisotropic and formally follows from the explicit algebraic stress approximation as well as from a phenomenological treatment. The former result has been built into the modeled dissipation rate equation of recent turbulence models where the second result has been violated. In fact, some of these models have the eddy viscosity going to infinity while the dissipation rate vanishes, leading to an inconsistency. For consistency, both of these conditions must be satisfied. The implications of these results for turbulence modeling are thoroughly discussed. © 1998 American Institute of Physics.