Existence and positivity of a system k-ε with a production term of the Rayleigh-Taylor type Original Research Article

In this paper, we study a modelization of the turbulence which allows us to have a control on the positivity of the kinetic turbulence energy k and the dissipation growth rate of the energy ε. We use for that purpose the maximum principle on a new system modelling the turbulence, written on the variables θ and φ first introduced by Lewandowski (θ = k/ε, φ = ε2/k3). Estimates on θ and φ are given for a turbulent system with a Rayleigh-Taylor type term under a hypothesis of low compressibility of the mean flow, which is more general than the hypothesis of Lewandowski. In a second part, we study a simpler convection diffusion system (the diffusion is a constant) in which there is still the Rayleigh-Taylor term. We show that the presence of this term gives greater solutions of the k, ε system, hence proving that these terms are turbulent kinetic energy production terms.