Causal analysis of inner and outer motions in near-wall turbulent flow

In this work, we study the causality of near-wall inner and outer turbulent motions. Here we define the inner motions as the self-sustained near-wall cycle and the outer motions as those living in the logarithmic layer exhibiting a footprint on the near-wall region. We perform causal analysis using two different methods: one is the transfer entropy, based on the information theory, and the other one is the Liang–Kleeman information-flow theory. The causal-analysis methods are applied to several scenarios, including a linear and a non-linear problem, a low-dimensional model of the near-wall cycle of turbulence, as well as the interaction between inner and outer turbulent motions in a channel at a friction Reynolds number of Re_τ=1000. We find that both methods can well predict the causal links in the linear problem, and the information flow can identify more of the nonlinear problem. Despite richer causalities revealed by the transfer entropy for turbulent-flow problems, both methods can successfully identify the streak-vortex regeneration mechanism that majorly sustains the near-wall turbulence. It is also indicated that both bottom-up and top-down influences of inner and outer motions may coexist in addition to the multiscale self-sustaining mechanism. Lastly, we mention that the computation of the information flow is much more efficient than the transfer entropy. The present study suggests that the information flow can have great potential in causal inference for turbulent-flow problems besides the transfer entropy.