Turbulence closure in the light of phase transition

Abstract: In the present study, new turbulence closure equations are derived in the light of continuous (often termed second order) phase transition. Closed form Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations due to those closure equations are solved numerically for a plane turbulent free jet. There turbulent viscosity is treated as a tensor unlike the eddy viscosity. An overall agreement of the obtained results with the existing literature for the jet flow proves the effectiveness of the new closure equations. Besides, turbulent stresses as a function of normalized mean velocity are found to exhibit their odd and even symmetries which seem to be the manifestations of the free energy symmetry of continuous phase transition.