Large scale motions of thermal transport in a turbulent channel

The importance of large scale motions (LSMs) on thermal transport in a turbulent channel flow at friction number of 394 is investigated. Two-point correlation analysis reveals that LSM which significantly contribute to turbulence kinetic energy and scalar transport is a reminiscent of a hairpin packet. Low-order mode representation of the original fields using proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) unveils that the most dominant mode that transports $\left\langle u^{\prime 2}\right\rangle$ is 3-4 channel half-heights long and such structure which contribute to scalar transport is 2-4 channel half-heights long. Consequently, the study discloses that LSMs are effective in transporting both streamwise component of turbulence kinetic energy and scalar variances.