Pressure-strain correlation in homogeneous anisotropic turbulence subject to rapid strain-dominated distortion

Rapid distortion calculations of initially anisotropic turbulence are performed to better understand the physics of the pressure-strain correlation in strain-dominated mean flows. Based on the results of simulations we infer important physical characteristics of the "rapid" pressure-strain correlation Phi(ij)((r)) in such flows: (i) it vanishes when there is no production of anisotropy, (ii) in the proximity of two-componential state it tends to decrease Reynolds stress anisotropy, and (iii) its magnitude is generally smaller than that of production. The observed characteristics are proposed as criteria that pressure-strain correlation models may be required to satisfy. All of the current popular models violate the above criteria for a sizeable subset of anisotropic initial conditions. Reynolds stress transport model calculations show that unphysical and unrealizable model behavior can be directly attributed to these violations. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.