Speed–direction description of turbulent flows

In this note, we introduce speed and direction variables to describe the motion of incompressible viscous fluid. Fluid velocity u is decomposed into u = ur, with u = |u| and r = u/|u|. We consider a directional split of the Navier–Stokes equations into a coupled system of equations for u and for r. The equation for u is particularly simple but solely maintains the energy balance of the system. Under the assumption of a weak correlation between fluctuations in speed and direction in a developed turbulent flow, we further illustrate the application of u–r variables to describe mean statistics of a shear turbulence. The standard (full) Reynolds stress tensor does not appear in a resulting equation for the mean flow profile.