3,670 research outputs found
Effects of turbulent mixing on critical behaviour: Renormalization group analysis of the Potts model
Critical behaviour of a system, subjected to strongly anisotropic turbulent
mixing, is studied by means of the field theoretic renormalization group.
Specifically, relaxational stochastic dynamics of a non-conserved
multicomponent order parameter of the Ashkin-Teller-Potts model, coupled to a
random velocity field with prescribed statistics, is considered. The velocity
is taken Gaussian, white in time, with correlation function of the form
, where is
the component of the wave vector, perpendicular to the distinguished direction
("direction of the flow") --- the -dimensional generalization of the
ensemble introduced by Avellaneda and Majda [1990 {\it Commun. Math. Phys.}
{\bf 131} 381] within the context of passive scalar advection. This model can
describe a rich class of physical situations. It is shown that, depending on
the values of parameters that define self-interaction of the order parameter
and the relation between the exponent and the space dimension , the
system exhibits various types of large-scale scaling behaviour, associated with
different infrared attractive fixed points of the renormalization-group
equations. In addition to known asymptotic regimes (critical dynamics of the
Potts model and passively advected field without self-interaction), existence
of a new, non-equilibrium and strongly anisotropic, type of critical behaviour
(universality class) is established, and the corresponding critical dimensions
are calculated to the leading order of the double expansion in and
(one-loop approximation). The scaling appears strongly
anisotropic in the sense that the critical dimensions related to the directions
parallel and perpendicular to the flow are essentially different.Comment: 21 page, LaTeX source, 7 eps figures. arXiv admin note: substantial
text overlap with arXiv:cond-mat/060701
On the transition to turbulence of wall-bounded flows in general, and plane Couette flow in particular
The main part of this contribution to the special issue of EJM-B/Fluids
dedicated to Patrick Huerre outlines the problem of the subcritical transition
to turbulence in wall-bounded flows in its historical perspective with emphasis
on plane Couette flow, the flow generated between counter-translating parallel
planes. Subcritical here means discontinuous and direct, with strong
hysteresis. This is due to the existence of nontrivial flow regimes between the
global stability threshold Re_g, the upper bound for unconditional return to
the base flow, and the linear instability threshold Re_c characterized by
unconditional departure from the base flow. The transitional range around Re_g
is first discussed from an empirical viewpoint ({\S}1). The recent
determination of Re_g for pipe flow by Avila et al. (2011) is recalled. Plane
Couette flow is next examined. In laboratory conditions, its transitional range
displays an oblique pattern made of alternately laminar and turbulent bands, up
to a third threshold Re_t beyond which turbulence is uniform. Our current
theoretical understanding of the problem is next reviewed ({\S}2): linear
theory and non-normal amplification of perturbations; nonlinear approaches and
dynamical systems, basin boundaries and chaotic transients in minimal flow
units; spatiotemporal chaos in extended systems and the use of concepts from
statistical physics, spatiotemporal intermittency and directed percolation,
large deviations and extreme values. Two appendices present some recent
personal results obtained in plane Couette flow about patterning from numerical
simulations and modeling attempts.Comment: 35 pages, 7 figures, to appear in Eur. J. Mech B/Fluid
Spatiotemporal perspective on the decay of turbulence in wall-bounded flows
Using a reduced model focusing on the in-plane dependence of plane Couette
flow, it is shown that the turbulent-to-laminar relaxation process can be
understood as a nucleation problem similar to that occurring at a thermodynamic
first-order phase transition. The approach, apt to deal with the large
extension of the system considered, challenges the current interpretation in
terms of chaotic transients typical of temporal chaos. The study of the
distribution of the sizes of laminar domains embedded in turbulent flow proves
that an abrupt transition from sustained spatiotemporal chaos to laminar flow
can take place at some given value of the Reynolds number R_{low}, whether or
not the local chaos lifetime, as envisioned within low-dimensional dynamical
systems theory, diverges at finite R beyond R_{low}.Comment: 9 pages, 3 figures, published in 2009 as a Rapid Communication in
Phys. Rev. E, vol. 79, article 025301, corrected to include erratum Phys.
Rev. E 79, 039904. References to now published material have been updated. A
note has been added pointing to recent related work by D. Barkley
(arXiv:1101.4125v1
Conformal invariance in two-dimensional turbulence
Simplicity of fundamental physical laws manifests itself in fundamental
symmetries. While systems with an infinity of strongly interacting degrees of
freedom (in particle physics and critical phenomena) are hard to describe, they
often demonstrate symmetries, in particular scale invariance. In two dimensions
(2d) locality often promotes scale invariance to a wider class of conformal
transformations which allow for nonuniform re-scaling. Conformal invariance
allows a thorough classification of universality classes of critical phenomena
in 2d. Is there conformal invariance in 2d turbulence, a paradigmatic example
of strongly-interacting non-equilibrium system? Here, using numerical
experiment, we show that some features of 2d inverse turbulent cascade display
conformal invariance. We observe that the statistics of vorticity clusters is
remarkably close to that of critical percolation, one of the simplest
universality classes of critical phenomena. These results represent a new step
in the unification of 2d physics within the framework of conformal symmetry.Comment: 10 pages, 5 figures, 1 tabl
Turbulence lifetimes: what we can learn from the physics of glasses
In this note, we critically discuss the issue of the possible finiteness of
the turbulence lifetime in subcritical transition to turbulence in shear flows,
which attracted a lot of interest recently. We briefly review recent
experimental and numerical results, as well as theoretical proposals, and
compare the difficulties arising in assessing this issue in subcritical shear
flow with that encountered in the study of the glass transition. In order to go
beyond the purely methodological similarities, we further elaborate on this
analogy and propose a qualitative mapping between these two apparently
unrelated situations, which could possibly foster new directions of research in
subcritical shear flows.Comment: 10 pages, 4 figure
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