On the unsteady behavior of turbulence models

Periodically forced turbulence is used as a test case to evaluate the predictions of two-equation and multiple-scale turbulence models in unsteady flows. The limitations of the two-equation model are shown to originate in the basic assumption of spectral equilibrium. A multiple-scale model based on a picture of stepwise energy cascade overcomes some of these limitations, but the absence of nonlocal interactions proves to lead to poor predictions of the time variation of the dissipation rate. A new multiple-scale model that includes nonlocal interactions is proposed and shown to reproduce the main features of the frequency response correctly

Turbulence and turbulent pattern formation in a minimal model for active fluids

Active matter systems display a fascinating range of dynamical states, including stationary patterns and turbulent phases. While the former can be tackled with methods from the field of pattern formation, the spatio-temporal disorder of the active turbulence phase calls for a statistical description. Borrowing techniques from turbulence theory, we here establish a quantitative description of correlation functions and spectra of a minimal continuum model for active turbulence. Further exploring the parameter space, we also report on a surprising type of turbulence-driven pattern formation far beyond linear onset: the emergence of a dynamic hexagonal vortex lattice state after an extended turbulent transient, which can only be explained taking into account turbulent energy transfer across scales.Comment: Supplemental videos available at https://youtu.be/gbf6cRho03w https://youtu.be/n0qUUhAUJFQ https://youtu.be/LGmamkM012

Extreme Lagrangian acceleration in confined turbulent flow

A Lagrangian study of two-dimensional turbulence for two different geometries, a periodic and a confined circular geometry, is presented to investigate the influence of solid boundaries on the Lagrangian dynamics. It is found that the Lagrangian acceleration is even more intermittent in the confined domain than in the periodic domain. The flatness of the Lagrangian acceleration as a function of the radius shows that the influence of the wall on the Lagrangian dynamics becomes negligible in the center of the domain and it also reveals that the wall is responsible for the increased intermittency. The transition in the Lagrangian statistics between this region, not directly influenced by the walls, and a critical radius which defines a Lagrangian boundary layer, is shown to be very sharp with a sudden increase of the acceleration flatness from about 5 to about 20

Zonal flow generation and its feedback on turbulence production in drift wave turbulence

Plasma turbulence described by the Hasegawa-Wakatani equations has been simulated numerically for different models and values of the adiabaticity parameter C. It is found that for low values of C turbulence remains isotropic, zonal flows are not generated and there is no suppression of the meridional drift waves and of the particle transport. For high values of C, turbulence evolves toward highly anisotropic states with a dominant contribution of the zonal sector to the kinetic energy. This anisotropic flow leads to a decrease of a turbulence production in the meridional sector and limits the particle transport across the mean isopycnal surfaces. This behavior allows to consider the Hasegawa-Wakatani equations a minimal PDE model which contains the drift-wave/zonal-flow feedback loop prototypical of the LH transition in plasma devices.Comment: 14 pages, 7 figure

Reynolds number effect on the velocity increment skewness in isotropic turbulence

Second and third order longitudinal structure functions and wavenumber spectra of isotropic turbulence are computed using the EDQNM model and compared to results of the multifractal formalism. At the highest Reynolds number available in windtunnel experiments, $R_\lambda=2500$, both the multifractal model and EDQNM give power-law corrections to the inertial range scaling of the velocity increment skewness. For EDQNM, this correction is a finite Reynolds number effect, whereas for the multifractal formalism it is an intermittency correction that persists at any high Reynolds number. Furthermore, the two approaches yield realistic behavior of second and third order statistics of the velocity fluctuations in the dissipative and near-dissipative ranges. Similarities and differences are highlighted, in particular the Reynolds number dependence

Sclera solar diameter observations

Focus is given to possible variations in solar luminosity and accurate methods of monitoring it. Aside from direct bolometry, one methodology for this type of research makes use of measurements of the solar diameter and limb darkening function as indirect indicators of the solar luminosity. This approach was reviewed

Origin of Lagrangian Intermittency in Drift-Wave Turbulence

The Lagrangian velocity statistics of dissipative drift-wave turbulence are investigated. For large values of the adiabaticity (or small collisionality), the probability density function of the Lagrangian acceleration shows exponential tails, as opposed to the stretched exponential or algebraic tails, generally observed for the highly intermittent acceleration of Navier-Stokes turbulence. This exponential distribution is shown to be a robust feature independent of the Reynolds number. For small adiabaticity, algebraic tails are observed, suggesting the strong influence of point-vortex-like dynamics on the acceleration. A causal connection is found between the shape of the probability density function and the autocorrelation of the norm of the acceleration

The role of coherent vorticity in turbulent transport in resistive drift-wave turbulence

The coherent vortex extraction method, a wavelet technique for extracting coherent vortices out of turbulent flows, is applied to simulations of resistive drift-wave turbulence in magnetized plasma (Hasegawa-Wakatani system). The aim is to retain only the essential degrees of freedom, responsible for the transport. It is shown that the radial density flux is carried by these coherent modes. In the quasi-hydrodynamic regime, coherent vortices exhibit depletion of the polarization-drift nonlinearity and vorticity strongly dominates strain, in contrast to the quasiadiabatic regime

Spectral imbalance and the normalized dissipation rate of turbulence

The normalized turbulent dissipation rate $C_\epsilon$ is studied in decaying and forced turbulence by direct numerical simulations, large-eddy simulations, and closure calculations. A large difference in the values of $C_\epsilon$ is observed for the two types of turbulence. This difference is found at moderate Reynolds number, and it is shown that it persists at high Reynolds number, where the value of $C_\epsilon$ becomes independent of the Reynolds number, but is still not unique. This difference can be explained by the influence of the nonlinear cascade time that introduces a spectral disequilibrium for statistically nonstationary turbulence. Phenomenological analysis yields simple analytical models that satisfactorily reproduce the numerical results. These simple spectral models also reproduce and explain the increase of $C_\epsilon$ at low Reynolds number that is observed in the simulations