1,261 research outputs found
Scaling and universality in turbulent convection
Anomalous correlation functions of the temperature field in two-dimensional
turbulent convection are shown to be universal with respect to the choice of
external sources. Moreover, they are equal to the anomalous correlations of the
concentration field of a passive tracer advected by the convective flow itself.
The statistics of velocity differences is found to be universal, self-similar
and close to Gaussian. These results point to the conclusion that temperature
intermittency in two-dimensional turbulent convection may be traced back to the
existence of statistically preserved structures, as it is in passive scalar
turbulence.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
Large-scale anisotropy in scalar turbulence
The effect of anisotropy on the statistics of a passive tracer transported by
a turbulent flow is investigated. We show that under broad conditions an
arbitrarily small amount of anisotropy propagates to the large scales where it
eventually dominates the structure of the concentration field. This result is
obtained analytically in the framework of an exactly solvable model and
confirmed by numerical simulations of scalar transport in two-dimensional
turbulence
Front propagation in laminar flows
The problem of front propagation in flowing media is addressed for laminar
velocity fields in two dimensions. Three representative cases are discussed:
stationary cellular flow, stationary shear flow, and percolating flow.
Production terms of Fisher-Kolmogorov-Petrovskii-Piskunov type and of Arrhenius
type are considered under the assumption of no feedback of the concentration on
the velocity. Numerical simulations of advection-reaction-diffusion equations
have been performed by an algorithm based on discrete-time maps. The results
show a generic enhancement of the speed of front propagation by the underlying
flow. For small molecular diffusivity, the front speed depends on the
typical flow velocity as a power law with an exponent depending on the
topological properties of the flow, and on the ratio of reactive and advective
time-scales. For open-streamline flows we find always , whereas for
cellular flows we observe for fast advection, and for slow advection.Comment: Enlarged, revised version, 37 pages, 14 figure
Eulerian Statistically Preserved Structures in Passive Scalar Advection
We analyze numerically the time-dependent linear operators that govern the
dynamics of Eulerian correlation functions of a decaying passive scalar
advected by a stationary, forced 2-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence. We
show how to naturally discuss the dynamics in terms of effective compact
operators that display Eulerian Statistically Preserved Structures which
determine the anomalous scaling of the correlation functions. In passing we
point out a bonus of the present approach, in providing analytic predictions
for the time-dependent correlation functions in decaying turbulent transport.Comment: 10 pages, 10 figures. Submitted to Phys. Rev.
Shear effects on passive scalar spectra
The effects of a large-scale shear on the energy spectrum of a passively
advected scalar field are investigated. The shear is superimposed on a
turbulent isotropic flow, yielding an Obukhov-Corrsin scalar
spectrum at small scales. Shear effects appear at large scales, where a
different, anisotropic behavior is observed. The scalar spectrum is shown to
behave as for a shear fixed in intensity and direction. For other
types of shear characteristics, the slope is generally intermediate between the
-5/3 Obukhov-Corrsin's and the -1 Batchelor's values. The physical mechanisms
at the origin of this behaviour are illustrated in terms of the motion of
Lagrangian particles. They provide an explanation to the scalar spectra shallow
and dependent on the experimental conditions observed in shear flows at
moderate Reynolds numbers.Comment: 10 LaTeX pages,3 eps Figure
Anomalous scaling of passive scalar in turbulence and in equilibrium
We analyze multi-point correlation functions of a tracer in an incompressible
flow at scales far exceeding the scale at which fluctuations are generated
(quasi-equilibrium domain) and compare them with the correlation functions at
scales smaller than (turbulence domain). We demonstrate that the scale
invariance can be broken in the equilibrium domain and trace this breakdown to
the statistical integrals of motion (zero modes) as has been done before for
turbulence. Employing Kraichnan model of short-correlated velocity we identify
the new type of zero modes, which break scale invariance and determine an
anomalously slow decay of correlations at large scales
Inverse turbulent cascades and conformally invariant curves
We offer a new example of conformal invariance far from equilibrium -- the
inverse cascade of Surface Quasi-Geostrophic (SQG) turbulence. We show that
temperature isolines are statistically equivalent to curves that can be mapped
into a one-dimensional Brownian walk (called Schramm-Loewner Evolution or
SLE). The diffusivity is close to , that is iso-temperature
curves belong to the same universality class as domain walls in the O(2) spin
model. Several statistics of temperature clusters and isolines are measured and
shown to be consistent with the theoretical expectations for such a spin system
at criticality. We also show that the direct cascade in two-dimensional
Navier-Stokes turbulence is not conformal invariant. The emerging picture is
that conformal invariance may be expected for inverse turbulent cascades of
strongly interacting systems.Comment: 4 pages, 6 figure
- …