Statistics of mixing in three-dimensional Rayleigh--Taylor turbulence at low Atwood number and Prandtl number one

Three-dimensional miscible Rayleigh--Taylor (RT) turbulence at small Atwood number and at Prandtl number one is investigated by means of high resolution direct numerical simulations of the Boussinesq equations. RT turbulence is a paradigmatic time-dependent turbulent system in which the integral scale grows in time following the evolution of the mixing region. In order to fully characterize the statistical properties of the flow, both temporal and spatial behavior of relevant statistical indicators have been analyzed. Scaling of both global quantities ({\it e.g.}, Rayleigh, Nusselt and Reynolds numbers) and scale dependent observables built in terms of velocity and temperature fluctuations are considered. We extend the mean-field analysis for velocity and temperature fluctuations to take into account intermittency, both in time and space domains. We show that the resulting scaling exponents are compatible with those of classical Navier--Stokes turbulence advecting a passive scalar at comparable Reynolds number. Our results support the scenario of universality of turbulence with respect to both the injection mechanism and the geometry of the flow

Fronts in passive scalar turbulence

The evolution of scalar fields transported by turbulent flow is characterized by the presence of fronts, which rule the small-scale statistics of scalar fluctuations. With the aid of numerical simulations, it is shown that: isotropy is not recovered, in the classical sense, at small scales; scaling exponents are universal with respect to the scalar injection mechanisms; high-order exponents saturate to a constant value; non-mature fronts dominate the statistics of intense fluctuations. Results on the statistics inside the plateaux, where fluctuations are weak, are also presented. Finally, we analyze the statistics of scalar dissipation and scalar fluxes.Comment: 18 pages, 27 figure

Coarse-grained description of a passive scalar

The issue of the parameterization of small-scale dynamics is addressed in the context of passive-scalar turbulence. The basic idea of our strategy is to identify dynamical equations for the coarse-grained scalar dynamics starting from closed equations for two-point statistical indicators. With the aim of performing a fully-analytical study, the Kraichnan advection model is considered. The white-in-time character of the latter model indeed leads to closed equations for the equal-time scalar correlation functions. The classical closure problem however still arises if a standard filtering procedure is applied to those equations in the spirit of the large-eddy-simulation strategy. We show both how to perform exact closures and how to identify the corresponding coarse-grained scalar evolution.Comment: 22 pages; submitted to Journal of Turbulenc

Large Deviation Approach to the Randomly Forced Navier-Stokes Equation

The random forced Navier-Stokes equation can be obtained as a variational problem of a proper action. By virtue of incompressibility, the integration over transverse components of the fields allows to cast the action in the form of a large deviation functional. Since the hydrodynamic operator is nonlinear, the functional integral yielding the statistics of fluctuations can be practically computed by linearizing around a physical solution of the hydrodynamic equation. We show that this procedure yields the dimensional scaling predicted by K41 theory at the lowest perturbative order, where the perturbation parameter is the inverse Reynolds number. Moreover, an explicit expression of the prefactor of the scaling law is obtained.Comment: 24 page

Pressure and intermittency in passive vector turbulence

We investigate the scaling properties a model of passive vector turbulence with pressure and in the presence of a large-scale anisotropy. The leading scaling exponents of the structure functions are proven to be anomalous. The anisotropic exponents are organized in hierarchical families growing without bound with the degree of anisotropy. Nonlocality produces poles in the inertial-range dynamics corresponding to the dimensional scaling solution. The increase with the P\'{e}clet number of hyperskewness and higher odd-dimensional ratios signals the persistence of anisotropy effects also in the inertial range.Comment: 4 pages, 1 figur

Anomalous scaling of a passive scalar advected by the Navier--Stokes velocity field: Two-loop approximation

The field theoretic renormalization group and operator product expansion are applied to the model of a passive scalar quantity advected by a non-Gaussian velocity field with finite correlation time. The velocity is governed by the Navier--Stokes equation, subject to an external random stirring force with the correlation function $\propto \delta(t-t') k^{4-d-2\epsilon}$. It is shown that the scalar field is intermittent already for small $\epsilon$, its structure functions display anomalous scaling behavior, and the corresponding exponents can be systematically calculated as series in $\epsilon$. The practical calculation is accomplished to order $\epsilon^{2}$ (two-loop approximation), including anisotropic sectors. Like for the well-known Kraichnan's rapid-change model, the anomalous scaling results from the existence in the model of composite fields (operators) with negative scaling dimensions, identified with the anomalous exponents. Thus the mechanism of the origin of anomalous scaling appears similar for the Gaussian model with zero correlation time and non-Gaussian model with finite correlation time. It should be emphasized that, in contrast to Gaussian velocity ensembles with finite correlation time, the model and the perturbation theory discussed here are manifestly Galilean covariant. The relevance of these results for the real passive advection, comparison with the Gaussian models and experiments are briefly discussed.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figur

Manifestation of anisotropy persistence in the hierarchies of MHD scaling exponents

The first example of a turbulent system where the failure of the hypothesis of small-scale isotropy restoration is detectable both in the `flattening' of the inertial-range scaling exponent hierarchy, and in the behavior of odd-order dimensionless ratios, e.g., skewness and hyperskewness, is presented. Specifically, within the kinematic approximation in magnetohydrodynamical turbulence, we show that for compressible flows, the isotropic contribution to the scaling of magnetic correlation functions and the first anisotropic ones may become practically indistinguishable. Moreover, skewness factor now diverges as the P\'eclet number goes to infinity, a further indication of small-scale anisotropy.Comment: 4 pages Latex, 1 figur

Anomalous scaling of passively advected magnetic field in the presence of strong anisotropy

Inertial-range scaling behavior of high-order (up to order N=51) structure functions of a passively advected vector field has been analyzed in the framework of the rapid-change model with strong small-scale anisotropy with the aid of the renormalization group and the operator-product expansion. It has been shown that in inertial range the leading terms of the structure functions are coordinate independent, but powerlike corrections appear with the same anomalous scaling exponents as for the passively advected scalar field. These exponents depend on anisotropy parameters in such a way that a specific hierarchy related to the degree of anisotropy is observed. Deviations from power-law behavior like oscillations or logarithmic behavior in the corrections to structure functions have not been found.Comment: 15 pages, 18 figure

Influence of helicity on scaling regimes in the extended Kraichnan model

We have investigated the advection of a passive scalar quantity by incompressible helical turbulent flow in the frame of extended Kraichnan model. Turbulent fluctuations of velocity field are assumed to have the Gaussian statistics with zero mean and defined noise with finite time-correlation. Actual calculations have been done up to two-loop approximation in the frame of field-theoretic renormalization group approach. It turned out that space parity violation (helicity) of turbulent environment does not affect anomalous scaling which is peculiar attribute of corresponding model without helicity. However, stability of asymptotic regimes, where anomalous scaling takes place, strongly depends on the amount of helicity. Moreover, helicity gives rise to the turbulent diffusivity, which has been calculated in one-loop approximation.Comment: 16 pages, talk given by M. Hnatich at "Renormalization Group 2005", Helsinki, Finland 30 August - 3 September 2005. To apear in J. Phys. A: Math. Ge