Taylor's (1935) dissipation surrogate reinterpreted

New results from direct numerical simulation of decaying isotropic turbulence show that Taylor’s expression for the viscous dissipation rate ε = CεU3/L is more appropriately interpreted as a surrogate for the inertial energy flux. As a consequence, the well known dependence of the Taylor prefactor Cε on Reynolds number Cε(RL)→Cε,∞ can be understood as corresponding to the onset of an inertial range

Eulerian spectral closures for isotropic turbulence using a time-ordered fluctuation-dissipation relation

Procedures for time-ordering the covariance function, as given in a previous paper (K. Kiyani and W.D. McComb Phys. Rev. E 70, 066303 (2004)), are extended and used to show that the response function associated at second order with the Kraichnan-Wyld perturbation series can be determined by a local (in wavenumber) energy balance. These time-ordering procedures also allow the two-time formulation to be reduced to time-independent form by means of exponential approximations and it is verified that the response equation does not have an infra-red divergence at infinite Reynolds number. Lastly, single-time Markovianised closure equations (stated in the previous paper above) are derived and shown to be compatible with the Kolmogorov distribution without the need to introduce an ad hoc constant.Comment: 12 page

Non-local modulation of the energy cascade in broad-band forced turbulence

Classically, large-scale forced turbulence is characterized by a transfer of energy from large to small scales via nonlinear interactions. We have investigated the changes in this energy transfer process in broad-band forced turbulence where an additional perturbation of flow at smaller scales is introduced. The modulation of the energy dynamics via the introduction of forcing at smaller scales occurs not only in the forced region but also in a broad range of length-scales outside the forced bands due to non-local triad interactions. Broad-band forcing changes the energy distribution and energy transfer function in a characteristic manner leading to a significant modulation of the turbulence. We studied the changes in this transfer of energy when changing the strength and location of the small-scale forcing support. The energy content in the larger scales was observed to decrease, while the energy transport power for scales in between the large and small scale forcing regions was enhanced. This was investigated further in terms of the detailed transfer function between the triad contributions and observing the long-time statistics of the flow. The energy is transferred toward smaller scales not only by wavenumbers of similar size as in the case of large-scale forced turbulence, but by a much wider extent of scales that can be externally controlled.Comment: submitted to Phys. Rev. E, 15 pages, 18 figures, uses revtex4.cl