Joint statistics of acceleration and vorticity in fully developed turbulence

We report results from a high resolution numerical study of fluid particles transported by a fully developed turbulent flow. Single particle trajectories were followed for a time range spanning more than three decades, from less than a tenth of the Kolmogorov time-scale up to one large-eddy turnover time. We present results concerning acceleration statistics and the statistics of trapping by vortex filaments conditioned to the local values of vorticity and enstrophy. We distinguish two different behaviors between the joint statistics of vorticity and centripetal acceleration or vorticity and longitudinal acceleration.Comment: 8 pages, 6 figure

Homogeneous and Isotropic Turbulence: a short survey on recent developments

We present a detailed review of some of the most recent developments on Eulerian and Lagrangian turbulence in homogeneous and isotropic statistics. In particular, we review phenomenological and numerical results concerning the issue of universality with respect to the large scale forcing and the viscous dissipative physics. We discuss the state-of-the-art of numerical versus experimental comparisons and we discuss the dicotomy between phenomenology based on coherent structures or on statistical approaches. A detailed discussion of finite Reynolds effects is also presented.Comment: based on the talk presented by R. Benzi at DSFD 2-14. postprint version, published online on 6 July 2015 J. Stat. Phy

Cascades and transitions in turbulent flows

Turbulence is characterized by the non-linear cascades of energy and other inviscid invariants across a huge range of scales, from where they are injected to where they are dissipated. Recently, new experimental, numerical and theoretical works have revealed that many turbulent configurations deviate from the ideal 3D/2D isotropic cases characterized by the presence of a strictly direct/inverse energy cascade, respectively. We review recent works from a unified point of view and we present a classification of all known transfer mechanisms. Beside the classical cases of direct and inverse cascades, the different scenarios include: split cascades to small and large scales simultaneously, multiple/dual cascades of different quantities, bi-directional cascades where direct and inverse transfers of the same invariant coexist in the same scale-range and finally equilibrium states where no cascades are present, including the case when a condensate is formed. We classify all transitions as the control parameters are changed and we analyse when and why different configurations are observed. Our discussion is based on a set of paradigmatic applications: helical turbulence, rotating and/or stratified flows, MHD and passive/active scalars where the transfer properties are altered as one changes the embedding dimensions, the thickness of the domain or other relevant control parameters, as the Reynolds, Rossby, Froude, Peclet, or Alfven numbers. We discuss the presence of anomalous scaling laws in connection with the intermittent nature of the energy dissipation in configuration space. An overview is also provided concerning cascades in other applications such as bounded flows, quantum, relativistic and compressible turbulence, and active matter, together with implications for turbulent modelling. Finally, we present a series of open problems and challenges that future work needs to address.Comment: accepted for publication on Physics Reports 201

Effects of forcing in three dimensional turbulent flows

We present the results of a numerical investigation of three-dimensional homogeneous and isotropic turbulence, stirred by a random forcing with a power law spectrum, $E_f(k)\sim k^{3-y}$. Numerical simulations are performed at different resolutions up to $512^3$. We show that at varying the spectrum slope $y$, small-scale turbulent fluctuations change from a {\it forcing independent} to a {\it forcing dominated} statistics. We argue that the critical value separating the two behaviours, in three dimensions, is $y_c=4$. When the statistics is forcing dominated, for $y<y_c$, we find dimensional scaling, i.e. intermittency is vanishingly small. On the other hand, for $y>y_c$, we find the same anomalous scaling measured in flows forced only at large scales. We connect these results with the issue of {\it universality} in turbulent flows.Comment: 4 pages, 4 figure

Helicity Transfer in Turbulent Models

Helicity transfer in a shell model of turbulence is investigated. We show that a Reynolds-independent helicity flux is present in the model when the large scale forcing breaks inversion symmetry. The equivalent in Shell Models of the ``2/15 law'', obtained from helicity conservation in Navier-Stokes eqs., is derived and tested. The odd part of helicity flux statistic is found to be dominated by a few very intense events. In a particular model, we calculate analytically leading and sub-leading contribution to the scaling of triple velocity correlation.Comment: 4 pages, LaTex, 2 figure

Analytic calculation of anomalous scaling in random shell models for a passive scalar

An exact non-perturbative calculation of the fourth-order anomalous correction to the scaling behaviour of a random shell-model for passive scalars is presented. Importance of ultraviolet (UV) and infrared (IR) boundary conditions on the inertial scaling properties are determined. We find that anomalous behaviour is given by the null-space of the inertial operator and we prove strong UV and IR independence of the anomalous exponent. A limiting case where diffusive behaviour can influence inertial properties is also presented.Comment: 3 pages, 1 figure, revised versio

Helicity advection in Turbulent Models

Helicity transfer in a shell model of turbulence is investigated. In particular, we study the scaling behavior of helicity transfer in a dynamical model of turbulence lacking inversion symmetry. We present some phenomenological and numerical support to the idea that Helicity becomes -at scale small enough- a passively-advected quantity.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures, contribution to the proceedings of the conference: Disorder and Chaos, in honour of Giovanni Paladin, September 22-24, 1997, Rom

Extreme events in the dispersions of two neighboring particles under the influence of fluid turbulence

We present a numerical study of two-particle dispersion from point-sources in 3D incompressible Homogeneous and Isotropic turbulence, at Reynolds number Re \simeq 300. Tracer particles are emitted in bunches from localized sources smaller than the Kolmogorov scale. We report the first quantitative evidence, supported by an unprecedented statistics, of the deviations of relative dispersion from Richardson's picture. Deviations are due to extreme events of pairs separating much faster than average, and of pairs remaining close for long times. The two classes of events are the fingerprint of complete different physics, the former being dominated by inertial subrange and large-scale fluctuations, while the latter by the dissipation subrange. A comparison of relative separation in surrogate white-in-time velocity field, with correct viscous-, inertial- and integral-scale properties allows us to assess the importance of temporal correlations along tracer trajectories.Comment: 5 pages, 6 figure