1,386 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
Clustering and collisions of heavy particles in random smooth flows
Finite-size impurities suspended in incompressible flows distribute
inhomogeneously, leading to a drastic enhancement of collisions. A description
of the dynamics in the full position-velocity phase space is essential to
understand the underlying mechanisms, especially for polydisperse suspensions.
These issues are here studied for particles much heavier than the fluid by
means of a Lagrangian approach. It is shown that inertia enhances collision
rates through two effects: correlation among particle positions induced by the
carrier flow and uncorrelation between velocities due to their finite size. A
phenomenological model yields an estimate of collision rates for particle pairs
with different sizes. This approach is supported by numerical simulations in
random flows.Comment: 12 pages, 9 Figures (revTeX 4) final published versio
Two-dimensional elastic turbulence
We investigate the effect of polymer additives on a two-dimensional
Kolmogorov flow at very low Reynolds numbers by direct numerical simulations of
the Oldroyd-B viscoelastic model. We find that above the elastic instability
threshold the flow develops the elastic turbulence regime recently observed in
experiments. We observe that both the turbulent drag and the Lyapunov exponent
increase with Weissenberg, indicating the presence of a disordered,
turbulent-like mixing flow. The energy spectrum develops a power-law scaling
range with an exponent close to the experimental and theoretical expectations
Active and Passive Fields in Turbulent Transport: the Role of Statistically Preserved Structures
We have recently proposed that the statistics of active fields (which affect
the velocity field itself) in well-developed turbulence are also dominated by
the Statistically Preserved Structures of auxiliary passive fields which are
advected by the same velocity field. The Statistically Preserved Structures are
eigenmodes of eigenvalue 1 of an appropriate propagator of the decaying
(unforced) passive field, or equivalently, the zero modes of a related
operator. In this paper we investigate further this surprising finding via two
examples, one akin to turbulent convection in which the temperature is the
active scalar, and the other akin to magneto-hydrodynamics in which the
magnetic field is the active vector. In the first example, all the even
correlation functions of the active and passive fields exhibit identical
scaling behavior. The second example appears at first sight to be a
counter-example: the statistical objects of the active and passive fields have
entirely different scaling exponents. We demonstrate nevertheless that the
Statistically Preserved Structures of the passive vector dominate again the
statistics of the active field, except that due to a dynamical conservation law
the amplitude of the leading zero mode cancels exactly. The active vector is
then dominated by the sub-leading zero mode of the passive vector. Our work
thus suggests that the statistical properties of active fields in turbulence
can be understood with the same generality as those of passive fields.Comment: 13 pages, 13 figures, submitted to Phys. Rev.
Acceleration statistics of heavy particles in turbulence
We present the results of direct numerical simulations of heavy particle
transport in homogeneous, isotropic, fully developed turbulence, up to
resolution (). Following the trajectories of up
to 120 million particles with Stokes numbers, , in the range from 0.16 to
3.5 we are able to characterize in full detail the statistics of particle
acceleration. We show that: ({\it i}) The root-mean-squared acceleration
sharply falls off from the fluid tracer value already at quite
small Stokes numbers; ({\it ii}) At a given the normalised acceleration
increases with consistently
with the trend observed for fluid tracers; ({\it iii}) The tails of the
probability density function of the normalised acceleration
decrease with . Two concurrent mechanisms lead to the above results:
preferential concentration of particles, very effective at small , and
filtering induced by the particle response time, that takes over at larger
.Comment: 10 pages, 3 figs, 2 tables. A section with new results has been
added. Revised version accepted for pubblication on Journal of Fluid
Mechanic
Reliability of Early Fetal Echocardiography for Congenital Heart Disease Detection: A Preliminary Experience and Outcome Analysis of 102 Fetuses to Demonstrate the Value of a Clinical Flow-Chart Designed for At-Risk Pregnancy Management
Early fetal echocardiography (EFEC) is a fetal cardiac ultrasound analysis performed between the 12th and 16th week of pregnancy (compared with the usual 18-22 weeks). In the last 10 years, the introduction of “aneuploidy sonographic markers” in screening for cardiac defects has led to a shift from late second to end of the first trimester or beginning of the second trimester of pregnancy for specialist fetal echocardiography. In this prospective study, early obstetric screening was performed between January 2014 and October 2015, using “aneuploidy sonographic markers” following SIEOG Guidelines 2014. These parameters were then collected and strategically combined in an evaluation score to select the group of pregnancies for performing EFEC, in accordance with the American Society of Echocardiography guidelines for fetal Echocardiography. All second-level examinations were performed transabdominally using a 3D convex volumetric probe with frequency range of 4-8 MHz (Accuvix – Samsung). The outcome data included transabdominal fetal echocardiography from 18 weeks to term and after birth. Overall, 99 pregnant women in the first trimester underwent EFEC (95 singleton and 4 twin pregnancies). Specifically, 30 fetuses were evaluated for extra-cardiac anomalies evidenced by obstetric screening (30%), 25 for family history of congenital heart diseases (25%), 8 for family history of genetic-linked diseases (8%), 4 for heart diseases suspected by obstetric screening (4%) and 19 by normal screening (19%). Was detected 11 (10.7%) CHD, when EFEC detected CHD, were compared to those performed later in pregnancy (18 weeks GA-term), a high degree of diagnosis correspondence was evidenced. The higher sensitivity value of EFEC vs late-FE, in comparison with the post-natal value, coupled with the high EFEC specificity shown vs both the end points, enabled us to consider it as a really reliable diagnostic technology, at least in perienced hands. The introduction of a key combination of the more sensitive obstetric and cardiologic variables should facilitate the formulation of a possible flow-chart as a guide for CHD at-risk pregnancies
Small scale statistics of viscoelastic turbulence
The small scale statistics of homogeneous isotropic turbulence of dilute
polymer solutions is investigated by means of direct numerical simulations of a
simplified viscoelastic fluid model. It is found that polymers only partially
suppress the turbulent cascade below the Lumley scale, leaving a remnant energy
flux even for large elasticity. As a consequence, fluid acceleration in
viscoelastic flows is reduced with respect to Newtonian turbulence, whereas its
rescaled probability density is left unchanged. At large scales the velocity
field is found to be unaffected by the presence of polymers.Comment: 7 pages, 4 figure
Kolmogorov's law for two-dimensional electron-magnetohydrodynamic turbulence
The analogue of the Kolmogorov's four-fifths law is derived for
two-dimensional, homogeneous, isotropic EMHD turbulence in the energy cascade
inertial range. Direct numerical simulations for the freely decaying case show
that this relation holds true for different values of the adimensional electron
inertial length scale, . The energy spectrum is found to be close to the
expected Kolmogorov spectrum.Comment: 9 pages RevTeX, 3 PostScript figure
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