Relating Lagrangian passive scalar scaling exponents to Eulerian scaling exponents in turbulence

Intermittency is a basic feature of fully developed turbulence, for both velocity and passive scalars. Intermittency is classically characterized by Eulerian scaling exponent of structure functions. The same approach can be used in a Lagrangian framework to characterize the temporal intermittency of the velocity and passive scalar concentration of a an element of fluid advected by a turbulent intermittent field. Here we focus on Lagrangian passive scalar scaling exponents, and discuss their possible links with Eulerian passive scalar and mixed velocity-passive scalar structure functions. We provide different transformations between these scaling exponents, associated to different transformations linking space and time scales. We obtain four new explicit relations. Experimental data are needed to test these predictions for Lagrangian passive scalar scaling exponents.     

Statistics of the turbulent/non-turbulent interface in a spatially developing mixing layer

The thin interface separating the inner turbulent region from the outer irrotational fluid is analysed in a direct numerical simulation of a spatially developing turbulent mixing layer. A vorticity threshold is defined to detect the interface separating the turbulent from the non-turbulent regions of the flow, and to calculate statistics conditioned on the distance from this interface. The conditional statistics for velocity are in remarkable agreement with the results for other free shear flows available in the literature, such as turbulent jets and wakes. In addition, an analysis of the passive scalar field in the vicinity of the interface is presented. It is shown that the scalar has a jump at the interface, even stronger than that observed for velocity. The strong jump for the scalar has been observed before in the case of high Schmidt number (Sc). In the present study, such a strong jump is observed for a scalar with Sc ≈ 1. Conditional statistics of kinetic energy and scalar dissipation are presented. While the kinetic energy dissipation has its maximum far from the interface, the scalar dissipation is characterised by a strong peak very close to the interface. Finally, it is shown that the geometric features of the interfaces correlate with relatively large scale structures as visualised by low-pressure isosurfaces.     

Restricted scaling range models for turbulent velocity and scalar energy transfers in decaying turbulence

The effect of finite Reynolds numbers and/or internal intermittency on the total kinetic energy and scalar energy transfers is examined in detail. For this purpose, two distinct models for velocity and scalar energy transfer are proposed in the specific context of freely decaying isotropic turbulence. The first one extends the already existing dynamical models (hereafter DYM, i.e. based on transport equations originated in Navier–Stokes and advection-diffusion transport equations). The second one relies on the characteristic time of the strain at a specific scale (hereafter SBM). Both models account for the Reynolds number dependence of the scaling exponent of the second-order structure functions, over a range of scales where such exponents may be defined, i.e. a restricted scaling range (RSR). Therefore, the models developed aim at reproducing the energy transfer over the RSR. The predicted energy transfer is very sensible to variations of the scaling exponent, especially at low Reynolds numbers. The approach towards the asymptotic 4/3 law is closely reproduced by the two models. The dynamical model reproduces the experimental results accurately especially in the vicinity of the Taylor microscale, while the SBM agrees almost perfectly with measurements at nearly all scales.     

Passive scalar transport in peripheral regions of random flows

We investigate statistical properties of the passive scalar mixing in random (turbulent) flows assuming its diffusion to be weak. Then at advanced stages of the passive scalar decay, its unmixed residue is primarily concentrated in a narrow diffusive layer near the wall and its transport to the bulk goes through the peripheral region (laminar sublayer of the flow). We conducted Lagrangian numerical simulations of the process for different space dimensions d and revealed structures responsible for the transport, which are passive scalar tongues pulled from the diffusive boundary layer to the bulk. We investigated statistical properties of the passive scalar and of the passive scalar integrated along the wall. Moments of both objects demonstrate scaling behavior outside the diffusive boundary layer. We propose an analytic scheme for the passive scalar statistics, explaining the features observed numerically.     

Decaying turbulence: What happens when the correlation length varies spatially in two adjacent zones

We have imagined a numerical experiment to explore the onset of turbulent intermittency associated with a spatial perturbation of the correlation length. We place two isotropic regions, with different integral scales, inside a volume where the turbulent kinetic energy is initially uniform and leave them to interact and evolve in time. The different length scales produce different decay rates in the two regions. Since the smaller-scale region decays faster, a transient turbulent energy gradient is generated at the interface between the two regions. The transient is characterized by three phases in which the kinetic energy gradient across the interface grows, peaks and then slowly decays. The transient lifetime is almost proportional to the initial ratio of the correlation lengths. The direct numerical simulations also show that the interface width grows in time. The velocity moments inside this interaction zone are seen to depart from their initial isotropic values and, with a certain lag, the anisotropy is seen to spread to small scales. The longitudinal derivative moments also become anisotropic after a few eddy turnover times. This anisotropic behaviour is different from that observed in sheared homogeneous turbulent flows, where high transverse derivative moments are generated, but longitudinal moments almost maintain the isotropic turbulence values. Apart from the behaviour of the energy gradient transients, the results also show the timescaling of the interface diffusion width, and data on the anisotropy of the large and small scales, observed through one-point statistics determined inside the intermittency sublayer, which is associated with the interaction zone.     

Influence of polymer additives on turbulent energy cascading in forced homogeneous isotropic turbulence studied by direct numerical simulations

Direct numerical simulations(DNS) were performed for the forced homogeneous isotropic turbulence(FHIT) with/without polymer additives in order to elaborate the characteristics of the turbulent energy cascading influenced by drag-reducing effects.The finite elastic non-linear extensibility-Peterlin model(FENE-P) was used as the conformation tensor equation for the viscoelastic polymer solution.Detailed analyses of DNS data were carried out in this paper for the turbulence scaling law and the topological dynamics of FHIT as well as the important turbulent parameters,including turbulent kinetic energy spectra,enstrophy and strain,velocity structure function,small-scale intermittency,etc.A natural and straightforward definition for the drag reduction rate was also proposed for the drag-reducing FHIT based on the decrease degree of the turbulent kinetic energy.It was found that the turbulent energy cascading in the FHIT was greatly modified by the drag-reducing polymer additives.The enstrophy and the strain fields in the FHIT of the polymer solution were remarkably weakened as compared with their Newtonian counterparts.The small-scale vortices and the small-scale intermittency were all inhibited by the viscoelastic effects in the FHIT of the polymer solution.However,the scaling law in a fashion of extended self-similarity for the FHIT of the polymer solution,within the presently simulated range of Weissenberg numbers,had no distinct differences compared with that of the Newtonian fluid case.     

Multiscaling dynamics of impurity transport in drift-wave turbulence

Intermittency effects and the associated multiscaling spectrum of exponents are investigated for impurities advection in tokamak edge plasmas. The two-dimensional Hasagawa-Wakatani model of resistive drift-wave turbulence is used as a paradigm to describe edge tokamak turbulence. Impurities are considered as a passive scalar advected by the plasma turbulent flow. The use of the extended self-similarity technique shows that the structure function relative scaling exponent of impurity density and vorticity follows the She-Leveque model. This confirms the intermittent character of the impurities advection in the turbulent plasma flow and suggests that impurities are advected by vorticity filaments.     

High frequency (daily) data analysis of the Southern Oscillation Index. Tsallis nonextensive statistical mechanics approach

Daily data of the Southern Oscillation Index between 1999 and mid-2006 has been analyzed in order to obtain the shape and tails of the partial distribution functions (PDF) of the variability of the index. A model originally proposed to describe the intermittent behavior of turbulent flows describes the behavior of the normalized variability for such a climatological index, for small and large time windows, both for small and large variability. The model is linked to Tsallis nonextensive statistics. The transition between the small time scale model of nonextensive, intermittent process and the large scale Gaussian extensive homogeneous fluctuation picture is found to occur at above a ca. 46 days time lag. The intermittency exponent (κ) in the framework of the Kolmogorov log-normal model is found to be related to the scaling exponent of the PDF moments. The value of κ (= 0.25) is in agreement with the intermittency exponent recently obtained for other atmospheric data and for the monthly data, indicating so called scaling universality. We suggest improvements on forecasting along the lines of Tsallis non extensive statistics.     

Intermittency of temperature field in turbulent convection

The scaling behavior of the temperature structure functions in turbulent convection is found to be different for length scales below and above the Bolgiano scale. Both sets of the exponents are well described by log-Poisson statistics. The parameter beta(T) which measures the degree of intermittency is the same for the two regimes of scales and is consistent with the corresponding value for the passive scalar field. A balance between thermal forcing and nonlinear velocity advection, which is a key ingredient leading to Bolgiano scaling, is also checked.     

A priori assessment of the subgrid scale viscous/scalar dissipation closures in compressible turbulence

An appraisal is made of several subgrid scale (SGS) viscous/scalar dissipation closures via a priori analysis of direct numerical simulation data in a temporally evolving compressible mixing layer. The effects of the filter width, the compressibility level and the Schmidt number are studied for several models. Based on the scaling of SGS kinetic energy, a new formulation for SGS viscous dissipation is proposed. This yields the best overall prediction of the SGS viscous dissipation within the inertial subrange. An SGS scalar dissipation model based on the proportionality of the turbulent time scale with the scalar mixing time scale also performs the best for the filter widths in the inertial subrange. Two dynamic methods are implemented for the determination of the model coefficients. The one based on the global equilibrium of dissipation and production is shown to be more satisfactory than the conventional dynamic model.     

The effect of subgrid-scale models on the entrainment of a passive scalar in a turbulent planar jet

Classical large-eddy simulation (LES) modelling assumes that the passive subgrid-scale (SGS) models do not influence large-scale quantities, even though there is now ample evidence of this in many flows. In this work, direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large-eddy simulations of turbulent planar jets at Reynolds number Re_H = 6000 including a passive scalar with Schmidt number Sc = 0.7 are used to study the effect of several SGS models on the flow integral quantities e.g. velocity and scalar jet spreading rates. The models analysed are theSmagorinsky, dynamic Smagorinsky, shear-improved Smagorinsky and the Vreman. Detailed analysis of the thin layer bounding the turbulent and non-turbulent regions – the so-called turbulent/non-turbulent interface (TNTI) – shows that this region raises new challenges for classical SGS models. The small scales are far from equilibrium and contain a high fraction of the total kinetic energy and scalar variance, but the situation is worse for the scalar than for the velocity field. Both a-priori and a-posteriori (LES) tests show that the dynamic Smagorinsky and shear-improved models give the best results because they are able to accurately capture the correct statistics of the velocity and passive scalar fluctuations near the TNTI. The results also suggest the existence of a critical resolution Δ_x, of the order of the Taylor scale λ, which is needed for the scalar field. Coarser passive scalar LES i.e. Δ_x ≥ λ results in dramatic changes in the integral quantities. This fact is explained by the dynamics of the small scales near the jet interface.     

Multidimensional infinitely divisible cascades

The framework of infinitely divisible scaling was first developed to analyse the statistical intermittency of turbulence in fluid dynamics. It also reveals a powerful tool to describe and model various situations including Internet traffic, financial time series, textures ... A series of recent works introduced the infinitely divisible cascades in 1 dimension, a family of multifractal processes that can be easily synthesized numerically. This work extends the definition of infinitely divisible cascades from 1 dimension to d dimensions in the scalar case. Thus, a class of models is proposed both for data analysis and for numerical simulation in dimension d≥1. In this article, we give the definitions and main properties of infinitely divisible cascades in d dimensions. Then we focus on the modelling of statistical intermittency in turbulent flows. Several other applications are considered.     

Statistical symmetries and its impact on new decay modes and integral invariants of decaying turbulence

Classical decay laws of isotropic turbulence usually derived from the von Kármán–Howarth equation are essentially based on two paradigms. First, scaling symmetries of space and time, both tracing back to the Navier–Stokes equations in the limit of large Reynolds numbers (or r?η), give rise to a temporal power-law decay for the turbulent kinetic energy and at the same time an algebraic growth of the integral length scale at an exponent that is uniquely coupled to the latter energy decay. Second, global invariants such as Birkhoff or Loitsianskii integrals determine the exponent of both power laws. We presently show that this class of decay laws may be considerably extended considering the entire set of multi-point correlation equations that admit a much wider class of symmetries. It was recently shown that these new symmetries are of paramount importance, e.g. in deriving the logarithmic law of the wall being an analytic solution of the multi-point equations. For the present case, it is particularly an additional scaling group, which we call statistical scaling group, that gives rise to two additional families of ‘canonical’ decay laws including those with an exponential characteristic for both the kinetic energy and the integral length scale. Finally, a second rather generic group admitted by all linear differential equations corresponding to the superposition principle induces an infinite set of scaling laws of rather complex form that may match rather generic initial conditions. All scaling laws are analyzed in the light of the above-mentioned integral invariants that have been further extended in the present contribution to an exponential-type invariant.     

Statistical properties of passive scalar in a random flow with a strong shear component

We study mixing of passive scalar by a chaotic velocity field with a relatively strong regular shear component. We show that the tail of partition distribution function (PDF) of coarse-grained passive scalar field differs qualitatively from the corresponding asymptotics in the case of isotropic flow statistics.     

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) approximately 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 forcing independent to a forcing dominated statistics. We argue that the critical value separating the two behaviors, in three dimensions, is y(c)=4. When the statistics is forcing dominated, for yy(c), we find the same anomalous scaling measured in flows forced only at large scales. We connect these results with the issue of universality in turbulent flows.     

Anomalous scaling in helical turbulent environment

The influence of helicity on the anomalous scaling of the single-time structure functions of a passive scalar advected by a non-Gaussian velocity field driven by the stochastic Navier-Stokes equation is investigated by the field theoretic renormalization group and the operator-product expansion within the second order of the perturbation theory (two-loop approximation). The set of compositeoperators with the minimal critical dimensions is identified and their dependence on the helicity parameter is found. It is shown that the contribution to the critical dimensions of the structure functions of a passive scalar is given only by parts of the composite operators which are independent of the helicity parameter. Therefore, it is shown that the spatial parity violation has no impact on the anomalous scaling behavior of the passively advected scalar quantity in the turbulent environment.     

Conserved scalar mixing in a confined-opposed-jets flow

The focus of this paper is on the mixing of a conserved passive scalar for Sc = 1 (Sc is the Schmidt number) in axisymmetric turbulence for which the initial injections of turbulent kinetic energy and scalar variance are similar. Two confined-opposed-jets (COJ) are experimentally studied through simultaneous PIV (particle image velocimetry) and PLIF (planar laser induced fluorescence) measurements, for different flow regimes. One-point transport equation for the scalar variance is assessed through experimental data, along the common axis of the two opposed jets, and different physical phenomena are revealed (production, diffusion, dissipation). The production of scalar variance is equilibrated by the diffusion term (～75%) and the mean dissipation of the scalar variance (～25%). To further assess the scalar behaviour at each scale in this anisotropic, but axisymmetric, flow, a scale-by-scale scalar variance budget equation is derived for axisymmetric turbulence. This equation reduces to Yaglom's 4/3 law, under additional restrictions. The equation is assessed through experimental data, in the impingement region between the two COJ. In particular, the anisotropic energy transfer along different directions is quantified. It is shown that for scales smaller than the size of the central region, Δ, the cascade of the scalar variance is completely inhibited, independently of the particular direction. For scales larger than Δ, the apparent aspect of the energy transfer is that of an inverse cascade, with positive values of the scalar variance transfer. Nonetheless, inhomogeneity of the flow and mixing at those scales is directly responsible for these positive values.     

Role of elastic stress in statistical and scaling properties of elastic turbulence

The role of elastic stress in statistical and scaling properties of elastic turbulence in a polymer solution flow between two disks is discussed. The analogy with a small-scale magnetodynamics and a passive scalar turbulent advection in the Batchelor regime is used to explain the experimentally observed statistical properties, the flow structure, and the scaling of elastic turbulence. The emergence of a new length scale, namely, the boundary layer thickness, is observed and studied.