Small-scale structures in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

We investigate using direct numerical simulations with grids up to 1536(3) points, the rate at which small scales develop in a decaying three-dimensional MHD flow both for deterministic and random initial conditions. Parallel current and vorticity sheets form at the same spatial locations, and further destabilize and fold or roll up after an initial exponential phase. At high Reynolds numbers, a self-similar evolution of the current and vorticity maxima is found, in which they grow as a cubic power of time; the flow then reaches a finite dissipation rate independent of the Reynolds number.     

Statistical geometry in scalar turbulence

A general link between geometry and intermittency in passive scalar turbulence is established. The anomalous part of the scalar correlation functions is shown to be dominated by special functions of particle configurations. Their major property is that those functions calculated along the particle trajectories remain statistically constant in time. Those conservation laws qualitatively imply the persistence of scalar particles in strongly clustered geometries.     

Small-scale vorticity filaments and structure functions of the developed turbulence

We develop a theory of turbulence based on the Navier-Stokes equation, without using dimensional or phenomenological considerations. A small scale vortex filament is the main element of the theory. The theory allows to obtain the scaling law and to calculate the scaling exponents of Lagrangian and Eulerian velocity structure functions in the inertial range. The obtained results are shown to be in very good agreement with numerical simulations and experimental data. The introduction of stochasticity into the equations and derivation of scaling exponents are discussed in details. A weak dependence on statistical propositions is demonstrated. The relation of the theory to the multifractal model is discussed.     

Small-scale anisotropy induced by spectral forcing and by rotation in non-helical and helical turbulence

We study the effect of large-scale spectral forcing on the scale-dependent anisotropy of the velocity field in direct numerical simulations of homogeneous turbulence. ABC-type forcing and helical or non-helical Euler-type forcing are considered. We propose a scale-dependent characterisation of anisotropy based on a modal decomposition of the two-point velocity tensor spectrum. This produces direction-dependent spectra of energy, helicity and polarisation. We examine the conditions that allow anisotropy to develop in the small scales due to forcing and we show that the theoretically expected isotropy is not exactly obtained, even in the smallest scales, for ABC and helical Euler forcings. When adding rotation, the anisotropy level in ABC-forced simulations is similar to that of lower Rossby number Euler-forced runs. Moreover, even at low rotation rate, the natural anisotropy induced by the Coriolis force is visible at all scales, and two distinct wavenumber ranges appear from our fine-grained characterisation, not separated by the Zeman scale but by a scale where rotation and dissipation are balanced.     

Effect of the gas flow geometry and turbulence on the hydrodynamic drag of a body in the flow

The effect of the incoming flow geometry on the hydrodynamic drag of a body is investigated in a numerical experiment simulating a free gas flow past a sphere as well as flows in cylindrical tubes of various radii, in a confuser, and a diffuser. The results of calculations lead to the conclusion that the confinement of the flow by the tube walls, its contraction and expansion may change the hydrodynamic force and the drag acting on the body insignificantly (not more than by 30%). This cannot explain the early drag crisis, in which the values of these quantities decrease by 4–7 times for Reynolds numbers on the order of 100. This phenomenon is explained theoretically by the effect of strong turbulence of the incoming flow to the body.     

Weyl geometry as a particle geometry

It is shown that a stress-tensor which is a curvature source for a Weyl geometry most contain an antisymmetric component. Otherwise the Weyl geometry is equivalent to a Riemannian geometry via a gauge transformation.     

Thermal parametric turbulence in a plasma

A theory of thermal parametric instability (TPI) in an inhomogeneous magnetoplasma is developed. The threshold pump wave amplitude and increments of TPI are obtained. The spacial spectra of plasma waves and magnetic field aligned density perturbations are determined at the nonlinear stage of TPI, perturbation intensity dependence on pump energy is also analyzed. The theoretical results are applied to explain the ionospheric modification experiments.     

Folded edge of turbulence in a pipe

The results of an experimental investigation into the threshold boundary between laminar and disordered pipe flow are presented. Complex features have been uncovered using a highly refined experimental approach where an intermediate periodic state forms an integral part of the transition sequence. In accord with the suggestions produced by a numerical investigation, the boundary is found to be folded with a complicated structure. This raises important questions about accepted definitions of threshold amplitudes in this long-standing problem.     

Decaying two-dimensional turbulence in a circular container

We present direct numerical simulations of two-dimensional decaying turbulence at initial Reynolds number 5 x 10(4) in a circular container with no-slip boundary conditions. Starting with random initial conditions the flow rapidly exhibits self-organization into coherent vortices. We study their formation and the role of the viscous boundary layer on the production and decay of integral quantities. The no-slip wall produces vortices which are injected into the bulk flow and tend to compensate the enstrophy dissipation. The self-organization of the flow is reflected by the transition of the initially Gaussian vorticity probability density function (PDF) towards a distribution with exponential tails. Because of the presence of coherent vortices the pressure PDF become strongly skewed with exponential tails for negative values.     

Wave turbulence buildup in a vibrating plate

We report experimental and numerical results on the buildup of the energy spectrum in wave turbulence of a vibrating thin elastic plate. Three steps are observed: first a short linear stage, then the turbulent spectrum is constructed by the propagation of a front in wave number space and finally a long time saturation due to the action of dissipation. The propagation of a front at the second step is compatible with scaling predictions from the Weak Turbulence Theory.     

Gravity wave turbulence in a laboratory flume

We present an experimental study of the statistics of surface gravity wave turbulence in a flume of a horizontal size 12 x 6 m. For a wide range of amplitudes the wave energy spectrum was found to scale as Eomega approximately omega(-nu) in a frequency range of up to one decade. However, nu appears to be nonuniversal: it depends on the wave intensity and ranges from about 6 to 4. We discuss our results in the context of existing theories and argue that at low wave amplitudes the wave statistics is affected by the flume finite size, and at high amplitudes the wave breaking effect dominates.     

Transition to turbulence in a shear flow

We analyze the properties of a 19-dimensional Galerkin approximation to a parallel shear flow. The laminar flow with a sinusoidal shape is stable for all Reynolds numbers Re. For sufficiently large Re additional stationary flows occur; they are all unstable. The lifetimes of finite amplitude perturbations shows a fractal dependence on amplitude and Reynolds number. These findings are in accord with observations on plane Couette flow and suggest a universality of this transition scenario in shear flows.