Brice Saint-Michel

Evidence for Forcing-Dependent Steady States in a Turbulent Swirling Flow

We study the influence of the forcing on the steady turbulent states of a von Kármán swirling flow, at constant impeller speed, or at constant torque. We find that the different forcing conditions change the nature of the stability of the steady states and reveal dynamical regimes that bear similarities with low-dimensional systems. We suggest that this forcing dependence may be an outof-equilibrium analogue of the ensemble inequivalence observed in long-range interacting statistical systems, and that it may be applicable to other turbulent systems.

Modelling and analysis of turbulent datasets using Auto Regressive Moving Average processes

an swirling flow experiment. We found that the ARMA analysis is well correlated with spatial structures of the flow, and can discriminate between two different flows with comparable mean velocities, obtained by changing the forcing. Moreover, we show that the ϒ is highest in regions where shear layer vortices are present, thereby establishing a link between deviations from the Kolmogorov model and coherent structures. These deviations are consistent with the ones observed by computing the Hurst exponents for the same time series. We show that some salient features of the analysis are preserved when considering global instead of local observables. Finally, we analyzeflow configurations with multistability features where the ARMA technique is efficient in discriminating different stability branches of the system. C

A zero-mode mechanism for spontaneous symmetry breaking in a turbulent von Kármán flow

We suggest that the dynamical spontaneous symmetry breaking reported in a turbulent swirling flow at Re = 40 000 by Cortet et al (2010 Phys. Rev. Lett. 105 214501) can be described through a continuous one parameter family transformation (amounting to a phase shift) of steady states. We investigate a possible mechanism of emergence of such spontaneous symmetry breaking in a toy model of out-of-equilibrium systems. We show that the stationary states are solutions of a linear differential equation. For a specific value of the Reynolds number, they are subject to a spontaneous symmetry breaking through a zero-mode mechanism. The associated susceptibility diverges at the transition, in a way similar to what is observed in the experimental turbulent flow. Overall, the susceptibility of the toy model reproduces the features of the experimental results, meaning that the zero-mode mechanism is a good candidate to explain the experimental symmetry breaking.

Superfluid high REynolds von Kármán experiment

The Superfluid High REynolds von Kármán experiment facility exploits the capacities of a high cooling power refrigerator (400 W at 1.8 K) for a large dimension von Kármán flow (inner diameter 0.78 m), which can work with gaseous or subcooled liquid (He-I or He-II) from room temperature down to 1.6 K. The flow is produced between two counter-rotating or co-rotating disks. The large size of the experiment allows exploration of ultra high Reynolds numbers based on Taylor microscale and rms velocity [S. B. Pope, Turbulent Flows (Cambridge University Press, 2000)] (Rλ > 10000) or resolution of the dissipative scale for lower Re. This article presents the design and first performance of this apparatus. Measurements carried out in the first runs of the facility address the global flow behavior: calorimetric measurement of the dissipation, torque and velocity measurements on the two turbines. Moreover first local measurements (micro-Pitot, hot wire,…) have been installed and are presented.

Simultaneous Concentration and Velocity Maps in Particle Suspensions under Shear from Rheo-Ultrasonic Imaging

We extend a previously developed ultrafast ultrasonic technique [Gallot et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 84, 045107 (2013)] to concentration field measurements in non-Brownian particle suspensions under shear. The technique provides access to time-resolved concentration maps within the gap of a Taylor-Couette cell simultaneously to local velocity measurements and standard rheological characterization. Benchmark experiments in homogeneous particle suspensions are used to calibrate the system. We then image heterogeneous concentration fields that result from centrifugation effects, from the classical Taylor-Couette instability and from sedimentation or shear-induced resuspension.

Stochastic Chaos in a Turbulent Swirling Flow

We report the experimental evidence of the existence of a random attractor in a fully developed turbulent swirling flow. By defining a global observable which tracks the asymmetry in the flux of angular momentum imparted to the flow, we can first reconstruct the associated turbulent attractor and then follow its route towards chaos. We further show that the experimental attractor can be modeled by stochastic Duffing equations, that match the quantitative properties of the experimental flow, namely, the number of quasistationary states and transition rates among them, the effective dimensions, and the continuity of the first Lyapunov exponents. Such properties can be recovered neither using deterministic models nor using stochastic differential equations based on effective potentials obtained by inverting the probability distributions of the experimental global observables. Our findings open the way to low-dimensional modeling of systems featuring a large number of degrees of freedom and multiple quasistationary states.