George Khujadze

Acoustic waves in unbounded shear flows

The linear evolution of acoustic waves in a fluid flow with uniform mean density and uniform shear of velocity is investigated. The process of the mean flow energy extraction by the three-dimensional acoustic waves, stimulated by the non-normal character of the linear dynamics in the shear flow, is analyzed. The thorough examination of the dynamics of different physical variables characterizing the wave evolution is presented. The physics of gaining of the shear energy by acoustic waves is described.

Comment on "Statistical symmetries of the Lundgren-Monin-Novikov hierarchy".

The article by M. Wacławczyk et al. [Phys. Rev. E 90, 013022 (2014)] proposes two new statistical symmetries in the classical theory for turbulent hydrodynamic flows. In this Comment, however, we show that both symmetries are unphysical due to violating the principle of causality. In addition, they must get broken in order to be consistent with all physical constraints naturally arising in the statistical Lundgren-Monin-Novikov (LMN) description of turbulence. As a result, we state that besides the well-known classical symmetries of the LMN equations no new statistical symmetries exist. Finally, we criticize the relation between intermittency and global symmetries as it is presented throughout that study.We present a critical examination of the recent article by Wac lawczyk et al. (2014) which proposes two new statistical symmetries in the classical theory for turbulent hydrodynamic flows. We first show that both symmetries are unphysical in that they induce inconsistencies due to violating the principle of causality. In addition, they must get broken in order to be consistent with all physical constraints naturally arising in the statistical Lundgren-Monin-Novikov (LMN) description of turbulence. As a result, we state that besides the well-known classical symmetries of the LMN equations no new statistical symmetries exist. Yet, aside from this particular issue, the article by Wac lawczyk et al. (2014) is flawed in more than one respect, ranging from an incomplete proof, to a self-contradicting statement up to an incorrect claim. All these aspects will be listed, discussed and corrected, thus obtaining a completely opposite conclusion in our study than the article by Wac lawczyk et al. (2014) is proposing.

Coherent vorticity extraction in turbulent boundary layers using orthogonal wavelets

Turbulent boundary layer data computed by direct numerical simulation are analyzed using orthogonal anisotropic wavelets. The flow fields, originally given on a Chebychev grid, are first interpolated on a locally refined dyadic grid. Then, they are decomposed using a wavelet basis, which accounts for the anisotropy of the flow by using different scales in the wall-normal direction and in the planes parallel to the wall. Thus the vorticity field is decomposed into coherent and incoherent contributions using thresholding of the wavelet coefficients. It is shown that less than 1% of the coefficients retain the coherent structures of the flow, while the majority of the coefficients corresponds to a structureless, i.e., noise-like background flow. Scale-and direction-dependent statistics in wavelet space quantify the flow properties at different wall distances.

Acoustic phenomena in electrostatic dusty plasma shear flows

Recent studies of nonmodal phenomena in two-component plasma flows revealed that the velocity shear induces a number of new effects both in electrostatic and magnetized shear flows. It can be expected that dusty plasmas also host shear-modified and shear-induced modes of collective behavior, which may be found by means of the nonmodal approach and which are inaccessible by means of the standard normal mode analysis. In this paper, considering the simple electrostatic dusty plasma case, a general mathematical formalism is developed for studying how velocity shear affects the evolution of dust-acoustic waves (DAWs) and ion-acoustic waves (IAWs). In the limiting (very low-frequency) case when Boltzmann distributions are used both for the electrons and the ions it is found that the velocity shear enables the extraction of kinetic energy of the background flow by the dust-acoustic waves. It is also shown that the velocity shear leads to the appearance of a new collective mode of the dust particles—shear dust v...

Dynamics of homogeneous shear turbulence: A key role of the nonlinear transverse cascade in the bypass concept.

To understand the mechanism of the self-sustenance of subcritical turbulence in spectrally stable (constant) shear flows, we performed direct numerical simulations of homogeneous shear turbulence for different aspect ratios of the flow domain with subsequent analysis of the dynamical processes in spectral or Fourier space. There are no exponentially growing modes in such flows and the turbulence is energetically supported only by the linear growth of Fourier harmonics of perturbations due to the shear flow non-normality. This non-normality-induced growth, also known as nonmodal growth, is anisotropic in spectral space, which, in turn, leads to anisotropy of nonlinear processes in this space. As a result, a transverse (angular) redistribution of harmonics in Fourier space is the main nonlinear process in these flows, rather than direct or inverse cascades. We refer to this type of nonlinear redistribution as the nonlinear transverse cascade. It is demonstrated that the turbulence is sustained by a subtle interplay between the linear nonmodal growth and the nonlinear transverse cascade. This course of events reliably exemplifies a well-known bypass scenario of subcritical turbulence in spectrally stable shear flows. These two basic processes mainly operate at large length scales, comparable to the domain size. Therefore, this central, small wave number area of Fourier space is crucial in the self-sustenance; we defined its size and labeled it as the vital area of turbulence. Outside the vital area, the nonmodal growth and the transverse cascade are of secondary importance: Fourier harmonics are transferred to dissipative scales by the nonlinear direct cascade. Although the cascades and the self-sustaining process of turbulence are qualitatively the same at different aspect ratios, the number of harmonics actively participating in this process (i.e., the harmonics whose energies grow more than 10% of the maximum spectral energy at least once during evolution) varies, but always remains quite large (equal to 36, 86, and 209) in the considered here three aspect ratios. This implies that the self-sustenance of subcritical turbulence cannot be described by low-order models.

A comparative numerical analysis of linear and nonlinear aerodynamic sound generation by vortex disturbances in homentropic constant shear flows

Aerodynamic sound generation in shear flows is investigated in the light of the breakthrough in hydrodynamics stability theory in the 1990s, where generic phenomena of non-normal shear flow systems were understood. By applying the thereby emerged short-time/non-modal approach, the sole linear mechanism of wave generation by vortices in shear flows was captured [G. D. Chagelishvili, A. Tevzadze, G. Bodo, and S. S. Moiseev, “Linear mechanism of wave emergence from vortices in smooth shear flows,” Phys. Rev. Lett. 79, 3178-3181 (1997); B. F. Farrell and P. J. Ioannou, “Transient and asymptotic growth of two-dimensional perturbations in viscous compressible shear flow,” Phys. Fluids 12, 3021-3028 (2000); N. A. Bakas, “Mechanism underlying transient growth of planar perturbations in unbounded compressible shear flow,” J. Fluid Mech. 639, 479-507 (2009); and G. Favraud and V. Pagneux, “Superadiabatic evolution of acoustic and vorticity perturbations in Couette flow,” Phys. Rev. E 89, 033012 (2014)]. Its source is the non-normality induced linear mode-coupling, which becomes efficient at moderate Mach numbers that is defined for each perturbation harmonic as the ratio of the shear rate to its characteristic frequency. Based on the results by the non-modal approach, we investigate a two-dimensional homentropic constant shear flow and focus on the dynamical characteristics in the wavenumber plane. This allows to separate from each other the participants of the dynamical processes — vortex and wave modes — and to estimate the efficacy of the process of linear wave-generation. This process is analyzed and visualized on the example of a packet of vortex modes, localized in both, spectral and physical, planes. Further, by employing direct numerical simulations, the wave generation by chaotically distributed vortex modes is analyzed and the involved linear and nonlinear processes are identified. The generated acoustic field is anisotropic in the wavenumber plane, which results in highly directional linear sound radiation, whereas the nonlinearly generated waves are almost omni-directional. As part of this analysis, we compare the effectiveness of the linear and nonlinear mechanisms of wave generation within the range of validity of the rapid distortion theory and show the dominance of the linear aerodynamic sound generation. Finally, topological differences between the linear source term of the acoustic analogy equation and of the anisotropic non-normality induced linear mechanism of wave generation are found.

Turbulent Poiseuille Flow with Wall Transpiration: Analytical Study and Direct Numerical Simulation

We present an analytical and direct numerical simulation (DNS) study to describe an incompressible, fully developed turbulent Poiseuille flow with wall transpiration i.e. uniform transverse velocity with constant flux on the wall. The DNS was conducted at Reτ = 250 for different relative transpiration velocities. The DNS data serve as a first test case of a new turbulent scaling law in the form of a logarithm. DNS data validates the new turbulent logarithmic scaling law derived from Lie symmetry theory of the infinite dimensional multi-point correlation equation and is principally different from the classical near-wall log-law. We will show that the DNS data agree with the new turbulent scaling law over practically the whole cross-section of the channel.

Fractal-Generated Turbulent Scaling Laws from a New Scaling Group of the Multi-Point Correlation Equation

Investigating the multi-point correlation (MPC) equations for the velocity and pressure fluctuations in the limit of homogeneous turbulence a new scaling symmetry has been discovered. Interesting enought this property is not shared with the Euler or Navier-Stokes equations from which the MPC equations have orginally emerged. This was first observed for parallel wall-bounded shear flows (see [2]) though there this property only holds true for the two-point equation. Hence, in a strict sense there it is broken for higher order correlation equations. Presently using this extended set of symmetry groups a much wider class of invariant solutions or turbulent scaling laws is derived for homogeneous and homogeneous-isotropic turbulence which is in stark contrast to the classical power law decay arising from Birkhoff’s or Loitsiansky’s integrals. In particular, we show that the experimentally observed specific scaling properties of fractal-generated turbulence (see [1, 4]) fall into this new class of solutions. Due to this specific grid a breaking of the classical scaling symmetries due to a wide range of scales acting on the flow is accomplished. This in particular leads to a constant integral and Taylor length scale downstream of the fractal grid and the exponential decay of the turbulent kinetic energy along the same axis. These particular properties can only be conceived from MPC equations using the new scaling symmetry. The latter new scaling law may have been the first clear indication towards the existence of the extended statistical scaling group. Though the latter is not obvious from the instantaneous Euler or Navier-Stokes equations it is directly implied.

Comments on Janocha et al. Lie Symmetry Analysis of the Hopf Functional-Differential Equation. Symmetry 2015, 7, 1536–1566

The recent systematic study by Janocha et al. [1] to determine all possible Lie-point symmetries for the functional Hopf–Burgers equation is re-examined. From a more consistent theoretical framework, however, some of the proposed symmetry transformations of the considered Hopf–Burgers equation are in fact rejected. Three out of eight proposed symmetry transformations are invalidated, while two of them should be replaced by their correct intermediate formulations, but which ultimately violate internal consistency constraints of the governing equation. It is concluded that the recently proposed symmetry analysis method for functional integro-differential equations should not be adopted when aiming at a consistent and complete approach.

Comment on “Application of the extended Lie group analysis to the Hopf functional formulation of the Burgers equation” [J. Math. Phys. 54, 072901 (2013)]

The quest to find new statistical symmetries in the theory of turbulence is an ongoing research endeavor which is still in its beginning and exploratory stage. In our comment we show that the recently performed study of Waclawczyk and Oberlack [J. Math. Phys. 54, 072901 (2013)] failed to present such new statistical symmetries. Despite their existence within a functional Fourier space of the statistical Burgers equation, they all can be reduced to the classical and well-known symmetries of the underlying deterministic Burgers equation itself, except for one symmetry, but which, as we will demonstrate, is only a mathematical artefact without any physical meaning. Moreover, we show that the proposed connection between the translation invariance of the multi-point moments and a symmetry transformation associated to a certain invariant solution of the inviscid functional Burgers equation is invalid. In general, their study constructs and discusses new particular solutions of the functional Burgers equation without referring them to the well-established general solution. Finally, we also see a shortcoming in the presented methodology as being too restricted to construct a complete set of Lie point symmetries for functional equations. In particular, for the considered Burgers equation essential symmetries are not captured.