Michael Sinhuber

DECAY OF TURBULENCE AT HIGH REYNOLDS NUMBERS

Turbulent motions in a fluid decay at a certain rate once stirring has stopped. The role of the most basic parameter in fluid mechanics, the Reynolds number, in setting the decay rate is not generally known. This Letter concerns the high-Reynolds-number limit of the process. In a classical grid-turbulence wind-tunnel experiment that both reaches higher Reynolds numbers than ever before and covers a wide range of them (10^{4}<Re=UM/ν<5×10^{6}), we measure the decay rate with the unprecedented precision of about 2%. Here U is the mean speed of the flow, M is the forcing scale, and ν is the kinematic viscosity of the fluid. We observe that the decay rate is Reynolds-number independent, which contradicts some models and supports others.

Variable density turbulence tunnel facility

The Variable Density Turbulence Tunnel at the Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization in Göttingen, Germany, produces very high turbulence levels at moderate flow velocities, low power consumption, and adjustable kinematic viscosity between 10(-4) m(2)/s and 10(-7) m(2)/s. The Reynolds number can be varied by changing the pressure or flow rate of the gas or by using different non-flammable gases including air. The highest kinematic viscosities, and hence lowest Reynolds numbers, are reached with air or nitrogen at 0.1 bar. To reach the highest Reynolds numbers the tunnel is pressurized to 15 bars with the dense gas sulfur hexafluoride (SF6). Turbulence is generated at the upstream ends of two measurement sections with grids, and the evolution of this turbulence is observed as it moves down the length of the sections. We describe the instrumentation presently in operation, which consists of the tunnel itself, classical grid turbulence generators, and state-of-the-art nano-fabricated hot-wire anemometers provided by Princeton University [M. Vallikivi, M. Hultmark, S. C. C. Bailey, and A. J. Smits, Exp. Fluids 51, 1521 (2011)]. We report measurements of the characteristic scales of the flow and of turbulent spectra up to Taylor Reynolds number R(λ) ≈ 1600, higher than any other grid-turbulence experiment. We also describe instrumentation under development, which includes an active grid and a Lagrangian particle tracking system that moves down the length of the tunnel with the mean flow. In this configuration, the properties of the turbulence are adjustable and its structure is resolvable up to R(λ) ≈ 8000.

Are midge swarms bound together by an effective velocity-dependent gravity?

Abstract.Midge swarms are a canonical example of collective animal behaviour where local interactions do not clearly play a major role and yet the animals display group-level cohesion. The midges appear somewhat paradoxically to be tightly bound to the swarm whilst at the same time weakly coupled inside it. The microscopic origins of this behaviour have remained elusive. Models based on Newtonian gravity do, however, agree well with experimental observations of laboratory swarms. They are biologically plausible since gravitational interactions have similitude with long-range acoustic and visual interactions, and they correctly predict that individual attraction to the swarm centre increases linearly with distance from the swarm centre. Here we show that the observed kinematics implies that this attraction also increases with an individuals flight speed. We find clear evidence for such an attractive force in experimental data.Graphical abstract