Moritz Linkmann

Energy transfer and dissipation in forced isotropic turbulence

A model for the Reynolds-number dependence of the dimensionless dissipation rate C(ɛ) was derived from the dimensionless Kármán-Howarth equation, resulting in C(ɛ)=C(ɛ,∞)+C/R(L)+O(1/R(L)(2)), where R(L) is the integral scale Reynolds number. The coefficients C and C(ɛ,∞) arise from asymptotic expansions of the dimensionless second- and third-order structure functions. This theoretical work was supplemented by direct numerical simulations (DNSs) of forced isotropic turbulence for integral scale Reynolds numbers up to R(L)=5875 (R(λ)=435), which were used to establish that the decay of dimensionless dissipation with increasing Reynolds number took the form of a power law R(L)(n) with exponent value n=-1.000±0.009 and that this decay of C(ɛ) was actually due to the increase in the Taylor surrogate U(3)/L. The model equation was fitted to data from the DNS, which resulted in the value C=18.9±1.3 and in an asymptotic value for C(ɛ) in the infinite Reynolds-number limit of C(ɛ,∞)=0.468±0.006.

From two-dimensional to three-dimensional turbulence through two-dimensional three-component flows

The relevance of two-dimensional three-components (2D3C) flows goes well beyond their occurrence in nature, and a deeper understanding of their dynamics might be also helpful in order to shed further light on the dynamics of pure two-dimenional (2D) or three-dimensional (3D) flows and vice versa. The purpose of the present paper is to make a step in this direction through a combination of numerical and analytical work. The analytical part is mainly concerned with the behavior of 2D3C flows in isolation and the connection between the geometry of the nonlinear interactions and the resulting energy transfer directions. Special emphasis is given to the role of helicity. We show that a generic 2D3C flow can be described by two stream functions corresponding to the two helical sectors of the velocity field. The projection onto one helical sector (homochiral flow) leads to a full 3D constraint and to the inviscid conservation of the total (three dimensional) enstrophy and hence to an inverse cascade of the kinetic energy of the third component also. The coupling between several 2D3C flows is studied through a set of suitably designed direct numerical simulations (DNS), where we also explore the transition between 2D and fully 3D turbulence. In particular, we find that the coupling of three 2D3C flows on mutually orthogonal planes subject to small-scale forcing leads to stationary 3D out-of-equilibrium dynamics at the energy containing scales. The transition between 2D and 3D turbulence is then explored through adding a percentage of fully 3D Fourier modes in the volume.

Magnetic helicity and the evolution of decaying magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Ensemble-averaged high resolution direct numerical simulations of reverse spectral transfer are presented, extending on the many single realization numerical studies done up to now. This identifies this type of spectral transfer as a statistical property of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence and thus permits reliable numerical exploration of its dynamics. The magnetic energy decay exponent from these ensemble runs has been determined to be nE=(0.47±0.03)+(13.9±0.8)/Rλ for initially helical magnetic fields. We show that even after removing the Lorentz force term in the momentum equation, thus decoupling it from the induction equation, reverse spectral transfer still persists. The induction equation is now linear with an externally imposed velocity field, thus amenable to numerous analysis techniques. A new door has opened for analyzing reverse spectral transfer, with various ideas discussed.

Effect of filter type on the statistics of energy transfer between resolved and subfilter scales from a-priori analysis of direct numerical simulations of isotropic turbulence

ABSTRACT The effects of different filtering strategies on the statistical properties of the resolved-to-subfilter scale (SFS) energy transfer are analysed in forced homogeneous and isotropic turbulence. We carry out a-priori analyses of the statistical characteristics of SFS energy transfer by filtering data obtained from direct numerical simulations with up to 20483 grid points as a function of the filter cutoff scale. In order to quantify the dependence of extreme events and anomalous scaling on the filter, we compare a sharp Fourier Galerkin projector, a Gaussian filter and a novel class of Galerkin projectors with non-sharp spectral filter profiles. Of interest is the importance of Galilean invariance and we confirm that local SFS energy transfer displays intermittency scaling in both skewness and flatness as a function of the cutoff scale. Furthermore, we quantify the robustness of scaling as a function of the filtering type.

Helical mode interactions and spectral transfer processes in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

Spectral transfer processes in magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence are investigated analytically by decomposition of the velocity and magnetic fields in Fourier space into helical modes. Steady solutions of the dynamical system which governs the evolution of the helical modes are determined, and a stability analysis of these solutions is carried out. The interpretation of the analysis is that unstable solutions lead to energy transfer between the interacting modes while stable solutions do not. From this, a dependence of possible interscale energy and helicity transfers on the helicities of the interacting modes is derived. As expected from the inverse cascade of magnetic helicity in 3D MHD turbulence, mode interactions with like helicities lead to transfer of energy and magnetic helicity to smaller wavenumbers. However, some interactions of modes with unlike helicities also contribute to an inverse energy transfer. As such, an inverse energy cascade for nonhelical magnetic fields is shown to be possible. Furthermore, it is found that high values of the cross-helicity may have an asymmetric effect on forward and reverse transfer of energy, where forward transfer is more quenched in regions of high cross-helicity than reverse transfer. This conforms with recent observations of solar wind turbulence. For specific helical interactions the relation to dynamo action is established.

Nonuniversality and finite dissipation in decaying magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

A model equation for the Reynolds number dependence of the dimensionless dissipation rate in freely decaying homogeneous magnetohydrodynamic turbulence in the absence of a mean magnetic field is derived from the real-space energy balance equation, leading to Cϵ=Cϵ,∞+C/R-+O(1/R-(2)), where R- is a generalized Reynolds number. The constant Cϵ,∞ describes the total energy transfer flux. This flux depends on magnetic and cross helicities, because these affect the nonlinear transfer of energy, suggesting that the value of Cϵ,∞ is not universal. Direct numerical simulations were conducted on up to 2048(3) grid points, showing good agreement between data and the model. The model suggests that the magnitude of cosmological-scale magnetic fields is controlled by the values of the vector field correlations. The ideas introduced here can be used to derive similar model equations for other turbulent systems.

Self-organization and transition to turbulence in isotropic fluid motion driven by negative damping at low wavenumbers

We observe a symmetry-breaking transition from a turbulent to a self-organized state in direct numerical simulation of the Navier–Stokes equation at very low Reynolds number. In this self-organized state the kinetic energy is contained only in modes at the lowest resolved wavenumber, the skewness vanishes, and visualization of the flows shows a lack of small-scale structure, with the vorticity and velocity vectors becoming aligned (a Beltrami flow). S Online supplementary data available from stacks.iop.org/jpa/48/25FT01/ mmedia

Spectral analysis of structure functions and their scaling exponents in forced isotropic turbulence

The pseudospectral method, in conjunction with a technique for obtaining scaling exponents ζ_{n} from the structure functions S_{n}(r), is presented as an alternative to the extended self-similarity (ESS) method and the use of generalized structure functions. We propose plotting the ratio |S_{n}(r)/S_{3}(r)| against the separation r in accordance with a standard technique for analyzing experimental data. This method differs from the ESS technique, which plots S_{n}(r) against S_{3}(r), with the assumption S_{3}(r)∼r. Using our method for the particular case of S_{2}(r) we obtain the result that the exponent ζ_{2} decreases as the Taylor-Reynolds number increases, with ζ_{2}→0.679±0.013 as R_{λ}→∞. This supports the idea of finite-viscosity corrections to the K41 prediction for S_{2}, and is the opposite of the result obtained by ESS. The pseudospectral method also permits the forcing to be taken into account exactly through the calculation of the energy input in real space from the work spectrum of the stirring forces.

Effects of Magnetic and Kinetic Helicities on the Growth of Magnetic Fields in Laminar and Turbulent Flows by Helical Fourier Decomposition

We present a numerical and analytical study of incompressible homogeneous conducting fluids using a helical Fourier representation. We analytically study both small- and large-scale dynamo properties, as well as the inverse cascade of magnetic helicity, in the most general minimal subset of interacting velocity and magnetic fields on a closed Fourier triad. We mainly focus on the dependency of magnetic field growth as a function of the distribution of kinetic and magnetic helicities among the three interacting wavenumbers. By combining direct numerical simulations of the full magnetohydrodynamics equations with the helical Fourier decomposition we numerically confirm that in the kinematic dynamo regime the system develops a large-scale magnetic helicity with opposite sign compared to the small-scale kinetic helicity, a sort of triad-by-triad

Sudden Relaminarization and Lifetimes in Forced Isotropic Turbulence

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