A public database system archiving a direct numerical simulation (DNS) data set of isotropic, forced turbulence is described in this paper. The data set consists of the DNS output on $1024^3$ spatial points and 1024 time-samples spanning about one large-scale turn-over timescale. This complete $1024^4$ space-time history of turbulence is accessible to users remotely through an interface that is based on the Web-services model. Users may write and execute analysis programs on their host computers, while the programs make subroutine-like calls that request desired parts of the data over the network. The users are thus able to perform numerical experiments by accessing the 27 Terabytes of DNS data using regular platforms such as laptops. The architecture of the database is explained, as are some of the locally defined functions, such as differentiation and interpolation. Test calculations are performed to illustrate the usage of the system and to verify the accuracy of the methods. The database is then used to analyze a dynamical model for small-scale intermittency in turbulence. Specifically, the dynamical effects of pressure and viscous terms on the Lagrangian evolution of velocity increments are evaluated using conditional averages calculated from the DNS data in the database. It is shown that these effects differ considerably among themselves and thus require different modeling strategies in Lagrangian models of velocity increments and intermittency.
Motivated by specific data and accuracy requirements for building numerical databases of turbulent flows, data compression using spatio-temporal sub-sampling and local re-simulation is proposed. Numerical re-simulation experiments for decaying isotropic turbulence based on sub-sampled data are undertaken. The results and error analyses are used to establish parameter choices for sufficiently accurate sub-sampling and sub-domain re-simulation.
We use well-resolved direct numerical simulations of high-Reynolds-number turbulence to study a fundamental statistical property of turbulence -- the asymmetry of velocity increments -- with likely implications on important dynamics. This property, ignored by existing small-scale phenomenological models, manifests most prominently in the non-monotonic trend of velocity increment moments (or structure functions) with the moment order, and in differences between ordinary and absolute structure functions for a given separation distance. We show that high-order structure functions arise nearly ent…
We present a formal connection between Lagrangian and Eulerian velocity increment distributions which is applicable to a wide range of turbulent systems ranging from turbulence in incompressible fluids to magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. For the case of the inverse cascade regime of two-dimensional turbulence we numerically estimate the transition probabilities involved in this connection. In this context we are able to directly identify the processes leading to strongly non-Gaussian statistics for the Lagrangian velocity increments.
Based on geometric considerations, longitudinal and transverse Lagrangian velocity increments are introduced as components along, and perpendicular to, the displacement of fluid particles during a time scale τ. It is argued that these two increments probe preferentially the stretching and spinning of material fluid elements, respectively. This property is confirmed (in the limit of vanishing τ) by examining the variances of these increments conditioned on the local topology of the flow. Interestingly, these longitudinal and transverse Lagrangian increments are found to share some qualitative f…
Second and third order longitudinal structure functions and wavenumber spectra of isotropic turbulence are computed using the EDQNM model and compared to results of the multifractal formalism. At the highest Reynolds number available in windtunnel experiments, $R_λ=2500$, both the multifractal model and EDQNM give power-law corrections to the inertial range scaling of the velocity increment skewness. For EDQNM, this correction is a finite Reynolds number effect, whereas for the multifractal formalism it is an intermittency correction that persists at any high Reynolds number. Furthermore, the …
We analyze the relationship of longitudinal and transverse increment statistics measured in isotropic small-scale turbulence. This is done by means of the theory of Markov processes leading to a phenomenological Fokker-Planck equation for the two increments from which a generalized Karman equation is derived. We discuss in detail the analysis and show that the estimated equation can describe the statistics of the turbulent cascade. A remarkably result is that the main differences between longitudinal and transverse increments can be explained by a simple rescaling-symmetry, namely the cascade …
We extend the theory for third-order structure functions in homogeneous incompressible magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence to the case in which a constant velocity shear is present. A generalization is found of the usual relation [Politano and Pouquet, Phys. Rev. E, 57 21 (1998)] between third-order structure functions and the dissipation rate in steady inertial range turbulence, in which the shear plays a crucial role. In particular, the presence of shear leads to a third-order law which is not simply proportional to the relative separation. Possible implications for laboratory and space pla…
Turbulent flows are notoriously difficult to describe and understand based on first principles. One reason is that turbulence contains highly intermittent bursts of vorticity and strain-rate with highly non-Gaussian statistics. Quantitatively, intermittency is manifested in highly elongated tails in the probability density functions of the velocity increments between pairs of points. A long-standing open issue has been to predict the origins of intermittency and non-Gaussian statistics from the Navier-Stokes equations. Here we derive, from the Navier-Stokes equations, a simple nonlinear dynami…
The way the increment statistics of turbulent velocity fluctuations scale with the increment size is a centerpiece of turbulence theories. We report data on decaying turbulence in the Max Planck Variable Density Turbulence Tunnel (VDTT), which show an approach of the inertial range statistics toward a nontrivial shape at small scales. By correcting for the contributions of energy decay to the large-scale statistics with a model, we find the scaling exponent of the second-order velocity increment statistics to be independent of the Reynolds number and equal to $0.693\pm0.003$ for $2000\lesssim …
We study the statistics of the horizontal component of atmospheric boundary layer wind speed. Motivated by its non-stationarity, we investigate which parameters remain constant or can be regarded as being piece-wise constant and explain how to estimate them. We will verify the picture of natural atmospheric boundary layer turbulence to be composed of successively occurring close to ideal turbulence with different parameters. The first focus is put on the fluctuation of wind speed around its mean behaviour. We describe a method estimating the proportionality factor between the standard deviatio…
We compare different approaches towards an effective description of multi-scale velocity field correlations in turbulence. Predictions made by the operator product expansion, the so-called fusion rules, are placed in juxtaposition to an approach that interprets the turbulent energy cascade in terms of a Markov process of velocity increments in scale. We explicitly show that the fusion rules are a direct consequence of the Markov property provided that the structure functions exhibit scaling in the inertial range. Furthermore, the limit case of joint velocity gradient and velocity increment sta…
Skewness and non-Gaussian behavior are essential features of the distribution of short-scale velocity increments in isotropic turbulent flows. Yet, although the skewness has been generally linked to time-reversal symmetry breaking and vortex stretching, the form of the asymmetric heavy tails remain elusive. Here we describe the emergence of both properties through an exactly solvable stochastic model with a scale hierarchy of energy transfer rates. From a statistical superposition of a local equilibrium distribution weighted by a background density, the increments distribution is given by a no…
In fully developed turbulence, the velocity field possesses long-range correlations, denoted by a scaling power spectrum or structure functions. Here we consider the autocorrelation function of velocity increment $ {Δu_{\ell}(t)}$ at separation {time} $\ell$. Anselmet et al. [Anselmet et al. J. Fluid Mech. \textbf{140}, 63 (1984)] have found that the autocorrelation function of velocity increment has a minimum value, whose location is approximately equal to $\ell$. Taking statistical stationary assumption, we link the velocity increment and the autocorrelation function with the power spectrum …
We study the statistical properties of helicity in direct numerical simulations of fully developed homogeneous and isotropic turbulence and in a class of turbulence shell models. We consider correlation functions based on combinations of vorticity and velocity increments that are not invariant under mirror symmetry. We also study the scaling properties of high-order structure functions based on the moments of the velocity increments projected on a subset of modes with either positive or negative helicity (chirality). We show that mirror symmetry is recovered at small-scales, i.e., chiral terms…
We study Lagrangian statistics of the magnitudes of velocity and pressure gradients in isotropic turbulence by quantifying their correlation functions and their characteristic time scales. It has been found that the Lagrangian time-correlations of the velocity and pressure gradient tensor and vector elements scale with the locally-defined Kolmogorov time scale, defined from the box-averaged dissipation-rate and viscosity. In this work, we study the Lagrangian time-correlations of the absolute values of velocity and pressure gradients. We explore the appropriate temporal scales with the aim to …
The proposed universality of small scale turbulence is investigated for a set of measurements in a cryogenic free jet with a variation of the Reynolds number (Re) from 8500 to 10^6. The traditional analysis of the statistics of velocity increments by means of structure functions or probability density functions is replaced by a new method which is based on the theory of stochastic Markovian processes. It gives access to a more complete characterization by means of joint probabilities of finding velocity increments at several scales. Based on this more precise method our results call in questio…
The behavior of the second-order Lagrangian structure functions on state-of-the-art numerical data both in two and three dimensions is studied. On the basis of a phenomenological connection between Eulerian space-fluctuations and the Lagrangian time-fluctuations, it is possible to rephrase the Kolmogorov $4/5$-law into a relation predicting the linear (in time) scaling for the second order Lagrangian structure function. When such a function is directly observed on current experimental or numerical data, it does not clearly display a scaling regime. A parameterization of the Lagrangian structur…
Observational studies of a planetary boundary layer (PBL) are difficult. Ground-born measurements usually characterize only a small portion of the PBL immediately above the surface. Air-born measurements cannot be obtained close to the surface and therefore cannot capture any significant portion of the PBL interior. Moreover, observations are limited in choice of instrumentation, time, duration, location of measurements and occasional weather conditions. Although turbulence-resolving simulations with a large-eddy simulation (LES) code do not supplant observational studies, they provide valuabl…
The most elementary structures of turbulence, i.e., vortex tubes, are studied using velocity data obtained in a laboratory experiment for boundary layers with microscale Reynolds numbers 295-1258. We conduct conditional averaging for enhancements of a small-scale velocity increment and obtain the typical velocity profile for vortex tubes. Their radii are of the order of the Kolmogorov length. Their circulation velocities are of the order of the root-mean-square velocity fluctuation. We also obtain the distribution of the interval between successive enhancements of the velocity increment as the…
The transition to fully developed turbulence of a wake behind a circular cylinder is investigated with respect to its statistics. In particular, we evaluated the probability density functions of velocity increments on different length scales $r$. Evidence is presented that the $r$-dependence of the velocity increments can be taken as Markov processes in the far field, as well as, in the near field of the cylinder wake. With the estimation of the deterministic part of these Markov processes, as a function of the distance from the cylinder, we are able to set the transition to fully developed tu…
The angle between subsequent particle displacement increments is evaluated as a function of the timelag in isotropic turbulence. It is shown that the evolution of this angle contains two well-defined power-laws, reflecting the multi-scale dynamics of high-Reynolds number turbulence. The proba-bility density function of the directional change is shown to be self-similar and well approximated by an analytically derived model assuming Gaussianity and independence of the velocity and the Lagrangian acceleration.
We present a systematic study of the influence of different forcing types on the statistical properties of supersonic, isothermal turbulence in both the Lagrangian and Eulerian frameworks. We analyse a series of high-resolution, hydrodynamical grid simulations with Lagrangian tracer particles and examine the effects of solenoidal (divergence-free) and compressive (curl-free) forcing on structure functions, their scaling exponents, and the probability density functions of the gas density and velocity increments. Compressively driven simulations show a significantly larger density contrast, a mo…
We present a method of disentangling the anisotropies produced by the cliff structures in turbulent velocity field and test it in the system of turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard (RB) convection. It is found that in the RB system the cliff structures in the velocity field are generated by thermal plumes. These cliff structures induce asymmetry in the velocity increments, which leads us to consider the plus and minus velocity structure functions (VSF). The plus velocity increments exclude cliff structures, while the minus ones include them. Our results show that the scaling exponents of the plus VSFs ar…
We address the problem of differences between longitudinal and transverse velocity increments in isotropic small scale turbulence. The relationship of these two quantities is analyzed experimentally by means of stochastic Markovian processes leading to a phenomenological Fokker- Planck equation from which a generalization of the Karman equation is derived. From these results, a simple relationship between longitudinal and transverse structure functions is found which explains the difference in the scaling properties of these two structure functions.
According to modern developments in turbulence theory, the "dissipation" scales (u.v. cut-offs) $η$ form a random field related to velocity increments $δ_ηu$. In this work we, using Mellin's transform combined with the Gaussain large -scale boundary condition, calculate probability densities (PDFs) of velocity increments $P(δ_{r}u,r)$ and the PDF of the dissipation scales $Q(η, Re)$, where $Re$ is the large-scale Reynolds number. The resulting expressions strongly deviate from the Log-normal PDF $P_{L}(δ_{r}u,r)$ often quoted in the literature. It is shown that the probability density of the s…
The streamwise and transverse velocities are measured simultaneously in isotropic grid turbulence at relatively high Reynolds numbers, Re(lambda) = 110-330. Using a conditional averaging technique, we extract typical intermittency patterns, which are consistent with velocity profiles of a model for a vortex tube, i.e., Burgers vortex. The radii of the vortex tubes are several of the Kolmogorov length regardless of the Reynolds number. Using the distribution of an interval between successive enhancements of a small-scale velocity increment, we study the spatial distribution of vortex tubes. The…
We adress the problem of interactions between the longitudinal velocity increment and the energy dissipation rate in fully developed turbulence. The coupling between these two quantities is experimentally investigated by the theory of stochastic Markovian processes. The so-called Markov analysis allows for a precise characterization of the joint statistical properties of velocity increment and energy dissipation. In particular, it is possible to determine the differential equation that governs the evolution along scales of the joint probability density of these two quantities. The properties o…
Motivated by the modeling of the temporal structure of the velocity field in a highly turbulent flow, we propose and study a linear stochastic differential equation that involves the ingredients of a Ornstein-Uhlenbeck process, supplemented by a fractional Gaussian noise, of parameter $H$, regularized over a (small) time scale $ε>0$. A peculiar correlation between these two plays a key role in the establishment of the statistical properties of its solution. We show that this solution reaches a stationary regime, which marginals, including variance and increment variance, remain bounded when $ε…
We have developed a new experimental technique to measure the Lagrangian velocity of tracer particles in a turbulent flow, based on ultrasonic Doppler tracking. This method yields a direct access to the velocity of a single particule at a turbulent Reynolds number $R_λ = 740$. Its dynamics is analyzed with two decades of time resolution, below the Lagrangian correlation time. We observe that the Lagrangian velocity spectrum has a Lorentzian form $E^{L}(ω) = u_{rms}^{2} T_{L} / (1 + (T_{L}ω)^{2})$, in agreement with a Kolmogorov-like scaling in the inertial range. The probability density functi…
Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence is central to laboratory and astrophysical plasmas, and is invoked for interpreting many observed scalings. Verifying predicted scaling law behaviour requires extreme-resolution direct numerical simulations (DNS), with needed computing resources excluding systematic parameter surveys. We here present an analytic generator of realistically looking turbulent magnetic fields, that computes 3D ${\cal{O}}(1000^3)$ solenoidal vector fields in minutes to hours on desktops. Our model is inspired by recent developments in 3D incompressible fluid turbulence theory, where a…
Using a recent alternative form of the Kolmogorov-Monin exact relation for fully developed hydrodynamics (HD) turbulence, the incompressible energy cascade rate $\varepsilon$ is computed. Under this current theoretical framework, for three-dimensional (3D) freely decaying homogeneous turbulence, the statistical properties of the fluid velocity (${\bf u}$), vorticity ($\boldsymbol ω= \boldsymbol\nabla \times {\bf u}$) and Lamb vector ($\boldsymbol{\cal L}= \boldsymbol ω\times {\bf u})$ are numerically studied. For different spatial resolutions, the numerical results show that $\varepsilon$ can …
Lognormality was found experimentally for coarse-grained squared turbulence velocity and velocity increment when the coarsening scale is comparable to the correlation scale of the velocity (Mouri et al. Phys. Fluids 21, 065107, 2009). We investigate this large-scale lognormality by using a simple stochastic process with correlation, the Ornstein-Uhlenbeck (OU) process. It is shown that the OU process has a similar large-scale lognormality, which is studied numerically and analytically.
In this paper, we analyze the scaling of velocity structure functions of turbulent thermal convection. Using high-resolution numerical simulations, we show that the structure functions scale similar to those of hydrodynamic turbulence, with the scaling exponents in agreement with She and Leveque's predictions [Phys. Rev. Lett. 72, 336-339 (1994)]. The probability distribution functions of velocity increments are non-Gaussian with wide tails in the dissipative scales and become close to Gaussian in the inertial range. The tails of the probability distribution follow a stretched exponential. We …
The properties of bubble-laden turbulent flows at different scales are investigated experimentally, focusing on the flow kinetic energy, energy transfer, and extreme events. The experiments employed particle shadow velocimetry measurements to measure the flow in a column generated by a homogeneous bubble swarm rising in water, for two different bubble diameters ($2.7$ mm $\&$ $3.9$ mm) and moderate gas volume fractions ($0.26\%\sim1.31\%$). The two velocity components were measured at high-resolution, and used to construct structure functions up to twelfth order for separations spanning the sm…
In this paper, we introduce a new way to estimate the scaling parameter of a self-similar process by considering the maximum probability density function (pdf) of tis increments. We prove this for $H$-self-similar processes in general and experimentally investigate it for turbulent velocity and temperature increments. We consider turbulent velocity database from an experimental homogeneous and nearly isotropic turbulent channel flow, and temperature data set obtained near the sidewall of a Rayleigh-Bénard convection cell, where the turbulent flow is driven by buoyancy. For the former database,…
In this paper, the results of an international collaborative test case relative to the production of a Direct Numerical Simulation and Lagrangian Particle Tracking database for turbulent particle dispersion in channel flow at low Reynolds number are presented. The objective of this test case is to establish a homogeneous source of data relevant to the general problem of particle dispersion in wall-bounded turbulence. Different numerical approaches and computational codes have been used to simulate the particle-laden flow and calculations have been carried on long enough to achieve a statistica…
We use the mean-bacterial-velocity model to investigate the \textit{irreversibility} of two-dimensional (2D) \textit{bacterial turbulence} and to compare it with its 2D fluid-turbulence counterpart. We carry out extensive direct numerical simulations of Lagrangian tracer particles that are advected by the velocity field in this model. Our work uncovers an important, qualitative way in which irreversibility in bacterial turbulence is different from its fluid-turbulence counterpart: For large positive (or large but negative) values of the \textit{friction} (or \textit{activity}) parameter, the p…
We propose and validate a novel experimental technique to measure two-point statistics of turbulent flows. It consists in spreading rigid fibers in the flow and tracking their position and orientation in time and therefore been named ``Fiber Tracking Velocimetry'' (FTV). By choosing different fiber lengths, i.e. within the inertial or dissipative range of scales, the statistics of turbulence fluctuations at the selected lengthscale can be probed accurately by simply measuring the fiber velocity at its two ends, and projecting it along the transverse-to-the-fiber direction. By means of fully-re…
An a priori analysis of a DNS database of turbulent lean premixed methane flames is presented considering the relative effects of turbulence and LES filtering, along with a potential modelling approach for LES with finite-rate chemistry. The leading-order effect was found to be due to the filter operation; flame response to turbulence was a secondary effect, and manifested primarily as an increase in standard deviations about conditional means. It was found that the radicals O, H and OH were less impacted by the filter than other high-temperature radicals, which were significantly reduced in m…
The scaling of acceleration statistics in turbulence is examined by combining data from the literature with new data from well-resolved direct numerical simulations of isotropic turbulence, significantly extending the Reynolds number range. The acceleration variance at higher Reynolds numbers departs from previous predictions based on multifractal models, which characterize Lagrangian intermittency as a naive extension of Eulerian intermittency. The disagreement is even more prominent for higher-order moments of the acceleration. Instead, starting from a known exact relation, we relate the sca…
Particles in turbulence frequently encounter extreme accelerations between extended periods of quiescence. The occurrence of extreme events is closely related to the intermittent spatial distribution of intense flow structures such as vorticity filaments. This mixed history of flow conditions leads to very complex particle statistics with a pronounced scale dependence, which presents one of the major challenges on the way to a non-equilibrium statistical mechanics of turbulence. Here, we introduce the notion of persistent Lagrangian acceleration, quantified by the squared particle acceleration…
Quiescent prominences host a diverse range of flows, including Rayleigh-Taylor instability driven upflows and impulsive downflows, and so it is no surprise that turbulent motions also exist. As prominences are believed to have a mean horizontal guide field, investigating any turbulence they host could shed light on the nature of MHD turbulence in a wide range of astrophysical systems. In this paper we have investigated the nature of the turbulent prominence motions using structure function analysis on the velocity increments estimated from H$α$ Dopplergrams constructed with observational data …
Based on direct numerical simulations with point-like inertial particles, with Stokes numbers, $\textrm{St}=0, 0.5$, $3$, and $6$, transported by homogeneous and isotropic turbulent flows, we present in this letter for the first time evidence for the existence of Markov property in Lagrangian turbulence. We show that the Markov property is valid for a finite step size larger than a Stokes number-dependent Einstein-Markov coherence time scale. This enables the description of multi-scale statistics of Lagrangian particles by Fokker-Planck equations, which can be embedded in an interdisciplinary …
