The present paper deals with the study of spectral properties of the helical mode of uniform isotropic turbulence in the presence and in the absence of mean helicity. It is shown that even in the absence of mean helicity, the helicity of individual helical modes affects the spectral behavior of turbulence. Besides, it is shown that both in the presence and in the absence of mean helicity, intermediate characteristic scales connected with the presence of helicity in helical modes should exist. The existence of these scales makes it possible to solve the problem of helicity dissipation divergence for individual helical modes.
The effect of helicity (velocity-vorticity correlations) is studied in direct numerical simulations of rotating turbulence down to Rossby numbers of 0.02. The results suggest that the presence of net helicity plays an important role in the dynamics of the flow. In particular, at small Rossby number, the energy cascades to large scales, as expected, but helicity then can dominate the cascade to small scales. A phenomenological interpretation in terms of a direct cascade of helicity slowed down by wave-eddy interactions leads to the prediction of new inertial indices for the small-scale energy a…
We present results from two 1536^3 direct numerical simulations of rotating turbulence where both energy and helicity are injected into the flow by an external forcing. The dual cascade of energy and helicity towards smaller scales observed in isotropic and homogeneous turbulence is broken in the presence of rotation, with the development of an inverse cascade of energy now coexisting with direct cascades of energy and helicity. In the direct cascade range, the flux of helicity dominates over that of energy at low Rossby number. These cascades have several consequences for the statistics of th…
An overview is given of the helicity of the velocity field (``kinetic'' helicity to distinguish it from the ``magnetic'' helicity used in magnetohydrodynamics, astrophysics, and solar physics; or simply \emph{helicity} in this Chapter) and of the role, which this concept plays in the modern research in atmospheric physics and atmospheric turbulence. General information on helicity is presented including some historical comments and a brief description of the fundamental role that helicity plays in fluid dynamics. Different applications of the helicity concept are discussed to the analysis of v…
An extended inertial range dominated by the cross-helicity effects has been studied for forced (statistically steady) and for freely decaying magnetohydrodynamic MHD turbulence (with and without imposed/mean magnetic field) using the spatio-temporal distributed chaos approach. Good agreement with results of direct numerical simulations, laboratory measurements in MHD wind (plasma) tunnel, measurements in the Earth's magnetosheath and in the solar wind has been established. A spontaneous breaking of local reflection (mirror) symmetry has been briefly discussed for the MHD turbulence with zero a…
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 the intermittency properties of the energy and helicity cascades in two 1536^3 direct numerical simulations of helical rotating turbulence. Symmetric and anti-symmetric velocity increments are examined, as well as probability density functions of the velocity field and of the helicity density. It is found that the direct cascade of energy to small scales is scale invariant and non-intermittent, whereas the direct cascade of helicity is highly intermittent. Furthermore, the study of structure functions of different orders allows us to identify a recovery of isotropy of strong events at…
The effects of large scale mechanical forcing on the dynamics of rotating turbulent flows are studied by means of numerical simulations, varying systematically the nature of the mechanical force in time. We demonstrate that the statistically stationary solutions of these flows depend on the nature of the forcing mechanism. Rapidly enough rotating flows with a forcing that has a persistent direction relatively to the axis of rotation bifurcate from a non-helical state to a helical state despite the fact that the forcing is non-helical. We find that the nature of the mechanical force in time and…
The purpose of this work is to investigate the spectral properties of the developed isotropic (non-Alfven) MHD turbulence stationary excited by an external force, which injects the cross helicity into the flow simultaneously with the energy. It is shown that the cross helicity blocks the spectral energy transfer in MHD turbulence and results in energy accumulation in the system. This accumulation proceeds until the vortex intensification compensates the decreasing efficiency of nonlinear interactions. The formula for estimating the average turbulence energy is obtained for the set ratio betwee…
Strong incompressible three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence is investigated by means of high resolution direct numerical simulations. The simulations show that the configuration space is characterized by regions of positive and negative cross-helicity, corresponding to highly aligned or anti-aligned velocity and magnetic field fluctuations, even when the average cross-helicity is zero. To elucidate the role of cross-helicity, the spectra and structure of turbulence are obtained in imbalanced regions where cross-helicity is non-zero. When averaged over regions of positive and negativ…
Magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) provides the simplest description of magnetic plasma turbulence in a variety of astrophysical and laboratory systems. MHD turbulence with nonzero cross helicity is often called imbalanced, as it implies that the energies of Alfvén fluctuations propagating parallel and anti-parallel the background field are not equal. Recent analytical and numerical studies have revealed that at every scale, MHD turbulence consists of regions of positive and negative cross helicity, indicating that such turbulence is inherently locally imbalanced. In this paper, results from high reso…
Experiments and numerical simulations show that quantum turbulence exists in two distinct limiting regimes: Kolmogorov turbulence (which shares with classical turbulence the important property of a cascade of kinetic energy from large eddies to small eddies) and Vinen turbulence (which is more similar to a random flow). In this work, we define a mesoscale helicity for the superfluid, which, tested in numerical experiments, distinguishes the two turbulent regimes, quantifying the amount of nonlocal vortex interactions and the orientation of the vortex lines.
Invariance properties of physical systems govern their behavior: energy conservation in turbulence drives a wide distribution of energy among modes, observed in geophysical or astrophysical flows. In ideal hydrodynamics, the role of helicity conservation (correlation between velocity and its curl, measuring departures from mirror symmetry) remains unclear since it does not alter the energy spectrum. However, with solid body rotation, significant differences emerge between helical and non-helical flows. We first outline several results, like the energy and helicity spectral distribution and the…
The decay of kinetic helicity is studied in numerical models of forced turbulence using either an externally imposed forcing function as an inhomogeneous term in the equations or, alternatively, a term linear in the velocity giving rise to a linear instability. The externally imposed forcing function injects energy at the largest scales, giving rise to a turbulent inertial range with nearly constant energy flux while for linearly forced turbulence the spectral energy is maximum near the dissipation wavenumber. Kinetic helicity is injected once a statistically steady state is reached, but it is…
It is shown that the second-order moment of helicity distribution (the Levich-Tsinober invariant of inviscid hydrodynamics) can be preserved as an adiabatic invariant in magnetohydrodynamics. The distributed chaos approach and inertial range phenomenology have been developed for the magnetohydrodynamic processes dominated by this adiabatic invariant, and some consequences of the theoretical consideration have been compared with results of direct numerical simulations and measurements in the solar wind. Helical scaling in interstellar MHD turbulence has been also briefly discussed in this conte…
The dimensionless dissipation coefficient $β=\varepsilon L/U^3$ is an important characteristic of statistically stationary homogeneous turbulence. In studies of $β$, the external force is typically isotropic and large-scale, and its helicity $H_f$ either zero or not measured. Here, we study the dependence of $β$ on $H_f$ and find that it decreases $β$ by up to 10$\%$ for both isotropic forces and shear flows. The numerical finding is supported by static and dynamical upper bound theory. Both show a relative reduction similar to the numerical results. That is, the qualitative and quantitative d…
Recent numerical simulations have shown the strong impact of helicity on \ADD{homogeneous} rotating hydrodynamic turbulence. The main effect can be summarized through the following law, $n+\tilde n = -4$, where $n$ and $\tilde n$ are respectively the power law indices of the one-dimensional energy and helicity spectra. We investigate this rotating turbulence problem in the small Rossby number limit by using the asymptotic weak turbulence theory derived previously. We show that the empirical law is an exact solution of the helicity equation where the power law indices correspond to perpendicula…
We discuss a mean-field theory of generation of large-scale vorticity in a rotating density stratified developed turbulence with inhomogeneous kinetic helicity. We show that the large-scale nonuniform flow is produced due to ether a combined action of a density stratified rotating turbulence and uniform kinetic helicity or a combined effect of a rotating incompressible turbulence and inhomogeneous kinetic helicity. These effects result in the formation of a large-scale shear, and in turn its interaction with the small-scale turbulence causes an excitation of the large-scale instability (known …
The distributed chaos driven by Levich-Tsinober (helicity) integral: $I=\int \langle h({\bf x},t)~h({\bf x}+{\bf r}, t)\rangle d{\bf r}$ has been studied. It is shown that the helical distributed chaos can be considered as basis for complex turbulent flows with interplay between large-scale coherent structures and small-scale turbulence, such as Cuette-Taylor flow, wake behind cylinder and turbulent flow in the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) with inserted limiters. In the last case appearance of the helical distributed chaos, caused by the limiters, results in improvement of radial particle confin…
We perform numerical simulations of decaying rotating stratified turbulence and show, in the Boussinesq framework, that helicity (velocity-vorticity correlation), as observed in super-cell storms and hurricanes, is spontaneously created due to an interplay between buoyancy and rotation common to large-scale atmospheric and oceanic flows. Helicity emerges from the joint action of eddies and of inertia-gravity waves (with inertia and gravity with respective associated frequencies $f$ and $N$), and it occurs when the waves are sufficiently strong. For $N/f < 3$ the amount of helicity produced is …
Roles of turbulence in the context of magnetic reconnection are investigated with special emphasis on the mutual interaction between flow (large-scale inhomogeneous structure) and turbulence. In order to evaluate the effective transport due to turbulence, in addition to the {\it intensity} information of turbulence represented by the turbulent energy, the {\it structure} information represented by pseudoscalar statistical quantities (helicities) is important. On the basis of the evolution equation, mechanisms that provide turbulence with cross helicity are presented. Magnetic-flux freezing in …
We study the energy transfer properties of three dimensional homogeneous and isotropic turbulence where the non-linear transfer is altered in a way that helicity is made sign-definite, say positive. In this framework, known as homochiral turbulence, an adapted eddy-damped quasi-normal Markovian (EDQNM) closure is derived to analyze the dynamics at very large Reynolds numbers, of order $10^5$ based on the Taylor scale. In agreement with previous findings, an inverse cascade of energy with a kinetic energy spectrum like $\propto k^{-5/3}$ is found for scales larger than the forcing one. Conjoint…
Numerical test of isotropic turbulence compressibility reduction with helicity in a cyclic box is performed. The ratios of compressibility-relevant-mode spectra over those of kinetic energy present power laws at large wavenumbers in the dissipation range, indicating a common difference of $11/15$ in the exponents of the algebraic prefactor of the nonhelical power spectra over those of helical ones. Our results being not derived from the shapes of the spectra themselves, the implied information about the helicity effect on the complex singularities of the discretized dynamical system can still …
In isotropic helical turbulence, a new single helical model is suggested for large eddy simulation. Based on the Kolmogrov's hypotheses, the helical model is proposed according to the balance of helicity dissipation and the average of helicity flux across the inertial range, and the helical model is a kind of eddy viscosity model. The coefficient of the helical model is constant and can be also determined dynamically. Numerical simulations of forced and decaying isotropic helical turbulence demonstrate that the helical model predicts the energy and helicity evolution well. The statistical char…
We solve the Navier-Stokes equations with two simultaneous forcings. One forcing is applied at a given large-scale and it injects energy. The other forcing is applied at all scales belonging to the inertial range and it injects helicity. In this way we can vary the degree of turbulence helicity from non helical to maximally helical. We find that increasing the rate of helicity injection does not change the energy flux. On the other hand the level of total energy is strongly increased and the energy spectrum gets steeper. The energy spectrum spans from a Kolmogorov scaling law $k^{-5/3}$ for a …
Besides total energy, three-dimensional incompressible Hall magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) possesses two inviscid invariants which are the magnetic helicity and the generalized helicity. New exact relations are derived for homogeneous (non-isotropic) stationary Hall MHD turbulence (and also for its inertialess electron MHD limit) with non-zero helicities and in the asymptotic limit of large Reynolds numbers. The universal laws are written only in terms of mixed second-order structure functions, i.e. the scalar product of two different increments. It provides, therefore, a direct measurement of the…
Using results of laboratory experiments, direct numerical simulations, geomagnetic and solar observations, it is shown that high moments of helicity distribution can dominate power spectra of the magnetic field generated by the magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) dynamo in swirling turbulence even for the cases with zero global helicity. The notion of helical distributed chaos has been used for this purpose.
The inverse transfer of magnetic helicity is investigated through direct numerical simulations of large-scale-mechanically-driven turbulent flows in the isothermal ideal magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) framework. The mechanical forcing is either purely solenoidal or purely compressive and the turbulent steady-states considered exhibit root mean square (RMS) Mach numbers 0.1 $\lesssim$ M $\lesssim$ 11. A continuous small-scale electromotive forcing injects magnetic helical fluctuations, which lead to the build-up of ever larger magnetic structures. Spectral scaling exponents are observed which, for …
Fully developed homogeneous isotropic turbulence in 2D is fundamentally different from 3D. In 2D, the simultaneous conservation of both energy and enstrophy in the inertial ranges of scales leads to a forward cascade of enstrophy and a reverse cascade of energy. In 3D, helicity, the integral of the scalar product of velocity and vorticity, is also an inviscid flow invariant along with kinetic energy. Unlike enstrophy, however, helicity does not block the cascade of energy to small scales. Energy and helicity are not only globally conserved but also conserved within each non-linear triadic inte…
A systematic study of the influence of the viscous effect on both the spectra and the nonlinear fluxes of conserved as well as non conserved quantities in Navier-Stokes turbulence is proposed. This analysis is used to estimate the helicity dissipation scale which is shown to coincide with the energy dissipation scale. However, it is shown using the decomposition of helicity into eigen modes of the curl operator, that viscous effects have to be taken into account for wave vector smaller than the Kolomogorov wave number in the evolution of these eigen components of the helicity.
Hydrodynamic helicity signatures the parity symmetry breaking, chirality, of the flow. Statistical hydrodynamics thus respect chirality, as symmetry breaking and restoration are key to their fundamentals, such as the spectral transfer direction and its mechanism. Homochiral sub-system of three-dimensional (3D) Navier-Stokes isotropic turbulence has been numerically realized with helical representation technique to present inverse energy cascade [Biferale et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., {\bf 108}, 164501 (2012)]. The situation is analogous to 2D turbulence where inverse energy cascade, or more genera…
It is known that turbulent energy is rapidly transferred in the direction of the rotation axis in a rotating system, in comparison with the non-rotating case. In this study, this phenomenon is investigated as a problem of energy diffusion expressed by the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) model. The conventional gradient-diffusion approximation for the turbulent energy flux cannot account for the enhanced energy transport observed in rotating inhomogeneous turbulence. In order to adequately describe the phenomenon, we propose a new model for the energy flux due to the pressure associated …
It has been recognized that the turbulent cross helicity (correlation between the velocity and magnetic-field fluctuations) can play an important role in several magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) plasma phenomena such as the global magnetic-field generation, turbulence suppression, etc. Despite its relevance to the cross-helicity evolution, little attention has been paid to the dissipation rate of the turbulent cross helicity, $ε_W$. In this paper, we consider the model expression for the dissipation rate of the turbulent cross helicity. In addition to the algebraic model, an evolution equation of $ε_…
Helicity subgrid-scale models and their numerical validation
University of Tokyo（东京大学）；Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics (NORDITA), Stockholm University and Royal Institute of Technology (KTH)（北欧理论物理研究所（NORDITA）、斯德哥尔摩大学和皇家理工学院（KTH））；Universidad de Buenos Aires (UBA)（布宜诺斯艾利斯大学）；CONICET-UBA, Instituto de Física Interdisciplinaria y Aplicada (INFINA)（阿根廷国家科学研究委员会-布宜诺斯艾利斯大学交叉与应用物理研究所（INFINA））；CNRS-CONICET-UBA, Institut Franco-Argentin de Dynamique des Fluides pour l’Environnement (IFADyFE)（法国国家科学研究中心-阿根廷国家科学研究委员会-布宜诺斯艾利斯大学法国-阿根廷环境流体动力学研究所（IFADyFE））；National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR)（美国国家大气研究中心）；Cooperative Institute for Research in the Atmosphere/NOAA（大气研究合作研究所/美国国家海洋和大气管理局）；École Centrale de Lyon（里昂中央理工学院）
A numerical study of decaying stably-stratified flows is performed. Relatively high stratification and moderate Reynolds numbers are considered, and a particular emphasis is placed on the role of helicity (velocity-vorticity correlations). The problem is tackled by integrating the Boussinesq equations in a periodic cubical domain using different initial conditions: a non-helical Taylor-Green (TG) flow, a fully helical Beltrami (ABC) flow, and random flows with a tunable helicity. We show that for stratified ABC flows helicity undergoes a substantially slower decay than for unstratified ABC flo…
Spatial buoyancy-helical distributed chaos (turbulence) in the cumulus, stratiform, stratocumulus, cirrus and cirrus mammatus clouds have been studied using results of direct numerical simulations and measurements in cloudy atmosphere. It is shown that in the considered cases the moments of helicity distribution dominate the kinetic energy spectra both in the middle of the clouds and in the cloud-top regions.
Using direct numerical simulation of hydrodynamic turbulence with helicity forcing applied at all scales, a near-maximum helical turbulent state is obtained, with an inverse energy cascade at scales larger than the energy forcing scale and a forward helicity cascade at scales smaller than the energy forcing scale. In contrast to previous studies using decimated triads, our simulations contain all possible triads. By computing the shell-to-shell energy fluxes, we show that the inverse energy cascade results from weakly non-local interactions among homochiral triads. Varying the helicity injecti…
The conventional approach to the turbulent energy cascade, based on Richardson-Kolmogorov phenomenology, ignores the topology of emerging vortices, which is related to the helicity of the turbulent flow. It is generally believed that helicity can play a significant role in turbulent systems, e.g., supporting the generation of large-scale magnetic fields, but its impact on the energy cascade to small scales has never been observed. We suggest for the first time a generalized phenomenology for isotropic turbulence with an arbitrary spectral distribution of the helicity. We discuss various scenar…
Kinetic helicity (hereafter helicity) is defined by the correlation between the velocity and the flow-aligned vorticity. Helicity, as well as energy, is an inviscid invariant of the hydrodynamic equations. In contrast to energy, a measure of the turbulent intensity, turbulent helicity, representing right- and left-handed twist associated with a fluctuating motion, provides a measure of the structural or topological property of the fluctuation. The helicity effect on the turbulent transport can be analytically obtained in the framework of the multiple-scale renormalized perturbation expansion t…
We present results of the study of a turbulent air flow with a large scale circulation in Rayleigh-Benard rectangular convective cell with a heated bottom wall and a cooled top wall. The mean horizontal velocity of the main roll and the mean vorticity of eddy rings are almost aligned in a large part of the flow. The helicity of the mean flow is quite high, and is the source of turbulent helicity. Since helicity of the mean flow and turbulence is quite large, the flow in Rayleigh-Benard convective cell is well suited to study properties of helical turbulence.
The process of the kinetic energy and kinetic helicity transfer over the spectrum in an incompressible, rapidly rotating turbulent flow is considered. An analogue of the Fjortoft theorem for 3D rapidly rotating turbulence is proposed. It is shown that, similar to 2D turbulence, there are two cascades simultaneously: the inverse cascade of the kinetic energy and the direct cascade of the kinetic helicity, which in the case of 2D turbulence corresponds to the cascade of enstrophy. The proposed scenario is in agreement with our earlier calculations, some recent numerical simulations, and physical…
In turbulence, for neutral or conducting fluids, a large ratio of scales is excited because of the possible occurrence of inverse cascades to large, global scales together with direct cascades to small, dissipative scales, as observed in the atmosphere and oceans, or in the solar environment. In this context, using direct numerical simulations with forcing, we analyze scale dynamics in the presence of magnetic fields with a generalized Ohm's law including a Hall current. The ion inertial length epsilon_H serves as the control parameter at fixed Reynolds number. Both the magnetic and generalize…
We briefly review helicity dynamics, inverse and bi-directional cascades in fluid and magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, with an emphasis on the latter. The energy of a turbulent system, an invariant in the non-dissipative case, is transferred to small scales through nonlinear mode coupling. Fifty years ago, it was realized that, for a two-dimensional fluid, energy cascades instead to larger scales, and so does magnetic helicity in three-dimensional MHD. However, evidence obtained recently indicates that in fact, for a range of governing parameters, there are systems for which their ideal i…
Results are presented of direct numerical simulations of incompressible, homogeneous magnetohydrodynamic turbulence without a mean magnetic field, subject to different mechanical forcing functions commonly used in the literature. Specifically, the forces are negative damping (which uses the large-scale velocity field as a forcing function), a nonhelical random force, and a nonhelical static sinusoidal force (analogous to helical ABC forcing). The time evolution of the three ideal invariants (energy, magnetic helicity and cross helicity), the time-averaged energy spectra, the energy ratios and …
For helical isotropic turbulence, an improved two-term helical subgrid-scale (SGS) model is proposed and four types of dynamic methods are given to do large-eddy simulation (LES), which include the standard dynamic procedure, the least quatratic sum dynamic procedure, the dynamic procedure with single con- straint of helicity dissipation and the dynamic one with dual constraints of energy and helicity dissipation. Tested a priori and a posteriori in both steady and decaying helical isotropic turbulence, the four types of dynamic helical models and the dynamic Smogorinsky model are compared wit…
We study the transition in dimensionality of a three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic flow forced only mechanically, when the strength of a magnetic guiding field is gradually increased. We use numerical simulations to consider cases in which the mechanical forcing injects (or not) helicity in the flow. As the guiding field is increased, the strength of the magnetic field fluctuations decrease as a power law of the guiding field intensity. We show that for strong enough guiding fields, the helical magnetohydrodynamic flow can become almost two-dimensional. In this case, the mechanical energy ca…
The role of the moments of helicity distribution in rotating turbulence has been studied using the notion of helical distributed chaos. Results of the direct numerical simulations, laboratory experiments and geophysical observations have been used in this investigation. It is shown, in particular, that even for the cases when the global helicity is equal to zero at least even moments are usually non-zero (due to the appearance of the local spatial regions with strong negative and positive helicity) and can play a significant role in the rotating turbulence as adiabatic invariants. Rotating buo…
The role of the different helical components of the magnetic and velocity fields in the inverse spectral transfer of magnetic helicity is investigated through Fourier shell-to-shell transfer analysis. Both magnetic helicity and energetic transfer analysis are performed on chosen data from direct numerical simulations of homogeneous isothermal compressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, subject to both a large-scale mechanical forcing and a small-scale helical electromotive driving. The root mean square Mach number of the hydrodynamic turbulent steady-state taken as initial condition varies fr…
The nonlinear dynamics of magnetic helicity, $H^M$, which is responsible for large-scale magnetic structure formation in electrically conducting turbulent media is investigated in forced and decaying three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. This is done with the help of high resolution direct numerical simulations and statistical closure theory. The numerically observed spectral scaling of $H^M$ is at variance with earlier work using a statistical closure model [Pouquet et al., J. Fluid Mech. \textbf{77} 321 (1976)]. By revisiting this theory a universal dynamical balance relation is …
In the presence of large-scale vortical motions and/or magnetic-field strains, the turbulent cross helicity (velocity--magnetic-field correlation in fluctuations) may contribute to the turbulent electromotive force and the Reynolds stress. These effects of cross helicity are considered to balance the primary effects of turbulence such as the turbulent magnetic diffusivity in magnetic-field evolution and the eddy viscosity in the momentum transport. The cross-helicity effects may suppress the enhanced transports due to turbulence. Physical interpretation of the effects is presented with special…
Invariance properties of a physical system govern its behavior: energy conservation in turbulence drives a wide distribution of energy among modes, as observed in geophysics, astrophysics and engineering. In hydrodynamic turbulence, the role of helicity (which measures departures from mirror symmetry) remains unclear since it does not alter this distribution. However, the interplay of rotation and helicity leads to significant differences. Using numerical simulations we show the occurence of long-lived laminar cyclonic vortices together with turbulent vortices, reminiscent of recent tornado ob…
Helicity, as one of only two inviscid invariants in three-dimensional turbulence, plays an important role in the generation and evolution of turbulence. From the traditional viewpoint, there exists only one channel of helicity cascade similar to that of kinetic energy cascade. Through theoretical analysis, we find that there are two channels in helicity cascade process. The first channel mainly originates from vortex twisting process, and the second channel mainly originates from vortex stretching process. By analysing the data of direct numerical simulations of typical turbulent flows, we fin…
A decomposition of the energy and helicity fluxes in a turbulent hydrodynamic flow is proposed. The decomposition is based on the projection of the flow to a helical basis that allows to investigate separately the role of interactions among modes of different helicity. The proposed formalism is then applied in large scale numerical simulations of a non-helical and a helical flow, where the decomposed fluxes are explicitly calculated. It is shown that the total energy flux can be split in to three fluxes that independently remain constant in the inertial range. One of these fluxes that correspo…
Topological properties of physical systems play a crucial role in our understanding of nature, yet their experimental determination remains elusive. We show that the mean helicity, a dynamical invariant in ideal flows, quantitatively affects trajectories of fluid elements: the linking number of Lagrangian trajectories depends on the mean helicity. Thus, a global topological invariant and a topological number of fluid trajectories become related, and we provide an empirical expression linking them. The relation shows the existence of long-term memory in the trajectories: the links can be made o…
The effect of kinetic helicity (velocity--vorticity correlation) on turbulent momentum transport is investigated. The turbulent kinetic helicity (pseudoscalar) enters the Reynolds stress (mirrorsymmetric tensor) expression in the form of a helicity gradient as the coupling coefficient for the mean vorticity and/or the angular velocity (axial vector), which suggests the possibility of mean-flow generation in the presence of inhomogeneous helicity. This inhomogeneous helicity effect, which was previously confirmed at the level of a turbulence- or closure-model simulation, is examined with the ai…
