The decay rate of isotropic and homogeneous turbulence is known to be affected by the large-scale spectrum of the initial perturbations, associated with at least two cannonical self-preserving solutions of the von Kármán-Howarth equation: the so-called Batchelor and Saffman spectra. The effect of long-range correlations in the decay of anisotropic flows is less clear, and recently it has been proposed that the decay rate of rotating turbulence may be independent of the large-scale spectrum of the initial perturbations. We analyze numerical simulations of freely decaying rotating turbulence with initial energy spectra $\sim k^4$ (Batchelor turbulence) and $\sim k^2$ (Saffman turbulence) and show that, while a self-similar decay cannot be identified for the total energy, the decay is indeed affected by long-range correlations. The decay of two-dimensional and three-dimensional modes follows distinct power laws in each case, which are consistent with predictions derived from the anisotropic von Kármán-Howarth equation, and with conservation of anisotropic integral quantities by the flow evolution.
The transition from deterministic to distributed chaos/turbulence at the increase of Rayleigh number (from $10^4$ to $10^8$) in Rayleigh-Bénard convection, controlled by generalized Birkhoff-Saffman invariant, has been studied using the results of direct numerical simulations. The applications of this approach to rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection, to stably stratified flows, and to observations in the atmosphere and in the solar photosphere have been briefly discussed.
We generalize Batchelor's parameterization of the autocorrelation functions of isotropic turbulence in a form involving a product expansion with multiple small scales. The richer small scale structure acquired this way, compared to the usual Batchelor function, is necessary so that the associated energy spectrum approximate well actual spectra in the universal equilibrium range. We propose that the generalized function provides an approximation of arbitrary accuracy for actual spectra of isotropic turbulence over the universal equilibrium range. The degree of accuracy depends on the number of …
Given a velocity field $u(x,t)$, we consider the evolution of a passive tracer $θ$ governed by $\partial_tθ+ u\cdot\nablaθ= Δθ+ g$ with time-independent source $g(x)$. When $\|u\|$ is small, Batchelor, Howells and Townsend (1959, J.\ Fluid Mech.\ 5:134) predicted that the tracer spectrum scales as $|θ_k|^2\propto|k|^{-4}|u_k|^2$. In this paper, we prove that this scaling does indeed hold for large $|k|$, in a probabilistic sense, for random synthetic two-dimensional incompressible velocity fields $u(x,t)$ with given energy spectra. We also propose an asymptotic correction factor to the BHT sca…
In 1959, Batchelor predicted that the stationary statistics of passive scalars advected in fluids with small diffusivity $κ$ should display a $|k|^{-1}$ power spectrum along an inertial range contained in the viscous-convective range of the fluid model. This prediction has been extensively tested, both experimentally and numerically, and is a core prediction of passive scalar turbulence. In this article we provide a rigorous proof of a version of Batchelor's prediction in the $κ\to 0$ limit when the scalar is subjected to a spatially-smooth, white-in-time stochastic source and is advected by t…
Maxima of the scalar dissipation rate in turbulence appear in form of sheets and correspond to the potentially most intensive scalar mixing events. Their cross-section extension determines a locally varying diffusion scale of the mixing process and extends the classical Batchelor picture of one mean diffusion scale. The distribution of the local diffusion scales is analysed for different Reynolds and Schmidt numbers with a fast multiscale technique applied to very high-resolution simulation data. The scales take always values across the whole Batchelor range and beyond. Furthermore, their dist…
We conduct a careful analysis of the data provided by Krogstad & Davidson (2011) and show that their data do not support their conclusions. According to their published data, their decaying approximately homogeneous isotropic turbulent flows are, invariably, clearly different from Saffman turbulence; and very clearly marked differences exist between the far downstream turbulence behaviors generated by their conventional grid and by their multiscale cross grids.
We report an experimental investigation of pair dispersions in turbulent thermal convection with initial separation r0 ranging from sub-Kolmogorov scale to scales in the inertial range. In the dissipative range of scales we observed for the first time in experiment the exponential growth of the separation between a pair of particles predicted by Batchelor and obtained a Batchelor constant 0.23\pm0.07. For large r0, it is found that, for almost all time range, both the mean-square separation and distance neighbor function exhibit the forms predicted by Batchelor, whereas the two quantities agre…
Direct numerical simulation is used to investigate the decay exponent of isotropic homogeneous turbulence over a range of Reynolds numbers sufficient to display both high and low Re number decay behavior. The initial turbulence is generated by the stirring action of the flow past many small randomly placed cubes. Stirring occurs at 1/30th of the simulation domain size so that the low-wavenumber and large scale behavior of the turbulent spectrum is generated by the fluid and is not imposed. It is shown that the decay exponent in the resulting turbulence closely matches the theoretical predictio…
We present a new theoretical picture of magnetically dominated, decaying turbulence in the absence of a mean magnetic field. We demonstrate that such turbulence is governed by the reconnection of magnetic structures, and not by ideal dynamics, as has previously been assumed. We obtain predictions for the magnetic-energy decay laws by proposing that turbulence decays on reconnection timescales, while respecting the conservation of certain integral invariants representing topological constraints satisfied by the reconnecting magnetic field. As is well known, the magnetic helicity is such an inva…
The appearance of sharp vorticity gradients in two-dimensional hydrodynamic turbulence and their influence on the turbulent spectra is considered. We have developed the analog of the vortex line representation as a transformation to the curvilinear system of coordinates moving together with the di-vorticity lines. Compressibility of this mapping can be considered as the main reason for the formation of the vorticity discontinuities at high Reynolds numbers. For two-dimensional turbulence in the case of strong anisotropy the vorticity discontinuities can generate spectra with the fall-off at la…
Inspection of available data on the decay exponent for the kinetic energy of homogeneous and isotropic turbulence (HIT) shows that it varies by as much as 100\%. Measurements and simulations often show no correspondence with theoretical arguments, which are themselves varied. This situation is unsatisfactory given that HIT is a building block of turbulence theory and modeling. We take recourse to a large base of direct numerical simulations and study decaying HIT for a variety of initial conditions. We show that the Kolmogorov decay exponent and the Birkhoff-Saffman decay are both readily obse…
A stochastic EDQNM approach is used to investigate self-similar decaying isotropic turbulence at high Reynolds number ($400 \leq Re_λ\leq 10^4$). The realistic energy spectrum functional form recently proposed by Meyers & Meneveau is generalised by considering some of the model constants as random parameters, since they escape measure in most experimental set-ups. The induced uncertainty on the solution is investigated building response surfaces for decay power-law exponents of usual physical quantities. Large-scale uncertainties are considered, the emphasis being put on Saffman and Batchelor …
We perform direct numerical simulation (DNS) and large eddy simulation (LES) of an initially spherical region of turbulence evolving in free space. The computations are performed with a lattice Green's function method, which allows the exact free-space boundary conditions to be imposed on a compact vortical region. LES simulations are conducted with the stretched vortex sub-grid stress model. The initial condition is spherically windowed, isotropic homogeneous incompressible turbulence. We study the spectrum and statistics of the decaying turbulence and compare the results with decaying isotro…
The Saffman helicity invariant of Hosking and Schekochihin (2021, PRX 11, 041005), which we here call the Hosking integral, has emerged as an important quantity that may govern the decay properties of magnetically dominated nonhelical turbulence. Using a range of different computational methods, we confirm that this quantity is indeed gauge-invariant and nearly perfectly conserved in the limit of large Lundquist numbers. For direct numerical simulations with ordinary viscosity and magnetic diffusivity operators, we find that the solution develops in a nearly self-similar fashion. In a diagram …
We perform numerical simulations of decaying hydrodynamic and magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. We classify our time-dependent solutions by their evolutionary tracks in parametric plots between instantaneous scaling exponents. We find distinct classes of solutions evolving along specific trajectories toward points on a line of self-similar solutions. These trajectories are determined by the underlying physics governing individual cases, while the infrared slope of the initial conditions plays only a limited role. In the helical case, even for a scale-invariant initial spectrum (inversely proport…
Rapidly rotating turbulent flow is characterized by the emergence of columnar structures that are representative of quasi-two dimensional behavior of the flow. It is known that when energy is injected into the fluid at an intermediate scale $L_f$, it cascades towards smaller as well as larger scales. In this paper we analyze the flow in the \textit{inverse cascade} range at a small but fixed Rossby number, {$\mathcal{R}o_f \approx 0.05$}. Several {numerical simulations with} helical and non-helical forcing functions are considered in periodic boxes with unit aspect ratio. In order to resolve t…
