In the study of weakly turbulent wave systems possessing incomplete self-similarity it is possible to use dimensional arguments to derive the scaling exponents of the Kolmogorov-Zakharov spectra, provided the order of the resonant wave interactions responsible for nonlinear energy transfer is known. Furthermore one can easily derive conditions for the breakdown of the weak turbulence approximation. It is found that for incompletely self-similar systems dominated by three wave interactions, the weak turbulence approximation usually cannot break down at small scales. It follows that such systems cannot exhibit small scale intermittency. For systems dominated by four wave interactions, the incomplete self-similarity property implies that the scaling of the interaction coefficient depends only on the physical dimension of the system. These results are used to build a complete picture of the scaling properties of the surface wave problem where both gravity and surface tension play a role. We argue that, for large values of the energy flux, there should be two weakly turbulent scaling regions matched together via a region of strongly nonlinear turbulence.
We report an experimental investigation of the effect of finite depth on the statistical properties of wave turbulence at the surface of water in the gravity-capillary range. We tune the wave dispersion and the level of nonlinearity by modifying the depth of water and the forcing respectively. We use space-time resolved profilometry to reconstruct the deformed surface of water. When decreasing the water depth, we observe a drastic transition between weak turbulence at the weakest forcing and a solitonic regime at stronger forcing. We characterize the transition between both states by studying …
We investigate experimentally stratified turbulence forced by waves. Stratified turbulence is present in oceans and it is expected to be dominated by nonlinear interaction of internal gravity waves as described by the Garrett & Munk spectrum. In order to reach turbulent regimes dominated by stratification we use the Coriolis facility in Grenoble (France) which large size enables us to reach regimes with both low Froude number and large Reynolds number. Stratification is obtained by using vertically linearly varying salt concentration and we force large scale waves in a $6\times6\times 1$ m$^3$…
High Reynolds number isotropic magneto-hydro-dynamic turbulence in the presence of large scale magnetic fields is investigated as a function of the magnetic field strength. For a variety of flow configurations the energy dissipation rate ε, follows the Kolmogorov scaling ε~ U^3/L even when the large scale magnetic field energy is twenty times larger than the kinetic. Further increase of the magnetic energy showed a transition to the ε~ U^2 B / L scaling implying that magnetic shear becomes more efficient at this point at cascading the energy than the velocity fluctuations. Strongly helical con…
We report the quantitative experimental observation of the weak inertial-wave turbulence regime of rotating turbulence. We produce a statistically steady homogeneous turbulent flow that consists of nonlinearly interacting inertial waves, using rough top and bottom boundaries to prevent the emergence of a geostrophic flow. As the forcing amplitude increases, the temporal spectrum evolves from a discrete set of peaks to a continuous spectrum. Maps of the bicoherence of the velocity field confirm such a gradual transition between discrete wave interactions at weak forcing amplitude, and the regim…
We investigate three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics turbulence in the presence of both a large-scale velocity and non-uniform magnetic field. By assuming a turbulence driven by an external forcing with both helical and non-helical spectra, we investigate the combined effect of these two shears on turbulence intensity and turbulent transport represented by turbulent diffusivities (turbulent viscosity, $α$ and $β$ effect) in analogy with Reynolds. We show that turbulence viscosity and diffusivity are quenched for strong flow shear and magnetic field in the limits of weak and strong magnetic fi…
In our recent works we proposed a theory of turbulence in inertial gas flow via the mean field effect of an intermolecular potential. We found that, in inertial flow, turbulence indeed spontaneously develops from a laminar initial condition, just as observed in nature and experiments. However, we also found that density and temperature in our inertial flow model behave unrealistically. The goal of the current work is to demonstrate technical possibility of modeling compressible, turbulent flow at low Mach number where both density and temperature behave in a more realistic fashion. Here we foc…
Recent complex-chemistry direct numerical simulations of lean hydrogen-air flames propagating in forced turbulence in a box were continued by switching-off the turbulence forcing. Results show that a decrease in burning velocity U_T(t), caused by the turbulence decay, is reversed when the turbulence becomes weak and a peak of U_T(t) appears, with the peak magnitudes and associated Karlovitz numbers being similar in two different cases. These results (i) are attributed to activation of laminar flame instabilities, which have been suppressed by intense turbulence, and (ii) are argued to indicate…
We present the results of direct numerical simulation of three-dimensional acoustic turbulence in medium with weak positive dispersion. It is shown that at the beginning of the long-wavelength region in the turbulence energy distribution in the $k$-space, there are formed jets in the form of narrow cones. At larger wavenumbers, the cones broaden, and the distribution accordingly tends to isotropic. In this region of wavenumbers, the angle-averaged turbulence spectrum acquires a power-law character, $E(k)\propto k^{-α}$, with the exponent close to $3/2$, which corresponds to the Zakharov-Sagdee…
We survey recent results in the mathematical literature on the equations of incompressible fluid dynamics, highlighting common themes and how they might contribute to the understanding of some phenomena in the theory of fully developed turbulence.
Within the spirit of fluid turbulence, we consider the one-dimensional Majda-McLaughlin-Tabak (MMT) model that describes the interactions of nonlinear dispersive waves. We perform a detailed numerical study of the direct energy cascade in the defocusing regime. In particular, we consider a configuration with large-scale forcing and small scale dissipation, and we introduce three non- dimensional parameters: the ratio between nonlinearity and dispersion, ε, and the analogues of the Reynolds number, Re, i.e. the ratio between the nonlinear and dissipative time-scales, both at large and small sca…
The statistical properties of a large number of weakly nonlinear waves can be described in the framework of the Weak Turbulence Theory. The theory is based on the hypothesis of an asymptotically large system. In experiments, the systems have a finite size and the predictions of the theory may not apply because of the presence of discrete modes rather than a continuum of free waves. Our study focusses on the case of waves at the surface of water at scales close to the gravity-capillarity crossover (of order 1~cm). Wave turbulence has peculiar properties in this regime because 1D resonant intera…
The scaling of turbulent heat flux with respect to electrostatic potential is examined in the framework of a reduced ($4$D) kinetic system describing electrostatic turbulence in magnetized plasmas excited by the ion temperature gradient instability. Numerical simulations were instigated by, and tested the predictions of generic renormalized turbulence models like the $2$D fluid model for electrostatic turbulence [Y.~Z.~Zhang and S.~M.~Mahajan, Phys.~Fluids B 5 (7), pp.~2000 (1993)]. A fundamental, perhaps, universal result of this theory-simulation combination is the demonstration that there e…
A weakly nonlinear spectrum and a strongly nonlinear spectrum coexist in a statistically steady state of elastic wave turbulence. The analytical representation of the nonlinear frequency is obtained by evaluating the extended self-nonlinear interactions. The {\em critical\/} wavenumbers at which the nonlinear frequencies are comparable with the linear frequencies agree with the {\em separation\/} wavenumbers between the weak and strong turbulence spectra. We also confirm the validity of our analytical representation of the separation wavenumbers through comparison with the results of direct nu…
We study the generation of 2D turbulence in Faraday waves by investigating the creation of spatially periodic vortices in this system. Measurements which couple a diffusing light imaging technique and particle tracking algorithms allow the simultaneous observation of the three-dimensional fluid motion and of the temporal changes in the wave field topography. Quasi-standing waves are found to coexist with a spatially extended fluid transport. More specifically, the destruction of regular patterns of oscillons coincides with the emergence of a complex fluid motion whose statistics are similar to…
We report new measurements of single particle dispersion in turbulent two-dimensional (2D) flows. Laboratory experiments in electromagnetically driven and Faraday wave driven turbulence reveal a transition from weakly dispersing superdiffusive regime to strongly dispersing Brownian diffusion as the flow energy is increased in a broad range. The transition to fully developed 2D turbulence is characterized by the topological changes in the fluid particle trajectories and the development of self-similar diffusion. The degree of 2D turbulence development can be quantified by a parameter describing…
We examine the velocity profile of coherent vortices appearing as a consequence of the inverse cascade of two-dimensional turbulence in a finite box in the case of static pumping. We demonstrate that in the passive regime the flat velocity profile is realized, as in the case of pumping short correlated in time. However, in the static case the energy flux to large scales is dependent on the system parameters. We demonstrate that it is proportional to $f^{4/3}$ where $f$ is the characteristic force exciting turbulence.
We report a detailed study of Eulerian and Lagrangian statistics from high resolution Direct Numerical Simulations of isotropic weakly compressible turbulence. Reynolds number at the Taylor microscale is estimated to be around 600. Eulerian and Lagrangian statistics is evaluated over a huge data set, made by $1856^3$ spatial collocation points and by 16 million particles, followed for about one large-scale eddy turn over time. We present data for Eulerian and Lagrangian Structure functions up to ten order. We analyse the local scaling properties in the inertial range and in the viscous range. …
Recent numerical and observational studies revealed that spectra of magnetic and velocity fluctuations in MHD turbulence have different scaling indexes. This intriguing feature has been recently explained in the case of weak MHD turbulence, that is, turbulence consisting of weakly interacting Alfven waves. However, astrophysical turbulence is strong in majority of cases. In the present work, we propose a unifying picture that allows one to address weak and strong MHD turbulence on the same footing. We argue that magnetic and kinetic energies are different in both weak and strong MHD turbulence…
We study conformal invariance of vorticity clusters in weakly compressible two-dimensional turbulence at low Mach numbers. On the basis of very high resolution direct numerical simulation we demonstrate the scaling invariance of the inverse cascade with scaling close to Kolmogorov prediction. In this range of scales, the statistics of zero-vorticity isolines are found to be compatible with those of critical percolation, thus generalizing the results obtained in incompressible Navier-Stokes turbulence.
Weak turbulence of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) waves in strongly magnetized plasma is studied when the thermal pressure is less than the magnetic field pressure. In this situation the main nonlinear mechanism is the resonance scattering of fast magneto-acoustic and Alfvenic waves on slow magneto-acoustic waves. As a result, the former waves serve as the high-frequency waves with respect to the latter ones so that the total number of HF waves - an adiabatic invariant - conserves additionally. In the weak turbulence regime this invariant is shown to generate the Kolmogorov type spectrum with a con…
We report a laboratory investigation of weak turbulence of water surface waves in the gravity-capillary crossover. By using time-space resolved profilometry and a bicoherence analysis, we observe that the nonlinear processes involve 3-wave resonant interactions. By studying the solutions of the resonance conditions we show that the nonlinear interaction is dominantly 1D and involves collinear wave vectors. Furthermore taking into account the spectral widening due to weak nonlinearity explains that nonlocal interactions are possible between a gravity wave and high frequency capillary ones. We o…
Recent developments of the weak turbulence theory applied to internal waves exhibit a power-law solution of the kinetic energy equation close to the oceanic Garrett \& Munk spectrum, confirming weakly nonlinear wave interactions as a likely explanation of the observed oceanic spectra. However, finite-size effects can hinder wave interactions in bounded domains, and observations often differ from theoretical predictions. This article studies the dynamical regimes experimentally developing in a stratified fluid forced by internal gravity waves in a pentagonal domain. We find that by changing the…
By taking advantage of laser Doppler velocimetry (LDV), we explore the existence of discrete wave cascades on fluid interfaces excited upon monochromatic excitation. We study viscous liquids of variable capillarity spanning a broad range of frictional stresses. The existence of an inertial regime of weak surface wave turbulence (weak-SWT) has been pointed out as a cascade of discrete modes with amplitudes compatible with universal Kolmogorov`s scaling. The transit from weak to strong surface turbulence has been explored with this tool revealing the importance of inertia over surface forces to …
For the first time weak turbulent theory was demonstrated for the surface gravity waves. Direct numerical simulation of the dynamical equations shows Kolmogorov turbulent spectra as predicted by analytical analysis from kinetic equation.
We study the dynamical regime of wave turbulence of a vibrated thin elastic plate based on experimental and numerical observations. We focus our study to the strongly non linear regime described in a previous letter by N. Yokoyama & M. Takaoka. At small forcing, a weakly non linear regime is compatible with the Weak Turbulence Theory when the dissipation is localized at high wavenumber. When the forcing intensity is increased, a strongly non linear regime emerges: singular structures dominate the dynamics at large scale whereas at small scales the weak turbulence is still present. A turbulence…
We report experimental results on the decay of wave turbulence in an elastic plate obtained by stopping the forcing from a stationary turbulent state. In the stationary case, the forcing is seen to induce some anisotropy and a spectrum in disagreement with the weak turbulence theory. After stopping the forcing, almost perfect isotropy is restored. The decay of energy is self similar and the observed decaying spectrum is in better agreement with the prediction of the weak turbulence theory. The dissipative part of the spectrum is partially consistent with the theoretical prediction based on pre…
In elastic-wave turbulence, strong turbulence appears in small wave numbers while weak turbulence does in large wave numbers. Energy transfers in the coexistence of these turbulent states are numerically investigated in both of the Fourier space and the real space. An analytical expression of a detailed energy balance reveals from which mode to which mode energy is transferred in the triad interaction. Stretching energy excited by external force is transferred nonlocally and intermittently to large wave numbers as the kinetic energy in the strong turbulence. In the weak turbulence, the resonan…
We study the growth of small-scale inhomogeneities of the density of particles floating in weakly nonlinear, small-amplitude, surface waves. Despite the amplitude smallness, the accumulated effect of the long-time evolution may produce strongly inhomogeneous distribution of the floaters: density fluctuations grow exponentially with a small but finite exponent. We show that the exponent is of sixth or higher order in wave amplitude. As a result, the inhomogeneities do not form within typical time-scales of the natural environment. We conclude that turbulence of surface waves is weakly compressi…
The Random Phase and Amplitude Formalism (RPA) has significantly extended the scope of weak turbulence studies. Because RPA does not assume any proximity to the Gaussianity in the wavenumber space, it can predict, for example, how the fluctuation of the complex amplitude of each wave mode grows through nonlinear interactions with other modes, and how it approaches the Gaussianity. Thus, RPA has a great potential capability, but its validity has been assessed neither numerically nor experimentally. We compare the theoretical predictions given by RPA with the results of direct numerical simulati…
We study the scaling properties of two-dimensional turbulence using dimensional analysis. In particular, we consider the energy spectrum both at large and small scales and in the "inertial ranges" for the cases of freely decaying and forced turbulence. We also investigate the properties of an "energy condensate" at large scales in spatially finite systems. Finally, an analysis of a possible inverse cascade in freely decaying turbulence is presented.
One of the most important predictions in magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) is that in the presence of a uniform magnetic field $\textbf{b}_{0}$ a transition from weak to strong wave turbulence should occur when going from large to small perpendicular scales. This transition is believed to be a universal property of several anisotropic turbulent systems. We present for the first time direct evidence of such a transition thanks to a three-dimensional direct numerical simulation of incompressible balanced MHD turbulence with a grid resolution of $3072^2 \times 256$. From large to small-scales, the chang…
The nonlinear dynamics of waves at the sea surface is believed to be ruled by the Weak Turbulence framework. In order to investigate the nonlinear coupling among gravity surface waves, we developed an experiment in the Coriolis facility which is a 13-m diameter circular tank. An isotropic and statistically stationary wave turbulence of average steepness of 10\% is maintained by two wedge wave makers. The space and time resolved wave elevation is measured using a stereoscopic technique. Wave-wave interactions are analyzed through third and fourth order correlations. We investigate specifically …
We construct a discrete shell-model for two-dimensional turbulence that takes into account local and nonlocal interactions between velocity modes in Fourier space. In real space, its continuous limit is described by the one-dimensional Burgers equation. We find a novel approximate scaling solution of such an equation and show that it well describes the main characteristics of the energy spectrum in fully developed, freely decaying two-dimensional turbulence.
In this work a weak-turbulence closure is used to determine the structure of the two-time power spectrum of weak magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence from the nonlinear equations describing the dynamics. The two-time energy spectrum is a fundamental quantity in turbulence theory from which most statistical properties of a homogeneous turbulent system can be derived. A closely related quantity, obtained via a spatial Fourier transform, is the two-point two-time correlation function describing the space-time correlations arising from the underlying dynamics of the turbulent fluctuations. Both qu…
Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence affects both terrestrial and astrophysical plasmas. The properties of magnetized turbulence must be better understood to more accurately characterize these systems. This work presents ideal MHD simulations of the compressible Taylor-Green vortex under a range of initial sub-sonic Mach numbers and magnetic field strengths. We find that regardless of the initial field strength, the magnetic energy becomes dominant over the kinetic energy on all scales after at most several dynamical times. The spectral indices of the kinetic and magnetic energy spectra become shall…
We investigate experimentally turbulence of surface gravity waves in the Coriolis facility in Grenoble by using both high sensitivity local probes and a time and space resolved stereoscopic reconstruction of the water surface. We show that the water deformation is made of the superposition of weakly nonlinear waves following the linear dispersion relation and of bound waves resulting from non resonant triadic interaction. Although the theory predicts a 4-wave resonant coupling supporting the presence of an inverse cascade of wave action, we do not observe such inverse cascade. We investigate 4…
The quasi-periodic doubling cascade is shown to occur in the transition from regular to weakly turbulent behaviour in simulations of incompressible Navier-Stokes flow on a three-periodic domain. Special symmetries are imposed on the flow field in order to reduce the computational effort. Thus we can apply tools from dynamical systems theory such as continuation of periodic orbits and computation of Lyapunov exponents. We propose a model ODE for the quasi-period doubling cascade which, in a limit of a perturbation parameter to zero, avoids resonance related problems. The cascade we observe in t…
Recent numerical and observational studies contain conflicting reports on the spectrum of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. In an attempt to clarify the issue we investigate anisotropic incompressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence with a strong guide field $B_0$. We perform numerical simulations of the reduced MHD equations in a special setting that allows us to elucidate the transition between weak and strong turbulent regimes. Denote $k_{\|}$, $k_\perp$ characteristic field-parallel and field-perpendicular wavenumbers of the fluctuations, and $b_λ$ the fluctuating field at the scale $λ\sim 1/…
Effects of quasi-point vortices on the inertial range of scales in homogeneous two-dimensional turbulence (classic and quantum) have been studied using the notion of distributed chaos. Results of direct numerical simulations of decaying turbulence, turbulence with small-scale forcing, and turbulent thermal convection on a sphere as well as results of the Global Atmospheric Sampling Program (GASP) measurements in the tropospheric and stratospheric turbulence over mountainous terrain (the small-scale forcing) have been used for this purpose. The superfluid and Bose-Einstein two-dimensional turbu…
The Weak Turbulence Theory has been applied to waves in thin elastic plates obeying the Föppl-Von Kármán dynamical equations. Subsequent experiments have shown a strong discrepancy between the theoretical predictions and the measurements. Both the dynamical equations and the Weak Turbulence Theory treatment require some restrictive hypotheses. Here a direct numerical simulation of the Föppl-Von Kármán equations is performed and reproduces qualitatively and quantitatively the experimental results when the experimentally measured damping rate of waves $γ_\mathbf{k}= a + bk^2$ is used. This confi…
(Abridged) In the implicit large eddy simulation (ILES) paradigm, the dissipative nature of high-resolution shock-capturing schemes is exploited to provide an implicit model of turbulence. Recent 3D simulations suggest that turbulence might play a crucial role in core-collapse supernova explosions, however the fidelity with which turbulence is simulated in these studies is unclear. Especially considering that the accuracy of ILES for the regime of interest in CCSN, weakly compressible and strongly anisotropic, has not been systematically assessed before. In this paper we assess the accuracy of…
The scaling properties of three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence are obtained from direct numerical simulations of decaying turbulence using $512^3$ modes. The results indicate that the turbulence does not follow the Iroshnikov-Kraichnan phenomenology.In the case of hyperresistivity, the structure functions exhibit a clear scaling range yielding absolute values of the scaling exponents $ζ_p$. The scaling exponents agree with a modified She-Leveque model $ζ_p=p/9 + 1 - (1/3)^{p/3}$, corresponding to Kolmogorov scaling but sheet-like geometry of the dissipative structures.
Stratified turbulence shows scale- and direction-dependent anisotropy and the coexistence of weak turbulence of internal gravity waves and strong turbulence of eddies. Straightforward application of standard analyses developed in isotropic turbulence sometimes masks important aspects of the anisotropic turbulence. To capture detailed structures of the energy distribution in the wave-number space, it is indispensable to examine the energy distribution with non-integrated spectra by fixing the codimensional wave-number component or in the two-dimensional domain spanned by both the horizontal and…
Intermittency is investigated using decaying direct numerical simulations of incompressible weak magnetohydrodynamic turbulence with a strong uniform magnetic field ${\bf b_0}$ and zero cross-helicity. At leading order, this regime is achieved via three-wave resonant interactions with the scattering of two of these waves on the third/slow mode for which $k_{\parallel} = 0$. When the interactions with the slow mode are artificially reduced the system exhibits an energy spectrum with $k_{\perp}^{-3/2}$, whereas the expected exact solution with $k_{\perp}^{-2}$ is recovered with the full nonlinea…
Weak Alfvenic turbulence in a periodic domain is considered as a mixed state of Alfven waves interacting with the two-dimensional (2D) condensate. Unlike in standard treatments, no spectral continuity between the two is assumed and indeed none is found. If the 2D modes are not directly forced, k^{-2} and k^{-1} spectra are found for the Alfven waves and the 2D modes, respectively, with the latter less energetic than the former. The wave number at which their energies become comparable marks the transition to strong turbulence. For imbalanced energy injection, the spectra are similar and the El…
The dimensionality of turbulence in fluid layers determines their properties. We study electromagnetically driven flows in finite depth fluid layers and show that eddy viscosity, which appears as a result of three-dimensional motions, leads to increased bottom damping. The anomaly coefficient, which characterizes the deviation of damping from the one derived using a quasi-two-dimensional model, can be used as a measure of the flow dimensionality. Experiments in turbulent layers show that when the anomaly coefficient becomes high, the turbulent inverse energy cascade is suppressed. In the oppos…
Two-dimensional statistically stationary isotropic turbulence with an imposed uniform scalar gradient is investigated. Dimensional arguments are presented to predict the inertial range scaling of the turbulent scalar flux spectrum in both the inverse cascade range and the enstrophy cascade range for small and unity Schmidt numbers. The scaling predictions are checked by direct numerical simulations and good agreement is observed.
We consider freely decaying two-dimensional isotropic turbulence. It is usually assumed that, in such turbulence, the energy spectrum at small wave number, takes the form, where is the two-dimensional version of Loitsyansky's integral. In this paper, we developed a simple model for large scale dynamics of free decay two-dimensional turbulence based on the statistical solution of Navier-Stokes equation. We provide one possible explanation for the large scale dynamics in two-dimensional turbulence.
Conflict between formation of a cyclonic vortex and isotropization in forced homogeneous rotating turbulence is numerically investigated. It is well known that a large rotation rate of the system induces columnar vortices to result in quasi-two-dimensional (Q2D) flow, while a small rotation rate allows turbulence to be three-dimensional (3D). It is found that the transition from the Q2D turbulent flow to the 3D turbulent flow and the reverse transition occur at different values of the rotation rates. At the intermediate rotation rates, bistability of these two statistically steady states is ob…
Finite-temperature quantum turbulence is often described in terms of two immiscible fluids that can flow with a non-zero mean relative velocity. Such out-of-equilibrium state is known as counterflow superfluid turbulence. We report here the emergence of a counterflow-induced inverse energy cascade in three-dimensional superfluid flows by performing extensive numerical simulations of the Hall-Vinen-Bekarevich-Khalatnikov model. As the intensity of the mean counterflow is increased, an abrupt transition, from a fully three-dimensional turbulent flow to a quasi two-dimensional system exhibiting a…
We propose a phenomenological model for incompressible magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. We argue that nonlinear-wave interaction weakens as the energy cascade proceeds to small scales, however, the anisotropy of fluctuations along the large-scale magnetic field increases, which makes turbulence strong at all scales. To explain the weakening of the interaction, we propose that small-scale fluctuations of the velocity and magnetic fields become increasingly dynamically aligned as their scale decreases, so that turbulent eddies become locally anisotropic in the plane perpendicular to the large-sca…
