No Arabic abstract
We investigate universality of the Eulerian velocity structure functions using velocity fields obtained from the stereoscopic particle image velocimetry (SPIV) technique in experiments and the direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the Navier-Stokes equations. We show that the numerical and experimental velocity structure functions up to order 9 follow a log-universality; we find that they collapse on a universal curve, if we use units that include logarithmic dependence on the Reynolds number. We then investigate the meaning and consequences of such log-universality, and show that it is connected with the properties of a multifractal free energy, based on an analogy between multifractal and themodynamics. We show that in such a framework, the existence of a fluctuating dissipation scale is associated with a phase transition describing the relaminarisation of rough velocity fields with different Holder exponents. Such a phase transition has been already observed using the Lagrangian velocity structure functions, but was so far believed to be out of reach for the Eulerian data.
A Lorenz-like model was set up recently, to study the hydrodynamic instabilities in a driven active matter system. This Lorenz model differs from the standard one in that all three equations contain non-linear terms. The additional non-linear term comes from the active matter contribution to the stress tensor. In this work, we investigate the non-linear properties of this Lorenz model both analytically and numerically. The significant feature of the model is the passage to chaos through a complete set of period-doubling bifurcations above the Hopf point for inverse Schmidt numbers above a critical value. Interestingly enough, at these Schmidt numbers a strange attractor and stable fixed points coexist beyond the homoclinic point. At the Hopf point, the strange attractor disappears leaving a high-period periodic orbit. This periodic state becomes the expected limit cycle through a set of bifurcations and then undergoes a sequence of period-doubling bifurcations leading to the formation of a strange attractor. This is the first situation where a Lorenz-like model has shown a set of consecutive period-doubling bifurcations in a physically relevant transition to turbulence.
The results of experimental and theoretical studies of the parametric decay instability of capillary waves on the surface of superfluid helium He-II are reported. It is demonstrated that in a system of turbulent capillary waves low-frequency waves are generated along with the direct Kolmogorov-Zakharov cascade of capillary turbulence. The effects of low-frequency damping and the discreteness of the wave spectrum are discussed.
Viscoelastic fluids are a common subclass of rheologically complex materials that are encountered in diverse fields from biology to polymer processing. Often the flows of viscoelastic fluids are unstable in situations where ordinary Newtonian fluids are stable, owing to the nonlinear coupling of the elastic and viscous stresses. Perhaps more surprisingly, the instabilities produce flows with the hallmarks of turbulence -- even though the effective Reynolds numbers may be $O(1)$ or smaller. We provide perspectives on viscoelastic flow instabilities by integrating the input from speakers at a recent international workshop: historical remarks, characterization of fluids and flows, discussion of experimental and simulation tools, and modern questions and puzzles that motivate further studies of this fascinating subject. The materials here will be useful for researchers and educators alike, especially as the subject continues to evolve in both fundamental understanding and applications in engineering and the sciences.
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 question the concept of universality.
The advection and mixing of a scalar quantity by fluid flow is an important problem in engineering and natural sciences. If the fluid is turbulent, the statistics of the passive scalar exhibit complex behavior. This paper is concerned with two Lagrangian scalar turbulence models based on the recent fluid deformation model that can be shown to reproduce the statistics of passive scalar turbulence for a range of Reynolds numbers. For these models, we demonstrate how events of extreme passive scalar gradients can be recovered by computing the instanton, i.e., the saddle-point configuration of the associated stochastic field theory. It allows us to both reproduce the heavy-tailed statistics associated with passive scalar turbulence, and recover the most likely mechanism leading to such extreme events. We further demonstrate that events of large negative strain in these models undergo spontaneous symmetry breaking.