Pressure and intermittency in the inertial range of turbulence

Author(s):  
O. N. Boratav ◽  
R. B. Pelz
Keyword(s):  
2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin D. G. Chandran ◽  
Jean C. Perez

We present three-dimensional direct numerical simulations and an analytic model of reflection-driven magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in the solar wind. Our simulations describe transverse, non-compressive MHD fluctuations within a narrow magnetic flux tube that extends from the photosphere, through the chromosphere and corona and out to a heliocentric distance  $r$ of 21 solar radii  $(R_{\odot })$ . We launch outward-propagating ‘ $\boldsymbol{z}^{+}$ fluctuations’ into the simulation domain by imposing a randomly evolving photospheric velocity field. As these fluctuations propagate away from the Sun, they undergo partial reflection, producing inward-propagating ‘ $\boldsymbol{z}^{-}$ fluctuations’. Counter-propagating fluctuations subsequently interact, causing fluctuation energy to cascade to small scales and dissipate. Our analytic model incorporates dynamic alignment, allows for strongly or weakly turbulent nonlinear interactions and divides the $\boldsymbol{z}^{+}$ fluctuations into two populations with different characteristic radial correlation lengths. The inertial-range power spectra of $\boldsymbol{z}^{+}$ and $\boldsymbol{z}^{-}$ fluctuations in our simulations evolve toward a $k_{\bot }^{-3/2}$ scaling at $r>10R_{\odot }$ , where $k_{\bot }$ is the wave-vector component perpendicular to the background magnetic field. In two of our simulations, the $\boldsymbol{z}^{+}$ power spectra are much flatter between the coronal base and $r\simeq 4R_{\odot }$ . We argue that these spectral scalings are caused by: (i) high-pass filtering in the upper chromosphere; (ii) the anomalous coherence of inertial-range $\boldsymbol{z}^{-}$ fluctuations in a reference frame propagating outwards with the $\boldsymbol{z}^{+}$ fluctuations; and (iii) the change in the sign of the radial derivative of the Alfvén speed at $r=r_{\text{m}}\simeq 1.7R_{\odot }$ , which disrupts this anomalous coherence between $r=r_{\text{m}}$ and $r\simeq 2r_{\text{m}}$ . At $r>1.3R_{\odot }$ , the turbulent heating rate in our simulations is comparable to the turbulent heating rate in a previously developed solar-wind model that agreed with a number of observational constraints, consistent with the hypothesis that MHD turbulence accounts for much of the heating of the fast solar wind.


1994 ◽  
Vol 09 (08) ◽  
pp. 1197-1238 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. A. MIGDAL

This is an extended version of the preprint,4 based on the lectures given at Cargese Summer School and Chernogolovka Summer School in 1993. The incompressible fluid dynamics is reformulated as dynamics of closed loops C in coordinate space. We derive explicit functional equation for the pdf of the circulation PC (Γ) which allows the scaling solutions in the inertial range of spatial scales. The pdf decays as exponential of some power of Γ3/A2, where A is the minimal area inside the loop.


2018 ◽  
Vol 860 ◽  
pp. 465-486 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nimish Pujara ◽  
Greg A. Voth ◽  
Evan A. Variano

We examine the dynamics of slender, rigid rods in direct numerical simulation of isotropic turbulence. The focus is on the statistics of three quantities and how they vary as rod length increases from the dissipation range to the inertial range. These quantities are (i) the steady-state rod alignment with respect to the perceived velocity gradients in the surrounding flow, (ii) the rate of rod reorientation (tumbling) and (iii) the rate at which the rod end points move apart (stretching). Under the approximations of slender-body theory, the rod inertia is neglected and rods are modelled as passive particles in the flow that do not affect the fluid velocity field. We find that the average rod alignment changes qualitatively as rod length increases from the dissipation range to the inertial range. While rods in the dissipation range align most strongly with fluid vorticity, rods in the inertial range align most strongly with the most extensional eigenvector of the perceived strain-rate tensor. For rods in the inertial range, we find that the variance of rod stretching and the variance of rod tumbling both scale as $l^{-4/3}$, where $l$ is the rod length. However, when rod dynamics are compared to two-point fluid velocity statistics (structure functions), we see non-monotonic behaviour in the variance of rod tumbling due to the influence of small-scale fluid motions. Additionally, we find that the skewness of rod stretching does not show scale invariance in the inertial range, in contrast to the skewness of longitudinal fluid velocity increments as predicted by Kolmogorov’s $4/5$ law. Finally, we examine the power-law scaling exponents of higher-order moments of rod tumbling and rod stretching for rods with lengths in the inertial range and find that they show anomalous scaling. We compare these scaling exponents to predictions from Kolmogorov’s refined similarity hypotheses.


2018 ◽  
Vol 858 ◽  
pp. 500-535 ◽  
Author(s):  
N. O. Braun ◽  
D. I. Pullin ◽  
D. I. Meiron

High resolution large eddy simulations (LES) are performed to study the interaction of a stationary shock with fully developed turbulent flow. Turbulent statistics downstream of the interaction are provided for a range of weakly compressible upstream turbulent Mach numbers $M_{t}=0.03{-}0.18$, shock Mach numbers $M_{s}=1.2{-}3.0$ and Taylor-based Reynolds numbers $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}=20{-}2500$. The LES displays minimal Reynolds number effects once an inertial range has developed for $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}>100$. The inertial range scales of the turbulence are shown to quickly return to isotropy, and downstream of sufficiently strong shocks this process generates a net transfer of energy from transverse into streamwise velocity fluctuations. The streamwise shock displacements are shown to approximately follow a $k^{-11/3}$ decay with wavenumber as predicted by linear analysis. In conjunction with other statistics this suggests that the instantaneous interaction of the shock with the upstream turbulence proceeds in an approximately linear manner, but nonlinear effects immediately downstream of the shock significantly modify the flow even at the lowest considered turbulent Mach numbers.


2014 ◽  
Vol 59 (3) ◽  
pp. 1155-1158
Author(s):  
S.V. Fortova

Abstract For various problems of continuum mechanics described by the equations of hyperbolic type, the comparative analysis of scenarios of development of turbulent flows in shear layers is carried out. It is shown that the development of the hydrodynamic instabilities leads to a vortex cascade that corresponds to the development stage of the vortices in the energy and the inertial range during the transition to the turbulent flow stage. It is proved that for onset of turbulence the spatial problem definition is basic. At the developed stage of turbulence the spectral analysis of kinetic energy is carried out and the Kolmogorov “-5/3” power law is confirmed.


Author(s):  
G. Gogoberidze ◽  
E. Gorgaslidze

We study spectral features of Alfvénic turbulence in fast solar wind. We propose a general, instrument independent method to estimate the uncertainty in velocity fluctuations obtained by in-situ satellite observations in the solar wind. We show that when the measurement uncertainties of the velocity fluctuations are taken into account the less energetic Elsasser spectrum obeys a unique power law scaling throughout the inertial range as prevailing theories of magnetohydrodynamic turbulence predict.


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