Constant Flux States in Anisotropic Turbulence

An elementary closure theory is used to compute the scaling of anisotropic contributions to the correlation function in homogeneous turbulence. These contributions prove to decay with wavenumber more rapidly than the energy spectrum; this property is sometimes called the “recovery of isotropy” at small scales and is a key hypothesis of the Kolmogorov theory. Although comparisons with a more comprehensive theory suggest that the present theory is too crude, its elementary character makes the scaling analysis straightforward. The analysis reveals some characteristic features of anisotropic turbulence, including “angular” energy transfer in wavevector space.