The large-scale structure of many turbulent flows encountered in practical situations such as aeronautics, industry, meteorology is nowadays successfully computed using the Kolmogorov–Kármán–Howarth energy cascade picture. This theory appears increasingly inaccurate when going down the energy cascade that terminates through intermittent spots of energy dissipation, at variance with the assumed homogeneity. This is problematic for the modelling of all processes that depend on small scales of turbulence, such as combustion instabilities or droplet atomization in industrial burners or cloud formation. This paper explores a paradigm shift where the homogeneity hypothesis is replaced by the assumption that turbulence contains singularities, as suggested by Onsager. This paradigm leads to a weak formulation of the Kolmogorov–Kármán–Howarth–Monin equation (WKHE) that allows taking into account explicitly the presence of singularities and their impact on the energy transfer and dissipation. It provides a local in scale, space and time description of energy transfers and dissipation, valid for any inhomogeneous, anisotropic flow, under any type of boundary conditions. The goal of this article is to discuss WKHE as a tool to get a new description of energy cascades and dissipation that goes beyond Kolmogorov and allows the description of small-scale intermittency. It puts the problem of intermittency and dissipation in turbulence into a modern framework, compatible with recent mathematical advances on the proof of Onsager’s conjecture.

In Part 1 of this work, we have derived a dynamical system describing the approach to a finite-time singularity of the Navier–Stokes equations. We now supplement this system with an equation describing the process of vortex reconnection at the apex of a pyramid, neglecting core deformation during the reconnection process. On this basis, we compute the maximum vorticity $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{max}$ as a function of vortex Reynolds number $R_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}$ in the range $2000\leqslant R_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}\leqslant 3400$, and deduce a compatible behaviour $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{max}\sim \unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{0}\exp [1+220(\log [R_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}/2000])^{2}]$ as $R_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}\rightarrow \infty$. This may be described as a physical (although not strictly mathematical) singularity, for all $R_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}\gtrsim 4000$.

All previous experiments in open turbulent flows (e.g. downstream of grids, jets and the atmospheric boundary layer) have produced quantitatively consistent values for the scaling exponents of velocity structure functions (Anselmet et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 140, 1984, pp. 63–89; Stolovitzky et al., Phys. Rev. E, vol. 48 (5), 1993, R3217; Arneodo et al., Europhys. Lett., vol. 34 (6), 1996, p. 411). The only measurement of scaling exponents at high order (${>}6$) in closed turbulent flow (von Kármán swirling flow) using Taylor’s frozen flow hypothesis, however, produced scaling exponents that are significantly smaller, suggesting that the universality of these exponents is broken with respect to change of large scale geometry of the flow. Here, we report measurements of longitudinal structure functions of velocity in a von Kármán set-up without the use of the Taylor hypothesis. The measurements are made using stereo particle image velocimetry at four different ranges of spatial scales, in order to observe a combined inertial subrange spanning approximately one and a half orders of magnitude. We found scaling exponents (up to ninth order) that are consistent with values from open turbulent flows, suggesting that they might be in fact universal.

The evolution towards a finite-time singularity of the Navier–Stokes equations for flow of an incompressible fluid of kinematic viscosity $\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}$ is studied, starting from a finite-energy configuration of two vortex rings of circulation $\pm \unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}$ and radius $R$, symmetrically placed on two planes at angles $\pm \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ to a plane of symmetry $x=0$. The minimum separation of the vortices, $2s$, and the scale of the core cross-section, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$, are supposed to satisfy the initial inequalities $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}\ll s\ll R$, and the vortex Reynolds number $R_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}}=\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}$ is supposed very large. It is argued that in the subsequent evolution, the behaviour near the points of closest approach of the vortices (the ‘tipping points’) is determined solely by the curvature $\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F})$ at the tipping points and by $s(\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F})$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F})$, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}/R^{2})t$ is a dimensionless time variable. The Biot–Savart law is used to obtain analytical expressions for the rate of change of these three variables, and a nonlinear dynamical system relating them is thereby obtained. The solution shows a finite-time singularity, but the Biot–Savart law breaks down just before this singularity is realised, when $\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}s$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}/\!s$ become of order unity. The dynamical system admits ‘partial Leray scaling’ of just $s$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}$, and ultimately full Leray scaling of $s,\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$, conditions for which are obtained. The tipping point trajectories are determined; these meet at the singularity point at a finite angle. An alternative model is briefly considered, in which the initial vortices are ovoidal in shape, approximately hyperbolic near the tipping points, for which there is no restriction on the initial value of the parameter $\unicode[STIX]{x1D705}$; however, it is still the circles of curvature at the tipping points that determine the local evolution, so the same dynamical system is obtained, with breakdown again of the Biot–Savart approach just before the incipient singularity is realised. The Euler flow situation ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}=0$) is considered, and it is conjectured on the basis of the above dynamical system that a finite-time singularity can indeed occur in this case.