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Intermittency effects in a numerical simulation of stationary three-dimensional turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 April 2006

Eric D. Siggia
Affiliation:
Department of Physics, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado 80307 Present address: Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853.
G. S. Patterson
Affiliation:
National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado 80307

Abstract

A Navier-Stokes direct spectral simulation code was modified to produce stationary and nearly isotropic turbulence in three dimensions. An approximate $-\frac{5}{3}$ energy spectrum was maintained over the entire range of wavenumbers by simultaneously driving the fluid and supplementing the ordinary viscosity with a subgrid-like energy sink in the last 15% of the spectrum. Half-tone and contour plots of the fluctuations in the vorticity, rate-of-strain tensor and helicity show increasing ‘spottiness’ as the system evolves in time. Probability distributions and cross-correlations among these three quantities were also obtained. The flatness factor of the longitudinal velocity derivative, the longitudinal structure functions and the fluctuations in the locally averaged dissipation rate are consistent with some degree of intermittency, but do not unambiguously demonstrate its presence in the simulated flows.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1978 Cambridge University Press

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