Interscale Turbulent Energy Transfers

Abstract

The Turbulent energy transfers are studied concurrently in physical and scale spaces in terms of the fully generalised Karman-Howarth equation which is valid without any restriction as it is just a two-point reformulation of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations. Direct Numerical Simulations of two turbulent flows are considered: triply periodic turbulence, which serves to demonstrate significant correlations between different fluctuating transfer processes, and the planar turbulent near wake where a balance between interscale transfer rate and turbulence dissipation exists which has nothing to do with its Kolmogorov counterpart for homogeneous stationary turbulence and a lot to do with inhomogeneity and the presence of coherent structures.

J. CHRISTOS VASSILICOS

CNRS Director of Research, Laboratoire de Mecanique des Fluides de Lille, France