Spectral imbalance in the inertial range dynamics of decaying rotating turbulence

P. C. Valente and V. Dallas
Phys. Rev. E 95, 023114 – Published 24 February 2017

Abstract

Direct numerical simulations of homogeneous decaying turbulence with background rotation show the existence of a systematic and significant imbalance between the non-linear energy cascade to small scales and its dissipation. By starting the decay from a statistically stationary and weakly rotating turbulent state, where the dissipation and the energy flux are approximately equal, the data show a growing imbalance between the two until a maximum is reached when the dissipation is about twice the energy flux. This dichotomy of behaviors during decay is reminiscent of the nonequilibrium and the equilibrium regions previously reported for nonrotating turbulence [Valente and Vassilicos, Phys. Rev. Lett. 108, 214503 (2012)]. Note, however, that for decaying rotating turbulence the classical scaling of the dissipation rate εu3/L (where u and L are the root mean square fluctuating velocity and the integral length scale, respectively) does not appear to hold during decay, which may be attributed to the effect of the background rotation on the energy cascade. On the other hand, the maximum energy flux holds the scaling Πmaxu3/L in the initial stage of the decay until the maximum imbalance is reached.

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  • Received 17 October 2016

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevE.95.023114

©2017 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
Fluid Dynamics

Authors & Affiliations

P. C. Valente1 and V. Dallas2

  • 1LAETA/IDMEC, Instituto Superior Tecnico, Universidade de Lisboa, Av. Rovisco Pais, 1049-001 Lisboa, Portugal
  • 2Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT, United Kingdom

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Issue

Vol. 95, Iss. 2 — February 2017

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