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Energy spectrum in the dissipation range

Sualeh Khurshid, Diego A. Donzis, and K. R. Sreenivasan
Phys. Rev. Fluids 3, 082601(R) – Published 8 August 2018

Abstract

We study the dissipation range of the turbulent energy spectrum in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence via highly resolved direct numerical simulations for microscale Reynolds numbers Rλ between 1 and 100. The simulations resolve scales as small as a tenth of the Kolmogorov scale. We find that the spectrum in this range is essentially exponential for Rλ up to about 20, but assumes a more complex form for higher Rλ. This shape can be regarded roughly as a superposition of two exponentials where the second exponential, which becomes stronger with increasing Rλ, appears to be the result of intermittent interactions with the lower wave-number part of the spectrum; it disappears when these interactive parts are filtered out before computing the spectrum, essentially recovering the initial exponential shape. The multifractal theory accounts for better collapse in a limited range of wave numbers up to Reynolds numbers of 1000 observed with additional simulations at lower resolutions.

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  • Received 15 June 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.3.082601

©2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

  1. Research Areas
Fluid Dynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Sualeh Khurshid and Diego A. Donzis*

  • Department of Aerospace Engineering, Texas A&M University, College Station, Texas 77843, USA

K. R. Sreenivasan

  • Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Department of Physics, and Courant Institute of Mathematical Sciences, New York University, New York, New York 10012, USA

  • *donzis@tamu.edu

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Vol. 3, Iss. 8 — August 2018

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