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Rayleigh-Taylor turbulence with singular nonuniform initial conditions

L. Biferale, G. Boffetta, A. A. Mailybaev, and A. Scagliarini
Phys. Rev. Fluids 3, 092601(R) – Published 12 September 2018

Abstract

We perform direct numerical simulations of three-dimensional Rayleigh-Taylor turbulence with a nonuniform singular initial temperature background. In such conditions, the mixing layer evolves under the driving of a varying effective Atwood number; the long-time growth is still self-similar, but no longer proportional to t2 and depends on the singularity exponent c of the initial profile ΔTzc. We show that universality is recovered when looking at the efficiency, defined as the ratio of the variation rates of the kinetic energy over the heat flux. A closure model is proposed that is able to reproduce analytically the time evolution of the mean temperature profiles, in excellent agreement with the numerical results. Finally, we reinterpret our findings in the light of spontaneous stochasticity where the growth of the mixing layer is mapped into the propagation of a wave of turbulent fluctuations on a rough background.

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  • Received 13 February 2018

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevFluids.3.092601

©2018 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Nonlinear DynamicsFluid Dynamics

Authors & Affiliations

L. Biferale1, G. Boffetta2, A. A. Mailybaev3, and A. Scagliarini4

  • 1Department of Physics and INFN, University of Rome ``Tor Vergata'', Via della Ricerca Scientifica 1, 00133 Rome, Italy
  • 2Department of Physics and INFN, University of Torino, via P. Giuria 1, 10125 Torino, Italy
  • 3Instituto Nacional de Matemática Pura e Aplicada–IMPA, 22460-320 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil
  • 4Istituto per le Applicazioni del Calcolo “M. Picone”–IAC-CNR, Via dei Taurini 19, 00185 Rome, Italy

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Issue

Vol. 3, Iss. 9 — September 2018

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