Crossover in the Enstrophy Decay in Two-Dimensional Turbulence in a Finite Box

Autor: Victor Yakhot, John Wanderer
Rok vydání: 2004
Předmět:
Zdroj: Physical Review Letters. 93
ISSN: 1079-7114
0031-9007
DOI: 10.1103/physrevlett.93.154502
Popis: The numerical simulation of two-dimensional decaying turbulence in a large but finite box presented in this paper uncovered two physically different regimes of enstrophy decay. During the initial stage, the enstrophy, generated by a random Gaussian initial condition, decays as t^{-gamma} with gamma approximately 0.7-0.8. After that, the flow undergoes a transition to a gas or fluid composed of distinct vortices. Simultaneously, the magnitude of the decay exponent crosses over to gamma approximately 0.4. An exact relation for the total number of vortices, N(t), in terms of the mean circulation of an individual vortex is derived. A theory predicting that N(t) is proportional to t^{-xi} and the magnitudes of exponents gamma=2/5 and xi=4/5 is presented and the possibility of an additional very late-time cross-over to gamma=1/3 and xi=2/3 is also discussed.
Comment: 11 pages, 7 figures
Databáze: OpenAIRE