English

A statistical mechanics framework for the large-scale structure of turbulent von K{\'a}rm{\'a}n flows

Fluid Dynamics 2015-02-09 v2 Statistical Mechanics

Abstract

In the present paper, recent experimental results on large scale coherent steady states observed in experimental von K{\'a}rm{\'a}n flows are revisited from a statistical mechanics perspective. The latter is rooted on two levels of description. We first argue that the coherent steady states may be described as the equilibrium states of well-chosen lattice models, that can be used to define global properties of von K{\'a}rm{\'a}n flows, such as their temperatures. The equilibrium description is then enlarged, in order to reinterpret a series of results about the stability of those steady states, their susceptibility to symmetry breaking, in the light of a deep analogy with the statistical theory of Ferromagnetism. We call this analogy "Ferro-Turbulence"

Keywords

Cite

@article{arxiv.1501.01182,
  title  = {A statistical mechanics framework for the large-scale structure of turbulent von K{\'a}rm{\'a}n flows},
  author = {Simon Thalabard and Brice Saint-Michel and Éric Herbert and François Daviaud and Bérengère Dubrulle},
  journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1501.01182},
  year   = {2015}
}