Growth dynamics of turbulent spots in plane Couette flow
Abstract
We experimentally and numerically investigate the temporal aspects of turbulent spots spreading in a plane Couette flow for transitional Reynolds numbers between 300 and 450. Spot growth rate, spot advection rate and large-scale flow intensity are measured as a function of time and Reynolds number. All these quantities show similar dynamics clarifying the role played by large-scale flows in the advection of the turbulent spot. The contributions of each possible growth mechanism: growth induced by large scale advection or growth by destabilization, are discussed for the different stages of the spot growth. A scenario which gathers all these elements is providing a better understanding of the growth dynamics of turbulent spots in plane Couette flow that should possibly apply to other extended shear flows.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1702.02832,
title = {Growth dynamics of turbulent spots in plane Couette flow},
author = {Marie Couliou and Romain Monchaux},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1702.02832},
year = {2017}
}