On the mechanism of elasto-inertial turbulence
Abstract
Elasto-inertial turbulence is a new state of turbulence found in flows with polymer additives . The dynamics of turbulence generated and controlled by such additives is investigated from the perspective of the coupling between polymer dynamics and flow structures. Direct numerical simulations of channel flow with Reynolds numbers ranging from 1000 to 6000 (based on the bulk and the channel height) are used to study the formation and dynamics of elastic instabilities and their effects on the flow. The resulting mechanism of interactions between polymer dynamics and the flow helps resolve a long-standing controversy in the understanding of polymer drag reduction and explains the phenomenon of early turbulence, or onset of turbulence at lower Reynolds numbers than for Newtonian flows, previously observed in polymeric flows. Polymers also point out an interesting analogy with the forward and backward energy cascade in two-dimensional turbulence.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.1301.3952,
title = {On the mechanism of elasto-inertial turbulence},
author = {Yves Dubief and Vincent E. Terrapon and Julio Soria},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:1301.3952},
year = {2015}
}
Comments
Submitted to Physics of Fluids. In honor of Parviz Moin 60th Birthday