Related papers: Three-Dimensional Shear-Flow Instability Saturatio…
We analyze the energy flux in compressible turbulence by generalizing the exact decomposition recently proposed by Johnson (Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 124, 2020. 104501) to study incompressible turbulent flows. This allows us to characterize…
Turbulent flows are observed in low-Reynolds active fluids. They are intrinsically different from the classical inertial turbulence and behave distinctively in two- and three-dimensions. Understanding the behaviors of this new type of…
Turbulence is characterized by the non-linear cascades of energy and other inviscid invariants across a huge range of scales, from where they are injected to where they are dissipated. Recently, new experimental, numerical and theoretical…
We study the saturation of three-dimensional unstable perturbations on a fast rotating turbulent flow using direct numerical simulations (DNSs). Under the effect of Kolmogorov forcing, a transition between states dominated by coherent…
Symmetry-based analyses of multiscale velocity gradients highlight that strain self-amplification (SS) and vortex stretching (VS) drive forward energy transfer in turbulent flows. By contrast, a strain-vorticity covariance mechanism…
The transport equations for velocity variances are investigated using data from DNS of incompressible channel flows at $Re_\tau$ up to 5200. Each term in the transport equation has been spectrally decomposed to expose the contribution of…
We use high resolution direct numerical simulations to study the anisotropic contents of a turbulent, statistically homogeneous flow with random transitions among multiple energy containing states. We decompose the velocity correlation…
In the standard cascade picture of 3D turbulent fluid flows, energy is input at a constant rate at large scales. Energy is then transferred to smaller scales by an intermittent process that has been the focus of a vast literature. However,…
The vortices that appear repeatedly and suggest turbulent dynamics are crucial to the understanding of sheared turbulence. These vortices produce order out of chaos, benefiting the turbulence modelling that focuses only on statistically…
The dynamics of small-scale structures in free-surface turbulence is crucial to large-scale phenomena in natural and industrial environments. Here we conduct experiments on the quasi-flat free surface of a zero-mean-flow turbulent water…
In this paper, we find a new large scale instability displayed by a rotating flow in forced turbulence. The turbulence is generated by a small scale external force at low Reynolds number. The theory is built on the rigorous asymptotic…
Several simulations of turbulence in the Large Plasma Device (LAPD) [W. Gekelman et al., Rev. Sci. Inst. 62, 2875 (1991)] are energetically analyzed and compared with each other and with the experiment. The simulations use the same model,…
Starting from the assumption that saturation of plasma turbulence driven by temperature-gradient instabilities in fusion plasmas is achieved by a local energy cascade between a long-wavelength outer scale, where energy is injected into the…
By extracting unstable invariant solutions directly from body-forced three-dimensional turbulence, we study the dynamical processes at play when the forcing is large scale and either unidirectional in the momentum or the vorticity…
With the aim of assessing internal wave-driven mixing in the ocean, we develop a new technique for direct numerical simulations of stratified turbulence. Since the spatial scale of oceanic internal gravity waves is typically much larger…
We study the experimental properties of exchange flows in a stratified inclined duct (SID), which are simultaneously turbulent, strongly stratified by a mean vertical density gradient, driven by a mean vertical shear, and continuously…
We study structure formation in two-dimensional turbulence driven by an external force, interpolating between linear instability forcing and random stirring, subject to nonlinear damping. Using extensive direct numerical simulations, we…
The transition to turbulence in conduits is among the longest-standing problems in fluid mechanics. Challenges in producing or saving energy hinge on understanding promotion or suppression of turbulence. While a global picture based on an…
A new universal theory for flow instability and turbulent transition is proposed in this study. Flow instability and turbulence transition have been challenging subjects for fluid dynamics for a century. The critical condition of turbulent…
Energy dissipation in collisionless plasmas is a longstanding fundamental physics problem. Although it is well known that magnetic reconnection and turbulence are coupled and transport energy from system-size scales to sub-proton scales,…