Spectral, diffusive and convective properties of fractal and spiral fields (Q1809415)

The authors study the evolution of one-dimensional pulse fields under the effects of diffusion or a combined action of convection and diffusion. In particular, the interest is focused on the decay of energy spectrum, in dependence on the Kolmogorov capacity and on geometric properties of the pulse field. A pulse field is constituted by a finite number of pulses. In the paper two kind of fields are investigated, fractal and spiral fields, with emphasis put on the distribution of pulses. Moreover, the field can be non-alternating (all the pulses have the same sign) or alternating (consecutive pulses have opposite sign). The first part of the paper is devoted to the study of energy spectrum of pulse fields. The spectrum is generally flat, only in a small wavenumber interval the spectrum presents some variations. This interval depends on some characteristic lengths, a microscopic and a macroscopic length, and its width can be different if the field is fractal or spiral, alternating or non alternating. For example, the energy spectrum scales in the significative interval as \(k^D\) for alternating field, while it scales as \(k^{-D}\) for fractal non-alternating field (\(k\) is wavenumber, and \(D\) is Kolmogorov capacity). The energy spectrum depends on the geometry of the field and on the homogeneity of the structure. In the second part of the paper, the authors investigate the decay under the effects of linear diffusion. There are some significant differences in the energy decay in dependence on the geometric position of the pulses. An alternating pulse field accelerates the diffusion; consequently, the more space is filled with pulses the faster energy decays. In the non-alternating case the authors observe the opposite phenomenon: the decay is slower since energy is trapped where pulses are denser. The last part of the paper is devoted to the study of energy decay of pulse fields under the effects of diffusion and convection (the convective term is described by Burgers equation). When Reynolds number is small, diffusion dominates over viscosity, and the energy decay is the one already observed in the diffusion case. When Reynolds number is high, there is a formation of shock waves, and the energy decay is strongly influenced by the collision rate of the shocks. When the field is fractal and non-alternating, the pulses merge, and one observes many shocks where pulses are denser; the energy decay is slower. When the field is spiral and non-alternating, there is an emergence of the single large shock where pulses concentrate, and again the energy decay is slower. It is interesting to note that the same retard in the energy decay happens for spiral and fractal fields, but this retard occurs for different reasons.