Minimal seeds for shear flow turbulence: using nonlinear transient growth to touch the edge of chaos

DOI10.1017/JFM.2012.192zbMATH Open1248.76075arXiv1109.2459OpenAlexW2118984972MaRDI QIDQ2907201FDOQ2907201

Rich R. Kerswell, Chris C. T. Pringle, Ashley P. Willis

Publication date: 7 September 2012

Published in: Journal of Fluid Mechanics (Search for Journal in Brave)

Abstract: We propose a general strategy for determining the minimal finite amplitude isturbance to trigger transition to turbulence in shear flows. This involves constructing a variational problem that searches over all disturbances of fixed initial amplitude, which respect the boundary conditions, incompressibility and the Navier--Stokes equations, to maximise a chosen functional over an asymptotically long time period. The functional must be selected such that it identifies turbulent velocity fields by taking significantly enhanced values compared to those for laminar fields. We illustrate this approach using the ratio of the final to initial perturbation kinetic energies (energy growth) as the functional and the energy norm to measure amplitudes in the context of pipe flow. Our results indicate that the variational problem yields a smooth converged solution providing the amplitude is below the threshold amplitude for transition. This optimal is the nonlinear analogue of the well-studied (linear) transient growth optimal. At and above this threshold, the optimising search naturally seeks out disturbances that trigger turbulence by the end of the period, and convergence is then practically impossible. The first disturbance found to trigger turbulence as the amplitude is increased identifies the `minimal seed' for the given geometry and forcing (Reynolds number). We conjecture that it may be possible to select a functional such that the converged optimal below threshold smoothly converges to the minimal seed at threshold. This seems at least approximately true for our choice of energy growth functional and the pipe flow geometry chosen here.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/1109.2459

Recommendations

• Triggering turbulence efficiently in plane Couette flow
• The minimal seed of turbulent transition in the boundary layer
• Fully localised nonlinear energy growth optimals in pipe flow
• Nonlinear optimal perturbations in a Couette flow: bursting and transition
• Minimal energy thresholds for sustained turbulent bands in channel flow

zbMATH Keywords

nonlinear dynamical systemsnonlinear instabilityturbulent transition

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Nonlinear effects in hydrodynamic stability (76E30) Transition to turbulence (76F06) Shear flows and turbulence (76F10)

Cites Work

• Hydrodynamic Stability Without Eigenvalues
• Localized edge states nucleate turbulence in extended plane Couette cells
• Energy growth in viscous channel flows
• Optimal disturbances and bypass transition in boundary layers
• Optimal perturbations for boundary layers subject to stream-wise pressure gradient
• Turbulent dynamics of pipe flow captured in a reduced model: puff relaminarization and localized ‘edge’ states
• Optimal excitation of three-dimensional perturbations in viscous constant shear flow
• Reynolds-number-independent instability of the boundary layer over a flat surface: optimal perturbations
• Optimal energy density growth in Hagen–Poiseuille flow
• Linearized pipe flow to Reynolds number \(10^7\).
• On stability of streamwise streaks and transition thresholds in plane channel flows
• Finite-amplitude thresholds for transition in pipe flow
• Transition in pipe flow: the saddle structure on the boundary of turbulence
• Highly symmetric travelling waves in pipe flow
• The minimal seed of turbulent transition in the boundary layer
• Energy growth of three-dimensional disturbances in plane Poiseuille flow
• Recurrence of travelling waves in transitional pipe flow
• Stable manifolds and the transition to turbulence in pipe flow
• Algebraic growth in a Blasius boundary layer: optimal and robust control by mean suction in the nonlinear regime
• Görtler vortices: a backward-in-time approach to the receptivity problem
• Slug genesis in cylindrical pipe flow
• Edge states intermediate between laminar and turbulent dynamics in pipe flow

Cited In (43)

• Sparsifying the resolvent forcing mode via gradient-based optimisation
• Restricted optimal paths to transition in a plane Couette flow
• Self-limiting and regenerative dynamics of perturbation growth on a vortex column
• Transition to turbulence when the Tollmien–Schlichting and bypass routes coexist
• Linear feedback control of invariant solutions in channel flow
• Non-modal instability of annular Poiseuille-Couette flow
• A variational framework for computing nonlinear optimal disturbances in compressible flows
• Nonlinear input/output analysis: application to boundary layer transition
• Early evolution of optimal perturbations in a viscosity-stratified channel
• Optimal control of a transitional jet using a continuous adjoint method
• Stabilisation and drag reduction of pipe flows by flattening the base profile
• Direct numerical simulation of homogeneous shear turbulence subject to a shear periodic boundary with the lattice Boltzmann method
• Structured input–output analysis of transitional wall-bounded flows
• Optimal dynamo action by steady flows confined to a cube
• Optimal unstirred state of a passive scalar
• Subcritical transitional flow in two-dimensional plane Poiseuille flow
• Stably stratified exact coherent structures in shear flow: the effect of Prandtl number
• Nonlinear optimal perturbations in a Couette flow: bursting and transition
• Exact coherent structures in stably stratified plane Couette flow
• Nonlinear optimal large-scale structures in turbulent channel flow
• The minimal seed for transition to convective turbulence in heated pipe flow
• Optimal bursts in turbulent channel flow
• A trio of simple optimized axisymmetric kinematic dynamos in a sphere
• Flow modulation by a few fixed spherical particles in a turbulent channel flow
• Nonlinear evolution of vortical disturbances entrained in the entrance region of a circular pipe
• On the transition to turbulence of wall-bounded flows in general, and plane Couette flow in particular
• Fully localised nonlinear energy growth optimals in pipe flow
• Beyond optimal disturbances: a statistical framework for transient growth
• Subcritical transition to turbulence in quasi-two-dimensional shear flows
• Linear and nonlinear optimal growth mechanisms for generating turbulent bands
• Brachistochronous motion of a flat plate parallel to its surface immersed in a fluid
• Optimizing the control of transition to turbulence using a Bayesian method
• Direct numerical simulation of turbulent pipe flow using the lattice Boltzmann method
• Modelling for robust feedback control of fluid flows
• A probabilistic protocol for the assessment of transition and control
• The optimal kinematic dynamo driven by steady flows in a sphere
• Transient growth and minimal defects: Two possible initial paths of transition to turbulence in plane shear flows
• Homoclinic bifurcation and switching of edge state in plane Couette flow
• Nonlinear control of unsteady finite-amplitude perturbations in the Blasius boundary-layer flow
• Minimal energy thresholds for sustained turbulent bands in channel flow
• Mixed baroclinic convection in a cavity
• Optimal mixing in three-dimensional plane Poiseuille flow at high Péclet number
• Designing a minimal baffle to destabilise turbulence in pipe flows

This page was built for publication: Minimal seeds for shear flow turbulence: using nonlinear transient growth to touch the edge of chaos

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q2907201)