Cancellation exponents in helical and non-helical flows

DOI10.1017/S0022112010000819MaRDI QIDQ3573328zbMATH OpenOpenAlexWikidataFDO

Authors P. Rodriguez Imazio, P. D. Mininni

Publication date 30 June 2010

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

Full work available at URL https://arxiv.org/abs/0908.1579

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Turbulence (76F99)

Abstract: Helicity is a quadratic invariant of the Euler equation in three dimensions. As the energy, when present helicity cascades to smaller scales where it dissipates. However, the role played by helicity in the energy cascade is still unclear. In non-helical flows, the velocity and the vorticity tend to align locally creating patches with opposite signs of helicity. Also in helical flows helicity changes sign rapidly in space. Not being a positive definite quantity, global studies considering its spectral scaling in the inertial range are inconclusive, except for cases where one sign of helicity is dominant. We use the cancellation exponent to characterize the scaling laws followed by helicity fluctuations in numerical simulations of helical and non-helical turbulent flows, with different forcing functions and spanning a range of Reynolds numbers from approximately 670 to 6200. The exponent is a measure of sign-singularity and can be related to the fractal dimension as well as to the first order helicity scaling exponent. The results are consistent with the geometry of helical structures being filamentary. Further analysis indicates that statistical properties of helicity fluctuations do not depend on the global helicity of the flow.

Recommendations

• Statistics of helicity fluctuations in homogeneous turbulence
• Spectral properties of helical turbulence
• Split energy-helicity cascades in three-dimensional homogeneous and isotropic turbulence
• Helicity within the Kolmogorov phenomenology of turbulence
• Physical space properties of helicity in quasi-homogeneous forced turbulence

Cites work

• Helicity in the formation of turbulence
• Magnetostatic equilibria and analogous Euler flows of arbitrarily complex topology. Part 1. Fundamentals
• Onsager and the theory of hydrodynamic turbulence
• Strong MHD helical turbulence and the nonlinear dynamo effect
• The degree of knottedness of tangled vortex lines
• The joint cascade of energy and helicity in three-dimensional turbulence
• The reflection-antisymmetric counterpart of the Kármán-Howarth dynamical equation
• Turbulent Flows

Cited in

(3)

• On helical multiscale characterization of homogeneous turbulence
• Scale-similar structures of homogeneous isotropic non-mirror-symmetric turbulence based on the Lagrangian closure theory
• Statistics of helicity fluctuations in homogeneous turbulence

This page was built for publication: Cancellation exponents in helical and non-helical flows

Report a bug (only for logged in users!)Click here to report a bug for this page (MaRDI item Q3573328)