Coherent structure detection and the inverse cascade mechanism in two-dimensional Navier–Stokes turbulence

DOI10.1017/JFM.2023.313zbMATH Open1527.76026arXiv2203.11336OpenAlexW4377099109MaRDI QIDQ6043622FDOQ6043622

Authors: J. Sesterhenn, Wolf-Christian Müller 

Publication date: 23 May 2023

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

Abstract: Coherent structures in two-dimensional Navier-Stokes turbulence are ubiquitously observed in nature, experiments and numerical simulations. The present study conducts a comparison between several structure detection schemes based on the Okubo-Weiss criterion, the vorticity magnitude, and Lagrangian coherent structures (LCSs), focusing on the inverse cascade in two-dimensional hydrodynamic turbulence. A recently introduced vortex scaling phenomenology [B. H. Burgess, R. K. Scott, J. Fluid Mech., 811:742--756, 2017] allows the quantification of the respective thresholds required by these methods based on physical properties of the flow. The resulting improved comparability allows to identify characteristic relative differences in the detection sensitivity between the employed structure detection techniques. With respect to the inverse cascade of energy, coherent structures contribute, as expected, substantially less to the cross-scale flux than the residual incoherent parts of the flow although the energetically dominant coherent structures lead to an important large-scale deformation of the energy spectrum. This cascade inactivity can be understood by an increased misalignment of strain-rate and subgrid stress tensors within coherent structures. At the same time, the structures exhibit strong and localised nonlinear cross-scale interactions that appear to stabilize them. We quantify and interpret the resulting shape preservation of coherent structures in terms of a multi-scale gradient approach [G. L. Eyink, J. Fluid Mech., 549:191--214, 2006] as the depletion of strain rotation and vorticity gradient stretching while the dynamics of the residual fluctuations are consistent with the vortex thinning picture.

Full work available at URL: https://arxiv.org/abs/2203.11336

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zbMATH Keywords

pseudospectral methodOkubo-Weiss criterionmulti-scale gradient methodsecond-order trapezoidal leapfrog time integrationspectral nonlinear cross-scale energy fluxvortex scaling

Mathematics Subject Classification ID

Finite difference methods applied to problems in fluid mechanics (76M20) Navier-Stokes equations for incompressible viscous fluids (76D05) Spectral methods applied to problems in fluid mechanics (76M22) Turbulence (76F99)

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Cited In (6)

• Coherence of intense localized vorticity in decaying two-dimensional Navier–Stokes turbulence
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• Coherent structures in two-dimensional decaying turbulence
• Detection algorithm for turbulent interfaces and large-scale structures in intermittent flows
• Exact coherent structures in fully developed two-dimensional turbulence
• Velocity statistics inside coherent vortices generated by the inverse cascade of 2-D turbulence

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