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Title: Reynolds number dependence of isotropic Navier-Stokes turbulence

Journal Article · · Physical Review Letters; (United States)
; ; ; ;  [1]
  1. Center for Nonlinear Studies and Theoretical Division, Los Alamos National Laboratory, Los Alamos, New Mexico 87545 (United States) Department of Mathematics, University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona 85721 (United States) 369 Montezuma No. 108, Santa Fe (New Mexico, US) Applied and Computational Mathematics, Princeton University, Princeton, New Jersey 08544 (United States)

Reynolds number dependence of turbulence energy spectra and higher-order moments of velocity differences is explored by means of numerical integrations of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equation. The simulations have spatial resolutions up to 512[sup 3] and cover the range 15[le][ital R][sub [lambda]][le]200, where [ital R][sub [lambda]] is the Taylor microscale Reynolds number. Over this range, the energy spectra collapse when scaled by the wave number [ital k][sub [ital p]] of peak dissipation and also by the spectrum level at [ital k][sub [ital p]]. It is found that [ital k][sub [ital p]] varies with [ital R][sub [lambda]] in accord with the 1941 Kolmogorov theory. High-order normalized moments of velocity differences over inertial-range distances exhibit an [ital R][sub [lambda]]-independent variation with separation distance. Implications of these observations are discussed.

DOE Contract Number:
FG03-90ER14118
OSTI ID:
6570005
Journal Information:
Physical Review Letters; (United States), Vol. 70:21; ISSN 0031-9007
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English