Turbulence Statistics in a Two-Dimensional Vortex Condensate

Phase transitions in anisotropic turbulence

Turbulence is a widely observed state of fluid flows, characterized by complex, nonlinear interactions between motions across a broad spectrum of length and time scales. While turbulence is ubiquitous, from teacups to planetary atmospheres, oceans, and stars, its manifestations can vary considerably between different physical systems. For instance, three-dimensional turbulent flows display a forward energy cascade from large to small scales, while in two-dimensional turbulence, energy cascades from small to large scales. In a given physical system, a transition between such disparate regimes of turbulence can occur when a control parameter reaches a critical value. The behavior of flows close to such transition points, which separate qualitatively distinct phases of turbulence, has been found to be unexpectedly rich. Here, we survey recent findings on such transitions in highly anisotropic turbulent fluid flows, including turbulence in thin layers and under the influence of rapid rotation. We also review recent work on transitions induced by turbulent fluctuations, such as random reversals and transitions between large-scale vortices and jets, among others. The relevance of these results and their ramifications for future investigations are discussed.

α effect in three-dimensional vortex of conducting rotating liquid

We study one-point statistics of helical turbulent pulsations in the background of a three-dimensional large-scale vortex in a rotating fluid. Assuming that the helical flow is created by a statistically axially symmetric random force with broken mirror symmetry, we analytically calculate the velocity-vorticity mean including its magnitude and the anisotropy. For electrically conducting liquid, we examine the α-effect in the system. The found elements of the α-matrix strongly depend on the relation between Rossby Ro and magnetic Prandtl Pr_{m} numbers in the considered region Ro≪1, Pr_{m}≪1. We establish a criterion for the numbers when the α-effect leads to instability of large-scale magnetic field.

Correlations in a weakly interacting two-dimensional random flow

We analytically examine fluctuations of vorticity excited by an external random force in two-dimensional fluid. We develop the perturbation theory enabling one to calculate nonlinear corrections to correlation functions of the flow fluctuations found in the linear approximation. We calculate the correction to the pair correlation function and the triple correlation function. It enables us to establish the criterion of validity of the perturbation theory for different ratios of viscosity and bottom friction. We find that the corrections to the second moment are anomalously weak in the cases of small bottom friction and small viscosity and relate the weakness to the energy and enstrophy balances. We demonstrate that at small bottom friction the triple correlation function is characterized by universal scaling behavior in some region of lengths. The developed perturbation method was verified and confirmed by direct numerical simulations.

Statistics of inhomogeneous turbulence in large-scale quasigeostrophic dynamics

A remarkable feature of two-dimensional turbulence is the transfer of energy from small to large scales. This process can result in the self-organization of the flow into large, coherent structures due to energy condensation at the largest scales. We investigate the formation of this condensate in a quasigeostropic flow in the limit of small Rossby deformation radius, namely the large-scale quasigeostrophic model. In this model potential energy is transferred up-scale while kinetic energy is transferred down-scale in a direct cascade. We focus on a jet mean flow and carry out a thorough investigation of the second-order statistics for this flow, combining a quasilinear analytical approach with direct numerical simulations. We show that the quasilinear approach applies in regions where jets are strong and is able to capture all second-order correlators in that region, including those related to the kinetic energy. This is a consequence of the blocking of the direct cascade by the mean flow in jet regions, suppressing fluctuation-fluctuation interactions. The suppression of the direct cascade is demonstrated using a local coarse-graining approach allowing us to measure space dependent interscale kinetic energy fluxes, which we show are concentrated in between jets in our simulations. We comment on the possibility of a similar direct cascade arrest in other two-dimensional flows, arguing that it is a special feature of flows in which the fluid element interactions are local in space.

Two-Dimensional Turbulence with Local Interactions: Statistics of the Condensate

Two-dimensional turbulence self-organizes through a process of energy accumulation at large scales, forming a coherent flow termed a condensate. We study the condensate in a model with local dynamics, the large-scale quasigeostrophic equation, observed here for the first time. We obtain analytical results for the mean flow and the two-point, second-order correlation functions, and validate them numerically. The condensate state requires partiy+time-reversal symmetry breaking. We demonstrate distinct universal mechanisms for the even and odd correlators under this symmetry. We find that the model locality is imprinted in the small scale dynamics, which the condensate spatially confines.

Irreversible energy extraction from negative-temperature two-dimensional turbulence

The formation and transition of patterns of two-dimensional turbulent flows observed in various geophysical systems are commonly explained in terms of statistical mechanics. Different from ordinary systems, for a two-dimensional flow, the absolute temperature defined for a statistical equilibrium can take negative values. In a state of negative temperature, the second law of thermodynamics predicts that energy in microscopic fluctuations is irreversibly converted to a macroscopic form. This study explores the possibility of this one-way energy conversion in a two-dimensional flow using a basic conceptual model. We consider an inviscid incompressible fluid contained in a bounded domain, the shape of which is distorted by an externally imposed force. Unlike the usual fixed boundary cases, the flow energy within the domain is exchanged with the external system via pressure work through the moving lateral boundary. Concurrently, the flow field remains constrained by vorticity conservation. Beginning from a state of Kraichnan's grand-canonical ensemble, when the domain shape is distorted from one shape to another in a finite time, the Jarzynski equality is established. This equality states that, on average, the direction of a net energy flow through the boundary during a cycle of domain distortion changes with the sign of the initial temperature of the system. Numerical experiments are carried out to verify this theoretical argument and to investigate the parameter dependence of the energy exchange rate.

Profile of a two-dimensional vortex condensate beyond the universal limit

It is well known that an inverse turbulent cascade in a finite (2π×2π) two-dimensional periodic domain leads to the emergence of a system-sized coherent vortex dipole. We report a numerical hyperviscous study of the spatial vorticity profile inside one of the vortices. The exciting force was shortly correlated in time, random in space, and had a correlation length l_{f}=2π/k_{f} with k_{f} ranging from 100 to 12.5. Previously, it was found that in the asymptotic limit of small-scale forcing, the vorticity exhibits the power-law behavior Ω(r)=(3ε/α)^{1/2}r^{-1}, where r is the distance to the vortex center, α is the bottom friction coefficient, and ε is the inverse energy flux. Now we show that for a spatially homogeneous forcing with finite k_{f} the vorticity profile becomes steeper, with the difference increasing with the pumping scale but decreasing with the Reynolds number at the forcing scale. Qualitatively, this behavior is related to a decrease in the effective pumping of the coherent vortex with distance from its center. To support this statement, we perform an additional simulation with spatially localized forcing, in which the effective pumping of the coherent vortex, on the contrary, increases with r, and show that in this case the vorticity profile can be flatter than the asymptotic limit.

Objective Observer-Relative Flow Visualization in Curved Spaces for Unsteady 2D Geophysical Flows

Computing and visualizing features in fluid flow often depends on the observer, or reference frame, relative to which the input velocity field is given. A desired property of feature detectors is therefore that they are objective, meaning independent of the input reference frame. However, the standard definition of objectivity is only given for Euclidean domains and cannot be applied in curved spaces. We build on methods from mathematical physics and Riemannian geometry to generalize objectivity to curved spaces, using the powerful notion of symmetry groups as the basis for definition. From this, we develop a general mathematical framework for the objective computation of observer fields for curved spaces, relative to which other computed measures become objective. An important property of our framework is that it works intrinsically in 2D, instead of in the 3D ambient space. This enables a direct generalization of the 2D computation via optimization of observer fields in flat space to curved domains, without having to perform optimization in 3D. We specifically develop the case of unsteady 2D geophysical flows given on spheres, such as the Earth. Our observer fields in curved spaces then enable objective feature computation as well as the visualization of the time evolution of scalar and vector fields, such that the automatically computed reference frames follow moving structures like vortices in a way that makes them appear to be steady.

Competition between Ekman Plumes and Vortex Condensates in Rapidly Rotating Thermal Convection

We perform direct numerical simulations of rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection (RRBC) of fluids with low (Pr=0.1) and high (Pr≈5) Prandtl numbers in a horizontally periodic layer with no-slip bottom and top boundaries. No-slip boundaries are known to actively promote the formation of plumelike vertical disturbances, through so-called Ekman pumping, that control the ambient flow at sufficiently high rotation rates. At both Prandtl numbers, we demonstrate the presence of competing large-scale vortices (LSVs) in the bulk. Strong buoyant forcing and rotation foster the quasi-two-dimensional turbulent state of the flow that leads to the upscale transfer of kinetic energy that forms the domain-filling LSV condensate. The Ekman plumes from the boundary layers are sheared apart by the large-scale flow, yet we find that their energy feeds the upscale transfer. Our results of RRBC simulations substantiate the emergence of large-scale flows in nature regardless of the specific details of the boundary conditions.

From turbulence to landscapes: Logarithmic mean profiles in bounded complex systems

We show that similarly to the logarithmic mean-velocity profile in wall-bounded turbulence, the landscape topography presents an intermediate region with a logarithmic mean-elevation profile. Such profiles are present in complex topographies with channel branching and fractal river networks resulting from model simulation, controlled laboratory experiments, and natural landscapes. Dimensional and self-similarity arguments are used to corroborate this finding. We also tested the presence of logarithmic profiles in discrete, minimalist models of networks obtained from optimality principles (optimal channel networks) and directed percolation. The emergence of self-similar scaling appears as a robust outcome in dynamically different, but spatially bounded, complex systems, as a dimensional consequence of length-scale independence.

Coherent vortex in two-dimensional turbulence: Interplay of viscosity and bottom friction

We examine coherent vortices appearing as a result of the inverse cascade of two-dimensional turbulence in a finite box in the case of pumping with arbitrary correlation time in the quasilinear regime. We demonstrate that the existence of the vortices depends on the ratio between the values of the bottom friction coefficient α and the viscous damping of the flow fluctuations at the pumping scale νk_{f}^{2} (ν is the kinematic viscosity coefficient and k_{f} is the characteristic wave vector at the pumping scale). The coherent vortices appear if νk_{f}^{2}≫α and cannot exist if νk_{f}^{2}≪α. Therefore there is a border value α∼νk_{f}^{2} separating the regions. In numerical simulations, νk_{f}^{2}/α can be arbitrary, whereas in a laboratory experiment νk_{f}^{2}/α≲1 and the coherent vortices can be observed solely near the border value of νk_{f}^{2}/α.

Universal moments of accelerations in two-dimensional turbulence

We consider two-dimensional turbulence in the presence of a condensate. The nondiagonal correlation functions of the Lagrangian accelerations are calculated, and it is shown that they have the same universality properties as the nondiagonal correlation functions of the velocity fluctuations.

Coupling Large Eddies and Waves in Turbulence: Case Study of Magnetic Helicity at the Ion Inertial Scale

In turbulence, for neutral or conducting fluids, a large ratio of scales is excited because of the possible occurrence of inverse cascades to large, global scales together with direct cascades to small, dissipative scales, as observed in the atmosphere and oceans, or in the solar environment. In this context, using direct numerical simulations with forcing, we analyze scale dynamics in the presence of magnetic fields with a generalized Ohm’s law including a Hall current. The ion inertial length ϵ H serves as the control parameter at fixed Reynolds number. Both the magnetic and generalized helicity—invariants in the ideal case—grow linearly with time, as expected from classical arguments. The cross-correlation between the velocity and magnetic field grows as well, more so in relative terms for a stronger Hall current. We find that the helical growth rates vary exponentially with ϵ H , provided the ion inertial scale resides within the inverse cascade range. These exponential variations are recovered phenomenologically using simple scaling arguments. They are directly linked to the wavenumber power-law dependence of generalized and magnetic helicity, ∼ k − 2 , in their inverse ranges. This illustrates and confirms the important role of the interplay between large and small scales in the dynamics of turbulent flows.