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Macroscopic effects of the spectral structure in turbulent flows
| Venue: | Nature Physics |
| Citations: | 3 - 1 self |
BibTeX
@ARTICLE{Tran_macroscopiceffects,
author = {Tuan Tran and Pinaki Chakraborty and Nicholas Guttenberg and Alisia Prescott and Hamid Kellay and Walter Goldburg and Nigel Goldenfeld and Gustavo Gioia},
title = {Macroscopic effects of the spectral structure in turbulent flows},
journal = {Nature Physics},
year = {},
pages = {2010}
}
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Abstract
There is a missing link between the macroscopic properties of turbulent flows1–4, such as the frictional drag5 of a wall-bounded flow, and the turbulent spectrum1,6,7. The turbulent spectrum is a power law of exponentα (the ‘spectral exponent’) that gives the characteristic velocity of a turbulent fluctuation (or ‘eddy’) of size s as a function of s (ref. 1). Here we seek the missing link by comparing the frictional drag in soap-film flows8, where α = 3 (refs 9,10), and in pipe flows5, where α = 5/3 (refs 11,12). For moderate values of the Reynolds number Re, we find experimentally that in soap-film flows the frictional drag scales as Re−1/2, whereas in pipe flows the frictional drag scales13 as Re−1/4. Each of these scalings may be predicted from the attendant value of α by using a new theory14–16, in which the frictional drag is explicitly linked to the turbulent spectrum.
Keyphrases
spectral structure turbulent flow macroscopic effect frictional drag turbulent spectrum soap-film flows8 new theory14 macroscopic property wall-bounded flow power law pipe flows5 attendant value soap-film flow characteristic velocity turbulent spectrum1 turbulent flows1 frictional drag5 frictional drag scale spectral exponent turbulent fluctuation frictional drag scales13 reynolds number re moderate value
