Abstract
We study the dissipation range of the turbulent energy spectrum in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence via highly resolved direct numerical simulations for microscale Reynolds numbers Rλ between 1 and 100. The simulations resolve scales as small as a tenth of the Kolmogorov scale. We find that the spectrum in this range is essentially exponential for Rλ up to about 20, but assumes a more complex form for higher Rλ. This shape can be regarded roughly as a superposition of two exponentials where the second exponential, which becomes stronger with increasing Rλ, appears to be the result of intermittent interactions with the lower wave-number part of the spectrum; it disappears when these interactive parts are filtered out before computing the spectrum, essentially recovering the initial exponential shape. The multifractal theory accounts for better collapse in a limited range of wave numbers up to Reynolds numbers of 1000 observed with additional simulations at lower resolutions.
Original language | English (US) |
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Article number | 082601 |
Journal | Physical Review Fluids |
Volume | 3 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2018 |
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Computational Mechanics
- Modeling and Simulation
- Fluid Flow and Transfer Processes