Fractally Fourier decimated homogeneous turbulent shear flow in noninteger dimensions.

Abstract

Time evolution of the fully resolved incompressible homogeneous turbulent shear flow in noninteger Fourier dimensions is numerically investigated. The Fourier dimension of the flow field is extended from the integer value 3 to the noninteger values by projecting the Navier-Stokes equation on the fractal set of the active Fourier modes with dimensions 2.7≤d≤3.0. The results of this study revealed that the dynamics of both large and small scale structures are nontrivially influenced by changing the Fourier dimension d. While both turbulent production and dissipation are significantly hampered as d decreases, the evolution of their ratio is almost independent of the Fourier dimension. The mechanism of the energy distribution among different spatial directions is also impeded by decreasing d. Due to this deficient energy distribution, turbulent field shows a higher level of the large-scale anisotropy in lower Fourier dimensions. In addition, the persistence of the vortex stretching mechanism and the forward spectral energy transfer, which are three-dimensional turbulence characteristics, are examined at changing d, from the standard case d=3.0 to the strongly decimated flow field for d=2.7. As the Fourier dimension decreases, these forward energy transfer mechanisms are strongly suppressed, which in turn reduces both the small-scale intermittency and the deviation from Gaussianity. Besides the energy exchange intensity, the variations of d considerably modify the relative weights of local to nonlocal triadic interactions. It is found that the contribution of the nonlocal triads to the total turbulent kinetic energy exchange increases as the Fourier dimension increases.