Study of the Hopf functional equation for turbulence: Duhamel principle and dynamical scaling.

Abstract

We consider a formulation for the Hopf functional differential equation which governs statistical solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations. By introducing an exponential operator with a functional derivative, we recast the Hopf equation as an integro-differential functional equation by the Duhamel principle. On this basis we introduce a successive approximation to the Hopf equation. As an illustration we take the Burgers equation and carry out the approximations to the leading order. Scale invariance of the statistical Navier-Stokes equations in d dimensions is formulated and contrasted with that of the deterministic Navier-Stokes equations. For the statistical Navier-Stokes equations, critical scale invariance is achieved for the characteristic functional of the dth derivative of the vector potential in d dimensions. The deterministic equations corresponding to this choice of the dependent variable acquire the linear Fokker-Planck operator under dynamic scaling. In three dimensions it is the vorticity gradient that behaves like a fundamental solution (more precisely, source-type solution) of deterministic Navier-Stokes equations in the long-time limit. Physical applications of these ideas include study of a self-similar decaying profile of fluid flows. Moreover, we reveal typical physical properties in the late-stage evolution by combining statistical scale invariance and the source-type solution. This yields an asymptotic form of the Hopf functional in the long-time limit, improving the well-known Hopf-Titt solution. In particular, we present analyses for the Burgers equations to illustrate the main ideas and indicate a similar analysis for the Navier-Stokes equations.