Subgrid scale and backscatter model for magnetohydrodynamic turbulence based on closure theory: theoretical formulation.

Abstract

The spectral eddy and backscatter viscosity and the spectral eddy and backscatter resistivity for incompressible, three-dimensional, isotropic, nonhelical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence are constructed using the eddy-damped quasinormal Markovian statistical closure model developed by Pouquet, Frisch, and Léorat [J. Fluid Mech. 77, 321 (1976)] in terms of primitive variables. The approach used is an extension of the methodology developed by Leslie and Quarini [J. Fluid Mech. 91, 65 (1979)] for fluid turbulence to MHD turbulence. The eddy and backscatter viscosities and the eddy and backscatter resistivities are calculated numerically for assumed kinetic and magnetic energy spectra, E(v)(k) and E(B)(k), with a production subrange and a k(-5/3) inertial subrange for the two cases r(A)=1 and r(A)=1 / 2, where r(A)=E(v)(k)/E(B)(k) is the Alfvén ratio. It is shown that the effects of the unresolved subgrid scales on the resolved-scale velocity and magnetic field consist of an eddy damping and backscatter. The eddy viscosity and resistivity, and the backscatter viscosity and resistivity (the correlation function of the stochastic velocity and magnetic backscatter force) are shown to have a dependence on k/k(c), where k(c) is the cutoff wave number, which is very similar to the dependence calculated in the pure (i.e., nonmagnetic) Navier-Stokes turbulence case. The eddy viscosity and resistivity, and the backscatter viscosity and resistivity numerically calculated here can be used to develop improved subgrid-scale parametrizations for spectral large-eddy simulations of homogenous MHD turbulence.