The role of directionality on the structure and dynamics of strongly anisotropic turbulent flows

Abstract

Strong anisotropy in turbulent flows may be induced by body forces, Coriolis, buoyancy, Lorentz, and/or by large-scale gradients. These effects combined to the redistribution pressure terms are first identified by an angle dependence of the wave vector in Fourier space, the directionality. The resulting anisotropic structure is not taken into account in classical phenomenological theory, using essentially ‘isotropised’ dimensional analysis. Besides, it is generally hidden in practical engineering models by means of tuned constants, which may vary if the flow changes of nature. In this paper, different examples of anisotropic turbulence are revisited and compared to each other in order to shed light on fundamental aspects of this specific turbulence. To begin with, flows without energy production like rotating turbulence are considered. In this case, isotropy is broken by mean of third-order correlations in the equations. These correlations quantify the interscale energy transfer, and must be investigated at three-point, or triad by triad in Fourier space. This allows to account for the role of typical anisotropic frequency 2Ωcos θ k , with θ k the angle of the wave vector to the axis of rotation, and to simultaneously restore the role of phase coherence. We pursue the discussion with a second flow case, with production, quasi-static magnetohydrodynamics. This illustrates turbulence forced towards two-dimensional structure by an explicit Ohmic dissipation term. Linear dynamics displays an angle (called Moreau, or Shebalin) capable of reflecting the basic anisotropy in models as simple as . In the final phase of transition towards 2D structure, however, dynamics are essentially driven by third-order velocity correlations, and both successive linear and nonlinear phases yield counter-intuitive anisotropic results. The last case considered here is the turbulent mixing induced by a Rayleigh-Taylor instability. It is shown that anisotropy plays a central role in the dynamics of the mixing zone by means of an angular dimensionality parameter similar to the Moreau angle but for the density field, and appearing in a global model of buoyancy-drag equation.