Van der Waals cascade in supercritical turbulence near a critical point

Abstract

We investigate a quite strong turbulence in a supercritical fluid near a gas-liquid critical point. Specifically, we consider a case in which the Kolmogorov scale is much smaller than the equilibrium correlation length $\xi$. Although equilibrium critical fluctuations are destroyed by turbulence, $\xi$ still provides a crossover length scale between two types of energy cascade. At scales much larger than $\xi$, the Richardson cascade becomes dominant, whereas at scales much smaller than $\xi$, another type of cascade, which we call the van der Waals cascade, is induced by density fluctuations. Experimental conditions required to observe the van der Waals cascade are also discussed.