Vorticity spectra in high Reynolds number anisotropic turbulence

Abstract

Assuming a turbulent flow to be homogeneous and isotropic allows for significant theoretical simplification in the description of its motions. The validity of these assumptions, first put forth by Kolmogorov [A. N. Kolmogorov, “The local structure of turbulence in incompressible viscous fluids for very large Reynolds numbers,” C. R. Acad. Sci. URSS 30, 301 (1941)], has been the subject of considerable analytical development and extensive research as they are applied to actual flows. The present investigation describes the one-dimensional vorticity spectra of two flow fields: a single stream shear layer and the near surface region of an atmospheric boundary layer. Both flow fields exhibit a power-law region with a slope of −1 in the one-dimensional spectra of the spanwise component of vorticity in the same wave-number range for which the velocity spectra indicated the isotropic behavior. This is in strong disagreement with the isotropic prediction, which does not exhibit a power-law behavior.