Helmholtz Decomposition Research Articles

On the properties and implications of collapse-driven MHD turbulence

ABSTRACT We investigate the driving of MHD turbulence by gravitational contraction using simulations of an initially spherical, isothermal, magnetically supercritical molecular cloud core with transonic and trans-Alfvénic turbulence. We perform a Helmholtz decomposition of the velocity field, and investigate the evolution of its solenoidal and compressible parts, as well as of the velocity component along the gravitational acceleration vector, a proxy for the infall component of the velocity field. We find that (1) In spite of being supercritical, the core first contracts to a sheet perpendicular to the mean magnetic field, and the sheet itself collapses. (2) The solenoidal component of the turbulence remains at roughly its initial level throughout the simulation, while the compressible component increases continuously, implying that turbulence does not dissipate towards the centre of the core. (3) The distribution of simulation cells in the B–ρ plane occupies a wide triangular region at low densities, bounded below by the expected trend for fast MHD waves (B ∝ ρ, applicable for high-local Alfvénic Mach number MA) and above by the trend expected for slow waves (B ∼ constant, applicable for low local MA). At high densities, the distribution follows a single trend $B \propto \rho ^{\gamma _{\rm eff}}$, with 1/2 < γeff < 2/3, as expected for gravitational compression. (4) The mass-to-magnetic flux ratio λ increases with radius r due to the different scalings of the mass and magnetic flux with r. At a fixed radius, λ increases with time due to the accretion of material along field lines. (5) The solenoidal energy fraction is much smaller than the total turbulent component, indicating that the collapse drives the turbulence mainly compressibly, even in directions orthogonal to that of the collapse.

The Rotational and Divergent Kinetic Energy Spectra of Geostrophic Vortices and Inertia‐Gravity Waves

AbstractThe rotational and divergent kinetic energy (RKE and DKE) spectra of geostrophic vortices (Rossby waves; RWs) and inertia‐gravity waves (IGWs) in the global atmosphere are investigated with ERA5 reanalysis. The separation of RWs and IGWs in physical space is based on the normal‐mode decomposition, and the Helmholtz decomposition produces their RKE and DKE spectra at different layers, with a focus on spherical wavenumbers 10 ≤ l ≤ 100. In the upper troposphere and the middle and lower stratosphere, the RKE spectra of the total mode closely resemble the horizontal kinetic energy (HKE) spectra of RWs over most wavenumbers; the DKE spectra of the total mode are more comparable to the DKE spectra rather than the HKE spectra of IGWs, although their slopes are similar. The HKE of RWs is dominated by its rotational component, accounting for more than 80% of the HKE in most ranges of concern. Although the HKE of IGWs is dominated by its divergent component, its rotation component is also significant, with an average percentage exceeding 25% in all three vertical layers analyzed. Care must be taken when employing divergence as a proxy of IGWs, as the DKE may underestimate the HKE of IGWs. With the increase of altitude and the decrease of scale, the contribution of the divergent component increases in the horizontal circulation of both RWs and IGWs.

Thermoelastic wave scattering by a multi-layered object

In this work the scattering of time-harmonic thermoelastic waves by a multi-layered thermoelastic body is considered. The mathematical formulation of the scattering problem is presented in a unified four-dimensional form. Using the thermoelastic analogue of Betti's identity, the transmission conditions and asymptotic analysis in the dyadic fundamental solution of thermoelasticity, an integral representation of the scattered field as well as formulas of the thermoelastic far-field patterns containing the physical parameters of the scatterer's layers are constructed. Via the Rellich's Lemma for vector fields, the Helmholtz decomposition of thermoelastic waves and the Kupradze's radiation conditions, uniqueness of solution is proved. Setting the solution to be a linear combination of single- and double- layer thermoelastic potentials and using their jump relations, the scattering problem is transformed into a system of integral equations written in a matrix form. Using the regularity properties of the potentials and the Riesz-Fredholm's theory existence of solution is obtained.

A posteriori error estimate of the weak Galerkin finite element method solving the Stokes problems on polytopal meshes

AbstractIn this paper, we propose an a posteriori error estimate of the weak Galerkin finite element method (WG‐FEM) solving the Stokes problems with variable coefficients. Its error estimator, based on the property of Stokes' law conservation, Helmholtz decomposition and bubble functions, yields global upper bound and local lower bound for the approximation error of the WG‐FEM. Error analysis is proved to be valid under the mesh assumptions of the WG‐FEM and the way can be extended to other FEMs with the property of Stokes' law conservation, for example, discontinuous Galerkin (DG) FEMs. Finally, we verify the performance of error estimator by performing a few numerical examples.

Discrete Helmholtz Decompositions of Piecewise Constant and Piecewise Affine Vector and Tensor Fields

AbstractDiscrete Helmholtz decompositions dissect piecewise polynomial vector fields on simplicial meshes into piecewise gradients and rotations of finite element functions. This paper concisely reviews established results from the literature which all restrict to the lowest-order case of piecewise constants. Its main contribution consists of the generalization of these decompositions to 3D and of novel decompositions for piecewise affine vector fields in terms of Fortin–Soulie functions. While the classical lowest-order decompositions include one conforming and one nonconforming part, the decompositions of piecewise affine vector fields require a nonconforming enrichment in both parts. The presentation covers two and three spatial dimensions as well as generalizations to deviatoric tensor fields in the context of the Stokes equations and symmetric tensor fields for the linear elasticity and fourth-order problems. While the proofs focus on contractible domains, generalizations to multiply connected domains and domains with non-connected boundary are discussed as well.

A posteriori error analysis of a semi‐augmented finite element method for double‐diffusive natural convection in porous media

AbstractThis paper presents our contribution to the a posteriori error analysis in 2D and 3D of a semi‐augmented mixed‐primal finite element method previously developed by us to numerically solve double‐diffusive natural convection problem in porous media. The model combines Brinkman‐Navier‐Stokes equations for velocity and pressure coupled to a vector advection‐diffusion equation, representing heat and concentration of a certain substance in a viscous fluid within a porous medium. Strain and pseudo‐stress tensors were introduced to establish scheme solvability and provide a priori error estimates using Raviart‐Thomas elements, piecewise polynomials and Lagrange finite elements. In this work, we derive two reliable residual‐based a posteriori error estimators. The first estimator leverages ellipticity properties, Helmholtz decomposition as well as Clément interpolant and Raviart‐Thomas operator properties for showing reliability; efficiency is guaranteed by inverse inequalities and localization strategies. An alternative estimator is also derived and analyzed for reliability without Helmholtz decomposition. Numerical tests are presented to confirm estimator properties and demonstrate adaptive scheme performance.

A posteriori error estimates of the weak Galerkin finite element methods for parabolic problems

In this paper, We propose the residual-based a posteriori error estimator of the weak Galerkin finite element method with the backward Euler time discretization for the linear parabolic partial differential equation. For the a posteriori error estimator, we introduce the Helmholtz decomposition technique to prove its reliability. We mainly study WG element (Pj(K),Pℓ(∂K),V(K,r)=RTj(K)). Numerical experiments based on the lowest order case, i.e. (P0(K),P0(∂K),RT0(K)), are provided to verify the theoretical research.

Magnetic resonance imaging of blood perfusion rate based on Helmholtz decomposition of heat flux.

Objective.Thermal property (TP) maps of human tissues are useful for tumor treatment and diagnosis. In particular, the blood perfusion rate is significantly different for tumors and healthy tissues. Noninvasive techniques that reconstruct TPs from the temperature measured via magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) by solving an inverse bioheat transfer problem have been developed. A few conventional methods can reconstruct spatially varying TP distributions, but they have several limitations. First, most methods require the numerical Laplacian computation of the temperature, and hence they are sensitive to noise. In addition, some methods require the division of a region of interest (ROI) into sub-regions with homogeneous TPs using prior anatomical information, and they assume an unmeasurable initial temperature distribution. We propose a novel robust reconstruction method without the division of an ROI or the assumption of an initial temperature distribution.Approach.The proposed method estimates blood perfusion rate maps from relative temperature changes. This method avoids the computation of the Laplacian by using integral representations of the Helmholtz decomposition of the heat flux.Main Result.We compare the reconstruction results of the conventional and proposed methods using numerical simulations. The results indicate the robustness of the proposed method.Significance.This study suggests the feasibility of thermal property mapping with MRI using the robust proposed method.

Helmholtz decomposition based windowed Green function methods for elastic scattering problems on a half-space

This paper proposes a new Helmholtz decomposition based windowed Green function (HD-WGF) method for solving the time-harmonic elastic scattering problems on a half-space with Dirichlet boundary conditions in both 2D and 3D. The Helmholtz decomposition is applied to separate the pressure and shear waves, which satisfy the Helmholtz and Helmholtz/Maxwell equations, respectively, and the corresponding boundary integral equations of type (I+T)ϕ=f, that couple these two waves on the unbounded surface, are derived based on the free-space fundamental solution of Helmholtz equation. This approach avoids the treatment of the complex elastic displacement tensor and traction operator that involved in the classical integral equation method for elastic problems. Then a smooth “slow-rise” windowing function is introduced to truncate the boundary integral equations and a “correction” strategy is proposed to ensure the uniformly fast convergence for all incident angles of plane incidence. Numerical experiments for both two and three dimensional problems are presented to demonstrate the accuracy and efficiency of the proposed method.

Turbulent heat flux and wall heat transfer in hypersonic turbulent boundary layers with wall disturbances

Hypersonic turbulence over disturbed walls can be encountered when the fuselage of the vehicles is ablated or installed with transpiration-cooling porous media, resulting in the variation of the wall heat transfer that complicates its accurate predictions. In this paper, we study the turbulent heat flux and wall heat transfer in hypersonic turbulent boundary layers at the free-stream Mach number of 6.0 subject to wall disturbances with different wall temperatures, with our focus on the compressibility effects. We found that the temperature fluctuation intensity and the turbulent heat flux are enhanced in the outer region, which is attributed to the higher mean temperature gradient induced by the wall disturbances. The solenoidal and dilatational components of the turbulent heat flux, obtained by the Helmholtz decomposition that splits the velocity fluctuations into the solenoidal and dilatational components, are of opposite signs, with the latter smaller in magnitude but showing the tendency of mitigating the former. The integration formula that decomposes the wall heat transfer into various physical processes reveals that the viscous dissipation generates the wall heat transfer, while the turbulent heat flux, work of pressure on dilatation and the mean flow convection transport it towards the free stream. The contribution of the dilatational motions to the viscous dissipation and turbulent heat flux is negligible compared with that of the solenoidal components.

Dynamic response of a large-diameter end-bearing pile in permafrost

Vertically dynamic model of a large-diameter pile in frozen soil is established, in which the frozen soil is described to a saturated frozen porous media, and the large diameter end-bearing pile is simplified to a one-dimensional rod considering the influence of the transverse inertia effect. Analytical solutions of the longitudinal coupling vibration between the end-bearing pile and the frozen soil are obtained using Helmholtz decomposition and variable separation methods in the frequency domain. By comparing the dynamic responses of the longitudinal vibration of the large diameter end-bearing pile with the traditionally one-dimensional pile, as well as the impedance factor of the frozen soil layer induced by the pile vibration, these demonstrate the influence of the transverse inertia effect on the high frequency vibration of large diameter pile is significant, and the influence on the pile with a smaller slenderness ratio is larger. The temperature and the Poisson’s ratio also have significant effects on the vertical vibration of large diameter piles in frozen soil, which cannot be ignored in the analysis.

A New Closure Assumption and Formulation Based on the Helmholtz Decomposition for Improving Retrievals for Vortex Circulations from Single-Doppler Radar Observations

Abstract Doppler weather radars are powerful tools for investigating the inner-core structure and intensity of tropical cyclones (TCs). The Doppler velocity can provide quantitative information on the vortex structure in the TCs. The generalized velocity track display (GVTD) technique has been used to retrieve the axisymmetric circulations and asymmetric tangential flows in the TCs from ground-based single-Doppler radar observations. GVTD can have limited applicability to asymmetric vortices due to the closure assumption of no asymmetric radial flows. The present study proposes a new closure formulation that includes asymmetric radial flows, based on the Helmholtz decomposition. Here it is assumed that the horizontal flow is predominantly rotational and expressed with a streamfunction, but limited inclusion of wavenumber-1 divergence is available. Unlike the original GVTD, the decomposition introduces consistency along the radius by solving all equations simultaneously. The new approach, named GVTD-X, is applied to analytical vortices and a real TC with asymmetric structures. This approach makes the retrieval of axisymmetric flow relatively insensitive to the contamination from asymmetric flows and to small errors in storm center location. For an analytical vortex with a wavenumber-2 asymmetry, the maximum relative error of the axisymmetric tangential wind retrieved by GVTD-X is less than 2% at the radius of the maximum wind speed. In practical applications, errors can be evaluated by comparing results for different maximum wavenumbers. When applied to a real TC, GVTD-X largely suppressed an artificial periodic fluctuation that occurs in GVTD from the aliasing of the neglected asymmetric radial flows. Significance Statement In tropical cyclone (TC) wind retrievals from single-Doppler weather radar observations, closure assumptions are required for the retrieval equations. The present study proposes a new closure allowing asymmetric radial winds and improving retrievals for TC winds in the previously developed technique. The relative error of the axisymmetric tangential wind in idealized vortices from the new approach is less than 2% at the radius of the maximum wind speed. In applying to a real TC with an elliptical eyewall, we found that the new approach can largely suppress an artificial evolution of the tangential winds in the previous retrieval technique.

The Helmholtz decomposition of vector fields for two-dimensional exterior Lipschitz domains

<abstract><p>Let $ \Omega $ be an exterior Lipschitz domain in $ \mathbb{R}^2 $. It is proved that the Helmholtz decomposition of the vector fields in $ L_p (\Omega; \mathbb{R}^2) $ exists if $ p $ satisfies $ \lvert1/ p - 1/ 2 \rvert < 1/ 4+ \varepsilon $ with some constant $ \varepsilon = \varepsilon (\Omega) \in (0, 1/ 4] $, where it is allowed to take $ \varepsilon = 1/ 4 $ if $ \partial \Omega \in C^1 $.</p></abstract>

Spatiotemporal Characteristics of the Near-Surface Turbulent Cascade at the Submesoscale in the Drake Passage

Abstract Submesoscale currents and internal gravity waves achieve an intense turbulent cascade near the ocean surface [depth of 0–O(100) m], which is thought to give rise to significant energy sources and sinks for mesoscale eddies. Here, we characterize the contributions of nonwave currents (NWCs; including eddies and fronts) and internal gravity waves (IGWs; including near-inertial motions, lee waves, and the internal wave continuum) to near-surface submesoscale turbulence in the Drake Passage. Using a numerical simulation, we combine Lagrangian filtering and a Helmholtz decomposition to identify NWCs and IGWs and to characterize their dynamics (rotational versus divergent). We show that NWCs and IGWs contribute in different proportions to the inverse and forward turbulent kinetic energy cascades, based on their dynamics and spatiotemporal scales. Purely rotational NWCs cause most of the inverse cascade, while coupled rotational–divergent components of NWCs and coupled NWC–IGWs cause the forward cascade. The cascade changes direction at a spatial scale at which motions become increasingly divergent. However, the forward cascade is ultimately limited by the motions’ spatiotemporal scales. The bulk of the forward cascade (80%–95%) is caused by NWCs and IGWs of small spatiotemporal scales (L < 10 km; T < 6 h), which are primarily rotational: submesoscale eddies, fronts, and the internal wave continuum. These motions also cause a significant part of the inverse cascade (30%). Our results highlight the requirement for high spatiotemporal resolutions to diagnose the properties and large-scale impacts of near-surface submesoscale turbulence accurately, with significant implications for ocean energy cycle study strategies.

Kinematic response of floating piles in two-layered soils subjected to vertically incident S-waves

A rigorous solution is proposed for the kinematic transverse response of a single floating pile in the two-layered soil by vertically propagating S-waves. The soil displacements of the two layers are solved by Helmholtz decomposition and the method of separation of variables. The soil mode functions with a series of eigenvalues are calculated and satisfy the weighted orthogonality. The unknown coefficients in the solution functions are obtained in light of the boundary conditions. An infinite series of algebraic equations with unknown coefficients can be solved by truncating the series number. The cutoff frequency, soil reaction factor, and pile curvature along the shaft are investigated for different properties of the adjacent soil. For the pile in the soil with soft upper and stiff lower layers, the dimensionless cutoff frequency is smaller than that of homogeneous soil, but it follows opposite rules when the upper layer is rigid.

Non-modal behavior in the linear regime of high-speed boundary layer flows: Flow–thermodynamic interactions

The flow–thermodynamic interactions in the transient linear regime of high-speed boundary layers starting from non-modal initial conditions are studied using direct numerical simulation. These simulations are performed at different Mach numbers: M∈[3,6]. The perturbation velocity field is decomposed into solenoidal and dilatational components using the Helmholtz decomposition. It is shown that at high speeds, random pressure perturbations evolve to their asymptotic state in three distinct stages. In stage 1, pressure–dilatation engenders rapid transfer from internal to kinetic energy leading to a balance between the two forms. Pressure–dilatation maintains this balance throughout stage 2 with harmonic exchange of energy between the two forms. During this stage, the stable modes decay and the unstable modes establish ascendancy. Stage 3 behavior is dominated almost exclusively by the most unstable mode. Both internal and kinetic energies grow at the rate predicted by linear stability analysis. At this stage, pressure–dilatation is small and production dominates the flow evolution. This behavior is also observed in narrow-band perturbation evolution. Spatial boundary layer simulations are also performed to examine the non-parallel effects on the observed behavior. It is seen that the role of pressure–dilatation essentially remains the same as observed in the parallel flow case.

Helmholtz decomposition with a scalar Poisson equation in elastic anisotropic media

P- and S-wave separation plays an important role in elastic reverse-time migration. It can reduce the artifacts caused by crosstalk between different modes and improve image quality. In addition, P- and S-wave separation can also be used to better understand and distinguish wave types in complex media. At present, the methods for separating wave modes in anisotropic media mainly include spatial non-stationary filtering, low-rank approximation, and vector Poisson equation. Most of these methods require multiple Fourier transforms or the calculation of large matrices, which require high computational costs for problems with large scale. In this paper, an efficient method is proposed to separate the wave mode for anisotropic media by using a scalar anisotropic Poisson operator in the spatial domain. For 2D problems, the computational complexity required by this method is 1/2 of the methods based on solving a vector Poisson equation. Therefore, compared with existing methods based on pseudo-Helmholtz decomposition operators, this method can significantly reduce the computational cost. Numerical examples also show that the P and S waves decomposed by this method not only have the correct amplitude and phase relative to the input wavefield but also can reduce the computational complexity significantly.

Smooth transformations and ruling out closed orbits in planar systems

This work deals with planar dynamical systems with and without noise. In the first part, we seek to gain a refined understanding of such systems by studying their differential-geometric transformation properties under an arbitrary smooth mapping. Using elementary techniques, we obtain a unified picture of different classes of dynamical systems, some of which are classically viewed as distinct. We specifically give two examples of Hamiltonian systems with first integrals, which are simultaneously gradient systems. Potential applications of this apparent duality are discussed. The second part of this study is concerned with ruling out closed orbits in steady planar systems. We reformulate Bendixson’s criterion using the coordinate-independent Helmholtz decomposition derived in the first part, and we derive another, similar criterion. Our results allow for automated ruling out of closed orbits in certain regions of phase space and could be used in the future for efficient seeding of initial conditions in numerical algorithms to detect periodic solutions.

A Helmholtz-type decomposition for the space of symmetric matrices

In this paper, we introduce a Helmholtz-type decomposition for the space of square integrable, symmetric-matrix-valued functions analogous to the standard Helmholtz decomposition for vector fields. This decomposition provides a better understanding of the strain constraint space, which is important to the Navier–Stokes regularity problem. In particular, we give a full characterization the orthogonal complement of the strain constraint space and investigate the geometry of the eigenvalue distribution of matrices in the strain constraint space.

A method to investigate mid and high-frequency vibration energy transfer paths using the irrotational intensity

Structural intensity fields provide a clear understanding of the noise, vibration and harshness (NVH) behavior of complex structures by showing the vibration energy flow between zones of excitation and dissipation. The use of models with fine meshes for automotive structures has allowed structural intensity calculations to be performed at high frequencies. However, fields are difficult to understand at medium and high frequencies: the intensity field has a vortical character that hides the vibration energy flow in these frequency ranges. In this work, a methodology is presented to filter out vortices in the structural intensity field. The approach uses the Hodge–Helmholtz decomposition: the structural intensity field is decomposed into rotational, irrotational, and harmonic components. Among them, only the irrotational component is needed to describe the path of energy flow from sources to sinks. The proposed methodology involves calculating the dynamic response and solving a diffusion equation similar to the thermal conduction equation to obtain the irrotational field of interest. Plate examples are used to illustrate the efficiency of the method, which provides a better understanding of the mid- and high-frequency energy transmission paths.