Scale-dependent Velocity Research Articles

An Experimental Study on Scale-Dependent Velocity and Anisotropy in Fractured Media Based on Artificial Rocks with Controlled Fracture Geometries

The scale of the fractures can vary, making the seismic velocity and anisotropy substantially scale dependent. Two mechanisms of the scale-dependent phenomenon may be considered: scattering and wave-induced fluid flow. In this study, we measure the scale-dependent velocity and anisotropy effects through laboratory experiments on porous and non-porous artificial rocks containing aligned fractures. This allows us to isolate the effects of these two mechanisms for the first time, yielding some insights into the scale-dependent phenomenon. For short-wavelength waves, scattering dominates with less wave-induced fluid flow effects. For intermediate- and long-wavelength waves, the P-wave is strongly scale dependent mainly due to wave-induced fluid flow mechanism, and the slow shear-wave is also strongly scale dependent but due to both scattering and wave-induced fluid flow. However, the fast shear-wave is almost scale independent. Moreover, a multi-scale equivalent medium theory can model the P-wave propagation accurately.

Constraining the optical depth of galaxies and velocity bias with cross-correlation between the kinetic Sunyaev–Zeldovich effect and the peculiar velocity field

We calculate the cross-correlation function $\langle (\Delta T/T)(\mathbf{v}\cdot \mathbf{n}/\sigma_{v}) \rangle$ between the kinetic Sunyaev-Zeldovich (kSZ) effect and the reconstructed peculiar velocity field using linear perturbation theory, to constrain the optical depth $\tau$ and peculiar velocity bias of central galaxies with Planck data. We vary the optical depth $\tau$ and the velocity bias function $b_{v}(k)=1+b(k/k_{0})^{n}$, and fit the model to the data, with and without varying the calibration parameter $y_{0}$ that controls the vertical shift of the correlation function. By constructing a likelihood function and constraining $\tau$, $b$ and $n$ parameters, we find that the quadratic power-law model of velocity bias $b_{v}(k)=1+b(k/k_{0})^{2}$ provides the best-fit to the data. The best-fit values are $\tau=(1.18 \pm 0.24) \times 10^{-4}$, $b=-0.84^{+0.16}_{-0.20}$ and $y_{0}=(12.39^{+3.65}_{-3.66})\times 10^{-9}$ ($68\%$ confidence level). The probability of $b>0$ is only $3.12 \times 10^{-8}$ for the parameter $b$, which clearly suggests a detection of scale-dependent velocity bias. The fitting results indicate that the large-scale ($k \leq 0.1\,h\,{\rm Mpc}^{-1}$) velocity bias is unity, while on small scales the bias tends to become negative. The value of $\tau$ is consistent with the stellar mass--halo mass and optical depth relation proposed in the previous literatures, and the negative velocity bias on small scales is consistent with the peak background-split theory. Our method provides a direct tool to study the gaseous and kinematic properties of galaxies.

A measure of scale-dependent asymmetry in turbulent boundary layer flows: scaling and Reynolds number similarity

The distribution of temporal scale-dependent streamwise velocity increments is investigated in turbulent boundary layer flows at laboratory and atmospheric Reynolds numbers, using the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory wind tunnel and the Surface Layer Turbulence and Environmental Science Test dataset, respectively. The third-order moments of velocity increments, or asymmetry index $A(a,z)$, is computed for varying wall distance $z$ and time scale separation $a$, where it was observed to leave a robust, distinct signature in the form of a hump, independent of Reynolds number and located across the inertial range. The hump is observed in wall region limited to $z^{+}<5\times 10^{3}$, with a tendency to shift towards smaller time scales as the surface is approached ($z^{+}<70$). Comparing the two datasets, the hump, and its location, are found to obey inner wall scaling and is regarded as a genuine feature of the canonical turbulent boundary layer. The magnitude cumulant analysis of the scale-dependent velocity increments further reveals that intermittency is also enhanced near the wall, in the same flow region where the asymmetry signature was observed. The combination of asymmetry and intermittency is inferred to point at non-local energy transfer and scale coupling across a range of scales. From a turbulent structure perspective, such non-local energy transfer can be seen as the result of strong scale-interaction processes between outer scale motions in the logarithmic layer impacting and distorting smaller scales at the wall, through abrupt energy transfer across scales bypassing the typical energy cascade of the inertial range.

On the homogenization of turbulent flow structures in the wake of a model wind turbine

The structure of flow turbulence, measured experimentally, in the wake of a model wind turbine is investigated here through higher order scale-dependent statistics of the velocity increments and compared to the smooth wall turbulent boundary layer (base flow) case. The wind turbine wake flow is observed to possess higher turbulent kinetic energy, when compared to the base flow, though it contains more homogenized scale-dependent velocity increments, as confirmed via magnitude cumulant analysis of the streamwise velocities. Along with a reduction in intermittency (a measure of inhomogeneity) in the wake of the wind turbine, the asymmetry of the probability density functions of the velocity increments is also observed to be reduced. This is interpreted in terms of scale decoupling mechanisms and attenuating interactions and non-local energy transfer. In other words, wind turbines reduce the intermittency and asymmetry in the wake flow by breaking and/or deflecting the large-scale flow structures of the incoming flow, thus rendering the structure of the velocity fluctuations more homogenized as compared to the base flow. Experiments were conducted in a large scale, boundary layer wind tunnel at the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory.

Acquired scaling relations in dark matter turbulence

Variety of scaling relations are observed in astronomical objects. We study a consistent understanding of them from a simple proposal that the collision-less dark matter fluid terns into a turbulent state, i.e. cosmic dark turbulence. This happens most likely when the density fluctuations cross the caustic surface toward the non-linear regime. Collision-less dark turbulence may not be eddy-dominant. We first derive Kolmogorov scaling laws from the gravitational Navier-Stokes equation by the method similar to the case in Smoluchowski coagulation equation. Then we apply this to several observations such as the scale-dependent velocity dispersion, mass-luminosity ratio, magnetic fields, and mass-angular momentum relation, power spectrum of density fluctuations. They all conclude a single value for a constant energy flow per mass: 0.3cm2/sec3. This value may deeply related with the speed of the hierarchical coalescence process in the cosmic structure formation.

Intermittency and scale-dependent statistics in fully developed turbulence

Fully developed homogeneous isotropic turbulent fields, computed by direct numerical simulation, are compared to divergence-free random fields having the same energy spectrum and either the same helicity spectrum as that of the turbulent data, or vanishing helicity. We show that the scale-dependent velocity flatness quantifies the spatial variability of the energy spectrum. The flatness exhibits a substantial increase at small scales for the turbulent field, but remains constant for the random fields. A diagnostic, the scale-dependent helicity, is proposed to quantify the geometrical statistics of the flow, which shows that only the turbulent flow is intermittent. Finally, statistical scale-dependent analyses of both Eulerian and Lagrangian accelerations confirm the inherently different dynamics of turbulent and random flows.

Cosmological dark turbulence and scaling relations in self-gravitating systems

Many scaling relations have been observed for self-gravitating systems (SGS) in the universe. We explore a consistent understanding of them from a simple principle based on the proposal that the collision-less dark matter (DM) fluid terns into a turbulent state, i.e. dark turbulence, after crossing the caustic surface in the non-linear stage. After deriving Kolmogorov scaling laws from Navier-Stokes and Jeans equations by the method used in solving the Smoluchowski coagulation equation, we apply this to several observations such as the scale-dependent velocity dispersion, mass-luminosity ratio, and mass-angular momentum relation. They all point the concordant value for the constant energy flow per mass: 0.3 cm2/s3, which may be understood as the speed of the hierarchical coalescence process in the cosmic structure formation.

Hierarchical model for the scale-dependent velocity of waves in random media.

Elastic waves of short wavelength propagating through the upper layer of the Earth appear to move faster at large separations of source and receiver than at short separations. Existing perturbation theories predict a linear increase of the velocity shift with increasing separation and cannot describe the saturation of the velocity shift at large separations that is seen in computer simulations. We point out that this nonperturbative problem can be solved using a model developed originally for the study of directed polymers. The saturation velocity is found to scale with the four-thirds power of the root-mean-square amplitude of the velocity fluctuations, in good agreement with the computer simulations.

Two-fluid simulations of galaxy formation

We investigate the formation of galaxies and larger structure with a simulation modeling two gravitationally coupled fluids representing dark matter and baryons. The baryon gas dynamics are calculated with a smoothed particle hydrodynamics (SPH) method, and the physics modeled includes thermal pressure, shock heating, and radiative cooling. We simulate a 16 Mpc periodic cube with 64(exp 3) particles in each fluid and 10% baryon mass fraction. We confirm, for the first time experimentally, disk formation as a natural consequence of hierarchical clustering in a large-scale cosmological environment. The majority of isolated galaxies exhibit centrifugally supported disks. A power-law relation between cold baryonic mass and maximum rotation velocity is found, M varies as nu(sub rot)(exp alpha) with alpha = 2.5 after correcting for differential numerical resolution. Both the spatial and velocity distributions of the simulated galaxies are biased with respect to the dark matter. A counts-in-cells analysis indicates that an unphysical degree of merging in the central cluster is likely responsible for the antibias signal in the correlation function. A robust, scale-dependent velocity bias is measured. The ratio of galaxy to dark matter pairwise velocity dispersions on a scale of 1 Mpc is 0.7. The amplitude is only mildly dependent on redshift or mass cutoff and scales with separation as r(exp 0.2). The degree to which these results depend on numerical parameters is discussed. Mass resolution plays a key role in controlling the resulting fraction of cold, dense baryons. The mass fraction associated with galaxies decreases by a factor of approximately greater than 3 when the mass per particle is increased by a factor 8. Photoionization and energy input from supernova will have to be included to determine more carefully the fraction of highly dissipated material and the characteristics of the stellar component of galaxies.