• DOI:10.1103/PhysRevLett.124.104501
• Corpus ID: 208527420

Energy Transfer from Large to Small Scales in Turbulence by Multiscale Nonlinear Strain and Vorticity Interactions.

@article{Johnson2020EnergyTF,
  title={Energy Transfer from Large to Small Scales in Turbulence by Multiscale Nonlinear Strain and Vorticity Interactions.},
  author={Perry L. Johnson},
  journal={Physical review letters},
  year={2020},
  volume={124 10},
  pages={
          104501
        }
}

• Perry L. Johnson
• Published 1 December 2019
• Physics
• Physical review letters

An intrinsic feature of turbulent flows is an enhanced rate of mixing and kinetic energy dissipation due to the rapid generation of small-scale motions from large-scale excitation. The transfer of kinetic energy from large to small scales is commonly attributed to the stretching of vorticity by the strain rate, but strain self-amplification also plays a role. Previous treatments of this connection are phenomenological or inexact, or cannot distinguish the contribution of vorticity stretching from that of strain self-amplification. In this Letter, an exact relationship is derived which quantitatively establishes how intuitive multiscale mechanisms such as vorticity stretching and strain self-amplification together actuate the interscale transfer of energy in turbulence. Numerical evidence verifies this result and uses it to demonstrate that the contribution of strain self-amplification to energy transfer is higher than that of vorticity stretching, but not overwhelmingly so.