Self-organization and transition to turbulence in isotropic fluid motion driven by negative damping at low wavenumbers

McComb, W D and Linkmann, M F and Berera, A and Yoffe, S R and Jankauskas, B (2015) Self-organization and transition to turbulence in isotropic fluid motion driven by negative damping at low wavenumbers. Journal of Physics A: Mathematical and Theoretical, 48 (25). 25FT01. ISSN 1751-8113 (https://doi.org/10.1088/1751-8113/48/25/25FT01)

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Abstract

We observe a symmetry-breaking transition from a turbulent to a self-organized state in direct numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equation at very low Reynolds number. In this self-organised state the kinetic energy is contained only in modes at the lowest resolved wavenumber, the skewness vanishes, and visualization of the flows shows a lack of small-scale structure, with the vorticity and velocity vectors becoming aligned (a Beltrami flow).

ORCID iDs

McComb, W D, Linkmann, M F, Berera, A, Yoffe, S R ORCID logoORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-6723-4990 and Jankauskas, B;