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A Pouquet

Publications and source records attributed to A Pouquet.

9 recordsLinked to original sources
PubMed2006

Large-scale flow effects, energy transfer, and self-similarity on turbulence.

The effect of large scales on the statistics and dynamics of turbulent fluctuations is studied using data from high resolution direct numerical simulations. Three different kinds of forcing, and spatial resolutions ranging from 256(3) to 1024(3), are being used. The study is carried out by investigating the nonlinear triadic interactions in Fourier space, transfer functions, structure functions, and probability density functions. Our results show that the large scale flow plays an important role in the development and the statistical properties of the small scale turbulence. The role of helicity is also investigated. We discuss the link between these findings and intermittency, deviations from universality, and possible origins of the bottleneck effect. Finally, we briefly describe the consequences of our results for the subgrid modeling of turbulent flows.

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PubMed2005

Imprint of large-scale flows on turbulence.

We investigate the locality of interactions in hydrodynamic turbulence using data from a direct numerical simulation on a grid of 1024(3) points; the flow is forced with the Taylor-Green vortex. An inertial range for the energy is obtained in which the flux is constant and the spectrum follows an approximate Kolmogorov law. Nonlinear triadic interactions are dominated by their nonlocal components, involving widely separated scales. The resulting nonlinear transfer itself is local at each scale but the step in the energy cascade is independent of that scale and directly related to the integral scale of the flow. Interactions with large scales represent 20% of the total energy flux. Possible explanations for the deviation from self-similar models, the link between these findings and intermittency, and their consequences for modeling of turbulent flows are briefly discussed.

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PubMed2005

Numerical study of dynamo action at low magnetic Prandtl numbers.

We present a three-pronged numerical approach to the dynamo problem at low magnetic Prandtl numbers P(M). The difficulty of resolving a large range of scales is circumvented by combining direct numerical simulations, a Lagrangian-averaged model and large-eddy simulations. The flow is generated by the Taylor-Green forcing; it combines a well defined structure at large scales and turbulent fluctuations at small scales. Our main findings are (i) dynamos are observed from P(M)=1 down to P(M)=10(-2), (ii) the critical magnetic Reynolds number increases sharply with P(M)(-1) as turbulence sets in and then it saturates, and (iii) in the linear growth phase, unstable magnetic modes move to smaller scales as P(M) is decreased. Then the dynamo grows at large scales and modifies the turbulent velocity fluctuations.

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PubMed2003

von Kármán-Howarth relationship for helical magnetohydrodynamic flows.

We derive an exact equation for homogeneous isotropic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulent flows with nonzero helicity; this result is of the same nature as the classical von Kármán-Howarth (VKH-HM) formulation for the kinetic energy of turbulent fluids. Helical MHD is relevant to the astrophysical flows such as in the solar corona, or the interstellar medium, and in the dynamo problem. The derivation involves the new writing of the general form of tensors for that case, for either vectors or (pseudo)axial vectors. It is shown that, for general third-order tensors, four generating functions are needed when taking into account the nonmirror invariance of helical fluids, instead of two as in the fully isotropic case. The new equation obtained, denoted by VKH-HM, links the dissipation of magnetic helicity to the third-order correlations involving combinations of the components of the velocity, the magnetic field, and the magnetic potential. Finally, in the long-time and nonresistive limit, this relationship leads to a linear scaling with separation of the third-order tensor, correlating the two normal components of the electromotive force and of the magnetic potential.

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PubMed2002

Measures of intermittency in driven supersonic flows.

Scaling exponents for structure functions of the velocity, density, and entropy are computed for driven supersonic flows for rms Mach numbers of order unity, with numerical simulations using the piecewise parabolic method algorithm on grids of up to 512(3) points. The driving is made up of either one or three orthogonal shear waves. In all cases studied, the compressible component of the velocity in the statistically steady regime is weaker than its solenoidal counterpart by roughly a factor of 6. Exponents for the longitudinal component of the velocity are comparable to what is found in the incompressible case and appear insensitive to the presence of numerous shocks. Scaling exponents of the transverse components of the velocity are comparable to those for the longitudinal component. Density and entropy structure functions display strong departures from linear scaling. Finally, the scaling of structure functions of the energy transfer is also given and compared with the Kolmogorov refined similarity hypothesis.

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PubMed2000

Exact relationship for third-order structure functions in helical flows

An exact law for turbulent flows is written for third-order structure functions taking into account the invariance of helicity, a law akin to the so-called "4/5 law" of Kolmogorov. Here, the flow is assumed to be homogeneous, incompressible and isotropic but not invariant under reflectional symmetry. Our result is consistent with the derivation by O. Chkhetiani [JETP Lett. 10, 808, (1996)] of the von Karman-Howarth equation in the helical case, leading to a linear scaling relation for the third-order velocity correlation function. The alternative relation of the Kolmogorov type we derive here is written in terms of mixed structure functions involving combinations of differences of all components for both the velocity and vorticity fields. This relationship could prove to be a stringent test for the measuring of vorticity in the laboratory, and provide a supplementary tool for the study of the properties of helical flows.

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