2004/02/09 by L. Moriconi
Engineering · Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Particle Dynamics in Fluid Flows #Wind and Air Flow Studies #cond-mat.stat-mech
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physreve.70.025302
published as Phys. Rev. E 70, R25302 (2004). · 4 pages, RevTex4, 1 figure
arxiv created 2004/02/09 · openalex publication_date 2004/08/24 · arxiv updated 2009/12/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
We investigate statistical properties of vorticity fluctuations in fully developed turbulence, which are known to exhibit a strong intermittent behavior. Taking as the starting point the Navier-Stokes equations with a random force term correlated at large scales, we obtain in the high Reynolds number regime a closed analytical expression for the probability distribution function of an arbitrary component of the vorticity field. The central idea underlying the analysis consists in the restriction of the velocity configurational phase-space to a particular sector where the rate of strain and the rotation tensors can be locally regarded as slow and fast degrees of freedom, respectively. This prescription is implemented along the Martin-Siggia-Rose functional framework, whereby instantons and perturbations around them are taken into account within a steepest-descent approach.