2019/09/12 by Adrián Lozano-Durán, Marios-Andreas Nikolaidis, Lozano-Durán, Adrián +5 · 2 citations
Engineering · #Aerodynamics and Acoustics in Jet Flows #Computational Physics (physics.comp-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Fluid Dynamics (physics.flu-dyn) #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Fluid Dynamics and Vibration Analysis
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1909.05490
openalex publication_date 2019/09/12 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Despite the nonlinear nature of wall turbulence, there is evidence that the mechanism underlying the energy transfer from the mean flow to the turbulent fluctuations can be ascribed to linear processes. One of the most acclaimed linear instabilities for this energy transfer is the modal growth of perturbations with respect to the streamwise-averaged flow (or streaks). Here, we devise a numerical experiment in which the Navier--Stokes equations are sensibly modified to suppress these modal instabilities. Our results demonstrate that wall turbulence is sustained with realistic mean and fluctuating velocities despite the absence of streak instabilities.