2021/03/31 by Javier Jiménez
Engineering · Physics and Astronomy · #Component (thermodynamics) #Flow (mathematics) #Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows #Fluid dynamics and aerodynamics studies #Kinetic energy #Particle Dynamics in Fluid Flows #Scale (ratio) #Sign (mathematics) #Turbulence #Vortex #Vorticity #physics.flu-dyn
paper · pdf · doi:10.1103/physrevfluids.6.084601
published as Phys. Rev. Fluids, 6:084601 (2021)
openalex created_date 2021/03/29 · arxiv created 2021/07/03 · openalex publication_date 2021/08/02 · arxiv updated 2021/08/04 · openalex updated_date 2026/08/05
The kinetic energy in two-dimensional turbulence evolves towards larger sizes, eventually condensing into quasi-steady states of a few vortices at the scale of the simulation domain. When this happens in decaying turbulence, the flow initially segregates into a background of fast-moving small vortices and a system of larger ones that move more slowly. The slow component is shown here to form a low-energy `stochastic crystal' in which vortices of opposite sign locally screen each other. Screening has long been conjectured for turbulence, and its mechanism is documented here, but global ordering is believed to be a new observation.