Single-Particle Motion and Vortex Stretching in Three-Dimensional Turbulent Flows

Alain Pumir, Haitao Xu, Eberhard Bodenschatz, and Rainer Grauer
Phys. Rev. Lett. 116, 124502 – Published 24 March 2016

Abstract

Three-dimensional turbulent flows are characterized by a flux of energy from large to small scales, which breaks the time reversal symmetry. The motion of tracer particles, which tend to lose energy faster than they gain it, is also irreversible. Here, we connect the time irreversibility in the motion of single tracers with vortex stretching and thus with the generation of the smallest scales.

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  • Received 26 November 2015

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1103/PhysRevLett.116.124502

© 2016 American Physical Society

Physics Subject Headings (PhySH)

Fluid Dynamics

Authors & Affiliations

Alain Pumir1,2,*, Haitao Xu2,3,†, Eberhard Bodenschatz2,4,5, and Rainer Grauer6

  • 1Ecole Normale Supérieure de Lyon, 69007 Lyon, France
  • 2Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization (MPIDS), 37077 Göttingen, Germany
  • 3Center for Combustion Energy and Department of Thermal Engineering, Tsinghua University, 100084 Beijing, China
  • 4Institute for Nonlinear Dynamics, University of Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
  • 5Laboratory of Atomic and Solid State Physics and Sibley School of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, New York 14853, USA
  • 6Institute for Theoretical Physics I, Ruhr Universität Bochum, 44780 Bochum, Germany

  • *alain.pumir@ens-lyon.fr
  • hxu@tsinghua.edu.cn

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Issue

Vol. 116, Iss. 12 — 25 March 2016

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