Author:

Keywords:

turbulence, intermittency, langevin equation, markov process, small-scale turbulence, intermittent turbulence, statistical properties, self-similarity, Science & Technology, Physical Sciences, Mathematics, Applied, Physics, Fluids & Plasmas, Physics, Multidisciplinary, Physics, Mathematical, Mathematics, Physics, Langevin equation, Markov process, SMALL-SCALE TURBULENCE, INTERMITTENT TURBULENCE, STATISTICAL PROPERTIES, SELF-SIMILARITY, 0102 Applied Mathematics, Fluids & Plasmas, 4901 Applied mathematics, 4902 Mathematical physics, 4903 Numerical and computational mathematics

Abstract:

Experimental data from a turbulent jet how is analysed in terms of an additive, continuous stochastic process where the usual time variable is replaced by the scale. We show that the energy transfer through scales is well described by a linear Langevin equation, and discuss the statistical properties of the corresponding random force in detail. We find that the autocorrelation function of the random force decays rapidly: the process is therefore Markov for scales larger than Kolmogorov's dissipation scale eta. The corresponding autocorrelation scale is identified as the elementary step of the energy cascade. However, the probability distribution function of the random force is both non-Gaussian and weakly scale-dependent. (C) 1998 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.