Linear versus nonlinear response of a forced wave turbulence system

A vibrating plate is set into a chaotic state of wave turbulence by a forcing having periodic and random components. Both components are weighted in order to explore continuously intermediate forcing from the periodic to the random one, but keeping constant its rms value. The transverse velocity of the plate is measured at the application point of the force. It is found that whatever the detail of the forcing is, the velocity spectra exhibit a universal cascade for frequencies larger than the forcing frequency range. In contrast, the velocity spectra strongly depend on the nature of the forcing within the range of forcing frequencies. The coherence function is used to extract the contribution of the velocity fluctuations that display a linear relationship with the forcing. The nonlinear contribution to the velocity fluctuations is found to be almost constant, about 55% of the total velocity fluctuations whatever the nature of the forcing from random to periodic. On the other hand, the nonlinear contribution to the fluctuations of the injected power depends on the nature of the forcing; it is significantly larger for the periodic forcing (60%) and decreases continuously as the randomness is increased, reaching a value of 40% for the pure random forcing. For all the cases of intermediate forcing from random to periodic, a simple model of the velocity response recovers in a fairly good agreement the probability density function of the injected power. The consequence of the existence of a linear-response component is discussed in the context of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem validation in experiments of out-of-equilibrium systems.