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Updated: Dec 28, 2025

The Diffusion of Passive Tracers in Laminar Shear Flow
Published on: May 1, 2018
Small-scale universality in the spectral structure of transitional pipe flows
Rory T Cerbus1, Chien-Chia Liu1, Gustavo Gioia2
1Fluid Mechanics Unit, Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University, Onna-son, Okinawa 904-0495, Japan.
Abstract:
Turbulent flows are not only everywhere, but every turbulent flow is the same at small scales. The extraordinary simplification engendered by this "small-scale universality" is a hallmark of turbulence theory. However, on the basis of the restrictive assumptions invoked by A. N. Kolmogorov to demonstrate this universality, it is widely thought that only idealized turbulent flows conform to this framework. Using experiments and simulations that span a wide range of Reynolds number, we show that small-scale universality governs the spectral structure of a class of flows with no apparent ties to the idealized flows: transitional pipe flows. Our results not only extend the universality of Kolmogorov's framework beyond expectation but also establish an unexpected link between transitional pipe flows and Kolmogorovian turbulence.
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