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Updated: Aug 12, 2025
06:42
Magnetically Induced Rotating Rayleigh-Taylor Instability
Published on: March 3, 2017
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Observing a dynamical skeleton of turbulence in Taylor-Couette flow experiments
C J Crowley1, J L Pughe-Sanford1, W Toler1
1Center for Nonlinear Science and School of Physics, Georgia Institute of Technology, 837 State Street, Atlanta, GA 30332, USA.
Summary
Turbulent fluid flow dynamics are structured by recurrent solutions. This study confirms that turbulence mimics these solutions in both simulations and experiments, paving the way for improved turbulence forecasting and control.
Area of Science:
- Fluid dynamics
- Turbulence research
- Nonlinear dynamics
Background:
- Recurrent solutions significantly influence turbulent flow dynamics.
- Previous methods exist for detecting these solutions in turbulent flows.
- Understanding turbulence structure is crucial for various applications.
Purpose of the Study:
- To detect and analyze intervals where turbulence mimics recurrent solutions.
- To compare findings between numerical simulations and laboratory experiments.
- To establish a foundation for experimental dynamical descriptions of turbulence.
Main Methods:
- Utilized an improved detection and analysis method for recurrent solutions.
- Applied the method to both numerical simulations and laboratory experiments.
- Investigated wall-bounded shear flows.
Main Results:
- Identified recurrent solutions shadowed by turbulence in both numerical and experimental data.
- Confirmed that all numerically shadowed recurrent solutions were also observed in experiments.
- Found agreement in the statistical measures of shadowing between simulations and experiments.
Conclusions:
- Experimental validation of recurrent solutions in turbulence dynamics.
- Enables experimentally grounded dynamical descriptions of turbulence.
- Opens avenues for turbulence forecasting and control in wall-bounded shear flows.
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