Explicit expressions for eddy-diffusivity fields and effective large-scale advection in turbulent transport. (19th April 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Boi, S.; Mazzino, A.; Lacorata, G.
• Is Part Of: Journal of fluid mechanics. Volume 795(2016:May)
• Page Start: 524
• Page End: 548
• Publication Date: 2016-04-19
• Subjects: homogeneous turbulence, -- isotropic turbulence, -- turbulent mixing; Fluid mechanics -- Periodicals; 532.005
• DOI: 10.1017/jfm.2016.220
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 0022-1120

Abstract

Abstract : Large-scale transport is investigated in terms of new explicit expressions for eddy diffusivities and effective advection obtained from asymptotic perturbative methods. The carrier flow is formed by a large-scale component plus a small-scale contribution mimicking a turbulent flow. The scalar dynamics is observed in its pre-asymptotic regimes (i.e. on scales comparable to those of the large-scale velocity). The resulting eddy diffusivity is thus a tensor field which explicitly depends on the large-scale velocity. Small-scale interactions also cause the emergence of an effective large-scale (compressible) advection field which, as a result of the present study however, turns out to be of negligible importance. Two issues are addressed by means of Lagrangian simulations: quantifying the possible deterioration of the eddy-diffusivity/effective advection description by reducing to zero the spectral gap separating the large-scale velocity component from the small-scale component; comparing the accuracy of our closure against other simple, reasonable, options. Answering these questions is important in view of possible applications of our closure to tracer dispersion in environmental flows.