Large-scale bottleneck effect in two-dimensional turbulence

Wouter J.T. Bos (1) , Jean-Pierre Bertoglio (1)

1 LMFA - Laboratoire de Mecanique des Fluides et d'Acoustique

The bottleneck phenomenon in three-dimensional turbulence is generally associated with the dissipation range of the energy spectrum. In the present work, it is shown by using a two-point closure theory, that in two-dimensional turbulence it is possible to observe a bottleneck at the large scales, due to the effect of friction on the inverse energy cascade. This large-scale bottleneck is directly related to the process of energy condensation, the pile-up of energy at wavenumbers corresponding to the domain size. The link between the use of friction and the creation of space-filling structures is discussed and it is concluded that the careless use of hypofriction might reduce the inertial range of the energy spectrum.

Mots clés: homogeneous turbulence; isotropic turbulence; two-dimensional turbulence

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]; Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Wouter J.T. Bos, Jean-Pierre Bertoglio. Large-scale bottleneck effect in two-dimensional turbulence. Journal of Turbulence, 2009, 10, pp.1-8. ⟨10.1080/14685240903273873⟩. ⟨hal-00461425⟩