Exact Periodic Solutions of Shells Models of Turbulence

Abstract

We derive exact analytical solutions of the GOY shell model of turbulence. In the absence of forcing and viscosity we obtain closed form solutions in terms of Jacobi elliptic functions. With three shells the model is integrable. In the case of many shells, we derive exact recursion relations for the amplitudes of the Jacobi functions relating the different shells and we obtain a Kolmogorov solution in the limit of infinitely many shells. For the special case of six and nine shells, these recursions relations are solved giving specific analytic solutions. Some of these solutions are stable whereas others are unstable. All our predictions are substantiated by numerical simulations of the GOY shell model. From these simulations we also identify cases where the models exhibits transitions to chaotic states lying on strange attractors or ergodic energy surfaces.