arXiv subjects

Ganapati Sahoo

Publications and source records attributed to Ganapati Sahoo.

13 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2020

Direct Numerical Simulations of Three-dimensional Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence with Random, Power-law Forcing

We present pseudospectral direct-numerical-simulation (DNS) studies of the three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) equations (3DRFMHD) with a stochastic force that has zero mean and a variance $\sim k^{-3}$, where $k$ is the wavenumber, because 3DRFMHD is used in field-theoretic studies of the scaling of energy spectra in MHD turbulence. We obtain velocity and magnetic-field spectra and structure functions and, from these, the multiscaling exponent ratios $ζ_p/ζ_3$, by using the extended self similarity (ESS) procedure. These exponent ratios lie within error bars of their counterparts for conventional three-dimensional MHD turbulence (3DMHD). We then carry out a systematic comparison of the statistical properties of 3DMHD and 3DRFMHD turbulence by examining various probability distribution functions (PDFs), joint PDFs, and isosurfaces of of, e.g., the moduli of the vorticity and the current density for three magnetic Prandtl numbers ${\rm Pr_M} = 0.1,~1$, and $10$.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2020

Anisotropy and multifractal analysis of turbulent velocity and temperature in the roughness sublayer of a forested canopy

Anisotropy and multifractality in velocity and temperature time series sampled at multiple heights in the roughness sublayer (RSL) over a boreal mixed-coniferous forest are reported. In particular, a turbulent-stress invariant analysis along with a scalewise version of it are conducted to elucidate the nature of relaxation of large-scale anisotropy to quasi-isotropic states at small scales. As the return to isotropy is linked to nonlinear interactions and correlations between different fluctuating velocity components across scales, we study the velocity and temperature time series by using multifractal detrended fluctuation analysis and multiscale multifractal analysis to assess the effects of thermal stratification and surface roughness on turbulence in the RSL. The findings are compared so as to quantify the anisotropy and multifractality ubiquitous to RSL turbulent flow. As we go up in the RSL, (a) the length scale at which return to isotropy commences increases because of the weakening of the surface effects and (b) the largest scales become increasingly anisotropic. The anisotropy in multifractal exponents for the velocity fluctuations is diminished when we use the extended-self-similarity procedure to extract the multifractal-exponent ratios.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Energy Cascade and Intermittency in Helically Decomposed Navier-Stokes Equations

We study the nature of the triadic interactions in Fourier space for three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations based on the helicity content of the participating modes. Using the tool of helical Fourier decomposition we are able to access the effects of a group of triads on the energy cascade process and on the small-scale intermittency. We show that while triadic interactions involving modes with only one sign of helicity results to an inverse cascade of energy and to a complete depletion of the intermittency, absence of such triadic interactions has no visible effect on the energy cascade and on the inertial-range intermittency of the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Discontinuous transition from direct to inverse cascade in three-dimensional turbulence

Inviscid invariants of flow equations are crucial in determining the direction of the turbulent energy cascade. In this work we investigate a variant of the three dimensional Navier-Stokes equations that shares exactly the same ideal invariants (energy and helicity) and the same symmetries (under rotations, reflexions and scale transforms) as the original equations. It is demonstrated that the examined system displays a change in the direction of the energy cascade when varying the value of a free parameter which controls the relative weights of the triadic interactions between different helical Fourier modes. The transition from a forward to inverse cascade is shown to occur at a critical point in a discontinuous manner with diverging fluctuations close to criticality. Our work thus supports the observation that purely isotropic and three dimensional flow configurations can support inverse energy transfer when interactions are altered and that inside all turbulent flows there is a competition among forward and backward transfer mechanism which might lead to multiple energy-containing turbulent states.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2017

Effects of magnetic and kinetic helicities on the growth of magnetic fields in laminar and turbulent flows by helical-Fourier decomposition

We present a numerical and analytical study of incompressible homogeneous conducting fluids using a helical Fourier representation. We analytically study both small- and large-scale dynamo properties, as well as the inverse cascade of magnetic helicity, in the most general minimal subset of interacting velocity and magnetic fields on a closed Fourier triad. We mainly focus on the dependency of magnetic field growth as a function of the distribution of kinetic and magnetic helicities among the three interacting wavenumbers. By combining direct numerical simulations of the full magnetohydrodynamics equations with the helical Fourier decomposition we numerically confirm that in the kinematic dynamo regime the system develops a large-scale magnetic helicity with opposite sign compared to the small-scale kinetic helicity, a sort of triad-by-triad $α$-effect in Fourier space. Concerning the small-scale perturbations, we predict theoretically and confirm numerically that the largest instability is achieved for the magnetic component with the same helicity of the flow, in agreement with the Stretch-Twist-Fold mechanism. Vice versa, in presence of a Lorentz feedback on the velocity, we find that the inverse cascade of magnetic helicity is mostly local if magnetic and kinetic helicities have opposite sign, while it is more nonlocal and more intense if they have the same sign, as predicted by the analytical approach. Our analytical and numerical results further demonstrate the potential of the helical Fourier decomposition to elucidate the entangled dynamics of magnetic and kinetic helicities both in fully developed turbulence and in laminar flows.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Helicity statistics in homogeneous and isotropic turbulence and turbulence models

We study the statistical properties of helicity in direct numerical simulations of fully developed homogeneous and isotropic turbulence and in a class of turbulence shell models. We consider correlation functions based on combinations of vorticity and velocity increments that are not invariant under mirror symmetry. We also study the scaling properties of high-order structure functions based on the moments of the velocity increments projected on a subset of modes with either positive or negative helicity (chirality). We show that mirror symmetry is recovered at small-scales, i.e., chiral terms are subleading and they are well captured by a dimensional argument plus anomalous corrections. These findings are also supported by a high Reynolds numbers study of helical shell models with the same chiral symmetry of Navier-Stokes equations.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2016

Dynamic multiscaling in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

We present the first study of the multiscaling of time-dependent velocity and magnetic-field structure functions in homogeneous, isotropic magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in three dimensions. We generalize the formalism that has been developed for analogous studies of time-dependent structure functions in fluid turbulence to MHD. By carrying out detailed numerical studies of such time-dependent structure functions in a shell model for three-dimensional MHD turbulence, we obtain both equal-time and dynamic scaling exponents.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2016

Role of helicity for large- and small-scale turbulent fluctuations

The effect of the helicity on the dynamics of the turbulent flows is investigated. The aim is to disentangle the role of helicity in fixing the direction, the intensity and the fluctuations of the energy transfer across the inertial range of scales. We introduce an external parameter, $α$, that controls the mismatch between the number of positive and negative helically polarized Fourier modes. We present the first set of direct numerical simulations of Navier-Stokes equations from the fully symmetrical case, $α=0$, to the fully asymmetrical case, $α=1$, when only helical modes of one sign survive. We found a singular dependency of the direction of the energy cascade on $α$, measuring a positive forward flux as soon as only a few modes with different helical polarities are present. On the other hand, small-scales fluctuations are sensitive only to the degree of mode-reduction, leading to a vanishing intermittency already for values of $α\sim 0.1$ and independently of the degree of mirror symmetry-breaking. Our findings suggest that intermittency is the result of a global mode-coupling in Fourier space.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2015

Disentangling the triadic interactions in Navier-Stokes equations

We study the role of helicity in the dynamics of energy transfer in a modified version of the Navier-Stokes equations with explicit breaking of the mirror symmetry. We select different set of triads participating in the dynamics on the basis of their helicity content. In particular, we remove the negative helically polarized Fourier modes at all wavenumbers except for those falling on a localized shell of wavenumber, $|{\bf k}| \sim k_m$. Changing $k_m$ to be above or below the forcing scale, $k_f$, we are able to assess the energy transfer of triads belonging to different interaction classes. We observe that when the negative helical modes are present only at wavenumber smaller than the forced wavenumbers, an inverse energy cascade develops with an accumulation of energy on a stationary helical condensate. Vice versa, when negative helical modes are present only at wavenumber larger than the forced wavenumbers, a transition from backward to forward energy transfer is observed in the regime when the minority modes become energetic enough.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2013

Multiscaling in Hall-Magnetohydrodynamic Turbulence: Insights from a Shell Model

We show that a shell-model version of the three-dimensional Hall-magnetohydrodynamic (3D Hall-MHD) equations provides a natural theoretical model for investigating the multiscaling behaviors of velocity and magnetic structure functions. We carry out extensive numerical studies of this shell model, obtain the scaling exponents for its structure functions, in both the low-$k$ and high-$k$ power-law ranges of 3D Hall-MHD, and find that the extended-self-similarity (ESS) procedure is helpful in extracting the multiscaling nature of structure functions in the high-$k$ regime, which otherwise appears to display simple scaling. Our results shed light on intriguing solar-wind measurements.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2012

Real-space Manifestations of Bottlenecks in Turbulence Spectra

An energy-spectrum bottleneck, a bump in the turbulence spectrum between the inertial and dissipation ranges, is shown to occur in the non-turbulent, one-dimensional, hyperviscous Burgers equation and found to be the Fourier-space signature of oscillations in the real-space velocity, which are explained by boundary-layer-expansion techniques. Pseudospectral simulations are used to show that such oscillations occur in velocity correlation functions in one- and three-dimensional hyperviscous hydrodynamical equations that display genuine turbulence.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2010

Systematics of the magnetic-Prandtl-number dependence of homogeneous, isotropic magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

We present the results of our detailed pseudospectral direct numerical simulation (DNS) studies, with up to $1024^3$ collocation points, of incompressible, magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in three dimensions, without a mean magnetic field. Our study concentrates on the dependence of various statistical properties of both decaying and statistically steady MHD turbulence on the magnetic Prandtl number ${\rm Pr_M}$ over a large range, namely, $0.01 \leq {\rm Pr_M} \leq 10$. We obtain data for a wide variety of statistical measures such as probability distribution functions (PDFs) of moduli of the vorticity and current density, the energy dissipation rates, and velocity and magnetic-field increments, energy and other spectra, velocity and magnetic-field structure functions, which we use to characterise intermittency, isosurfaces of quantities such as the moduli of the vorticity and current, and joint PDFs such as those of fluid and magnetic dissipation rates. Our systematic study uncovers interesting results that have not been noted hitherto. In particular, we find a crossover from larger intermittency in the magnetic field than in the velocity field, at large ${\rm Pr_M}$, to smaller intermittency in the magnetic field than in the velocity field, at low ${\rm Pr_M}$. Furthermore, a comparison of our results for decaying MHD turbulence and its forced, statistically steady analogue suggests that we have strong universality in the sense that, for a fixed value of ${\rm Pr_M}$, multiscaling exponent ratios agree, at least within our errorbars, for both decaying and statistically steady homogeneous, isotropic MHD turbulence.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2009

Dynamo Onset as a First-Order Transition: Lessons from a Shell Model for Magnetohydrodynamics

We carry out systematic and high-resolution studies of dynamo action in a shell model for magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence over wide ranges of the magnetic Prandtl number $Pr_{\rm M}$ and the magnetic Reynolds number $Re_{\rm M}$. Our study suggests that it is natural to think of dynamo onset as a nonequilibrium, first-order phase transition between two different turbulent, but statistically steady, states. The ratio of the magnetic and kinetic energies is a convenient order parameter for this transition. By using this order parameter, we obtain the stability diagram (or nonequilibrium phase diagram) for dynamo formation in our MHD shell model in the $(Pr^{-1}_{\rm M}, Re_{\rm M})$ plane. The dynamo boundary, which separates dynamo and no-dynamo regions, appears to have a fractal character. We obtain hysteretic behavior of the order parameter across this boundary and suggestions of nucleation-type phenomena.

nlin.CD↗