arXiv subjects

Genta Kawahara

Publications and source records attributed to Genta Kawahara.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Data-driven low-dimensional model for the onset of turbulence in plane Couette flow

We construct low-dimensional dynamical systems for low-Reynolds-number turbulence in plane Couette flow using Kernel Quantile Regression. Exploiting the finite-dimensional structure of attractors in dissipative systems, reduced-order models are learned from direct numerical simulation data using a small set of physically meaningful observables. The resulting discrete-time models accurately reproduce periodic and chaotic dynamics near the onset of turbulence. The minimum number of variables required for accurate prediction is found to be consistent with embedding theory based on the attractor dimension. For chaotic regimes, the models capture both short-term trajectory evolution and long-term statistical properties, including probability density functions. By incorporating the Reynolds number as an additional input variable, we further develop a parameter-dependent model that successfully reproduces the bifurcation structure over a range of Reynolds numbers, including bifurcations between training points. These results demonstrate the effectiveness of machine-learning-based reduced-order modeling for capturing the essential dynamics and statistics of weakly turbulent flows.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2026

Rigorous ultimate scaling in rapidly rotating steady convection

Rapidly rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection admits a class of exact steady single-mode solutions describing high-amplitude convection cells. Using a matched asymptotic analysis in the high-Rayleigh-number limit, we obtain a rigorous characterization of their bulk and boundary-layer structure, yielding explicit scaling laws for the Nusselt and Reynolds numbers, including their dependence on the horizontal wavenumber. We show that, for suitable wavenumbers, these solutions attain the diffusivity-free ultimate scalings frequently assumed for geophysical and astrophysical convection, with additional enhancing logarithmic corrections. This reveals a specific mechanism through which rapidly rotating convection can approach ultimate heat transport via coherent columnar structures with well-defined horizontal scales.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2026

Passive scalar cascade in the intermediate layer of turbulent channel flow for $Pr\leq 1$

Similarities and differences between Kolmogorov scale-by-scale equilibria/non-equilibria for velocity and scalar fields are investigated in the intermediate layer of a fully developed turbulent channel flow with a passive scalar/temperature field driven by a uniform heat source. The analysis is based on intermediate asymptotics and direct numerical simulations at different Prandtl numbers lower than unity. Similarly to what happens to the velocity fluctuations, for the fluctuating scalar field Kolmogorov scale-by-scale equilibrium is achieved asymptotically around a length scale $r_{min}$, which is located below the inertial range. The lengthscale $r_{min}$ and the ratio between the inter-scale transfer and dissipation rates at $r_{min}$ vary following power laws of the Prandtl number, with exponents determined by matched asymptotics based on the hypothesis of homogeneous two-point physics in non-homogeneous turbulence. The interscale transfer rates of turbulent kinetic energy and passive scalar variance are globally similar but show evident differences when their aligned/anti-aligned contributions are considered.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2026

Multiscale quasi time-periodic coherent structures in shear flows

Attempts to disentangle shear-flow turbulence often focus on identifying relatively simple solutions, such as travelling waves or periodic orbits. We show, however, that capturing multiscale features requires considering states at least as complex as quasi-time-periodic solutions. Approximations of these states can be computed efficiently using a quasi-linear model, consistent with the large-Reynolds-number asymptotic analysis. The quasi-linear structure is key to producing multiscale critical layers that generate vortices obeying Taylor frozen-flow hypothesis.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2025

Chaotic and time-periodic edge states in square duct flow

We analyse the dynamics within the stability boundary between laminar and turbulent square duct flow with the aid of an edge-tracking algorithm. As for the circular pipe, the edge state turns out to be a chaotic attractor within the edge if the flow is not constrained to a symmetric subspace. The chaotic edge state dynamics is characterised by a sequence of alternating quiescent phases and regularly occurring bursting episodes. These latter reflect the different stages of the well-known streak-vortex interaction in near-wall turbulence: The edge states feature most of the time a single streak with a number of flanking quasi-streamwise vortices attached to one of the four surrounding walls. The initially straight streak undergoes the classical linear instability and eventually breaks in an intense bursting event due to the action of the quasi-streamwise vortices. At the same time, the vortices give rise to a new generation of low-speed streaks at one of the neighbouring walls, thereby causing the turbulent activity to `switch' from one wall to the other. When restricting the edge dynamics to a single or twofold mirror-symmetric subspace, on the other hand, the outlined bursting and wall-switching episodes become self-recurrent in time. These edge states thus represent the first periodic orbits found in the square duct. In contrast to the chaotic edge states in the non-symmetric case, the imposed symmetries enforce analogue bursting cycles to simultaneously appear at two parallel opposing walls in a mirror-symmetric configuration. Both localisation of the turbulent activity to one or two walls and wall switching are shown to be a common phenomenon in low Reynolds number duct turbulence. We therefore argue that the marginally turbulent trajectories transiently visit the identified edge states during these episodes, so that the edge states become actively involved in the turbulent dynamics.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

The ultimate state of turbulent permeable-channel flow

Direct numerical simulations have been performed for heat and momentum transfer in internally heated turbulent shear flow with constant bulk mean velocity and temperature, $u_{b}$ and $θ_{b}$, between parallel, isothermal, no-slip and permeable walls. The wall-normal transpiration velocity on the walls $y=\pm h$ is assumed to be proportional to the local pressure fluctuations, i.e. $v=\pm βp/ρ$ (Jiménez et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 442, 2001, pp.89-117). The temperature is supposed to be a passive scalar, and the Prandtl number is set to unity. Turbulent heat and momentum transfer in permeable-channel flow for $βu_{b}=0.5$ has been found to exhibit distinct states depending on the Reynolds number $Re_b=2h u_b/ν$. At $Re_{b}\lesssim 10^4$, the classical Blasius law of the friction coefficient and its similarity to the Stanton number, $St\approx c_{f}\sim Re_{b}^{-1/4}$, are observed, whereas at $Re_{b}\gtrsim 10^4$, the so-called ultimate scaling, $St\sim Re_b^0$ and $c_{f}\sim Re_b^0$, is found. The ultimate state is attributed to the appearance of large-scale intense spanwise rolls with the length scale of $O(h)$ arising from the Kelvin-Helmholtz type of shear-layer instability over the permeable walls. The large-scale rolls can induce large-amplitude velocity fluctuations of $O(u_b)$ as in free shear layers, so that the Taylor dissipation law $ε\sim u_{b}^{3}/h$ (or equivalently $c_{f}\sim Re_b^0$) holds. In spite of strong turbulence promotion there is no flow separation, and thus large-amplitude temperature fluctuations of $O(θ_b)$ can also be induced similarly. As a consequence, the ultimate heat transfer is achieved, i.e., a wall heat flux scales with $u_{b}θ_{b}$ (or equivalently $St\sim Re_b^0$) independent of thermal diffusivity, although the heat transfer on the walls is dominated by thermal conduction.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Bifurcation structure of unstable periodic orbits in plane Couette flow with the Smagorinsky model

In order to obtain insights into dynamics of developed plane Couette turbulence, this paper considers bifurcation structure of unstable periodic orbits (UPOs) in the large-eddy-simulation (LES) system with the Smagorinsky-type eddy viscosity model. Treating the Smagorinsky constant as a bifurcation parameter, we detect the bifurcation points connecting two known UPOs which were separately discovered in the Navier--Stokes system [G. Kawahara and S. Kida, J. Fluid Mech., 449, 291--300 (2001)]. At the moderately high Reynolds number, the LES UPO of the present study possesses the spanwise vortices which seem to be caused by the streak instability and appear in the central region of the channel. We note that to our knowledge a spanwise vortex has not been reported through the UPO analysis of wall flows. The stretched spanwise vortices of the LES UPO enhance transfer of the streamwise turbulent momentum as in developed near-wall turbulence.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2020

Ultimate heat transfer in `wall-bounded' convective turbulence

Direct numerical simulations have been performed for turbulent thermal convection between horizontal no-slip, permeable walls with a distance $H$ and a constant temperature difference $ΔT$ at the Rayleigh number $Ra=3\times10^{3}-10^{10}$. On the no-slip wall surfaces $z=0$, $H$ the wall-normal (vertical) transpiration velocity is assumed to be proportional to the local pressure fluctuation, i.e. $w=-βp'/ρ, +βp'/ρ$ (Jiménez et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 442, 2001, pp. 89-117), and the property of the permeable wall is given by the permeability parameter $βU$ normalised with the buoyancy-induced terminal velocity $U={(gαΔTH)}^{1/2}$, where $ρ$, $g$ and $α$ are mass density, acceleration due to gravity and volumetric thermal expansivity, respectively. A zero net mass flux through the wall is instantaneously ensured, and thermal convection is driven only by buoyancy without any additional energy inputs. The critical transition of heat transfer in convective turbulence has been found between the two $Ra$ regimes for fixed $βU=3$ and fixed Prandtl number $Pr=1$. In the subcritical regime at lower $Ra$ the Nusselt number $Nu$ scales with $Ra$ as $Nu\sim Ra^{1/3}$, as commonly observed in turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection. In the supercritical regime at higher $Ra$, on the other hand, the ultimate scaling $Nu\sim Ra^{1/2}$ is achieved, meaning that the wall-to-wall heat flux scales with $UΔT$ independent of the thermal diffusivity, although the heat transfer on the wall is dominated by thermal conduction. The physical mechanisms of the achievement of the ultimate heat transfer are presented.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2020

Multi-scale steady solution for Rayleigh-Bénard convection

We have found a multi-scale steady solution of the Boussinesq equations for Rayleigh-Bénard convection in a three-dimensional periodic domain between horizontal plates with a constant temperature difference by using a homotopy from the wall-to-wall optimal transport solution given by Motoki et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 851, 2018, R4). The connected steady solution, which turns out to be a consequence of bifurcation from a thermal conduction state at the Rayleigh number $Ra\sim10^{3}$, is tracked up to $Ra\sim10^{7}$ by using a Newton-Krylov iteration. The exact coherent thermal convection exhibits scaling $Nu\sim Ra^{0.31}$ (where $Nu$ is the Nusselt number) as well as multi-scale thermal plume and vortex structures, which are quite similar to those in the turbulent Rayleigh-Bénard convection. The mean temperature profiles and the root-mean-square of the temperature and velocity fluctuations are in good agreement with those of the turbulent states. Furthermore, the energy spectrum follows Kolmogorov's -5/3 scaling law with a consistent prefactor, and the energy transfer to smaller scales in the wavenumber space agrees with the turbulent energy transfer.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2020

Can preferential concentration of finite-size particles in plane Couette turbulence be reproduced with the aid of equilibrium solutions?

This work employs for the first time invariant solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations to study the interaction between finite-size particles and near-wall coherent structures. We consider horizontal plane Couette flow and focus on Nagata's upper-branch equilibrium solution (Nagata, 1990) at low Reynolds numbers where this solution is linearly stable. When adding a single heavy particle with a diameter equivalent to 2.5 wall units, we observe that the solution remains stable and is essentially unchanged away from the particle. This result demonstrates that it is technically feasible to utilize exact coherent structures in conjunction with particle-resolved DNS. While translating in the streamwise direction, the particle migrates laterally under the action of the quasi-streamwise vortices until it reaches the region occupied by the low-speed streak, where it attains a periodic state of motion. As a result of the ensuing preferential particle location, the time-average streamwise particle velocity differs from the plane-average fluid-phase velocity at the same wall-distance as the particle center, as previously observed in experiments and in numerical data for fully turbulent wall-bounded flows. Additional constrained simulations where the particle is maintained at a fixed spanwise position while freely translating in the other two directions reveal the existence of two equilibria located in the low-speed and in the high-speed streak, respectively, the former being an unstable point. A parametric study with different particle to fluid density ratios is conducted which shows how inertia affects the spanwise fluctuations of the periodic particle motion. Finally, we discuss a number of potential future investigations of solid particle dynamics which can be conducted with the aid of invariant solutions (exact coherent structures) of the Navier-Stokes equations.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Time-periodic inertial range dynamics

We present an unstable periodic orbit in large eddy simulation of an incompressible fluid in a periodic box subject to a constant body force. The width of the inertial range of spatial scales, on which this simulation models high-Reynolds-number turbulence, is about three quarters of a decade, and a significant $-5/3$ scaling range is observed. We identify events of intense energy transfer across spatial scales and relate them to vortical dynamics.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Periodic motion representing isotropic turbulence

Temporally periodic solutions are extracted numerically from forced box turbulence with high symmetry. Since they are unstable to small perturbations, they are not found by forward integration but can be captured by Newton-Raphson iterations. Several periodic flows of various periods are identified for the micro-scale Reynolds number $R_λ$ between $50$ and $67$. The statistical properties of these periodic flows are compared with those of turbulent flow. It is found that the one with the longest period, which is two to three times the large-eddy-turnover time of turbulence, exhibits the same behaviour quantitatively as turbulent flow. In particular, we compare the energy spectrum, the Reynolds number dependence of the energy-dissipation rate, the pattern of the energy-cascade process, and the magnitude of the largest Lyapunov exponent. This periodic motion consists of high-activity and low-activity periods, which turbulence approaches, more often around its low-activity part, at the rate of once over a few eddy-turnover times. With reference to this periodic motion the Kaplan-York dimension and the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy of the turbulence with high symmetry are estimated at $R_λ=67$ to be $19.7$ and $0.992$ respectively. The significance of such periodic solutions, embedded in turbulence, for turbulence analysis is discussed.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Maximal heat transfer between two parallel plates

The divergence-free time-independent velocity vector field has been determined so as to maximise heat transfer between two parallel plates of a constant temperature difference under the constraint of fixed total enstrophy. The present variational problem is the same as that first formulated by Hassanzadeh $\it et{\ }al$. (2014); however, a search range of optimal states has been extended to a three-dimensional velocity field. The scaling of the Nusselt number $Nu$ with the Péclet number $Pe$ (i.e., the square root of the non-dimensionalised enstrophy with thermal diffusion timescale), $Nu\sim Pe^{2/3}$, has been found in the three-dimensional optimal states, corresponding to the asymptotic scaling with the Rayleigh number $Ra$, $Nu\sim Ra^{1/2}$, in extremely-high-$Ra$ convective turbulence, and thus to the Taylor energy dissipation law in high-Reynolds-number turbulence. At $Pe\sim10^{0}$, a two-dimensional array of large-scale convection rolls provides maximal heat transfer. A three-dimensional optimal solution emerges from bifurcation on the two-dimensional solution branch at higher $Pe$. At $Pe\gtrsim10^{3}$, the optimised velocity fields consist of convection cells with hierarchical self-similar vortical structures, and the temperature fields exhibit a logarithmic mean profile near the walls.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Periodic orbits in Large Eddy Simulation of Box Turbulence

We describe and compare two time-periodic flows embedded in Large Eddy Simulation (LES) of turbulence in a three-dimensional, periodic domain subject to constant external forcing. One of these flows models the regeneration of large-scale structures that was observed in this geometry by Yasuda et al. ({\sl Fluid Dyn. Res.} {\bf 46}, 061413, 2014), who used a smaller LES filter length and thus obtained a greater separation of scales of coherent motion. We speculate on the feasibility of modelling the regenerative dynamics with time-periodic solutions in such a flow, which may require novel techniques to deal with the extreme ill-conditioning of the associated boundary value problems.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Transitions in large eddy simulation of box turbulence

One promising decomposition of turbulent dynamics is that into building blocks such as equilibrium and periodic solutions and orbits connecting these. While the numerical approximation of such building blocks is feasible for flows in small domains and at low Reynolds numbers, computations in developed turbulence are currently out of reach because of the large number of degrees of freedom necessary to represent Navier-Stokes flow on all relevant spatial scales. We mitigate this problem by applying large eddy simulation (LES), which aims to model, rather than resolve, motion on scales below the filter length, which is fixed by a model parameter. By considering a periodic spatial domain, we avoid complications that arise in LES modelling in the presence of boundary layers. We consider the motion of an LES fluid subject to a constant body force of the Taylor-Green type as the separation between the forcing length scale and the filter length is increased. In particular, we discuss the transition from laminar to weakly turbulent motion, regulated by simple invariant solution, on a grid of $32^3$ points.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Optimal heat transfer enhancement in plane Couette flow

We discuss what is an optimal velocity field for more heat transfer and less energy dissipation under the constraints of the continuity equation for the velocity and the advection-diffusion equation for temperature in plane Couette flow. The excess of a wall heat flux (or equivalently total scalar dissipation) over total energy dissipation is taken as an objective functional, and by using a variational method the Euler-Lagrange equations are derived, which are solved numerically to obtain the optimal states in the sense of maximisation of the functional. At high Reynolds numbers, the optimal heat transfer is found in three-dimensional velocity field in which hierarchical self-similar quasi-streamwise vortical structures appear. The streamwise vortices are tilted in the spanwise direction so that they may produce the anticyclonic vorticity antiparallel to the mean-shear vorticity, bringing about significant three-dimensionality. The isotherms wrapped around the tilted anticyclonic vortices undergo the cross-axial shear of the mean flow, so that the spacing of the wrapped isotherms is narrower and so the temperature gradient is steeper than those around a purely streamwise (two-dimensional) vortex tube, intensifying scalar dissipation and so a wall heat flux. Moreover, the tilted anticyclonic vortices induce the flow towards the wall to push low- (or high-) temperature fluids on the hot (or cold) wall, enhancing a wall heat flux. The optimised three-dimensional velocity fields achieve a much higher wall heat flux and much lower energy dissipation than those of plane Couette turbulence.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2011

The Significance of Simple Invariant Solutions in Turbulent Flows

Recent remarkable progress in computing power and numerical analysis is enabling us to fill a gap in the dynamical systems approach to turbulence. One of the significant advances in this respect has been the numerical discovery of simple invariant sets, such as nonlinear equilibria and periodic solutions, in well-resolved Navier--Stokes flows. This review describes some fundamental and practical aspects of dynamical systems theory for the investigation of turbulence, focusing on recently found invariant solutions and their significance for the dynamical and statistical characterization of low-Reynolds-number turbulent flows. It is shown that the near-wall regeneration cycle of coherent structures can be reproduced by such solutions. The typical similarity laws of turbulence, i.e. the Prandtl wall law and the Kolmogorov law for the viscous range, as well as the pattern and intensity of turbulence-driven secondary flow in a square duct can also be represented by these simple invariant solutions.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2011

A homoclinic tangle on the edge of shear turbulence

Experiments and simulations lend mounting evidence for the edge state hypothesis on subcritical transition to turbulence, which asserts that simple states of fluid motion mediate between laminar and turbulent shear flow as their stable manifolds separate the two in state space. In this Letter we describe a flow homoclinic to a time-periodic edge state. Its existence explains turbulent bursting through the classical Smale-Birkhoff theorem. During a burst, vortical structures and the associated energy dissipation are highly localized near the wall, in contrast to the familiar regeneration cycle.

physics.flu-dyn↗