Searcharxiv⌕ Search

arXiv subjects

Nicola de Divitiis

Publications and source records attributed to Nicola de Divitiis.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

Numerical Validation of Lyapunov-Liouville Theory and Non-Diffusive Closures in Decaying Isotropic Fluid and Scalar Turbulence

This work validates the Lyapunov--Liouville framework and its non-diffusive closures in decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence (HIT) by numerically integrating the closed von Kármán--Howarth and Corrsin equations via an adaptive solver. Three initial states (Saffman--Birkhoff, Loitsiansky, Gaussian) are analyzed across Prandtl numbers from $Pr=10^{-3}$ to $1000$. The model reproduces the distinct decay paths, with Saffman--Birkhoff yielding velocity and thermal exponents $m \simeq n \simeq -1.25$, while Loitsiansky condition accelerates mechanical decay ($m \simeq -1.51$) and increases thermal persistence ($n \simeq -0.89$). The Gaussian profile induces rapid decay ($m \simeq -2.7$), approaching a critical threshold at $t \simeq 33$ initial Lyapunov times. At $Pr=1000$, the thermal microscale drops below the Kolmogorov scale, with the Batchelor constant settling around $C_B \simeq 3.5$. Calculated Kolmogorov ($C_K \simeq 1.72-1.75$) and Obukhov--Corrsin ($C_{OC} \simeq 1.8$) constants align with benchmarks. Finally, velocity and temperature increment PDFs successfully capture multi-scale intermittency and non-Gaussian statistics, matching DNS and experimental data.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Quantitative Evaluation of Forward and Backward Scattering in Isotropic Turbulence via Hänggi--Klimontovich and Itô Stochastic Processes

This work evaluates the magnitude of the turbulent energy cascade in terms of forward and backward scattering by modeling the "stretch and fold" mechanism through a drift-free Hanggi-Klimontovich stochastic process. Mapping this dynamics onto an equivalent Ito process provides a statistical justification for the uniform distribution of the Lagrangian Lyapunov exponent via the associated Fokker-Planck equation. This continuous distribution is shown to be driven by a Lagrangian bifurcation rate significantly higher than the Lyapunov exponents themselves, reflecting the high frequency with which trajectories encounter the singular surfaces of the velocity gradient. The resulting PDF corresponds to the simultaneous maximization of the information entropy and the Kolmogorov-Sinai entropy. This stochastic formulation, framed within the author's Lyapunov-Liouville analysis, provides a non-diffusive analytical closure of the von Karman-Howarth and Corrsin equations. While forward scattering emerges from trajectory instabilities and bifurcations, backscattering is linked to fluid incompressibility. These phenomena are quantified through the continuously distributed Lyapunov exponents, allowing for an estimation of canonical exponents and fundamental transport properties, such as eddy viscosity, eddy thermal diffusivity, and the turbulent Prandtl number. These parameters, traditionally associated with diffusive models, are shown to emerge naturally from non-diffusive Lagrangian dynamics and bifurcation-driven fluctuations. The analytical results demonstrate close agreement with numerical data available in the literature.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Liouville Spectral Gap and Bifurcation Driven Lagrangian Eulerian Decoupling with Nondiffusive Turbulence Closures

In fully developed homogeneous and isotropic turbulence, the Lagrangian and Eulerian descriptions of motion, although formally equivalent, become statistically decoupled. In this work, by invoking Liouville theorem, we show that the joint probability density function (PDF) of the Eulerian and Lagrangian fields, evolving from arbitrary initial conditions, relaxes exponentially toward a factorized form given by the product of the corresponding marginal PDFs. This relaxation is governed by a genuine spectral gap of the Liouville operator, whose magnitude is primarily set by the bifurcation rate of the velocity gradient dynamics, whereas the contribution of Lyapunov exponents is shown to be significantly smaller. As a consequence, Eulerian Lagrangian correlations decay rapidly, and if the joint PDF is initially factorized, its factorized structure is preserved at all subsequent times, with each marginal evolving independently under the corresponding dynamics. We further show that the formal equivalence between the two descriptions implies the invariance of the relative kinetic energy between arbitrarily chosen points. When combined with the asymmetric statistics of instantaneous finite scale Lyapunov exponents in incompressible turbulence, this property provides a quantitative interpretation of particle pair separation and of the turbulent energy cascade. Finally, these results naturally lead to nondiffusive closure relations for the von Kármán Howarth and Corrsin equations, which coincide with those previously proposed by the author, thereby providing an independent theoretical validation of those closures.

physics.flu-dyn↗

From Bifurcations to State-Variable Statistics in Isotropic Turbulence: Internal Structure, Intermittency, and Kolmogorov Scaling via Non-Observable Quasi-PDFs

This article investigates the intrinsic link between skewness and statistical intermittency in velocity and temperature increments within homogeneous isotropic turbulence. The theoretical framework builds upon the author's previously established closure schemes for the von Karman-Howarth and Corrsin equations. A transition Taylor-scale Reynolds number is first estimated via a formal bifurcation analysis of the closed von Karman-Howarth equation. A central thesis of this work is that while the nonlinearity of the Navier-Stokes equations is fundamentally responsible for intermittency, it is insufficient on its own to recover the Kolmogorov scaling law. We demonstrate that the non-observability of bifurcation modes constitutes the missing conceptual link: the concomitant effect of nonlinearity and non-observability not only determines the Kolmogorov scaling and drives an intermittency that grows monotonically with the Taylor-scale Reynolds number, but also enables the analytical determination of the internal structure functions of velocity and temperature differences, along with their corresponding PDFs and statistics. By invoking Fisher's principle (1922) for statistical description, we show that the entire statistics of increments can be analytically derived through a decomposition into bifurcation modes governed by quasi-probability distribution functions (quasi-PDFs). These provide the formal mathematical basis to also represent local energy backscatter. Notably, the analysis recovers the Kolmogorov law -- specifically the scaling of the velocity standard deviation ratio as R_lambda^(1/2) -- as a consequence of non-observability. Our analysis reveals that bifurcation modes exhibit amplitudes whose third statistical moment scales as R_lambda^(-3). The results show excellent agreement with benchmark numerical and experimental data in the literature.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Turbulent energy cascade through equivalence of Euler and Lagrange motion descriptions and bifurcation rates

This work analyses the homogeneous isotropic turbulence by means of the equivalence between Euler and Lagrange representations of motion, adopting the bifurcation rates associated with Navier--Stokes and kinematic equations, and an appropriate hypothesis of fully developed chaos. The equivalence of these motion descriptions allows to show that kinetic and thermal energy cascade arise both from the convective term of Liouville equation. Accordingly, these phenomena, of nondiffusive nature, correspond to a transport in physical space linked to the trajectories divergence. Both the bifurcation rates are properly defined, where the kinematic bifurcation rate is shown to be much greater than Navier--Stokes bifurcation rate. This justifies the proposed hypothesis of fully developed chaos where velocity field and particles trajectories fluctuations are statistically uncorrelated. Thereafter, a specific ergodic property is presented, which relates the statistics of fluid displacement to that of velocity and temperature fields. A detailed analysis of separation rate is proposed which studies the statistics of radial velocity component along the material separation vector. Based on previous elements, the closure formulas of von Kármán--Howarth and Corrsin equations are finally achieved. These closures, of nondiffusive kind, represent a propagation phenomenon, and coincide with those just presented by the author in previous works, corroborating the results of these latter.

physics.flu-dyn↗

von Kármán--Howarth and Corrsin equations closures through Liouville theorem

In this communication, the closure formulas of von Kármán--Howarth and Corrsin equations are obtained through the Liouville theorem and the hypothesis of homogeneous isotropic incompressible turbulence. Such closures, based on the concept that, in fully developed turbulence, contiguous fluid particles trajectories continuously diverge, are of non--diffusive nature, and express a correlations spatial propagation phenomenon between the several scales which occurs with a propagation speed depending on length scale and velocity standard deviation. These closure formulas coincide with those just obtained in previous works through the finite scale Lyapunov analysis of the fluid act of motion. Here, unlike the other articles, the present study does not use the Lyapunov theory, and provides the closures showing first an exact relationship between the pair spatial correlations calculated with the velocity distribution function and those obtained using the material separation line distribution function. As this analysis does not adopt the Lyapunov theory, this does not need the definition and/or the existence of the Lyapunov exponents. Accordingly, the present proof of the closures results to be more general and rigorous than that presented in the other works, corroborating the previous results. Finally, the conditions of existence of invariants in isotropic turbulence are studied by means of the proposed closures. In the presence of such invariants and self--similarity, the sole evolution of velocity and temperature standard deviations and of the correlation scales is shown to be adequate to fairly describe the isotropic turbulence.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Statistical Lyapunov theory based on bifurcation analysis of energy cascade in isotropic homogeneous turbulence: a physical -- mathematical review

This work presents a review of previous articles dealing with an original turbulence theory proposed by the author, and provides new theoretical insights into some related issues. The new theoretical procedures and methodological approaches confirm and corroborate the previous results. These articles study the regime of homogeneous isotropic turbulence for incompressible fluids and propose theoretical approaches based on a specific Lyapunov theory for determining the closures of the von Kármán-Howarth and Corrsin equations, and the statistics of velocity and temperature difference. Furthermore, novel theoretical issues are here presented among which we can mention the following ones. The bifurcation rate of the velocity gradient, calculated along fluid particles trajectories, is shown to be much larger than the corresponding maximal Lyapunov exponent. On that basis, an interpretation of the energy cascade phenomenon is given and the statistics of finite time Lyapunov exponent of the velocity gradient is shown to be represented by normal distribution functions. Next, the self--similarity produced by the proposed closures is analyzed, and a proper bifurcation analysis of the closed von Kármán--Howarth equation is performed. This latter investigates the route from developed turbulence toward the non--chaotic regimes, leading to an estimate of the critical Taylor scale Reynolds number. A proper statistical decomposition based on extended distribution functions and on the Navier--Stokes equations is presented, which leads to the statistics of velocity and temperature difference.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Statistics of finite scale local Lyapunov exponents in fully developed homogeneous isotropic turbulence

The present work analyzes the statistics of finite scale local Lyapunov exponents of pairs of fluid particles trajectories in fully developed incompressible homogeneous isotropic turbulence. According to the hypothesis of fully developed chaos, this statistics is here analyzed assuming that the entropy associated to the fluid kinematic state is maximum. The distribution of the local Lyapunov exponents results to be an unsymmetrical uniform function in a proper interval of variation. From this PDF, we determine the relationship between average and maximum Lyapunov exponents, and the longitudinal velocity correlation function. This link, which in turn leads to the closure of von Kàrmàn-Howarth and Corrsin equations, agrees with results of previous works, supporting the proposed PDF calculation, at least for the purposes of the energy cascade main effect estimation. Furthermore, through the property that the Lyapunov vectors tend to align the direction of the maximum growth rate of trajectories distance, we obtain the link between maximum and average Lyapunov exponents in line with the previous results. To validate the proposed theoretical results, we present different numerical simulations whose results justify the hypotheses of the present analysis.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Finite scale local Lyapunov exponents distribution in fully developed homogeneous isotropic turbulence

The present work analyzes the distribution function of the finite scale local Lyapunov exponent of a pair fluid particles trajectories in fully developed incompressible homogeneous isotropic turbulence. According to the hypothesis of fully developed chaos, this PDF is reasonably estimated by maximizing the entropy associated to such distribution, resulting to be an uniform distribution function in a proper interval of variation of the local Lyapunov exponents. From this PDF, we determine the relationship between the average and maximum Lyapunov exponents and the longitudinal velocity correlation function. This link, which leads to the closure of von Kàrmàn--Howarth and Corrsin equations, agrees with the relation obtained in the previous work, supporting the proposed PDF calculation, at least for the purposes of the energy cascade effect estimation. Furthermore, through the property that the Lyapunov vectors tend to align to the direction of the maximum growth rate of trajectories distance, we obtain the link between maximum and average Lyapunov exponents in line with the previous result.

physics.flu-dyn↗

von Kàrmàn--Howarth and Corrsin equations closure based on Lagrangian description of the fluid motion

A new approach to obtain the closure formulas for the von Kármán--Howarth and Corrsin equations is presented, which is based on the Lagrangian representation of the fluid motion, and on the Liouville theorem associated to the kinematics of a pair of fluid particles. This kinematics, characterized by the finite--scale separation vector, is assumed to be statistically independent from the velocity field. Such assumption is justified by the hypothesis of fully developed turbulence and by the property that this vector varies much more rapidly than the velocity field. This formulation leads to the closure formulas of von Kármán--Howarth and Corrsin equations in terms of longitudinal velocity and temperature correlations following a demonstration completely different with respect to the previous works. Some of the properties and the limitations of the closed equations are discussed. In particular, the times of evolution of the developed kinetic energy and temperature spectra are shown to be finite quantities which depend on the initial conditions.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Bifurcations analysis of turbulent energy cascade

This note studies the mechanism of turbulent energy cascade through an opportune bifurcations analysis of the Navier--Stokes equations, and furnishes explanations on the more significant characteristics of the turbulence. A statistical bifurcations property of the Navier--Stokes equations in fully developed turbulence is proposed, and a spatial representation of the bifurcations is presented, which is based on a proper definition of the fixed points of the velocity field. The analysis first shows that the local deformation can be much more rapid than the fluid state variables, then explains the mechanism of energy cascade through the aforementioned property of the bifurcations, and gives reasonable argumentation of the fact that the bifurcations cascade can be expressed in terms of length scales. Furthermore, the study analyzes the characteristic length scales at the transition through global properties of the bifurcations, and estimates the order of magnitude of the critical Taylor--scale Reynolds number and the number of bifurcations at the onset of turbulence.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Finite Scale Lyapunov Analysis of Temperature Fluctuations in Homogeneous Isotropic Turbulence

This study analyzes the temperature fluctuations in incompressible homogeneous isotropic turbulence through the finite scale Lyapunov analysis of the relative motion between two fluid particles. The analysis provides an explanation of the mechanism of the thermal energy cascade, leads to the closure of the Corrsin equation, and describes the statistics of the longitudinal temperature derivative through the Lyapunov theory of the local deformation and the thermal energy equation. The results here obtained show that, in the case of self-similarity, the temperature spectrum exhibits the scaling laws $κ^n$, with $n \approx{-5/3}$, ${-1}$ and ${-17/3} ÷-11/3$ depending upon the flow regime. These results are in agreement with the theoretical arguments of Obukhov--Corrsin and Batchelor and with the numerical simulations and experiments known from the literature. The PDF of the longitudinal temperature derivative is found to be a non--gaussian distribution function with null skewness, whose intermittency rises with the Taylor scale Péclet number. This study applies also to any passive scalar which exhibits diffusivity.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Refinement of a previous hypothesis of the Lyapunov analysis of isotropic turbulence

The purpose of this brief comunication is to improve a hypothesis of the previous work of the author (de Divitiis, Theor Comput Fluid Dyn, doi:10.1007/s00162-010-0211-9) dealing with the finite--scale Lyapunov analysis of isotropic turbulence. There, the analytical expression of the structure function of the longitudinal velocity difference $Δu_r$ is derived through a statistical analysis of the Fourier transformed Navier-Stokes equations, and by means of considerations regarding the scales of the velocity fluctuations, which arise from the Kolmogorov theory. Due to these latter considerations, this Lyapunov analysis seems to need some of the results of the Kolmogorov theory. This work proposes a more rigorous demonstration which leads to the same structure function, without using the Kolmogorov scale. This proof assumes that pair and triple longitudinal correlations are sufficient to determine the statistics of $Δu_r$, and adopts a reasonable canonical decomposition of the velocity difference in terms of proper stochastic variables which are adequate to describe the mechanism of kinetic energy cascade.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Analysis of the turbulent law of the wall through the finite scale Lyapunov theory

This work analyzes the turbulent velocity distribution in proximity of the wall using the finite-scale Lyapunov theory just presented in previous works. This theory is here applied to the steady boundary layer under the hypothesis of moderate pressure gradient and fully developed flow along the streamwise direction. The analysis gives an equation for the velocities correlation and identifies the parameters of the expression of the average velocity through the statistical properties of the velocity correlation functions. In particular, the von Kármán constant, theoretically calculated, is about 0.4, and the dimensionless Prandtl's length is in function of the Taylor-scale Reynolds number. The study provides the average velocity distribution and gives also the variation laws of the other variables, such as Taylor scale and Reynolds stress. The obtained results show that the finite-scale Lyapunov theory is adequate for studying the turbulence in the proximity of the wall.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Steady Homogeneous Turbulence in the Presence of an Average Velocity Gradient

We study the homogeneous turbulence in the presence of a constant average velocity gradient in an infinite fluid domain, with a novel finite-scale Lyapunov analysis, presented in a previous work dealing with the homogeneous isotropic turbulence. Here, the energy spectrum is studied introducing the spherical averaged pair correlation function, whereas the anisotropy caused by the velocity gradient is analyzed using the equation of the two points velocity distribution function which is determined through the Liouville theorem. As a result, we obtain the evolution equation of this velocity correlation function which is shown to be valid also when the fluid motion is referred with respect to a rotating reference frame. This equation tends to the classical von Kármán-Howarth equation when the average velocity gradient vanishes. We show that, the steady energy spectrum, instead of following the Kolmogorov law $κ^{-5/3}$, varies as $κ^{-2}$. Accordingly, the structure function of the longitudinal velocity difference $<Δu_r^n> \approx r^{ζ_n}$ exhibits the anomalous scaling $ζ_n \approx n/2$, and the integral scales of the correlation function are much smaller than those of the isotropic turbulence.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Lyapunov Analysis for Fully Developed Homogeneous Isotropic Turbulence

The present work studies the isotropic and homogeneous turbulence for incompressible fluids through a specific Lyapunov analysis, assuming that the turbulence is due to the bifurcations associated to the velocity field. The analysis consists in the calculation of the velocity fluctuation through the Lyapunov analysis of the local deformation and the Navier-Stokes equations and in the study of the mechanism of the energy cascade from large to small scales through the finite scale Lyapunov analysis of the relative motion between two particles. The analysis provides an explanation for the mechanism of the energy cascade, leads to the closure of the von Karman-Howarth equation, and describes the statistics of the velocity difference. Several tests and numerical results are presented.

physics.flu-dyn↗

Performance and Stability of a Winged Vehicle in Ground Effect

Present work deals with the dynamics of vehicles which intentionally operate in the ground proximity. The dynamics in ground effect is influenced by the vehicle orientation with respect to the ground, since the aerodynamic force and moment coefficients, which in turn depend on height and angle of attack, also vary with the Euler angles. This feature, usually neglected in the applications, can be responsible for sizable variations of the aircraft performance and stability. A further effect, caused by the sink rate, determines unsteadiness that modifies the aerodynamic coefficients. In this work, an analytical formulation is proposed for the force and moment calculation in the presence of the ground and taking the aircraft attitude and sink rate into account. The aerodynamic coefficients are firstly calculated for a representative vehicle and its characteristics in ground effect are investigated. Performance and stability characteristics are then discussed with reference to significant equilibrium conditions, while the non-linear dynamics is studied through the numerical integration of the equations of motion.

physics.class-ph↗

Performance and Stability Analysis of a Shrouded-Fan UAV

This paper deals with the estimation of the performance and stability for a shrouded-fan unmanned rotorcraft whose mission profile also prescribes the flight in ground effect. The not so simple estimation of the aerodynamic coefficients and of the thrust in the various situations makes the performance calculation and the stability analysis difficult tasks. This is due to the strong interaction between the fan flow and shroud that causes quite different flow structures about the airframe depending on flight conditions. A further difficulty is related to the ground effect which produces substantial modifications in the rotor thrust and aerodynamic coefficients. To evaluate performance and stability, two models have been developed. One determines the aerodynamic coefficients of the shroud, whereas the other one calculates thrust and moment of the rotors system. Both models take into account the mutual interference between fan flow and fuselage and ground effect. Performance and stability are then discussed with reference to significant flight conditions.

physics.class-ph↗