arXiv subjects

Nicolas Mordant

Publications and source records attributed to Nicolas Mordant.

At least 37 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Combined stereoscopic wave mapping and particle image velocimetry

We describe a technique of image analysis providing the time resolved shape of a water surface simultaneously with the three-component velocity field on this surface. The method relies on a combination of stereoscopic surface mapping and stereoscopic three-component Particle Imaging Velocimetry (PIV), using a seeding of the free surface by small polystyrene particles. The method is applied to an experiment of `weak turbulence' in which random gravity waves interact in a weakly non-linear regime. Time resolved fields of the water elevation are compared to the velocity fields on the water surface, providing direct access to the non-linear advective effects. The precision of the method is evaluated by different criteria: tests on synthetic images, consistency between several camera pairs, comparison with capacity probes. The typical r.m.s. error corresponds to 0.3 pixel in surface elevation and time displacement for PIV, which corresponds to about 0.3 mm or 1 \% in relative precision for our field of view 2 x 1.5 m$^2$.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Confinement effects on gravity-capillary wave turbulence

The statistical properties of a large number of weakly nonlinear waves can be described in the framework of the Weak Turbulence Theory. The theory is based on the hypothesis of an asymptotically large system. In experiments, the systems have a finite size and the predictions of the theory may not apply because of the presence of discrete modes rather than a continuum of free waves. Our study focusses on the case of waves at the surface of water at scales close to the gravity-capillarity crossover (of order 1~cm). Wave turbulence has peculiar properties in this regime because 1D resonant interactions can occur as shown by Aubourg \& Mordant. Here we investigate the influence of the confinement on the properties of wave turbulence by reducing gradually the size of our wave tank along one of its axis, the size in the other direction being unchanged. We use space-time resolved profilometry to reconstruct the deformed surface of water. We observe an original regime of coexistence of weak wave turbulence along the length of the vessel and discrete turbulence in the confined direction.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Elastic Weak Turbulence: from the vibrating plate to the drum

Weak wave turbulence has been observed on a thin elastic plate in previous work. Here we report theoretical, experimental and numerical studies of wave turbulence in a thin elastic plate submitted to increasing tension. When increasing the tension (or decreasing the bending stiffness of the plate) the plate evolves progressively from a plate into an elastic membrane as in drums. We start from the plate and increase the tension in experiments and numerical simulations. We observe that the system remains in a state of weak turbulence of weakly dispersive waves. This observation is in contrast with what has been observed in water waves when decreasing the water depth, which also changes the waves from dispersive to weakly dispersive. The weak turbulence observed in the deep water case evolves into a solitonic regime. Here no such transition is observed for the stretched plate. We then apply the weak turbulence theory to the membrane case and show with numerical simulations that indeed the weak turbulence framework remains valid for the membrane and no formation of singular structures (shocks) should be expected in contrast with acoustic wave turbulence.

cond-mat.stat-mech↗

arXiv2018

Relative dispersion of particle pairs in turbulent channel flow

Lagrangian tracking of particle pairs is of fundamental interest in a large number of environmental applications dealing with contaminant dispersion and passive scalar mixing. The aim of the present study is to extend the observations available in the literature on relative dispersion of fluid particle pairs to wall-bounded turbulent flows, by means of particle pair tracking in direct numerical simulations (DNS) of a turbulent channel flow. The mean-square change of separation between particle pairs follows a clear ballistic regime at short times for all wall distances. The Eulerian structure functions governing this short-time separation are characterised in the channel, and allow to define a characteristic time scale for the ballistic regime, as well as a suitable normalisation of the mean-square separation leading to an overall collapse for different wall distances. Through fluid particle pair tracking backwards and forwards in time, the temporal asymmetry of relative dispersion is illustrated. At short times, this asymmetry is linked to the irreversibility of turbulence, as in previous studies on homogeneous isotropic flows. The influence of the initial separation (distance and orientation) as well as the influence of mean shear are addressed. By decomposing the mean-square separation into the dispersion by the fluctuating velocity field and by the average velocity, it is shown that the influence of mean shear becomes important at early stages of dispersion close to the wall but also near the channel centre. The relative dispersion tensor $Δ_{ij}$ is also presented and particularly the sign and time evolution of the cross-term $Δ_{xy}$ are discussed. Finally, a ballistic cascade model previously proposed for homogeneous isotropic turbulence is adapted here to turbulent channel flows. Preliminary results are given and compared to the DNS.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2018

Impact of dissipation on the energy spectrum of experimental turbulence of gravity surface waves

We discuss the impact of dissipation on the development of the energy spectrum in wave turbulence of gravity surface waves with emphasis on the effect of surface contamination. We performed experiments in the Coriolis facility which is a 13-m diameter wave tank. We took care of cleaning surface contamination as well as possible considering that the surface of water exceeds 100~m$^2$. We observe that for the cleanest condition the frequency energy spectrum shows a power law decay extending up to the gravity capillary crossover (14 Hz) with a spectral exponent that is increasing with the forcing strength and decaying with surface contamination. Although slightly higher than reported previously in the literature, the exponent for the cleanest water remains significantly below the prediction from the Weak Turbulence Theory. By discussing length and time scales, we show that weak turbulence cannot be expected at frequencies above 3 Hz. We observe with a stereoscopic reconstruction technique that the increase with the forcing strength of energy spectrum beyond 3~Hz is mostly due to the formation and strenghtening of bound waves.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

3-wave and 4-wave interactions in gravity wave turbulence

The Weak Turbulence Theory is a statistical framework to describe a large ensemble of nonlinearly interacting waves. The archetypal example of such system is the ocean surface that is made of interacting surface gravity waves. Here we describe a laboratory experiment dedicated to probe the statistical properties of turbulent gravity waves. We setup an isotropic state of interacting gravity waves in the Coriolis facility (13~m diameter circular wave tank) by exciting waves at 1~Hz by wedge wavemakers. We implement a stereoscopic technique to obtain a measurement of the surface elevation that is resolved both in space and time. Fourier analysis shows that the laboratory spectra are systematically steeper than the theoretical predictions and than the field observations in the Black Sea by Leckler {\it et al. JPO} 2015. We identify a strong impact of surface dissipation on the scaling of the Fourier spectrum at the scales that are accessible in the experiments. We use bicoherence and tricoherence statistical tools in frequency and/or wavevector space to identify the active nonlinear coupling. These analyses are also performed on the field data by Leckler {\it et al.} for comparison with the laboratory data. 3-wave coupling are characterized and shown to involve mostly quasi resonances of waves with second or higher order harmonics. 4-wave coupling are not observed in the laboratory but are evidenced in the field data. We finally discuss temporal scale separation to explain our observations.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Intermittency and emergence of coherent structures in wave turbulence of a vibrating plate

We report numerical investigations of wave turbulence in a vibrating plate. The possibility to implement advanced measurement techniques and long time numerical simulations makes this system extremely valuable for wave turbulence studies. The purely 2D character of dynamics of the elastic plate makes it much simpler to handle compared to much more complex 3D physical systems that are typical of geo- and astrophysical issues (ocean surface or internal waves, magnetized plasmas or strongly rotating and/or stratified flows). When the forcing is small the observed wave turbulence is consistent with the predictions of the Weak Turbulent Theory. Here we focus on the case of stronger forcing for which coherent structures can be observed. These structures look similar to the folds and D-cones that are commonly observed for strongly deformed static thin elastic sheets (crumpled paper) except that they evolve dynamically in our forced system. We describe their evolution and show that their emergence is associated with statistical intermittency (lack of self similarity) of strongly nonlinear wave turbulence. This behavior is reminiscent of intermittency in Navier-Stokes turbulence. Experimental data show hints of the weak to strong turbulence transition. However, due to technical limitations and dissipation, the strong nonlinear regime remains out of reach of experiments and therefore has been explored numerically.

cond-mat.soft↗

arXiv2017

Transition from Weak Wave Turbulence to Soliton-Gas

We report an experimental investigation of the effect of finite depth on the statistical properties of wave turbulence at the surface of water in the gravity-capillary range. We tune the wave dispersion and the level of nonlinearity by modifying the depth of water and the forcing respectively. We use space-time resolved profilometry to reconstruct the deformed surface of water. When decreasing the water depth, we observe a drastic transition between weak turbulence at the weakest forcing and a solitonic regime at stronger forcing. We characterize the transition between both states by studying their Fourier Spectra. We also study the efficiency of energy transfer in the weak turbulence regime. We report a loss of efficiency of angular transfer as the dispersion of the wave is reduced until the system bifurcates into the solitonic regime.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2017

Lagrangian acceleration statistics in a turbulent channel flow

Lagrangian acceleration statistics in a fully developed turbulent channel flow at $Re_τ= 1440$ are investigated, based on tracer particle tracking in experiments and direct numerical simulations. The evolution with wall distance of the Lagrangian velocity and acceleration time scales is analyzed. Dependency between acceleration components in the near-wall region is described using cross-correlations and joint probability density functions. The strong streamwise coherent vortices typical of wall-bounded turbulent flows are shown to have a significant impact on the dynamics. This results in a strong anisotropy at small scales in the near-wall region that remains present in most of the channel. Such statistical properties may be used as constraints in building advanced Lagrangian stochastic models to predict the dispersion and mixing of chemical components for combustion or environmental studies.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2016

Investigation of resonances in gravity-capillary wave turbulence

We report experimental results on nonlinear wave coupling in surface wave turbulence on water at scales close to the crossover between surface gravity waves and capillary waves. We study 3-wave correlations either in the frequency domain or in wavevector domain. We observe that in a weakly nonlinear regime, the dominant nonlinear interactions correspond to waves that are collinear or close to collinear. Although the resonant coupling of pure gravity waves is supposed to involve 4 waves, at the capillary crossover we observe a nonlocal coupling between a gravity wave and 2 capillary waves. Furthermore nonlinear spectral spreading permits 3-gravity wave coupling. These observations raise the question of the relevance of these processes in the oceanographic context and in particular the range of frequencies of gravity waves that may be impacted.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2015

Wave turbulence buildup in a vibrating plate

We report experimental and numerical results on the buildup of the energy spectrum in wave turbulence of a vibrating thin elastic plate. Three steps are observed: first a short linear stage, then the turbulent spectrum is constructed by the propagation of a front in wave number space and finally a long time saturation due to the action of dissipation. The propagation of a front at the second step is compatible with scaling predictions from the Weak Turbulence Theory.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2015

Nonlocal resonances in weak turbulence of gravity-capillary waves

We report a laboratory investigation of weak turbulence of water surface waves in the gravity-capillary crossover. By using time-space resolved profilometry and a bicoherence analysis, we observe that the nonlinear processes involve 3-wave resonant interactions. By studying the solutions of the resonance conditions we show that the nonlinear interaction is dominantly 1D and involves collinear wave vectors. Furthermore taking into account the spectral widening due to weak nonlinearity explains that nonlocal interactions are possible between a gravity wave and high frequency capillary ones. We observe also that nonlinear 3-wave coupling is possible among gravity waves and we raise the question of the relevance of this mechanism for oceanic waves.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2014

The role of dissipation in flexural wave turbulence: from experimental spectrum to Kolmogorov-Zakharov spectrum

The Weak Turbulence Theory has been applied to waves in thin elastic plates obeying the Föppl-Von Kármán dynamical equations. Subsequent experiments have shown a strong discrepancy between the theoretical predictions and the measurements. Both the dynamical equations and the Weak Turbulence Theory treatment require some restrictive hypotheses. Here a direct numerical simulation of the Föppl-Von Kármán equations is performed and reproduces qualitatively and quantitatively the experimental results when the experimentally measured damping rate of waves $γ_\mathbf{k}= a + bk^2$ is used. This confirms that the Föppl-Von Kármán equations are a valid theoretical framework to describe our experiments. When we progressively tune the dissipation so that to localize it at the smallest scales, we observe a gradual transition between the experimental spectrum and the Kolmogorov-Zakharov prediction. Thus it is shown dissipation has a major influence on the scaling properties stationary solutions of weakly non linear wave turbulence.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2013

Transition from wave turbulence to dynamical crumpling in vibrated elastic plates

We study the dynamical regime of wave turbulence of a vibrated thin elastic plate based on experimental and numerical observations. We focus our study to the strongly non linear regime described in a previous letter by N. Yokoyama & M. Takaoka. At small forcing, a weakly non linear regime is compatible with the Weak Turbulence Theory when the dissipation is localized at high wavenumber. When the forcing intensity is increased, a strongly non linear regime emerges: singular structures dominate the dynamics at large scale whereas at small scales the weak turbulence is still present. A turbulence of singular structures, with folds and D-cones, develops that alters significantly the energy spectra and causes the emergence of intermittency.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2011

Nonlinear dynamics of flexural wave turbulence

The Kolmogorov-Zakharov spectrum predicted by the Weak Turbulence Theory remains elusive for wave turbulence of flexural waves at the surface of an thin elastic plate. We report a direct measurement of the nonlinear timescale $T_{NL}$ related to energy transfer between waves. This time scale is extracted from the space-time measurement of the deformation of the plate by studying the temporal dynamics of wavelet coefficients of the turbulent field. The central hypothesis of the theory is the time scale separation between dissipative time scale, nonlinear time scale and the period of the wave ($T_d>>T_{NL}>>T$). We observe that this scale separation is valid in our system. The discrete modes due to the finite size effects are responsible for the disagreement between observations and theory. A crossover from continuous weak turbulence and discrete turbulence is observed when the nonlinear time scale is of the same order of magnitude as the frequency separation of the discrete modes. The Kolmogorov-Zakharov energy cascade is then strongly altered and is frozen before reaching the dissipative regime expected in the theory.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2011

Non stationary wave turbulence in an elastic plate

We report experimental results on the decay of wave turbulence in an elastic plate obtained by stopping the forcing from a stationary turbulent state. In the stationary case, the forcing is seen to induce some anisotropy and a spectrum in disagreement with the weak turbulence theory. After stopping the forcing, almost perfect isotropy is restored. The decay of energy is self similar and the observed decaying spectrum is in better agreement with the prediction of the weak turbulence theory. The dissipative part of the spectrum is partially consistent with the theoretical prediction based on previous work by Kolmakov. This suggest that the non agreement with the weak turbulence theory is mostly due to a spurious effect of the forcing related to the finite size of the system.

nlin.CD↗

arXiv2010

Observation of nonlinear dispersion relation and spatial statistics of wave turbulence on the surface of a fluid

We report experiments on gravity-capillary wave turbulence on the surface of a fluid. The wave amplitudes are measured simultaneously in time and space using an optical method. The full space-time power spectrum shows that the wave energy is localized on several branches in the wave-vector-frequency space. The number of branches depend on the power injected within the waves. The measurement of the nonlinear dispersion relation is found to be well described by a law suggesting that the energy transfer mechanisms involved in wave turbulence are not only restricted to purely resonant interaction between nonlinear waves. The power-law scaling of the spatial spectrum and the probability distribution of the wave amplitudes at a given wave number are also measured and compared to the theoretical predictions.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2010

Fourier analysis of wave turbulence in a thin elastic plate

The spatio-temporal dynamics of the deformation of a vibrated plate is measured by a high speed Fourier transform profilometry technique. The space-time Fourier spectrum is analyzed. It displays a behavior consistent with the premises of the Weak Turbulence theory. A isotropic continuous spectrum of waves is excited with a non linear dispersion relation slightly shifted from the linear dispersion relation. The spectral width of the dispersion relation is also measured. The non linearity of this system is weak as expected from the theory. Finite size effects are discussed. Despite a qualitative agreement with the theory, a quantitative mismatch is observed which origin may be due to the dissipation that ultimately absorbs the energy flux of the Kolmogorov-Zakharov casade.

nlin.CD↗