Fractality feature in incompressible three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence

2008 ◽  
Vol 86 (10) ◽  
pp. 1203-1207
Author(s):  
M Momeni ◽  
M Moslehi-Fard

High-resolution direct numerical simulation data for three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence based on the 10243-modes in a periodic box are used to study the statistical properties of turbulence. In this paper, the presence of intermittency in MHD turbulence is investigated through the analysis of the Probability Distribution Function (PDF) for Elsässer fields and total energy fluctuations. The energy PDFs exhibit similarity over all scales of the turbulent system since they show no substantial qualitative change in shape as the scale of the fluctuations varies. This is in sharp and surprising contrast to the well-known behavior of PDFs of turbulent field fluctuations of, for example, velocity, and magnetic and Elsässer fields. The PDFs have exponential tails and satisfy the function P(| δX |) ~ exp(–A | δX | μ). Numerically, we extract the exponent μ and find that it is constant for monofractal behavior as the scale of length varies. The compensated structure functions exhibit self-similarity for the respective fluctuations, and it is a reliable way in turbulence. PACS Nos.: 52.30.–q , 52.30.Cv , 52.35.Ra , 52.65.–y

Open Physics ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
Author(s):  
Mahdi Momeni ◽  
Mahmoud Moslehi-Fard

AbstractDirect Numerical Simulation (DNS) of decaying isotropic 3D magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence based on the 10243-modes in a periodic box is used to study the statistical properties of turbulence. In this paper, the presence of intermittency in MHD turbulence is investigated through the analysis of the Probability Distribution Function (PDF) for Elsässer fields and total energy fluctuations. We observe that the PDFs of the Elsässer fields fluctuations display a strong non-Gaussian behavior at small scale, which can be ascribed to multifractality feature, while the PDFs of the total energy fluctuations have the same shape over all observed scales and are monofractal. The PDFs have stretched exponential tail and satisfy the function P(|δX|) ∼ exp(−A|δX|μ). Numerically, we extract the exponent μ and find that it is constant for monofractal behavior as the length scale varies. To check the notion of self-similarity in the respective fluctuation, we apply the compensated structure functions.


2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Timofey Zinyakov ◽  
Arakel Petrosyan

<p>Numerical studies of two-dimensional β-plane homogeneous magnetohydrodynamic turbulence are presented. The study of the fundamental properties of such turbulence allows understanding the evolution of various astrophysical objects from the Sun and stars to planetary systems, galaxies, and galaxy clusters. Energy spectra and cascade process in two-dimensional β-plane MHD are studied.</p><p>In this work the equations of two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics with the Coriolis force in the β-plane approximation are used for the qualitative analysis and numerical simulation of processes in plasma astrophysics. The equations are solved on a square box of edge size 2π with periodic boundary conditions applying a the pseudospectral method using the 2/3 rule for dealiasing. The results of numerical simulation of two-dimensional β-plane MHD turbulence with a spatial resolution of 1024 × 1024 and 4096 × 4096 with different Rossby parameters β and different Reynolds numbers are presented.</p><p>It is found that only unsteady zonal flows with complex temporal dynamics are formed in two-dimensional β-plane magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. It is shown that flow nonstationarity is due to the appearance of isotropic magnetic islands caused by the Lorentz force in the system. The formation of Iroshnikov–Kraichnan spectrum is shown in the early stages of evolution of two-dimensional β-plane magnetohydrodynamic turbulence. The self-similarity of the decay of Iroshnikov–Kraichnan spectrum is studied. On long time scale violation of self-similarity of the decay and formation of Kolmogorov spectrum is discovered. The inverse cascade of kinetic energy, which is characteristic of the detected Kolmogorov spectrum, provides the formation of zonal flows.</p><p>This work was supported by the Russian Foundation for Basic Research (project no. 19-02-00016).</p>


1994 ◽  
Vol 280 ◽  
pp. 95-117 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sean Oughton ◽  
Eric R. Priest ◽  
William H. Matthaeus

Building on results from two-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence (Shebalin, Matthaeus & Montgomery 1983), the development of anisotropic states from initially isotropic ones is investigated numerically for fully three-dimensional incompressible MHD turbulence. It is found that when an external d.c. magnetic field (B0) is imposed on viscous and resistive MHD systems, excitations are preferentially transferred to modes with wavevectors perpendicular to B0). The anisotropy increases with increasing mechanical and magnetic Reynolds numbers, and also with increasing wavenumber. The tendency of B0 to inhibit development of turbulence is also examined.


2019 ◽  
Vol 876 ◽  
pp. 5-18 ◽  
Author(s):  
Riddhi Bandyopadhyay ◽  
William H. Matthaeus ◽  
Sean Oughton ◽  
Minping Wan

In an earlier paper (Wan et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 697, 2012, pp. 296–315), the authors showed that a similarity solution for anisotropic incompressible three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence, in the presence of a uniform mean magnetic field $\boldsymbol{B}_{0}$, exists if the ratio of parallel to perpendicular (with respect to $\boldsymbol{B}_{0}$) similarity length scales remains constant in time. This conjecture appears to be a rather stringent constraint on the dynamics of decay of the energy-containing eddies in MHD turbulence. However, we show here, using direct numerical simulations, that this hypothesis is indeed satisfied in incompressible MHD turbulence. After an initial transient period, the ratio of parallel to perpendicular length scales fluctuates around a steady value during the decay of the eddies. We show further that a Taylor–Kármán-like similarity decay holds for MHD turbulence in the presence of a mean magnetic field. The effect of different parameters, including Reynolds number, mean field strength, and cross-helicity, on the nature of similarity decay is discussed.


2000 ◽  
Vol 64 (2) ◽  
pp. 179-193 ◽  
Author(s):  
SEAN OUGHTON ◽  
ROSSELLA PRANDI

The issue of dynamical anisotropy in helical three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamic turbulence with a mean magnetic field B0 is investigated. Using high-resolution direct numerical simulations, we follow the evolution of various isotropic initial states characterized by their different values of the kinetic helicity. The cross helicity and magnetic helicity of the initial conditions are also varied. In agreement with earlier work, we find that such initial states become anisotropic in of order an eddy-turnover time, with correlation lengths parallel to B0 remaining largely unchanged while finer scales are excited in the perpendicular directions. Moreover, it is found that the development of both the anisotropy and the energy are essentially independent of the initial level of kinetic helicity. The physics associated with this latter feature is discussed.


Author(s):  
Serge Reynaud ◽  
Astrid Lambrecht

The Casimir force is an effect of quantum vacuum field fluctuations, with applications in many domains of physics. The ideal expression obtained by Casimir, valid for perfect plane mirrors at zero temperature, has to be modified to take into account the effects of the optical properties of mirrors, thermal fluctuations, and geometry. After a general introduction to the Casimir force and a description of the current state of the art for Casimir force measurements and their comparison with theory, this chapter presents pedagogical treatments of the main features of the theory of Casimir forces for one-dimensional model systems and for mirrors in three-dimensional space.


2019 ◽  
Vol 85 (4) ◽  
Author(s):  
Benjamin D. G. Chandran ◽  
Jean C. Perez

We present three-dimensional direct numerical simulations and an analytic model of reflection-driven magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence in the solar wind. Our simulations describe transverse, non-compressive MHD fluctuations within a narrow magnetic flux tube that extends from the photosphere, through the chromosphere and corona and out to a heliocentric distance  $r$ of 21 solar radii  $(R_{\odot })$ . We launch outward-propagating ‘ $\boldsymbol{z}^{+}$ fluctuations’ into the simulation domain by imposing a randomly evolving photospheric velocity field. As these fluctuations propagate away from the Sun, they undergo partial reflection, producing inward-propagating ‘ $\boldsymbol{z}^{-}$ fluctuations’. Counter-propagating fluctuations subsequently interact, causing fluctuation energy to cascade to small scales and dissipate. Our analytic model incorporates dynamic alignment, allows for strongly or weakly turbulent nonlinear interactions and divides the $\boldsymbol{z}^{+}$ fluctuations into two populations with different characteristic radial correlation lengths. The inertial-range power spectra of $\boldsymbol{z}^{+}$ and $\boldsymbol{z}^{-}$ fluctuations in our simulations evolve toward a $k_{\bot }^{-3/2}$ scaling at $r>10R_{\odot }$ , where $k_{\bot }$ is the wave-vector component perpendicular to the background magnetic field. In two of our simulations, the $\boldsymbol{z}^{+}$ power spectra are much flatter between the coronal base and $r\simeq 4R_{\odot }$ . We argue that these spectral scalings are caused by: (i) high-pass filtering in the upper chromosphere; (ii) the anomalous coherence of inertial-range $\boldsymbol{z}^{-}$ fluctuations in a reference frame propagating outwards with the $\boldsymbol{z}^{+}$ fluctuations; and (iii) the change in the sign of the radial derivative of the Alfvén speed at $r=r_{\text{m}}\simeq 1.7R_{\odot }$ , which disrupts this anomalous coherence between $r=r_{\text{m}}$ and $r\simeq 2r_{\text{m}}$ . At $r>1.3R_{\odot }$ , the turbulent heating rate in our simulations is comparable to the turbulent heating rate in a previously developed solar-wind model that agreed with a number of observational constraints, consistent with the hypothesis that MHD turbulence accounts for much of the heating of the fast solar wind.


1996 ◽  
Vol 3 (4) ◽  
pp. 247-261 ◽  
Author(s):  
V. Carbone ◽  
P. Veltri ◽  
R. Bruno

Abstract. In this paper we review some of the work done in investigating the scaling properties of Magnetohydrodynamic turbulence, by using velocity fluctuations measurements performed in the interplanetary space plasma by the Helios spacecraft. The set of scaling exponents ξq for the q-th order velocity structure functions, have been determined by using the Extended Self-Similarity hypothesis. We have found that the q-th order velocity structure function, when plotted vs. the 4-th order structure function, displays a range of self-similarity which extends over all the lengths covered by measurements, thus allowing for a very good determination of ξq. Moreover the results seem to show that the scaling exponents are the same regardless the various observation periods considered. The obtained scaling exponents have been compared with the results of some intermittency models for Kraichnan's turbulence, derived in the framework of infinitely divisible fragmentation processes, showing the good agreement between these models and our observations. Finally, on the basis of the actually available data sets, we show that scaling laws in Solar Wind turbulence seem to be different from turbulent scaling laws in the ordinary fluid flows. This is true for high-order velocity structure functions, while low-order velocity structure functions show the same scaling laws. Since our measurements involve length scales which extend over many order of magnitude where dissipation is practically absent, our results show that Solar Wind turbulence can be regarded as a testing bench for the investigation of general scaling behaviour in turbulent flows. In particular our results strongly support the point of view which attributes a key role to the inertial range dynamics in determining the intermittency characteristics in fluid flows, in contrast with the point of view which attributes intermittency to a finite Reynolds number effect.


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