Scientific Calendar Event



Starts 5 Nov 2004 11:00
Ends 5 Nov 2004 20:00
Central European Time
ICTP
Main Building Seminar Room
Strada Costiera, 11 I - 34151 Trieste (Italy)
Abstract: Laboratory experiments with rotating and/or stratified fluids and numerical simulations of 2D turbulence in bounded domains have been carried out to investigate the dynamics of quasi-2D turbulent flows in circular, square and rectangular containers. The dynamics of decaying and forced 2D turbulence in domains bounded by no-slip lateral boundaries is strongly affected by vorticity production nearby the lateral no-slip walls. This process results in enhanced vortex production, in the generation of mean rotation of the flow (finally yielding a large central vortex in square domains), in modified energy spectra, in the potential destabilization of the central vortex by the boundary layers, in anisotropy of the turbulence properties as reflected by structure functions and PDFs, etc. Laboratory experiments on the self-organisation of decaying quasi-2D turbulence have been carried out in two-layer fluids, in linearly stratified fluids and in shallow fluid layers (with strong bottom friction). Forced quasi-2D turbulence has been studied in rotating fluids in order to measure the modification of the spectra by boundary-induced vorticity production. The different laboratory experiments and the mechanisms for boundary-induced vorticity production will be discussed. It will be shown that several observations from 2D turbulence simulations in bounded domains are confirmed by these experiments indicating that certain aspects of quasi-2D turbulence can well be predicted and understood by 2D flow dynamics.
  • Pandora Malchose Pieri