Growth dynamics of turbulent spots in plane Couette flow

Marie Couliou (1) , Romain Monchaux (2)

1 UME - Unité de Mécanique
2 IMSIA - UMR 9219 - Institut des Sciences de la mécanique et Applications industrielles

We experimentally and numerically investigate the temporal aspects of turbulent spots spreading in a plane Couette flow for transitional Reynolds numbers between 300 and 450. Spot growth rate, spot advection rate and large-scale flow intensity are measured as a function of time and Reynolds number. All these quantities show similar dynamics clarifying the role played by large-scale flows in the advection of the turbulent spot. The contributions of each possible growth mechanism: growth induced by large scale advection or growth by destabilization, are discussed for the different stages of the spot growth. A scenario which gathers all these elements is providing a better understanding of the growth dynamics of turbulent spots in plane Couette flow that should possibly apply to other extended shear flows.

Domaines: Mécanique des fluides [physics.class-ph]

Marie Couliou, Romain Monchaux. Growth dynamics of turbulent spots in plane Couette flow. Journal of Fluid Mechanics, 2017. ⟨hal-01847301⟩