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Higher-order statistics and intermittency of a two-fluid Hall–Vinen–Bekharevich–Khalatnikov quantum turbulent flow

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2023

Z. Zhang
Affiliation:
Université Rouen Normandie, CNRS, LMRS UMR 6085, F-76000 Rouen, France
I. Danaila
Affiliation:
Université Rouen Normandie, CNRS, LMRS UMR 6085, F-76000 Rouen, France
E. Lévêque
Affiliation:
Université Lyon, CNRS, École Centrale de Lyon, INSA Lyon, Université Claude Bernard Lyon I, Laboratoire de Mécanique des Fluides et d'Acoustique UMR 5509, F-69134 Ecully CEDEX, France
L. Danaila*
Affiliation:
Université Rouen Normandie, UNICAEN, CNRS, M2C UMR 6143, F-76000 Rouen, France
*
†Email address for correspondence: luminita.danaila@univ-rouen.fr

Abstract

The Hall–Vinen–Bekharevich–Khalatnikov (HVBK) model is widely used to numerically study quantum turbulence in superfluid helium. Based on the two-fluid model of Tisza and Landau, the HVBK model describes the normal (viscous) and superfluid (inviscid) components of the flow using two Navier–Stokes type of equations, coupled through a mutual friction force term. We derive transport equations for the third-order moments for each component of velocity involving the fourth-order moments, which are classical probes for internal intermittency at any scale, and revealing the probability of rare and strong fluctuations. Budget equations are assessed through direct numerical simulations of the HVBK flow. We simulate a forced homogeneous isotropic turbulent flow with Reynolds number of the normal fluid (based on Taylor's microscale) close to 100. Values from 0.1 to 10 are considered for the ratio between the normal and superfluid densities. For these flows, an inertial range is not discernible and the restricted scaling range approach is used to take into account the finite Reynolds number (FRN) effect. We analyse the importance of each term in budget equations and emphasize their role in energy exchange between normal and superfluid components. Some interesting features are observed: (i) transport and pressure-related terms are dominant, similarly to single-fluid turbulence; and (ii) the mathematical signature of the FRN effect is weak despite the low value of the Reynolds number. The flatness of the velocity derivatives is finally studied through the transport equations and their limit for very small scales, and it is shown to gradually increase for lower and lower temperatures, for both normal fluid and superfluid. This similarity highlights the strong locking of the two fluids. The flatness factors are also found in reasonable agreement with classical turbulence.

Information

Type
JFM Papers
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2023. Published by Cambridge University Press
Figure 0

Table 1. Simulation parameters of the turbulent flow field. Here $H = 2{\rm \pi}$ is the size of the numerical domain and $\varDelta =H/512$ is the mesh size in each direction; $Re_H$ and $Re_\lambda$ are the Reynolds numbers based on the large scale of the flow and Taylor's microscale, respectively; $\mathcal {K}$ is the mean turbulent kinetic energy; and $\varepsilon$ is the mean energy dissipation rate. The eddy turnover time was computed as $\tau _L = (2/3\mathcal {K})/\varepsilon$ and the scale of the large eddies as $L = (2/3 \mathcal {K})^{3/2} /\varepsilon$. Kolmogorov length and time scales are $\eta$ and $\tau _\eta$, respectively. Parameter $\delta = {\mathcal {L}}^{-1/2}=\sqrt {\kappa /|\omega _s|}$ is the inter-vortex length scale, with $\kappa =\nu _n(\kappa _{phys}/\nu _{phys})$. In all computations $\kappa _{phys}\approx 1\times 10^{-7}\ ({\rm m}^2\ {\rm s}^{-1})$ and $\nu _{phys}\approx 2.0\times 10^{-8}\ ({\rm m}^2\ {\rm s}^{-1})$.

Figure 1

Figure 1. Case $\rho _n/\rho =0.91$ (the normal fluid is dominant). Terms in the budget equation (3.4) for the normal fluid. Scale $r$ is normalized by the Kolmogorov scale $\eta _n$ of the normal fluid. All terms are normalized by $\varepsilon _*^{5/4}\nu _n^{1/4}$, with $\varepsilon _*=7\times 10^{-4}$ the constant energy rate injected to force turbulence.

Figure 2

Figure 2. Terms in (3.4) for the normal fluid (a,c,e) and in (3.5) for the superfluid (b,d,f). Simulations were performed for three density ratios $\rho _n/\rho = 0.91$ (a,b), $0.5$ (c,d) and $0.09$ (e,f). Scale $r$ is normalized by Kolmogorov scales $\eta _n$ (normal fluid) and $\eta _s$ (superfluid). All terms are normalized by $\varepsilon _*^{5/4}\nu _n^{1/4}$, with $\varepsilon _*=7\times 10^{-4}$ the constant energy rate injected to force turbulence in both fluid fractions. Same legend as in figure 1 for the graphical representation of different terms.

Figure 3

Figure 3. The p.d.f.s of gradients of longitudinal velocity in the normal fluid (a) and superfluid (b). (c,d) Corresponding normalized p.d.f.s as $(\xi /\sigma )^4 \times \textrm {p.d.f.}$, with $\sigma = \sqrt {\langle \xi ^2 \rangle - \langle \xi \rangle ^2}$ the standard deviation of the velocity gradient. Results are provided for three density ratios: $\rho _n/\rho =0.09$ (dot-dashed curve), $\rho _n/\rho =0.5$ (open circles) and $\rho _n/\rho =0.91$ (solid curve).

Figure 4

Figure 4. Flatness factors of the longitudinal velocity gradient $\xi =\partial _x u$ versus density ratio $\rho _n/\rho$ for the normal fluid (triangles), the superfluid (diamonds) and total fluid (circles). Error bars are the root-mean-square value of the variance of the flatness factors computed with 20 to 50 snapshots, and $10^8$ data points for each snapshot. Horizontal lines mark the flatness factor computed from DNS of CT (Ishihara et al.2007): $Re_\lambda =94.6$ (dotted), $R_\lambda =94.4$ (dashed), $R_\lambda =167$ (dot-dashed) and $R_\lambda =173$ (solid). All points are computed for $N=512$, except the following ones, based on $N=1024$ resolution: blue plus (normal fluid), red cross (superfluid) and black square (total fluid).

Figure 5

Table 2. Values used in expressing the flatness factor at the smallest scales in the limit $r\rightarrow 0$. Practically $(r\rightarrow \varDelta$), with $\varDelta$ the smallest grid size in simulations (see table 1 for the Kolmogorov normalized mesh size).

Figure 6

Table 3. The DNS results for terms resulting after applying the operator ${{O}}$ in (5.14) and (5.15), for the normal fluid (first three lines) and the superfluid (last three lines).

Figure 7

Figure 5. Energy spectrum for $\rho _s/\rho _n=1$ and different viscosity ratios: for $\nu _s/\nu _n = 0.025$ (dashed curve) and for $\nu _s/\nu _n = 0.1$ (solid curve). The dash-dotted line marks the power law of $-5/3$.

Figure 8

Figure 6. Terms in the budget equations for the normal fluid (a,c) and for the superfluid (b,d). Simulations are performed for density ratios $\rho _n/\rho = 0.5$ and for viscosity ratios: $\nu _s/\nu _n=0.1$ (a,b) and $\nu _s/\nu _n=0.025$ (c,d). All terms are normalized by $\varepsilon _*^{5/4}\nu _n^{1/4}$, with $\varepsilon _*=7\times 10^{-4}$ the constant energy rate injected to force turbulence for both fluid fractions. We use the same legend as in the main text for different terms in the equations.

Figure 9

Figure 7. The spectra for (a) $\rho _s/\rho _n = 1$ and (b) $\rho _s/\rho _n = 10$ for different resolutions: $N=512$, $k_{max}\eta _n = (N/3)\eta _n=1.816$, $k_{max}\eta _s = (N/3)\eta _s=0.4651$ (solid curve) and $N=1024$, $k_{max}\eta _n = (N/3)\eta _n=3.8105$, $k_{max}\eta _s = (N/3)\eta _s=0.9132$ (dashed curve).

Figure 10

Figure 8. The normalized ‘fourth’-order structure function, as a function of $r/\eta _{n,s}$ for normal fluid (blue) and superfluid (red) for (a) $\rho _s/\rho _n = 1$ and (b) $\rho _s/\rho _n = 10$. Resolutions: $N=512$, $k_{max}\eta _n = (N/3)\eta _n=1.816$, $k_{max}\eta _s = (N/3)\eta _s=0.4651$ (solid curve) and $N=1024$, $k_{max}\eta _n = (N/3)\eta _n=3.8105$, $k_{max}\eta _s = (N/3)\eta _s=0.9132$ (dashed curve).

Figure 11

Figure 9. The p.d.f. of angle between the velocity and different friction force components for normal fluid (a) and superfluid (b).

Figure 12

Figure 10. The spectra of $\boldsymbol {u}_{n}F_{ns\parallel }$ (open circles), $\boldsymbol {u}_{s}F_{ns\parallel }$ (solid curve), $\boldsymbol {u}_{n}F_{ns\perp }$ (dot-dashed curve) and $\boldsymbol {u}_{s}F_{ns\perp }$ (dashed curve).