Diameters of vortex spirals in three-dimensional turbulence.
It has been proposed by a number of authors that fully developed turbulence contains spiral-like vorticity distributions that wrap up around strained vortex tubes, but numerical simulations seem to show otherwise. In the present paper, we suggest an explanation for the numerical results. Using stability considerations and numerical results for the Reynolds numbers of the most intense vortex tubes, we obtain an estimate for the characteristic diameter of the largest spirals as a function of the Reynolds number. We find that this diameter decreases rapidly, relative to the integral scale, as the Reynolds number tends to infinity.
Rasmussen
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Department of Applied Mathematics and Theoretical Physics, University of Cambridge, Silver Street, CB3 9EW Cambridge, United Kingdom. rasmusse@maths.ox.ac.uk