title: Manifestations of drag reduction by polymer additives in decaying, homogeneous, isotropic turbulence.
abstract: The existence of drag reduction by polymer additives, well established for wall-bounded turbulent flows, is controversial in homogeneous, isotropic turbulence. To settle this controversy, we carry out a high-resolution direct numerical simulation of decaying, homogeneous, isotropic turbulence with polymer additives. Our study reveals clear manifestations of drag-reduction-type phenomena: On the addition of polymers to the turbulent fluid, we obtain a reduction in the energy-dissipation rate, a significant modification of the fluid energy spectrum especially in the deep-dissipation range, a suppression of small-scale intermittency, and a decrease in small-scale vorticity filaments.
authors.affiliation: Centre for Condensed Matter Theory, Department of Physics, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India. perlekar@physics.iisc.ernet.in
authors.forename: Prasad
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Perlekar
authors.forename: Dhrubaditya
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Mitra
authors.forename: Rahul
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Pandit