Homoclinic tangle on the edge of shear turbulence.
Experiments and simulations lend mounting evidence for the edge state hypothesis on subcritical transition to turbulence, which asserts that simple states of fluid motion mediate between laminar and turbulent shear flow as their stable manifolds separate the two in state space. In this Letter we describe flows homoclinic to a time-periodic edge state that display the essential properties of turbulent bursting. During a burst, vortical structures and the associated energy dissipation are highly localized near the wall, in contrast with the familiar regeneration cycle.
Faculty of Science, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, L1H 7K4 Ontario, Canada. lennaert.vanveen@uoit.ca
Lennaert
L
van Veen
Genta
G
Kawahara