Transition to turbulence when the Tollmien-Schlichting and bypass routes coexist

Abstract

Plane Poiseuille flow, the pressure driven flow between parallel plates, shows a route to turbulence connected with a linear instability to Tollmien-Schlichting (TS) waves, and another one, the bypass transition, that is triggered with finite amplitude perturbation. We use direct numerical simulations to explore the arrangement of the different routes to turbulence among the set of initial conditions. For plates that are a distance $2H$ apart and in a domain of width $2\pi H$ and length $2\pi H$ the subcritical instability to TS waves sets in at $Re_{c}=5815$ that extends down to $Re_{TS}\approx4884$. The bypass route becomes available above $Re_E=459$ with the appearance of three-dimensional finite-amplitude traveling waves. The bypass transition covers a large set of finite amplitude perturbations. Below $Re_c$, TS appear for a tiny set of initial conditions that grows with increasing Reynolds number. Above $Re_c$ the previously stable region becomes unstable via TS waves, but a sharp transition to the bypass route can still be identified. Both routes lead to the same turbulent in the final stage of the transition, but on different time scales. Similar phenomena can be expected in other flows where two or more routes to turbulence compete.