Second And Third-Order Structure Functions Of An 'Engineered' Random Field And Emergence Of The Kolmogorov 4/5 And 2/3-Scaling Laws Of Turbulence

Abstract

The 4/5 and 2/3 laws of turbulence can emerge from a theory of 'engineered' random vector fields $\mathcal{X}_{i}(x,t) =X_{i}(x,t)+\tfrac{\theta}{\sqrt{d(d+2)}} X_{i}(x,t)\psi(x)$ existing within $\mathbf{D}\subset\mathbf{R}^{d}$. Here, $X_{i}(x,t)$ is a smooth deterministic vector field obeying a nonlinear PDE for all $(x,t)\in\mathbf{D}\times\mathbf{R}^{+}$, and $\theta$ is a small parameter. The field $\psi(x)$ is a regulated and differentiable Gaussian random field with expectation $\mathbb{E}[\psi(x)]=0$, but having an antisymmetric covariance kernel $\mathscr{K}(x,y)=\mathbb{E}[\psi(x)\psi(y)]=f(x,y)K(\|x-y\|;\lambda)$ with $f(x,y)=-f(y,x)=1,f(x,x)=f(y,y)=0$ and with $K(\|x-y\|;\lambda)$ a standard stationary symmetric kernel. For $0\le\ell\le \lambda<L$ with $X_{i}(x,t)=X_{i}=(0,0,X)$ and $\theta=1$ then for $d=3$, the third-order structure function is \begin{align} S_{3}[\ell]=\mathbb{E}\left[|\mathcal{X}_{i}(x+\ell,t)-\mathcal{X}(x,t)|^{3}\right]=-\frac{4}{5}\|X_{i}\|^{3}=-\frac{4}{5}X^{3}\nonumber \end{align} and $S_{2}[\ell]=CX^{2}$. The classical 4/5 and 2/3-scaling laws then emerge if one identifies the random field $\mathcal{X}_{i}(x,t)$ with a turbulent fluid flow $\mathcal{U}_{i}(x,t)$ or velocity, with mean flow $\mathbb{E}[\mathcal{U}_{i}(x,t)]=U_{i}(x,t)=U_{i}$ being a trivial solution of Burger's equation. Assuming constant dissipation rate $\epsilon$, small constant viscosity $\nu$, corresponding to high Reynolds number, and the standard energy balance law, then for a range $\eta\le\ell\ll \lambda<L$ \begin{align} S_{3}[\ell]=\mathbb{E}\left[|\mathcal{U}_{i}(x+\ell,t)-\mathcal{U}(x,t)|^{3}\right]=-\frac{4}{5}\epsilon\ell\nonumber \end{align} where $\eta=(\nu^{3/4}\epsilon)^{-1/4}$. For the second-order structure function, the 2/3-law emerges as $S_{2}[\ell]=C\epsilon^{2/3}\ell^{2/3}$.