Kolmogorov equation in fully developed turbulence

Abstract

The Kolmogorov equation with a forcing term is compared to experimental measurements, in low temperature helium gas, in a range of microscale Reynolds numbers $R_{\lambda}$ between 120 and 1200. We show that the relation is accurately verified by the experiment (i.e. within +/- 3 % relative error, over ranges of scales extending up to three decades). Two scales are extracted from the analysis, and revealed experimentally, one characterizing the external forcing, and the other, varying as $R_{\lambda}^{-3/5}$, defining the position of the maximum of the function $- S_{3}(r)/r$, and for which a physical interpretation is offered.