dorsal/arxiv
View SchemaDiffusion and dispersion of passive tracers: Navier-Stokes versus MHD turbulence
| Authors | Wolf-Christian Müller, Angela Busse |
|---|---|
| Categories | |
| ArXiv ID | physics/0703212 |
| URL | https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0703212 |
Abstract
A comparison of turbulent diffusion and pair-dispersion in homogeneous, macroscopically isotropic Navier-Stokes (NS) and nonhelical magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence based on high-resolution direct numerical simulations is presented. Significant differences between MHD and NS systems are observed in the pair-dispersion properties, in particular a strong reduction of the separation velocity in MHD turbulence as compared to the NS case. It is shown that in MHD turbulence the average pair-dispersion is slowed down for $\tau_\mathrm{d}\lesssim t\lesssim 10 \tau_\mathrm{d}$, $\tau_\mathrm{d}$ being the Kolmogorov time, due to the alignment of the relative Lagrangian tracer velocity with the local magnetic field. Significant differences in turbulent single-particle diffusion in NS and MHD turbulence are not detected. The fluid particle trajectories in the vicinity of the smallest dissipative structures are found to be characterisically different although these comparably rare events have a negligible influence on the statistics investigated in this work.
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"abstract": "A comparison of turbulent diffusion and pair-dispersion in homogeneous,\nmacroscopically isotropic Navier-Stokes (NS) and nonhelical magnetohydrodynamic\n(MHD) turbulence based on high-resolution direct numerical simulations is\npresented. Significant differences between MHD and NS systems are observed in\nthe pair-dispersion properties, in particular a strong reduction of the\nseparation velocity in MHD turbulence as compared to the NS case. It is shown\nthat in MHD turbulence the average pair-dispersion is slowed down for\n$\\tau_\\mathrm{d}\\lesssim t\\lesssim 10 \\tau_\\mathrm{d}$, $\\tau_\\mathrm{d}$ being\nthe Kolmogorov time, due to the alignment of the relative Lagrangian tracer\nvelocity with the local magnetic field. Significant differences in turbulent\nsingle-particle diffusion in NS and MHD turbulence are not detected. The fluid\nparticle trajectories in the vicinity of the smallest dissipative structures\nare found to be characterisically different although these comparably rare\nevents have a negligible influence on the statistics investigated in this work.",
"arxiv_id": "physics/0703212",
"authors": [
"Wolf-Christian M\u00fcller",
"Angela Busse"
],
"categories": [
"physics.plasm-ph"
],
"title": "Diffusion and dispersion of passive tracers: Navier-Stokes versus MHD turbulence",
"url": "https://arxiv.org/abs/physics/0703212"
},
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