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Critical transition in fast-rotating turbulence within highly elongated domains

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  27 July 2020

Adrian van Kan Open the ORCID record for Adrian van Kan [Opens in a new window]  and
Alexandros Alexakis Open the ORCID record for Alexandros Alexakis [Opens in a new window]
Adrian van Kan*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Physique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, ENS, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris-Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
Alexandros Alexakis
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Physique de l'Ecole Normale Supérieure, ENS, Université PSL, CNRS, Sorbonne Université, Université Paris-Diderot, Sorbonne Paris Cité, Paris, France
*
†Email address for correspondence: adrian.van.kan@phys.ens.fr
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Abstract

We study rapidly rotating turbulent flows in a highly elongated domain using an asymptotic expansion at simultaneously low Rossby number $Ro\ll 1$ and large domain height compared with the energy injection scale, $h=H/\ell _{in}\gg 1$. We solve the resulting equations using an extensive set of direct numerical simulations for different parameter regimes. As the parameter $\lambda = (h Ro)^{-1}$ is increased beyond a threshold $\lambda _c$, a transition is observed from a state without an inverse energy cascade to a state with an inverse energy cascade. For large Reynolds number and large horizontal box size, we provide evidence for criticality of the transition in terms of the large-scale energy dissipation rate.

JFM classification

Geophysical and Geological Flows: Rotating flows Turbulent Flows: Turbulent transition
Type
JFM Papers
Information
Journal of Fluid Mechanics , Volume 899 , 25 September 2020 , A33
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2020. Published by Cambridge University Press

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References

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