The evolution of homogeneous isotropic turbulence in background rotation

Abstract

© Published under licence by IOP Publishing Ltd. Direct numerical simulation is employed to investigate the effect of background rotation on the evolution of homogeneous isotropic turbulence. The frame of reference rotates only in one direction with a rotation numbers varied from 0 to 4, representing both slow and fast rotations. In a stationary frame of reference, the turbulence structures are isotropic and its energy spectrum exhibits a famous k-5/3in the inertial subrange. The background rotation alters the isotropic behaviour of the turbulence structures, leading to the formation of columnar vortices. The slope of the energy spectrum strongly depends on the rotation number and ranges between -5/3 and -3.78.