Intermittency as a Consequence of a Stationarity Constraint on the Energy Flux.

In his seminal work on turbulence, Kolmogorov made use of the stationary hypothesis to determine the power density spectrum of the velocity field in turbulent flows. However, to our knowledge, the constraints that stationary processes impose on the fluctuations of the energy flux have never been used in the context of turbulence. Here, we recall that the power density spectra of the fluctuations of the injected power, the dissipated power, and the energy flux have to converge to a common value at vanishing frequency.

Velocity-informed upper bounds on the convective heat transport induced by internal heat sources and sinks.

Three-dimensional convection driven by internal heat sources and sinks (CISS) leads to experimental and numerical scaling laws compatible with a mixing-length-or 'ultimate'-scaling regime [Formula: see text]. However, asymptotic analytic solutions and idealized two-dimensional simulations have shown that laminar flow solutions can transport heat even more efficiently, with [Formula: see text]. The turbulent nature of the flow thus has a profound impact on its transport properties.

Experimental observation of the geostrophic turbulence regime of rapidly rotating convection.

The competition between turbulent convection and global rotation in planetary and stellar interiors governs the transport of heat and tracers, as well as magnetic field generation. These objects operate in dynamical regimes ranging from weakly rotating convection to the "geostrophic turbulence" regime of rapidly rotating convection. However, the latter regime has remained elusive in the laboratory, despite a worldwide effort to design ever-taller rotating convection cells over the last decade.

Low-frequency spectra of bending wave turbulence.

We study experimentally the dynamics of long waves among turbulent bending waves in a thin elastic plate set into vibration by a monochromatic forcing at a frequency f_{o}. This frequency is chosen large compared with the characteristic frequencies of bending waves. As a consequence, a range of conservative scales without energy flux on average exists for frequencies f View Article and Find Full Text PDF

Saturation of the Inverse Cascade in Surface Gravity-Wave Turbulence.

We report on the observation of surface gravity-wave turbulence at scales larger than the forcing ones in a large basin. In addition to the downscale transfer usually reported in gravity-wave turbulence, an upscale transfer is observed, interpreted as the inverse cascade of weak turbulence theory. A steady state is achieved when the inverse cascade reaches a scale in between the forcing wavelength and the basin size, but far from the latter.

Radiative heating achieves the ultimate regime of thermal convection.

The absorption of light or radiation drives turbulent convection inside stars, supernovae, frozen lakes, and Earth's mantle. In these contexts, the goal of laboratory and numerical studies is to determine the relation between the internal temperature gradients and the heat flux transported by the turbulent flow. This is the constitutive law of turbulent convection, to be input into large-scale models of such natural flows.

An instrument for studying granular media in low-gravity environment.

A new experimental facility has been designed and constructed to study driven granular media in a low-gravity environment. This versatile instrument, fully automatized, with a modular design based on several interchangeable experimental cells, allows us to investigate research topics ranging from dilute to dense regimes of granular media such as granular gas, segregation, convection, sound propagation, jamming, and rheology-all without the disturbance by gravitational stresses active on Earth. Here, we present the main parameters, protocols, and performance characteristics of the instrument.

Mean-field approach for frequency synchronization in complex networks of two oscillator types.

Oscillator networks with an asymmetric bipolar distribution of natural frequencies are useful representations of power grids. We propose a mean-field model that captures the onset, form, and linear stability of frequency synchronization in such oscillator networks. The model takes into account a broad class of heterogeneous connection structures and identifies a functional form as well as basic properties that synchronized regimes possess classwide.

Statistics of injected power on a bouncing ball subjected to a randomly vibrating piston.

We present an experimental study on the statistical properties of the injected power needed to maintain an inelastic ball bouncing constantly on a randomly accelerating piston in the presence of gravity. We compute the injected power at each collision of the ball with the moving piston by measuring the velocity of the piston and the force exerted on the piston by the ball. The probability density function of the injected power has its most probable value close to zero and displays two asymmetric exponential tails, depending on the restitution coefficient, the piston acceleration, and its frequency content.

Phase transition in an out-of-equilibrium monolayer of dipolar vibrated grains.

We report an experimental study on the transition between a disordered liquidlike state and an ordered solidlike one, in a collection of magnetically interacting macroscopic grains. A monolayer of magnetized particles is vibrated vertically at a moderate density. At high excitation a disordered, liquidlike state is observed.

Experimental observation of spatially localized dynamo magnetic fields.

We report the first experimental observation of a spatially localized dynamo magnetic field, a common feature of astrophysical dynamos and convective dynamo simulations. When the two propellers of the von Kármán sodium experiment are driven at frequencies that differ by 15%, the mean magnetic field's energy measured close to the slower disk is nearly 10 times larger than the one close to the faster one. This strong localization of the magnetic field when a symmetry of the forcing is broken is in good agreement with a prediction based on the interaction between a dipolar and a quadrupolar magnetic mode.

Chaotic dynamos generated by a turbulent flow of liquid sodium.

We report the observation of several dynamical regimes of the magnetic field generated by a turbulent flow of liquid sodium (VKS experiment). Stationary dynamos, transitions to relaxation cycles or to intermittent bursts, and random field reversals occur in a fairly small range of parameters. Large scale dynamics of the magnetic field result from the interactions of a few modes.

Fluctuations of energy flux in wave turbulence.

We report that the power driving gravity and capillary wave turbulence in a statistically stationary regime displays fluctuations much stronger than its mean value. We show that its probability density function (PDF) has a most probable value close to zero and involves two asymmetric roughly exponential tails. We understand the qualitative features of the PDF using a simple Langevin-type model.

Comparing flow thresholds and dynamics for oscillating and inclined granular layers.

The onset and dynamics of flow in shallow horizontally oscillating granular layers are studied as a function of the depth of the layer and imposed acceleration. Measurements of the flow velocity made from the top and side are presented in the frame of reference of the container. As is also found for avalanches of inclined layers, the thresholds for starting and stopping of flow are slightly different.

Collision frequencies and energy flux in a dilute granular gas.

Recent experimental study of a granular gas fluidized by vibrations in a low gravity environment has reported that the collision frequency nu(rho) of the particles with the container boundary scales roughly like N(alpha) with alpha=0.6 +/- 0.1, where N is the number of particles.

Low-frequency noise controls on-off intermittency of bifurcating systems.

A bifurcating system subject to multiplicative noise can display on-off intermittency. Using a canonical example, we investigate the extreme sensitivity of the intermittent behavior to the nature of the noise. Through a perturbative expansion and numerical studies of the probability density function of the unstable mode, we show that intermittency is controlled by the ratio between the departure from onset and the value of the noise spectrum at zero frequency.

Effect of phase noise on parametric instabilities.

We report an experimental study on the effect of an external phase noise on the parametric amplification of surface waves. We observe that both the instability growth rate and the wave amplitude above the instability onset are decreased in the presence of noise. We show that all the results can be understood with a deterministic amplitude equation for the wave in which the effect of noise is just to change the forcing term.

Granular phase transition as a precondition for segregation.

Experimental results are presented on the segregation of a mixture of spheres with two different sizes, rolling on a circularly vibrating table. Beyond a critical density of particles a demixing occurs leading to a clustering of the larger ones. A monodisperse layer of spheres shows a liquid-solid-like phase transition at a slightly lower critical density.

Segregation in granular matter under horizontal swirling excitation.

A segregation phenomenon in a horizontally vibrated monolayer of granular matter is studied experimentally. In a binary mixture of small spheres and larger disks, the collapse speed of the disks increases dramatically with increasing granular temperature. The scaling behavior can be understood by applying arguments from kinetic gas theory.