Josephson-Anderson relation as diagnostic of turbulent drag reduction by polymers.

The detailed Josephson-Anderson relation, which equates instantaneously the volume-integrated vorticity flux and the work by pressure drop, has been the key to drag reduction in superconductors and superfluids. We employ a classical version of this relation to investigate the dynamics of polymer drag-reduced channel flows, particularly in the high-extent drag reduction (HDR) regime which is known to exhibit strong space-time intermittency. We show that high drag is not created instantaneously by near-wall coherent vortex structures as assumed in prior works.