On cascade of kinetic energy in compressible hydrodynamic turbulence

Abstract

Properties of the turbulent cascade of kinetic energy are studied using direct numerical simulations of three-dimensional hydrodynamic decaying turbulence with a moderate Reynolds number and the initial Mach number $M=1$. Compressible and incompressible versions of the Karman-Howarth-Monin (KHM) and low-pass filtering/coarse-graining approaches are compared. In the simulation the total energy is well conserved; the scale dependent KHM and coarse-grained energy equations are also well conserved; the two approaches show similar results, the system does not have an inertial range for the cascade of kinetic energy, the region where this cascade dominates also have a non-negligible contribution of the kinetic-energy decay, dissipation, and pressure-dilatation effects. While the two approaches give semi-quantitatively similar results for the kinetic energy cascade, dissipation and pressure-dilatation rates, they differ in the increment separation and filtering scales; these scales are not simply related. The two approaches may be used to find the inertial range and to determine the cascade/dissipation rate of the kinetic energy.

arXiv comment13 pages, 5 figures

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