Dispersion of passive tracers in velocity field with non delta-correlated noise

Abstract

The diffusive properties in velocity fields whose small scales are parameterized by non $\delta$-correlated noise is investigated using multiscale technique. The analytical expression of the eddy diffusivity tensor is found for a 2D steady shear flow and it is an increasing function of the characteristic noise decorrelation time $\tau$. In order to study a generic flow $\mathbf{v}$, a small-$\tau$ expansion is performed and the first correction $\mathcal{O}(\tau )$ to the effective diffusion coefficients is evaluated. This is done using two different approaches and it results that at the order $\tau$ the problem with a colored noise is equivalent to the white-in-time case provided by a renormalization of the velocity field $\mathbf{v}\mapsto \tilde{\mathbf{v}}$ depending on $\tau$. Two examples of 2D closed-streamlines velocity field are considered and in both the cases an enhancement of the diffusion is found.

12 pages, 3 figures. Physical Review E, in press (1999)