Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-r5zm4 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-13T21:22:22.325Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Diffusion of passive-scalar and magnetic fields by helical turbulence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 April 2006

Robert H. Kraichnan
Affiliation:
Dublin, Now Hampshire 03444

Abstract

Computer simulations of fluid-element trajectories in mirror-symmetric and maximally helical turbulence are used to evaluate Moffatt's (1974) formulae for the magnetic diffusivity η(t) and the coefficient κ(t) of the alpha-effect. The passive-scalar diffusivity κ(t) and the mean response functions of scalar and magnetic field wave-vector modes are also computed. The velocity field is normal, stationary, homogeneous and isotropic with spectrum $E(k) = \frac{3}{2}v^2_0\delta(k - k_0)$ and time correlation exp [−1/2ω2/0(t-t)2]. The cases ω0 = O (frozen turbulence), ω = vo k0 and ω0 = 2v0 k0 are followed to t = 4/v0 k0. In the ω0 > 0 cases with maximal helicity, κ(t) and a(t) approach steady-state values of order vo/k0 and v0, respectively. They behave anomalously for ω0 = 0. In the mirror-symmetric: cases, q(t) and κ(t) differ very little from each other. At all the ω0 values, is bigger in the helical than in the mirror-symmetric case. The difference is marked for ω0 = 0. The simulation results imply that κ(t) becomes negative in non-normal mirror-symmetric turbulence with strong helicity fluctuations that persist over several correlation lengths and times. The computations of response functions indicate that asymptotic expressions for these functions, valid for k [Lt ]; k0, retain good accuracy for k ∼ k0. The mean-square magnetic field is found to grow exponentially, and its kurtosis also grows apidly with t, indicating rapid development of a highly intermittent distribution of magnetic field.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
© 1976 Cambridge University Press

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abramowitz, M. & Stegun, I. A. 1965 Handbook of Mathematical Functions, p. 953. Dover.Google Scholar
Batcixelor, G. K. 1959 J. Fluid Mech. 5, 113.Google Scholar
Cocee, W. J. 1969 Phys. Fluids, 12, 2488.Google Scholar
Kraichnan, R. H. 1970 Phys. Fluids, 13, 22.Google Scholar
Kraichnan, R. H. 1974 J. Fluid Mech. 64, 737.Google Scholar
Kraicenan, R. H. 1976 J. Fluid Mech. 75, 657.Google Scholar
Lercee, I. 1973 J. Math. Phys. 14, 1579.Google Scholar
Moffatt, H. K. 1974 J. Fluid Mech. 65, 1.Google Scholar
Ralston, A. & Wilt, H. S. 1960 Mathematical Methods for Digital Computers, p. 100. Wiley.Google Scholar
Roberts, P. H. 1971 In Lectures in Applied Mathmatics (ed. by W. H. Reid). Philadelphia: Am. Math. Soc.Google Scholar
Roberts, P. H. 1976 Magnetnaya Gidrodinarnika, no. 2, p. 3.Google Scholar
Steenbeck, M. & Krause, F. 1969 Astron. Nachr. 291, 49.Google Scholar