Investigating nonlinearity in wall turbulence: regenerative versus parametric mechanisms

Abstract: Both linear growth processes associated with non-normality of the mean flow and nonlinear interaction transferring energy among fluctuations contribute to maintaining turbulence. However, a detailed understanding of the mechanism by which they cooperate in sustaining the turbulent state is lacking. In this report, we examine the role of fluctuation-fluctuation nonlinearity by varying the magnitude of the associated term in the dynamics of Couette flow turbulence to determine how this nonlinear component helps maintain and determine the structure of the turbulent state, and particularly whether this mechanism is parametric or regenerative. Having determined that the mechanism supporting the fluctuation field in Navier-Stokes turbulence is parametric, we then study the mechanism by which the fluctuation component of turbulence is maintained by parametric growth in a time-dependent mean flow by examining the parametric growth mechanism in the frequency domain using analysis of the time-dependent resolvent.