Work

Acceleration of Lagrangian particles in shell models of turbulence

Year: 2025

Type: article

Abstract: Extreme Lagrangian acceleration in turbulence is often attributed to particle trapping in coherent vortex structures. Here, we show that shell models, despite lacking vortex filaments, reproduce the extreme intermittent fluctuations of Lagrangian acceleration seen in real flows. Within the multifractal framework, we accurately predict acceleration moments and full probability distribution functions (PDFs) across a wide range of Reynolds numbers. This shows extreme Lagrangian fluctuations can arise from inertial-range dynamics alone, supporting the universality of multifractal statistics and highlighting shell models as effective tools to capture key features of turbulence.

Source: Physical Review Fluids

DOI: 10.1103/lltk-vsrb

Authors: Lorenzo Piro, Massimo Cencini, Roberto Benzi

Institutions: University of Rome Tor Vergata, Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare, Roma Tor Vergata, Institute for Complex Systems, North University of China

Language: English

Topic: Fluid Dynamics and Turbulent Flows

Subfield: Computational Mechanics

Field: Engineering

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: green

Funders: European Research Council, Horizon 2020

Award: G7850708133