Modeling the Energy Flux Enhanced in Rotating Inhomogeneous Turbulence

Abstract

In the conventional turbulence models, the energy flux due to turbulent motion is often modeled by the gradient-diffusion approximation. In rotating turbulence, however, it is known that the turbulent energy is transfered faster in the direction of the rotation axis than that in non-rotating turbulence. In this study, we theoretically and numerically discuss a model describing the rapid energy transfer in rotating inhomogeneous turbulence. Theoretical analysis suggests that the rapid energy transfer due to the rotation is closely related to helicity. The numerical result shows that the proposed model gives a good performance at an early stage but the accuracy decreases at a later stage due to the wave-number dependence; that is, the low-wavenumber modes are transfered faster than the high-wavenumber modes.