Massimo Cencini
ISC-CNR, Rome, Italy

Irreversibility and Lagrangian power statistics in turbulence

Recent works have shown that the rate of kinetic-energy change of small fluid elements has a non-trivial Reynolds dependence and, moreover, is characterized by a negatively skewed distribution, a fact that can be put in relation with the irreversibility of turbulent flows. Irreversibility in turbulence originates both from the fact of being far from equilibrium and from the viscous term which explicitly break the time reversal symmetry. Here the Lagrangian power statistics is investigated in the framework of the shell models for turbulence. It will be shown that the power statistics can be rationalized in the framework of the multifractal model of turbulence. Moreover, it will be shown that the left tail of the power gives rise to a Re dependence that is subleading with respect to the symmetric part of the distribution. It will be also discussed a variant of the shell model where the viscous term is modified such us to preserve the time reversal symmetry so that the only source of irreversibility is the out-of-equilibrium nature of the turbulent state. Finally, Lagrangian power in Navier-Stokes turbulence will be revisited on the light of these results.