A correspondence between the multifractal model of turbulence and the Navier-Stokes equations.

The multifractal model of turbulence (MFM) and the three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations are blended together by applying the probabilistic scaling arguments of the former to a hierarchy of weak solutions of the latter. This process imposes a lower bound on both the multifractal spectrum [Formula: see text], which appears naturally in the Large Deviation formulation of the MFM, and on [Formula: see text] the standard scaling parameter. These bounds respectively take the form: (i) [Formula: see text], which is consistent with Kolmogorov's four-fifths law ; and (ii) [Formula: see text]. The latter is significant as it prevents solutions from approaching the Navier-Stokes singular set of Caffarelli, Kohn and Nirenberg. This article is part of the theme issue 'Scaling the turbulence edifice (part 1)'.

Depletion of nonlinearity in magnetohydrodynamic turbulence: Insights from analysis and simulations.

It is shown how suitably scaled, order-m moments, D_{m}^{±}, of the Elsässer vorticity fields in three-dimensional magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) can be used to identify three possible regimes for solutions of the MHD equations with magnetic Prandtl number P_{M}=1. These vorticity fields are defined by ω^{±}=curlz^{±}=ω±j, where z^{±} are Elsässer variables, and where ω and j are, respectively, the fluid vorticity and current density. This study follows recent developments in the study of three-dimensional Navier-Stokes fluid turbulence [Gibbon et al., Nonlinearity 27, 2605 (2014)NONLE50951-771510.1088/0951-7715/27/10/2605]. Our mathematical results are then compared with those from a variety of direct numerical simulations, which demonstrate that all solutions that have been investigated remain in only one of these regimes which has depleted nonlinearity. The exponents q^{±} that characterize the inertial range power-law dependencies of the z^{±} energy spectra, E^{±}(k), are then examined, and bounds are obtained. Comments are also made on  (a) the generalization of our results to the case P_{M}≠1 and (b) the relation between D_{m}^{±} and the order-m moments of gradients of magnetohydrodynamic fields, which are used to characterize intermittency in turbulent flows.

Quasiconservation laws for compressible three-dimensional Navier-Stokes flow.

We formulate the quasi-Lagrangian fluid transport dynamics of mass density ρ and the projection q=ω·∇ρ of the vorticity ω onto the density gradient, as determined by the three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations for an ideal gas, although the results apply for an arbitrary equation of state. It turns out that the quasi-Lagrangian transport of q cannot cross a level set of ρ. That is, in this formulation, level sets of ρ (isopycnals) are impermeable to the transport of the projection q.

Extreme events in solutions of hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic climate models.

Initially, this paper reviews the mathematical issues surrounding hydrostatic primitive equations (HPEs) and non-hydrostatic primitive equations (NPEs) that have been used extensively in numerical weather prediction and climate modelling. A new impetus has been provided by a recent proof of the existence and uniqueness of solutions of viscous HPEs on a cylinder with Neumann-like boundary conditions on the top and bottom. In contrast, the regularity of solutions of NPEs remains an open question. With this HPE regularity result in mind, the second issue examined in this paper is whether extreme events are allowed to arise spontaneously in their solutions. Such events could include, for example, the sudden appearance and disappearance of locally intense fronts that do not involve deep convection. Analytical methods are used to show that for viscous HPEs, the creation of small-scale structures is allowed locally in space and time at sizes that scale inversely with the Reynolds number.

Exponentially growing solutions in homogeneous Rayleigh-Bénard convection.

It is shown that homogeneous Rayleigh-Bénard flow, i.e., Rayleigh-Bénard turbulence with periodic boundary conditions in all directions and a volume forcing of the temperature field by a mean gradient, has a family of exact, exponentially growing, separable solutions of the full nonlinear system of equations. These solutions are clearly manifest in numerical simulations above a computable critical value of the Rayleigh number. In our numerical simulations they are subject to secondary numerical noise and resolution dependent instabilities that limit their growth to produce statistically steady turbulent transport.