Three-dimensional stability of Burgers vortices

TL;DR

This paper proves that Burgers vortices are asymptotically stable under three-dimensional perturbations for all Reynolds numbers, extending previous results and providing insights into transient amplification phenomena.

Contribution

It establishes the global asymptotic stability of Burgers vortices for all Reynolds numbers, generalizing earlier restricted stability results.

Findings

Burgers vortices are stable for all Reynolds numbers.

Linearized operator depends specifically on the axial variable.

Transient amplification can occur at high Reynolds numbers.

Abstract

Burgers vortices are explicit stationary solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations which are often used to describe the vortex tubes observed in numerical simulations of three-dimensional turbulence. In this model, the velocity field is a two-dimensional perturbation of a linear straining flow with axial symmetry. The only free parameter is the Reynolds number $Re = \Gamma/\nu$, where $\Gamma$ is the total circulation of the vortex and $\nu$ is the kinematic viscosity. The purpose of this paper is to show that Burgers vortex is asymptotically stable with respect to general three-dimensional perturbations, for all values of the Reynolds number. This definitive result subsumes earlier studies by various authors, which were either restricted to small Reynolds numbers or to two-dimensional perturbations. Our proof relies on the crucial observation that the linearized operator at Burgers vortex has a simple and very specific dependence upon the axial variable. This allows to reduce the full linearized equations to a vectorial two-dimensional problem, which can be treated using an extension of the techniques developped in earlier works. Although Burgers vortices are found to be stable for all Reynolds numbers, the proof indicates that perturbations may undergo an important transient amplification if $Re$ is large, a phenomenon that was indeed observed in numerical simulations.