A nested polyhedra model of turbulence

TL;DR

This paper introduces a novel nested polyhedra discretization of wave-number space for turbulence modeling, enabling efficient simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations with an extensive inertial range and reproducing the Kolmogorov spectrum.

Contribution

It proposes a self-similar nested polyhedra mesh for discretizing wave-number space, simplifying the Fourier space interactions in turbulence simulations.

Findings

Reproduces the Kolmogorov spectrum in simulations.

Allows large inertial range with fewer degrees of freedom.

Enables derivation of 3D shell models systematically.

Abstract

A discretization of the wave-number space is proposed, using nested polyhedra, in the form of alternating dodecahedra and icosahedra that are self-similarly scaled. This particular choice allows the possibility of forming triangles using only discretized wave-vectors when the scaling between two consecutive dodecahedra is equal to the golden ratio, and the icosahedron between the two dodecahedra is the dual of the inner dodecahedron. Alternatively, the same discretization can be described as a logarithmically spaced (with a scaling equal to the golden ratio), nested dodecahedron-icosahedron compounds. A wave-vector which points from the origin to a vertex of such a mesh, can always find two other discretized wave-vectors that are also on the vertices of the mesh (which is not true for an arbitrary mesh). Thus, the nested polyhedra grid can be thought of as a reduction (or decimation) of the Fourier space using a particular set of self-similar triads aranged approximately in a spherical form. For each vertex (i.e. discretized wave-vector) in this space, there are either 9 or 15 pairs of vertices (i.e. wave-vectors) with which the initial vertex can interact to form a triangle. This allows the reduction of the convolution integral in the Navier-Stokes equation to a sum over 9 or 15 interaction pairs. Transforming the equation in Fourier space, to a network of interacting nodes, that can be constructed as a numerical model, which evolves each component of the velocity vector on each node of the network. Such a model gives the usual Kolmogorov spectrum. Since the scaling is logarithmic, and the number of nodes for each scale is constant, a very large inertial range can be considered with a much lower number of degrees of freedom. Incidentally, by assuming isotropy and a certain relation between the phases, the model can be used to systematically derive three dimensional shell models.