On the Conservation of Turbulence Energy in Turbulence Transport Models

TL;DR

This paper demonstrates that turbulence transport models for different plasma beta regimes can be expressed in a conservation form similar to the WKB wave energy equation, clarifying energy dissipation and turbulent pressure.

Contribution

It explicitly shows the conservation form of turbulence transport models across plasma regimes, linking them to the WKB formalism and clarifying the role of turbulent pressure tensors.

Findings

Models admit a conservation form analogous to WKB equations

Different pressure tensors are derived for various plasma beta regimes

Clarifies the energy dissipation and turbulent pressure in models

Abstract

Zank et al. developed models describing the transport of low frequency incompressible and nearly incompressible turbulence in inhomogeneous flows. The formalism was based on expressing the fluctuating variables in terms of the Els\"assar variables and then taking "moments" subject to various closure hypotheses. The turbulence transport models are different according to whether the plasma beta regime is large or of order 1 or smaller. Here, we show explicitly that the two sets of turbulence transport models admit a conservation representation that resembles the well-known WKB transport equation for Alfv\'en wave energy density after introducing appropriate definitions of the "pressure" associated with the turbulent fluctuations. This includes introducing a distinct turbulent pressure tensor for 3D incompressible turbulence (the large plasma beta limit) and pressure tensors for quasi-2D and slab turbulence (the plasma beta order 1 or small regimes) that generalize the form of the WKB pressure tensor. Various limits of the different turbulent pressure tensors are discussed. However, the analogy between the conservation form of the turbulence transport models and the WKB model is not close for multiple reasons, including that the turbulence models express fully nonlinear physical processes unlike the strictly linear WKB description. The analysis presented here serves both as a check on the validity and correctness of the turbulence transport models and provides greater transparency of the energy dissipation term and the "turbulent pressure" in our models, which is important for many practical applications.