Structure and dynamics of homogeneous turbulence: models and simulations

Abstract

This paper presents a review of recent results on homogeneous turbulence. We discuss results obtained by direct numerical simulation as well as phenomenological models for the interpretation and understanding of these flows. In particular, we show that homogeneous turbulence can be well described in terms of a weakly correlated, random background field that is generally consistent with the classical Kolmogorov theory of turbulence, and strongly correlated, highly localized structures, that are largely responsible for intermittency effects and deviations from Kolmogorov scaling. These results give a unified dynamical picture of turbulence that describes both the energetics and intermittency of homogeneous turbulence, and allows us to develop a quantitative model for the description of the statistics of turbulence at small scales.