Statistical Lyapunov Theory Based on Bifurcation Analysis of Energy Cascade in Isotropic Homogeneous Turbulence: A Physical–Mathematical Review

This work presents a review of previous articles dealing with an original turbulence theory proposed by the author and provides new theoretical insights into some related issues. The new theoretical procedures and methodological approaches confirm and corroborate the previous results. These articles study the regime of homogeneous isotropic turbulence for incompressible fluids and propose theoretical approaches based on a specific Lyapunov theory for determining the closures of the von Kármán–Howarth and Corrsin equations and the statistics of velocity and temperature difference. While numerous works are present in the literature which concern the closures of the autocorrelation equations in the Fourier domain (i.e., Lin equation closure), few articles deal with the closures of the autocorrelation equations in the physical space. These latter, being based on the eddy–viscosity concept, describe diffusive closure models. On the other hand, the proposed Lyapunov theory leads to nondiffusive closures based on the property that, in turbulence, contiguous fluid particles trajectories continuously diverge. Therefore, the main motivation of this review is to present a theoretical formulation which does not adopt the eddy–viscosity paradigm and summarizes the results of the previous works. Next, this analysis assumes that the current fluid placements, together with velocity and temperature fields, are fluid state variables. This leads to the closures of the autocorrelation equations and helps to interpret the mechanism of energy cascade as due to the continuous divergence of the contiguous trajectories. Furthermore, novel theoretical issues are here presented among which we can mention the following ones. The bifurcation rate of the velocity gradient, calculated along fluid particles trajectories, is shown to be much larger than the corresponding maximal Lyapunov exponent. On that basis, an interpretation of the energy cascade phenomenon is given and the statistics of finite time Lyapunov exponent of the velocity gradient is shown to be represented by normal distribution functions. Next, the self–similarity produced by the proposed closures is analyzed and a proper bifurcation analysis of the closed von Kármán–Howarth equation is performed. This latter investigates the route from developed turbulence toward the non–chaotic regimes, leading to an estimate of the critical Taylor scale Reynolds number. A proper statistical decomposition based on extended distribution functions and on the Navier–Stokes equations is presented, which leads to the statistics of velocity and temperature difference.