Lab Home | Phone | Search
Center for Nonlinear Studies  Center for Nonlinear Studies
 Home 
 People 
 Current 
 Executive Committee 
 Postdocs 
 Visitors 
 Students 
 Research 
 Publications 
 Conferences 
 Workshops 
 Sponsorship 
 Talks 
 Seminars 
 Postdoc Seminars Archive 
 Quantum Lunch 
 Quantum Lunch Archive 
 P/T Colloquia 
 Archive 
 Ulam Scholar 
 
 Postdoc Nominations 
 Student Requests 
 Student Program 
 Visitor Requests 
 Description 
 Past Visitors 
 Services 
 General 
 
 History of CNLS 
 
 Maps, Directions 
 CNLS Office 
 T-Division 
 LANL 
 
Wednesday, December 01, 2010
12:00 PM - 1:00 PM
CNLS Conference Room (TA-3, Bldg 1690)

Seminar

Subfilter-scale physics of alpha-models

Jonathan Pietarila Graham
Johns Hopkins University

At high Reynolds numbers, the Lagrangian-averaged Navier-Stokes Éø-model (LANS-Éø) is found to provide poor predictions of superfilter-scale energy spectra. By making the antithesis of a LES, we are able to study the subfilter-scale (SFS) physics responsible for these poor spectra. LANS-Éø's strong suppression of spectrally local SFS interactions and the conservation of small-scale circulation leads to the formation of rigid bodies. These contaminate the superfilter-scale energy spectrum with a k +1 scaling (instead of the predicted k -1 scaling for the H 1 norm). In comparison, the Clark-Éø and Leray-Éø models, truncations of LANS-Éø, do not conserve small-scale circulation and do not develop rigid bodies. These truncations, however, do not retain the good intermittency properties of LANS-Éø. In magnetohydrodynamics (MHD), the presence of the Lorentz force as a source (or sink) for circulation and as the restoring force for Alfven waves prevents the formation of rigid bodies in the MHD-Éømodel. MHD-Éø performs well as a predictor of superfilter-scale energy spectra and of intermittent current sheets at high Reynolds numbers. It may prove generally applicable as a MHD-LES.

Host: Todd Ringler, T-3, 7-7744,ringler@lanl.gov