Universality in the small scales of turbulent Taylor-Couette flow.

Abstract

From a humble kitchen blender to the vast galactic disks, rotating turbulent flows exhibit remarkable diversity. They are also replete with puzzling features. A notable example is the energy spectrum of a widely studied rotating flow-the turbulent Taylor-Couette (TC) flow. Previous studies have shown that, unlike other canonical turbulent flows, it does not obey Kolmogorov's universal power law or any other power law. Here, we report measurements of the energy spectra in turbulent TC flow from unique "flying-wire" experiments where a rotating probe sweeps through the flow. In contrast with previous studies, which focused primarily on spectral power laws, we analyze spectral data collapse. Through this broader approach, we show that, contrary to the prevailing understanding, the spectral structure of small scales in turbulent TC flow is in excellent accord with the potent paradigm of Kolmogorov's small-scale universality.