Universal behavior of entrainment due to coherent structures in turbulent shear flow

Abstract

A solution is suggested for a persistent mystery in the physics of turbulent flows: cumulus clouds rise to towering heights, practically without entraining the ambient medium, while apparently similar turbulent jets quickly lose their identity through entrainment and mixing. Dynamical system computations on a model vortical flow show that entrainment due to coherent structures depends sensitively on relative speeds of fluid parcels. Local heating, for example, can alter drastically the sizes of Kolmogorov-Arnol'd-Moser tori and chaotic mixing regions. The entrainment rate and, hence, the lifetime of a turbulent shear flow show a universal, nonmonotone dependence on the heating.