Role of dissipation in flexural wave turbulence: from experimental spectrum to Kolmogorov-Zakharov spectrum

Phys Rev E Stat Nonlin Soft Matter Phys. 2014 Jun;89(6):062925. doi: 10.1103/PhysRevE.89.062925. Epub 2014 Jun 30.

Abstract

The weak turbulence theory has been applied to waves in thin elastic plates obeying the Föppl-Von Kármán dynamical equations. Subsequent experiments have shown a strong discrepancy between the theoretical predictions and the measurements. Both the dynamical equations and the weak turbulence theory treatment require some restrictive hypotheses. Here a direct numerical simulation of the Föppl-Von Kármán equations is performed and reproduces qualitatively and quantitatively the experimental results when the experimentally measured damping rate of waves γ_{k}=a+bk{2} is used. This confirms that the Föppl-Von Kármán equations are a valid theoretical framework to describe our experiments. When we progressively tune the dissipation so that to localize it at the smallest scales, we observe a gradual transition between the experimental spectrum and the Kolmogorov-Zakharov prediction. Thus, it is shown that dissipation has a major influence on the scaling properties of stationary solutions of weakly nonlinear wave turbulence.

Publication types

  • Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

MeSH terms

  • Algorithms
  • Computer Simulation
  • Elasticity
  • Models, Theoretical*
  • Motion*
  • Stainless Steel

Substances

  • Stainless Steel