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On the discontinuous transition to turbulence in plane Couette flow

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Plane Couette flow is a paradigmatic example of wall-bounded shear flow experiencing a direct transition to/from turbulence.
The generic features of this transition are discussed using well-resolved numerical simulations in a domain wide enough to undergo laminar-turbulent patterning. Whereas the transition is clearly discontinuous at the global stability threshold R_g, results at the upper threshold R_t – where turbulence becomes featureless – suggest that the transition is also discontinuous, though less dramatically.

Author(s):

Paul Manneville    
LadHyX, Ecole Polytechnique
France