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Experimental investigation of Large Scale Circulation generated over a 2D turbulent flow

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One of the striking features of two dimensional turbulence is the presence of large coherent structures, formed by the inverse cascade of energy. In 2D turbulent flows, the energy cascades from the energy injection scale to the large scales and if the injected power is sufficiently large, a large scale flow can be generated at the scale of the domain. We report the experimental study of the emergence of this large scale circulation (LSC) for an electromagnetically forced flow in a liquid metal (GalInStan). We demonstrate that this bifurcation can be described in the same framework as equilibrium phase transitions. Finally, we analyze the structure of the
chaotic attractor that governs the LSC dynamics.

Author(s):

Johann Herault    
Laboratoire de physique statistique CNRS-ENS PARIS
France

Francois Petrelis    
Laboratoire de physique statistique CNRS-ENS PARIS
France