von K\'arm\'an--Howarth and Corrsin equations closures through Liouville theorem

Abstract

In this communication, the closure formulas of von K\'arm\'an--Howarth and Corrsin equations are obtained through the Liouville theorem and the hypothesis of homogeneous isotropic incompressible turbulence. Such closures, based on the concept that, in fully developed turbulence, contiguous fluid particles trajectories continuously diverge, are of non--diffusive nature, and express a correlations spatial propagation phenomenon between the several scales which occurs with a propagation speed depending on length scale and velocity standard deviation. These closure formulas coincide with those just obtained in previous works through the finite scale Lyapunov analysis of the fluid act of motion. Here, unlike the other articles, the present study does not use the Lyapunov theory, and provides the closures showing first an exact relationship between the pair spatial correlations calculated with the velocity distribution function and those obtained using the material separation line distribution function. As this analysis does not adopt the Lyapunov theory, this does not need the definition and/or the existence of the Lyapunov exponents. Accordingly, the present proof of the closures results to be more general and rigorous than that presented in the other works, corroborating the previous results. Finally, the conditions of existence of invariants in isotropic turbulence are studied by means of the proposed closures. In the presence of such invariants and self--similarity, the sole evolution of velocity and temperature standard deviations and of the correlation scales is shown to be adequate to fairly describe the isotropic turbulence.