Turbulence is ubiquitous in nature yet even for the case of ordinary Newtonian fluids like water our understanding of this phenomenon is limited. Many liquids of practical importance however are more complicated (e.g. blood, polymer melts or paints), they exhibit elastic as well as viscous characteristics and the relation between stress and strain is nonlinear. We here demonstrate for a model system of such complex fluids that at high shear rates turbulence is not simply modified as previously believed but it is suppressed and replaced by a new type of disordered motion, elasto-inertial turbulence (EIT). EIT is found to occur at much lower Reynolds numbers than Newtonian turbulence and the dynamical properties differ significantly. In particular the drag is strongly reduced and the observed friction scaling resolves a longstanding puzzle in non-Newtonian fluid mechanics regarding the nature of the so-called maximum drag reduction asymptote. Theoretical considerations imply that EIT will arise in complex fluids if the extensional viscosity is sufficiently large

In this Letter we present results from particle tracking velocimetry and direct numerical simulation that are congruent with the existence of a laminar superlayer, as proposed in the pioneering work of Corrsin and Kistler (NACA, Technical Report No. 1244, 1955). We find that the local superlayer velocity is dominated by a viscous component and its magnitude is comparable to the characteristic velocity of the smallest scales of motion. This slow viscous process involves a large surface area so that the global rate of turbulence spreading is set by the largest scales of motion. These findings are important for a better understanding of mixing of mass and momentum in a variety of flows where thin layers of shear exist. Examples are boundary layers, clouds, planetary atmospheres, and oceans.

We examine the structure of the turbulence boundary of a temporal plane jet at $Re=5000$ using statistics conditioned on the enstrophy. The data is obtained by direct numerical simulation and threshold values span 24 orders of magnitude, ranging from essentially irrotational fluid outside the jet to fully turbulent fluid in the jet core. We use two independent estimators for the local entrainment velocity $v_n$ based on the enstrophy budget. The data show clear evidence for the existence of a viscous superlayer (VSL) that envelopes the turbulence. The VSL is a nearly one-dimensional layer with low surface curvature. We find that both its area and viscous transport velocity adjust to the imposed rate so that the integral entrainment flux is independent of threshold, although low-Reynolds-number effects play a role for the case under consideration. This threshold independence is consistent with the inviscid nature of the integral rate of entrainment. A theoretical model of the VSL is developed that is in reasonably good agreement with the data and predicts that the contribution of viscous transport and dissipation to interface propagation have magnitude $2 v_n$ and $-v_n$, respectively. We further identify a turbulent core region (TC) which is a region that shrinks over time and a buffer region connecting the VSL and the TC that grows in time and where the inviscid enstrophy production is important. The BR shows many similarities with the turbulent-nonturbulent interface (TNTI), although the TNTI seems to extend into the TC. The average distance between the TC and the VSL, i.e.\ the BR thickness is about 10 Kolmogorov length scales or half a Taylor length scale, indicating that intense turbulent flow regions and viscosity-dominated regions are in close proximity

Intermittency of Lagrangian velocity and acceleration is a key to understanding transport in complex systems ranging from fluid turbulence to flow in porous media. High-resolution optical particle tracking in a three-dimensional (3D) porous medium provides detailed 3D information on Lagrangian velocities and accelerations. We find sharp transitions close to pore throats, and low flow variability in the pore bodies, which gives rise to stretched exponential Lagrangian velocity and acceleration distributions characterized by a sharp peak at low velocity, superlinear evolution of particle dispersion, and double-peak behavior in the propagators. The velocity distribution is quantified in terms of pore geometry and flow connectivity, which forms the basis for a continuous-time random-walk model that sheds light on the observed Lagrangian flow and transport behaviors.

The work reported below is a first of its kind study of the properties of turbulent flow without strong mean shear in a Newtonian fluid in proximity of the turbulent/non-turbulent interface, with emphasis on the small scale aspects. The main tools used are a three-dimensional particle tracking system (3D-PTV) allowing to measure and follow in a Lagrangian manner the field of velocity derivatives and direct numerical simulations (DNS). The comparison of flow properties in the turbulent (A), intermediate (B) and non-turbulent (C) regions in the proximity of the interface allows for direct observation of the key physical processes underlying the entrainment phenomenon. The differences between small scale strain and enstrophy are striking and point to the definite scenario of turbulent entrainment via the viscous forces originating in strain.