Applicability of Kolmogorov's and Monin's equations of turbulence

Abstract

The equation relating second- and third-order velocity structure functions was presented by Kolmogorov; Monin attempted to derive that equation on the basis of local isotropy. Recently, concerns have been raised to the effect that Kolmogorov's equation and an ancillary incompressibility condition governing the third-order structure function were proven only on the restrictive basis of isotropy and that the statistic involving pressure that appears in the derivation of Kolmogorov's equation might not vanish on the basis of local isotropy. These concerns are resolved. In so doing, results are obtained for the second- and third-order statistics on the basis of local homogeneity without use of local isotropy. These results are applicable to future studies of the approach toward local isotropy. Accuracy of Kolmogorov's equation is shown to be more sensitive to anisotropy of the third-order structure function than to anisotropy of the second-order structure function. Kolmogorov's 4/5 law for the inertial range of the third-order structure function is obtained without use of the incompressibility conditions on the second- and third-order structure functions. A generalization of Kolmogorov's 4/5 law, which applies to the inertial range of locally homogeneous turbulence at very large Reynolds numbers, is shown to also apply to the energy-containing range for the more restrictive case of stationary, homogeneous turbulence. The variety of derivations of Kolmogorov's and Monin's equations leads to a wide range of applicability to experimental conditions, including, in some cases, turbulence of moderate Reynolds number.