Experimental Evidence of a Phase Transition in a Closed Turbulent Flow

Pierre-Philippe Cortet (1) , Arnaud Chiffaudel (1) , François Daviaud (1) , Bérengère Dubrulle (1)

1 SPEC - UMR3680 - Service de physique de l'état condensé

We experimentally study the susceptibility to symmetry breaking of a closed turbulent von Kármán swirling flow from Re=150 to Re=10^6. We report a divergence of this susceptibility at an intermediate Reynolds number Re=Re_\chi \simeq 90 000 which gives experimental evidence that such a highly space and time fluctuating system can undergo a ''phase transition". This transition is furthermore associated with a peak in the amplitude of fluctuations of the instantaneous flow symmetry corresponding to intermittencies between spontaneously symmetry breaking metastable states.

Domaines: Physique [physics]; Dynamique des Fluides [physics.flu-dyn]

Pierre-Philippe Cortet, Arnaud Chiffaudel, François Daviaud, Bérengère Dubrulle. Experimental Evidence of a Phase Transition in a Closed Turbulent Flow. Physical Review Letters, 2010, 105, pp.214501. ⟨10.1103/PhysRevLett.105.214501⟩. ⟨cea-01373378⟩