Linear and nonlinear optimal growth mechanisms for generating turbulent bands

Abstract: Linear and nonlinear energy optimizations in a tilted domain are used to unveil the main mechanisms allowing the creation of a turbulent band in a channel flow. Linear optimization predicts an optimal growth for streamwse and spanwise wavenumbers $k_x = 1.2$, $k_z = - 1.75$, corresponding to the peak values of the premultiplied energy spectra of direct numerical simulations. At target time, the linear optimal perturbation is composed by oblique streaks, which, for a sufficiently large initial energy, induce turbulence in the whole domain, due to the lack of spatial localization. When localization is achieved by adding nonlinear effects to the optimization, or by artificially confining the linear optimal to a localized region in the spanwise direction, a large-scale flow is created, which leads to the generation of a localised turbulent band. These results suggest that inducing transition towards turbulent bands in a tilted domain, two main elements are needed: a linear energy growth mechanism such as the lift-up for generating large-amplitude flow structures which produce inflection points; large-scale vortices ensuring spatial localisation. Remarkably, these two elements alone are able to generate an isolated turbulent band also in a large, non-tilted domain.