Assessment of the turbulent energy paths from the origin to dissipation in wall-turbulence

The present study is devoted to the description of the energy fluxes from production to dissipation in the augmented space (3-dimensional space of scales plus wall-distance) of wall-turbulent flows. As already shown in Cimarelli et al. (2010), an interesting behavior of the energy fluxes comes out from this analysis consisting of spiral-like paths in the combined physical/scale space where the controversial reverse energy cascade plays a central role. The observed behaviour conflicts with the classical notion of the Richardson/Kolmogorov energy cascade and may have strong repercussions on both theoretical and modeling approaches to wall-turbulence. Two dynamical processes are identified as driving mechanisms for the fluxes, one in the near wall region and a second one further away from the wall. The former, stronger one is related to the dynamics involved in the near-wall cycle. The second suggests an outer self-sustaining mechanism. Here we extend these results to larger Reynolds number using LES data of a turbulent channel flow at Re τ = 970 confirming the presence of an outer regeneration cycle which seems to be composed by systems of attached eddies.