Velocity-Vorticity Patterns in Turbulent Flow

Direct numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations is used for the investigation of local helicity fluctuations in plane Poiseuille (channel) and Taylor-Green vortex flows. It is shown that in regions of high dissipation, the cosine of the angle between velocity and vorticity is evenly distributed; in regions of low dissipation, the velocity and vorticity vectors have a tendency to align. It is also shown that near the central part of the channel, velocity and vorticity vectors have a strong tendency to be aligned, while in the buffer region, all angles are nearly equally probable.