Two-particle description of turbulence, Markov property, and intermittency

It is shown that the hypothesis of independent increments for velocity, which is widely used by many authors [e.g., A. M. Obukhov, Adv. Geophys. 6, 113 (1959)] in the Lagrangian description of turbulence, is inconsistent with the Navier–Stokes equations in a fundamental way. A more general Lagrangian description of turbulent velocity such as the Markov process with dependent increments, which recognizes the condition of incompressibility and the important phenomenon of intermittency, is proposed. A model of intermittent relative motion of fluid particles in turbulent flow is presented. The high-order Lagrangian moments and the probability distribution are obtained. The distribution for the intermittent vorticity is also proposed.