On the distribution of Lagrangian accelerations in turbulent flows

Superstatistical Lagrangian stochastic models are shown to predict accurately the distribution of the magnitude of the acceleration vector in three-dimensional high Reynolds-number turbulence. Distributions are closely log-normal having high tails that are nearly coincident with measured distributions of enstrophy. The findings support the view that the dominant contribution to extreme accelerations comes from centripetal accelerations induced by vortex filaments.