Ñhaotic flow evolution arising in a body force field

This article presents the results of an analytical and computer study of the chaotic evolution of a regular velocity field generated by a large-scale harmonic forcing. The authors obtained an analytical solution for the flow stream function and its derivative quantities (velocity, vorticity, kinetic energy, enstrophy and palinstrophy). Numerical modeling of the flow evolution was carried out using the OpenFOAM software package based on incompressible model, as well as two inhouse implementations of CABARET and McCormack methods employing nearly incompressible formulation. Calculations were carried out on a sequence of nested meshes with $64^2, 128^2, 256^2, 512^2, 1024^2$ cells for two characteristic (asymptotic) Reynolds numbers characterizing laminar and turbulent evolution of the flow, respectively. Simulations show that blow-up of the analytical solution takes place in both cases. The energy characteristics of the flow are discussed relying upon the energy curves as well as the dissipation rates. For the fine mesh, this quantity turns out to be several orders of magnitude less than its hydrodynamic (viscous) counterpart. Destruction of the regular flow structure is observed for any of the numerical methods, including at the late stages of laminar evolution, when numerically obtained distributions are close to analytics. It can be assumed that the prerequisite for the development of instability is the error accumulated during the calculation process. This error leads to unevenness in the distribution of vorticity and, as a consequence, to the variance vortex intensity and finally leads to chaotization of the flow. To study the processes of vorticity production, we used two integral vorticity-based quantities — integral enstrophy ($\zeta$) and palinstrophy ($P$). The formulation of the problem with periodic boundary conditions allows us to establish a simple connection between these quantities. In addition, $\zeta$ can act as a measure of the eddy resolution of the numerical method, and palinstrophy determines the degree of production of small-scale vorticity.