Characteristics of space-time energy spectra in turbulent channel flows

Abstract

An energy spectrum is preliminarily characterized by its mean and standard deviation. In this study, we derive exact expressions for the means and bandwidths of space-time energy spectra at fixed frequencies. The mean wave numbers are used to determine the phase velocities that bridge from temporal spectra to space-time spectra. The bandwidths are used to measure the well-known spectral broadening. We show that phase velocities alone are insufficient to determine the bandwidths of energy spectra. As a result, the cross-spectral method predicts narrower bandwidths of energy spectra. Therefore, in addition to phase velocities, amplitudes are used to rescale the space-time energy spectra, leading to the correct bandwidths. Existing data from direct numerical simulations of turbulent channel flows validate the rescaling approach.