Revisiting Batchelor’s theory of two-dimensional turbulence

Recent mathematical results have shown that a central assumption in the theory of two-dimensional turbulence proposed by Batchelor (Phys. Fluids, vol. 12, 1969, p. 233) is false. That theory, which predicts a χ2/3k−1 enstrophy spectrum in the inertial range of freely-decaying turbulence, and which has evidently been successful in describing certain aspects of numerical simulations at high Reynolds numbers Re, assumes that there is a finite, non-zero enstrophy dissipation χ in the limit of infinite Re. This, however, is not true for flows having finite vorticity. The enstrophy dissipation in fact vanishes. We revisit Batchelor’s theory and propose a simple modification of it to ensure vanishing χ in the limit Re→∞. Our proposal is supported by high Reynolds number simulations which confirm that χ decays like 1/ lnRe, and which, following the time of peak enstrophy dissipation, exhibit enstrophy spectra containing an increasing proportion of the total enstrophy 〈ω〉/2 in the inertial range as Re increases. Together with the mathematical analysis of vanishing χ , these observations motivate a straightforward and, indeed, alarmingly simple modification of Batchelor’s theory: just replace Batchelor’s enstrophy spectrum χ2/3k−1 with 〈ω2〉k−1(lnRe)−1.