Energy spectrum in high-resolution direct numerical simulations of turbulence

A study is made about the energy spectrum E(k) of turbulence on the basis of highresolution direct numerical simulations (DNSs) of forced incompressible turbulence in a periodic box using a Fourier spectral method with the number of grid points and the Taylor scale Reynolds number R-lambda up to 12 288(3) and approximately 2300, respectively. The DNS data show that there is a wave-number range (approximately 5 x 10(-3) < k eta< 2 x 10(-2)) in which E(k) fits approximately well to Kolmogorov's k(-5/3) scaling, where eta is the Kolmogorov length scale. However, a close inspection shows that the exponent is a little smaller than -5/3, and E(k) in the range fits to E(k)/[(2/3)k(-5/3)] = c(kL)(m), where is the mean energy dissipation rate per unit mass; L is the integral length scale; and m approximate to -0.12. The coefficient c is independent of k, but has a R-lambda dependence, such as c = CR lambda zeta, where C approximate to 0.9 and zeta approximate to 0.14.