On an alternative explanation of anomalous scaling and how well-defined is the concept of inertial range

The main point of this communication is that there exists a substantial number of strong events, contributing significantly to the PDF of velocity increments in the nominally-defined inertial range, for which viscosity/dissipation is of utmost importance at high Reynolds numbers. This contribution is largest to the tails of the PDF of velocity increments leading to anomalous scaling, especially of higher-order structure functions. Thus the anomalous scaling is not an attribute of the conventionally-defined inertial range, and the latter is not a well-defined concept. The claim above is supported by an analysis of high-Reynolds-number flows in which among other things it was possible to evaluate the instantaneous rate of energy dissipation. (C) 2009 Published by Elsevier B.V.