Turbulence, Energy Transfer, And Dissipation In 3d Mhd Simulations Of The Kelvin-helmholtz Instability

Details Turbulence, Energy Transfer, And Dissipation In 3d Mhd Simulations Of The Kelvin-helmholtz Instability Turbulence, Energy Transfer, And Dissipation In 3d Mhd Simulations Of The Kelvin-helmholtz Instability

Jan 2012

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2012aas...21915430s&link_type=abstract

American Astronomical Society, AAS Meeting #219, #154.30

Astronomy and Astrophysics

Astrophysics

Scientific paper

The Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KHI) is ubiquitous in astrophysical phenomena involving shear layers including accretion disks, jet boundaries, and differentially rotating stars. The linear growth phase of the KHI and its subsequent evolution into turbulence is well-studied; however, the details of energy transfer and spectral structure in the non-linear evolution remain poorly understood. We perform high resolution, 3D simulations of the KHI in the subsonic, weakly magnetized regime using the magnetohydrodynamics code ATHENA and study its development into complete turbulence. We employ a Fourier transfer function analysis to gain insight into energy transfer at different length scales during the non-linear stages of the KHI. In the non-linear regime, the magnetic field amplification is dominated by transfer of kinetic energy into magnetic energy on large spatial scales due to turbulent motions doing work against the magnetic tension force. Large scale magnetic energy is transferred to small spatial scales via a turbulent cascade and is dissipated shortly thereafter at the dissipation scale. Using the transfer function analysis to study numerical dissipation effects, we find that magnetic dissipation exceeds kinetic dissipation by a factor of 2, which is consistent with prior studies of numerical dissipation in MHD turbulence with ATHENA.

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