Minimum state for high Reynolds and Péclet number turbulent flows

Direct numerical simulations (DNS) or experiments for the very high Reynolds (Re) and Péclet (Pe) number flows commonly exceed the resolution possible even when use is made of the most advanced computer capability or most sophisticated diagnostics and physical capabilities of advanced laboratory facilities. In practice use is made of statistical flow data bases developed at the highest Re and Pe levels achievable within the currently available facility limitations. In addition, there is presently no metric to indicate whether and how much of the fully resolved physics of the flow of interest has been captured within the facilities available. In this Letter the authors develop the necessary metric criteria for homogeneous, isotropic and shear layer flows. It is based on establishing a smaller subset of the total range of dynamic scale interactions that will still faithfully reproduce all of the essential, significant, influences of the larger range of scale interactions. The work identifies a minimum significant Re and Pe level that must be obtained by DNS or experiment in order to capture all of the significant dynamic influences in data which is then scaleable to flows of interest. Hereafter this is called the minimum state. Determination of the minimum state is based on finding a minimum scale separation for the energy-containing scales of the flow and scalar fields sufficient to prevent contamination by interaction with the (non-universal) velocity dissipation and scalar diffusivity inertial range scale limits.