THE NON-GAUSSIAN STATISTICS OF THE VELOCITY-FIELD IN LOW-RESOLUTION LARGE-EDDY SIMULATIONS OF HOMOGENEOUS TURBULENCE

A low-resolution (64(3)) large-eddy model of forced homogeneous turbulence is numerically simulated using Kraichnan's eddy viscosity. The introduction of a reliable statistical estimate of the zeta(p) exponents allows one to perform a detailed statistical analysis of the velocity field and shows that the probability distribution functions, the structure functions and the power-law exponents zeta(p) agree with previous numerical and experimental results obtained at much higher effective resolution. This result shows how a simple modelling of the energy transfer produces self-similar dynamics extending to the small scales and obtains the right statistical properties of the velocity field.