DNS of stochastically forced laminar plane Couette flow

Background of three dimensional hydrodynamic/vortical fluctuations in a stochastically forced, laminar, incompressible, plane Couette flow is simulated by direct numerical simulations (DNS). It was found that the fluctuating field has well pronounced peculiarities: (i) The hydrodynamic fluctuations exhibits non–exponential, transient growth; (ii) Streamwise non–constant fluctuations with the characteristic length scale of the order of the channel width are predominant in the fluctuating spectrum; (iii) Existence of coherent structures in the fluctuating background; (iv) Stochastic forcing breaks the spanwise reflection symmetry (inherent to the linear and full Navier–stokes equations in a case of the Couette flow) and inputs an asymmetry on dynamical processes. (© 2008 WILEY-VCH Verlag GmbH & Co. KGaA, Weinheim)