Perturbation Energy Production in Pipe Flow over a Range of Reynolds Numbers using Resolvent Analysis

The response of pipe flow to physically realistic, temporally and spatially continuous (periodic) forcing is investigated by decomposing the resolvent into orthogonal forcing and response pairs ranked according to their contribution to the resolvent 2-norm. Modelling the non-linear terms normally neglected by linearisation as unstructured forcing permits qualitative extrapolation of the resolvent norm results beyond infinitesimally small perturbations to the turbulent case. The concepts arising have a close relationship to inputoutput transfer function analysis methods known in the control systems literature. The body forcings that yield highest disturbance energy gain are identified and ranked by the decomposition and a worst-case bound put on the energy gain integrated across the pipe cross-section. Analysis of the spectral variation of the corresponding response modes reveals interesting comparisons with recent observations of the behavior of the streamwise velocity in high Reynolds number (turbulent) pipe flow, including the importance of very long scales of the order of ten pipe radii, in the extraction of turbulent energy from the mean flow by the action of turbulent shear stress against the velocity gradient.