RESUMO
The dynamics of random weakly nonlinear waves is studied in the framework of vibrating thin elastic plates. Although it has been previously predicted that no stationary inverse cascade of constant wave action flux could exist in the framework of wave turbulence for elastic plates, we present substantial evidence of the existence of a time-dependent inverse cascade, opening up the possibility of self-organization for a larger class of systems. This inverse cascade transports the spectral density of the amplitude of the waves from short up to large scales, increasing the distribution of long waves despite the short-wave fluctuations. This dynamics appears to be self-similar and possesses a power-law behavior in the short-wavelength limit which significantly differs from the exponent obtained via a Kolmogorov dimensional analysis argument. Finally, we show explicitly a tendency to build a long-wave coherent structure in finite time.
RESUMO
We study the long-time evolution of waves of a thin elastic plate in the limit of small deformation so that modes of oscillations interact weakly. According to the theory of weak turbulence (successfully applied in the past to plasma, optics, and hydrodynamic waves), this nonlinear wave system evolves at long times with a slow transfer of energy from one mode to another. We derive a kinetic equation for the spectral transfer in terms of the second order moment. We show that such a theory describes the approach to an equilibrium wave spectrum and represents also an energy cascade, often called the Kolmogorov-Zakharov spectrum. We perform numerical simulations that confirm this scenario.