Energy flow and energy dissipation in a free surface.

Turbulent flows on a free surface are strongly compressible [1] and do not conserve energy in the absence of viscosity as bulk fluids do. Despite violation of assumptions essential to Kolmogorov's theory of 1941 (K41) [2, 3], surface flows show strong agreement with Kolmogorov scaling, though intermittency is larger there. Steady state turbulence is generated in a tank of water, and the spatially averaged energy flux is measured from the four-fifth's law at each instant of time. Likewise, the energy dissipation rate as measured from velocity gradients is also a random variable in this experiment. The energy flux - dissipation rate cross-correlation is measured to be correlated in incompressible bulk flows, but strongly anti-correlated on the surface. We argue that the reason for this discrepancy between surface and bulk flows is due to compressible effects present on the surface. \newline \newline [1] J. R. Cressman, J. Davoudi, W. I. Goldburg, and J. Schumacher, New Journal of Physics, 6, 53, 2004. \newline [2] U. Frisch. Turbulence: The legacy of A. N. Kolmogorov, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, 1995. \newline [3] A. N. Kolmogorov, Doklady Akad. Nauk SSSR, 32, 16, 1941.