Wave turbulence in vibrating plates: The effect of damping

¹ Institut D'Alembert, UMR 7190 CNRS-UPMC - 4 place Jussieu, 75005 Paris, France, EU
² Unité de Mécanique (UME), ENSTA ParisTech - 828 Bd des Maréchaux, 91762 Palaiseau Cedex, France, EU
³ Physics Department, New York University - 4 Washington Place, New York, NY 10003, USA
⁴ Facultad de Ingeniería y Ciencias, Universidad Adolfo Ibánez - Avda. Diagonal las Torres 2640, Penalolen, Santiago, Chile

Received: 24 December 2012
Accepted: 15 April 2013

Abstract

The effect of damping in the wave turbulence regime for thin vibrating plates is studied. An experimental method, allowing measurements of dissipation in the system at all scales, is first introduced. Practical experimental devices for increasing the dissipation are used. The main observable consequence of increasing the damping is a significant modification in the slope of the power spectral density, so that the observed power laws are not in a pure inertial regime. However, the system still displays a turbulent behavior with a cut-off frequency that is determined by the injected power which does not depend on damping. By using the measured damping power-law in numerical simulations, similar conclusions are drawn out.