From temporal to spatiotemporal dynamics in transitional plane Couette flow

Laboratory experiments point out the existence of patterns made of alternately laminar and turbulent oblique bands in plane Couette flow in its way to/from turbulence as the Reynolds number R is varied. Many previous theoretical and numerical works on the problem have considered small aspect-ratio systems subjected to periodic boundary conditions, while experiments correspond to the opposite limit of large aspect-ratio. Here, by means of fully resolved direct numerical simulations of the Navier-Stokes equations at decreasing R, we scrutinize the transition from temporal to spatiotemporal behavior in systems of intermediate sizes. We show that there exists a streamwise crossover size of order L_x~70-80h (where 2h is the gap between the plates driving the flow) beyond which the transition to/from turbulence in PCF is undoubtedly a spatiotemporal process, with typical scenario [turbulent flow]->[riddled regime]->[oblique pattern]->[laminar flow]', whereas below that size it is more a temporal process describable in terms of finite-dimensional dynamical systems with scenario [chaotic flow]->[laminar flow]’ (via chaotic transients). In the crossover region, the `[oblique pattern]’ stage is skipped, which leads us to suggest that an appropriate rendering of the patterns observed in experiments needs a faithful account of streamwise correlations at scales at least of the order of that crossover size.