Eur. Phys. J. B (2015) 88: 276
https://doi.org/10.1140/epjb/e2015-60256-5

Regular Article

Wave turbulence buildup in a vibrating plate

¹ Laboratorio de Fluidodinamica, CONICET- Facultad de Ingenieria, Universidad de Buenos Aires, Paseo Colón 850 C1063 ACV Buenos Aires, Argentina
² Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero, Caseros, Argentina
³ Laboratoire des Ecoulements Géophysiques et Industriels, Université Grenoble Alpes, CNRS, 38000 Grenoble, France
⁴ Department of Applied Mathematics, University of Colorado, Boulder, CO 80309-0526, USA
⁵ Institut Universitaire de France, 103, bd Saint Michel, 75005 Paris, France

^a e-mail: nicolas.mordant@ujf-grenoble.fr

Received: 30 March 2015
Received in final form: 10 July 2015
Published online: 26 October 2015

Abstract

We report experimental and numerical results on the buildup of the energy spectrum in wave turbulence of a vibrating thin elastic plate. Three steps are observed: first a short linear stage, then the turbulent spectrum is constructed by the propagation of a front in wave number space and finally a long time saturation due to the action of dissipation. The propagation of a front at the second step is compatible with scaling predictions from the Weak Turbulence Theory.