Strong turbulence for vibrating plates: Emergence of a Kolmogorov spectrum

In fluid turbulence, energy is transferred from one scale to another by an energy cascade that depends only on the energy-dissipation rate. It leads by dimensional arguments to the Kolmogorov 1941 (K41) spectrum. Here we show that the normal modes of vibrations in elastic plates also manifest an energy cascade with the same K41 spectrum in the fully nonlinear regime. In particular, we observe different patterns in the elastic deformations such as folds, developable cones, and even more complex stretching structures, in analogy with spots, swirls, vortices, and other structures in hydrodynamic turbulence. We show that the energy cascade is dominated by the kinetic contribution and that the stretching energy is at thermodynamical equilibrium. We characterize this energy cascade, the validity of the constant energy-dissipation rate over the scales. Finally, we discuss the role of intermittency using the correlation functions that exhibit anomalous exponents.