Quasi-two-dimensional turbulence and the role of external friction

This work analyzes the known numerical and experimental results concerning the characteristics of quasi-two-dimensional turbulence in flows subject to bottom friction. According to theoretical predictions, bottom friction lim its the inverse energy cascade from large scales. This fact is confirmed by both numerical and experimental results. At a moderate supercriticality of flows and an actual spatial resolution, bottom friction significantly or e ven completely suppresses the energy flux toward small wave numbers. In thi s case, the inertial range of energy turns out to be destroyed; however, th e energy spectra can be close to -5/3 power-law spectra in a bounded range of wave numbers near the forcing wave number.