Multistability and Memory Effect in a Highly Turbulent Flow: Experimental Evidence for a Global Bifurcation

We report experimental evidence of a global bifurcation on a highly turbulent von Kármán flow. The mean flow presents multiple solutions: the canonical symmetric solution becomes marginally unstable towards a flow which breaks the basic symmetry of the driving apparatus even at very large Reynolds numbers. The global bifurcation between these states is highly subcritical and the system thus keeps a memory of its history. The transition recalls low-dimension dynamical system transitions and exhibits very peculiar statistics. We discuss the role of turbulence in two ways: the multiplicity of hydrodynamical solutions and the effect of fluctuations on the nature of transitions.