Passive Scalar Fluctuations in Intermittent Turbulence

We discuss how the spatial intermittency of energy dissipation in 3D fully developed turbulence affects the small-scale statistics of passive scalars. We relate the passive-scalar behaviour to the diffusion properties of particle pairs in turbulent fluids. We thus find the intermittency correction to the -5/3 Obukhov-Corrsin law for the power spectrum of a passive scalar at wavenumber k where molecular diffusion and viscosity play a negligible role (inertial convective subrange). This correction is positive at difference with the negative correction to the -5/3 Kolmogorov law for the energy spectrum. We finally show that the structure functions of passive scalars have scaling exponents linear in the moment order, even in the framework of multifractal models.