A turbulent round jet of air discharging into quiescent air was studied experimentally. Some × -wire hot-wire probes mounted on a moving shuttle were used to eliminate rectification errors due to flow reversals in the intermittent region of the jet. Moments of velocity fluctuations up to fourth order were measured to characterize turbulent transport in the jet and to evaluate current models for triple moments that occur in the Reynolds stress equations. Fourth moments were very well described in terms of second moments by the quasi-Gaussian approximation across the entire jet including the intermittent region. Profiles of third moments were found to be significantly different from earlier measurements: 〈uv2〉, 〈uw2〉 and 〈u2v〉 are found to be negative near the axis of the jet. The Basic triple moment model that included turbulent production and models for the dissipation and the return-to-isotropy part of the pressure correlations was found to be unsatisfactory. When mean-strain production and a model for rapid pressure correlations were also included, predictions were satisfactory in the fully turbulent region. The consistency of the measurements with the equations of motion was assessed: momentum flux across the jet was found to be within ±5% of the nozzle input and the integral of radial diffusive flux of turbulent kinetic energy across the jet calculated from the measured third moments was found to be close to zero.

We depict and analyse the successive steps of atomization of a liquid jet when a fast gas stream blows parallel to its surface. Experiments performed with various liquids in a fast air flow show that the liquid destabilization proceeds from a two-stage mechanism: a shear instability first forms waves on the liquid. The transient acceleration experienced by the liquid suggests that a Rayleigh–Taylor type of instability is triggered at the wave crests, producing liquid ligaments which further stretch in the air stream and break into droplets. The primary wavelength $\lambda\,{\sim}\,\delta (\rho_{1}/\rho_{2})^{1/2}$ is set by the vorticity thickness $\delta$, in the fast air stream and the liquid/gas density ratio $\rho_{1}/\rho_{2}$. The transverse corrugations of the crests have a size $\lperp\,{\sim}\,\delta {\We_{\delta}}^{-1/3} (\rho_{1}/\rho_{2})^{1/3}$, where $\We_{\delta}\,{=}\,\rho_{2}u_{2}^{2}\delta/\sigma$ is the Weber number constructed on the gas velocity $u_{2}$ and liquid surface tension $\sigma$. The ligament dynamics gives rise, after break-up, to a well-defined droplet size distribution whose mean is given by $\lperp$. This distribution bears an exponential tail characteristic of the broad size statistics in airblast sprays.

The return to isotropy of homogeneous turbulence without mean velocity gradients is attacked by considering changes to be slow relative to turbulence time scales. This single assumption permits the problem to be cast as one of finding the form of three invariant functions. Examination of limiting behaviour for large Reynolds number and small anisotropy, as well as small Reynolds number and arbitrary anisotropy, places restrictions on the form of the functions. Realizability conditions (requiring that energies be non-negative) reduce the problem to two functions subject to further restrictions. A convenient interpolation form is found for the functions, satisfying all the restrictions, and it is shown that predictions based on this are in excellent agreement with all available data.

This paper describes the use of a hot film flowmeter in the sea and presents experimental measurements of the ‘downstream’ component of turbulent velocity in a tidal channel. The Reynolds number of the flow is about 108 and the scale of the turbulence is so large that a ship is carried about to a considerable extent by the energy-containing eddies. Under these conditions, a velocity measuring probe attached to a ship cannot be used for reliable measurements in the energy-containing range of the spectrum. It is possible, however, to observe the intertial and dissipation ranges. Records have been made at various stages of the tide. The one-dimensional spectra are found to be proportional to $k|^{-{\frac {5}{3}}}$ for several decades in k as predicted by Kolmogoroff, and a value is given for Kolmogoroff's constant. In the dissipation range there is close agreement with both Kovasznay's theory and Heisenberg's theory. These two theories are not very different in the low wave-number end of the range and the observations do not extend to high enough wave-numbers to distinguish between them.

The wall structure of the turbulent boundary layer was examined using hot-wire rakes and conditional sampling techniques. Instantaneous velocity measurements indicate a high degree of coherence over a considerable area in the direction normal to the wall. At y+ = 15, there is some evidence of large-scale correlation in the spanwise direction, but almost no indication of the streamwise streaks that exist in the lower regions of the boundary layer. Conditional sampling showed that the normal velocity is directed outwards in regions of strong stream-wise-momentum deficit, and inwards when the streamwise velocity exceeds its mean value. The conditionally averaged Reynolds shear stress was approximately an order of magnitude greater than its conventionally averaged value and decayed slowly downstream.

A model for the movement of a small viscous droplet on a surface is constructed that is based on the lubrication equations and uses the dynamic contact angle to describe the forces acting on the fluid at the contact line. The problems analysed are: the spreading or retraction of a circular droplet; the advance of a thin two-dimensional layer; the creeping of a droplet or cell on a coated surface to a region of greater adhesion; the distortion of droplet shape owing to surface contamination. Relevant biological problems concerning cell movement and adhesion are described.

The mechanisms of sound generation in a Mach 0.9, Reynolds number 3600 turbulent jet are investigated by direct numerical simulation. Details of the numerical method are briefly outlined and results are validated against an experiment at the same flow conditions (Stromberg, McLaughlin & Troutt 1980). Lighthill's theory is used to define a nominal acoustic source in the jet, and a numerical solution of Lighthill's equation is compared to the simulation to verify the computational procedures. The acoustic source is Fourier transformed in the axial coordinate and time and then filtered in order to identify and separate components capable of radiating to the far field. This procedure indicates that the peak radiating component of the source is coincident with neither the peak of the full unfiltered source nor that of the turbulent kinetic energy. The phase velocities of significant components range from approximately 5% to 50% of the ambient sound speed which calls into question the commonly made assumption that the noise sources convect at a single velocity. Space–time correlations demonstrate that the sources are not acoustically compact in the streamwise direction and that the portion of the source that radiates at angles greater than 45° is stationary. Filtering non-radiating wavenumber components of the source at single frequencies reveals that a simple modulated wave forms for the source, as might be predicted by linear stability analysis. At small angles from the jet axis the noise from these modes is highly directional, better described by an exponential than a standard Doppler factor.

The flow around a vertical circular pile exposed to a steady current is studied numerically and experimentally. The numerical model is a three-dimensional model. The model validation was achieved against new experimental data (which include two-component laser-Doppler anemometry (LDA) flow measurements and the hot-film bed shear stress measurements, and reported in the present paper) and the data of others, and a $k$–$\omega $ turbulence model was used for closure. The model does not have a free-surface facility and therefore is applicable only to cases where the Froude number is small ($\hbox{\it Fr}\,{<}\,O(0.2)$). The flow model was used to study the horseshoe vortex and lee-wake vortex flow processes around the pile. The influence on the horseshoe vortex of three parameters, namely the boundary-layer thickness, the Reynolds number and the bed roughness, was investigated. In the latter investigation, the steady solution of the model was chosen. A study of the influence of the unsteady solution on the previously mentioned flow processes was also carried out. The ranges of the parameters covered in the numerical simulations are: The boundary-layer-thickness-to-pile-diameter ratio is varied from 2$\,{\times}\, 10^{-2}$ to 10$^{2}$, the pile Reynolds number from 10$^{2}$ to $2\,{\times}\, 10^{6},$ and the pile diameter-to-roughness ratio from 2 to about 10$^{3}.$ The amplification of the bed shear stress around the pile (including the areas under the horseshoe vortex and the lee-wake region) was obtained for various values of the previously mentioned parameters. The steady-state flow model was coupled with a morphologic model to calculate scour around a vertical circular pile exposed to a steady current in the case of non-cohesive sediment. The morphologic model includes (i) a two-dimensional bed load sediment-transport description, and (ii) a description of surface-layer sand slides for bed slopes exceeding the angle of repose. The results show that the present numerical simulation captures all the main features of the scour process. The equilibrium scour depth obtained from the simulation agrees well with the experiments for the upstream scour hole. Some discrepancy (up to 30%) was observed, however, for the downstream scour hole. The calculations show that the amplification of the bed shear stress around the pile in the equilibrium state of the scour process is reduced considerably with respect to that experienced at the initial stage where the bed is plane.

The onset of steady, cellular convection driven by surface tension gradients on a thin layer of liquid is examined in an extension of Pearson's (1958) stability analysis. By accounting for the possibility of shape deformations of the free surface it is found that there is no critical Marangoni number for the onset of stationary instability and that the limiting case of ‘zero wave-number’ is always unstable. Surface viscosity of a Newtonian interface is found to inhibit stationary instability. A simple criterion is found for distinguishing visually the dominant force, buoyancy or surface tension, in cellular convection in liquid pools.

An experimental study of the response of a thin uniformly heated rotating layer of fluid is presented. It is shown that the stability of the fluid depends strongly upon the three parameters that described its state, namely the Rayleigh number, the Taylor number and the Prandtl number. For the two Prandtl numbers considered, 6·8 and 0·025 corresponding to water and mercury, linear theory is insufficient to fully describe their stability properties. For water, subcritical instability will occur for all Taylor numbers greater than 5 × 104, whereas mercury exhibits a subcritical instability only for finite Taylor numbers less than 105. At all other Taylor numbers there is good agreement between linear theory and experiment.

The heat flux in these two fluids has been measured over a wide range of Rayleigh and Taylor numbers. Generally, much higher Nusselt numbers are found with water than with mercury. In water, at any Rayleigh number greater than 104, it is found that the Nusselt number will increase by about 10% as the Taylor number is increased from zero to a certain value, which depends on the Rayleigh number. It is suggested that this increase in the heat flux results from a perturbation of the velocity boundary layer with an ‘Ekman-layer-like’ profile in such a way that the scale of boundary layer is reduced. In mercury, on the other hand, the heat flux decreases monotonically with increasing Taylor number. Over a range of Rayleigh numbers (at large Taylor numbers) oscillatory convection is preferred although it is inefficient at transporting heat. Above a certain Rayleigh number, less than the critical value for steady convection according to linear theory, the heat flux increases more rapidly and the convection becomes increasingly irregular as is shown by the temperature fluctuations at a point in the fluid.

Photographs of the convective flow in a silicone oil (Prandtl number = 100) at various rotation rates are shown. From these a rough estimate is obtained of the dominant horizontal convective scale as a function of the Rayleigh and Taylor numbers.

The cells observed by Bénard (1901) when a horizontal layer of fluid is heated from below were explained by Rayleigh (1916) in terms of buoyancy, and by Pearson (1958) in terms of surface tension. These rival theories are now combined. Linear perturbation techniques are used to derive a sixth-order differential equation subject to six boundary conditions. A Fourier series method has been used to obtain the eigenvalue equation for the case where the lower boundary surface is a rigid conductor and the upper free surface is subject to a general thermal condition. Numerical results are presented. It was found that the two agencies causing instability reinforce one another and are tightly coupled. Cells formed by surface tension are approximately the same size as those formed by buoyancy. Bénard's experiments are briefly discussed.

The dynamics of laser-produced cavitation bubbles near a solid boundary and its dependence on the distance between bubble and wall are investigated experimentally. It is shown by means of high-speed photography with up to 1 million frames/s that jet and counterjet formation and the development of a ring vortex resulting from the jet flow are general features of the bubble dynamics near solid boundaries. The fluid velocity field in the vicinity of the cavitation bubble is determined with time-resolved particle image velocimetry. A comparison of path lines deduced from successive measurements shows good agreement with the results of numerical calculations by Kucera & Blake (1988). The pressure amplitude, the profile and the energy of the acoustic transients emitted during spherical bubble collapse and the collapse near a rigid boundary are measured with a hydrophone and an optical detection technique. Sound emission is the main damping mechanism in spherical bubble collapse, whereas it plays a minor part in the damping of aspherical collapse. The duration of the acoustic transients is 20-30 ns. The highest pressure amplitudes at the solid boundary have been found for bubbles attached to the boundary. The pressure inside the bubble and at the boundary reaches about 2.5 kbar when the maximum bubble radius is 3.5 mm. The results are discussed with respect to the mechanism of cavitation erosion.

An efficient and robust computational method, based on the lattice-Boltzmann method, is presented for analysis of impermeable solid particle(s) suspended in fluid with inertia. In contrast to previous lattice-Boltzmann approaches, the present method can be used for any solid-to-fluid density ratio. The details of the numerical technique and implementation of the boundary conditions are presented. The accuracy and robustness of the method is demonstrated by simulating the flow over a circular cylinder in a two-dimensional channel, a circular cylinder in simple shear flow, sedimentation of a circular cylinder in a two-dimensional channel, and sedimentation of a sphere in a three-dimensional channel. With a solid-to-fluid density ratio close to one, new results from two-dimensional and three-dimensional computational analysis of dynamics of an ellipse and an ellipsoid in a simple shear flow, as well as two-dimensional and three-dimensional results for sedimenting ellipses and prolate spheroids, are presented.

A detailed experimental study has been made to clarify the mechanism of impulsive pressure generation from a single bubble collapsing in a static fluid – this is the most essential and important research task concerned with cavitation damage. First, the general feature of impulsive pressure generation is discussed, and then the impulsive pressure directly contributing to damage is investigated by various means. As a result, it is found that the impulsive pressure causing plastic deformation of material is closely related, directly or indirectly, to the behaviour of a liquid jet. Further more, it is demonstrated that the interaction of a tiny bubble with a shock wave or a pressure wave must be an important effect in producing a local high pressure which causes damage to material. The damage pit caused by the bubble-shock-wave interaction essentially results from the impact pressure from a liquid microjet.

Measurements of heat transfer from circular wires placed normal to a horizontal airstream have been made in the Reynolds number range 0·01 to 140. The Nusselt number can be related to the Reynolds number and temperature loading by an expression of the form $N \left(\frac {T_m}{T_\infty} \right)^{-0\cdot 17} = A + BR^n,$

where the values of n, A and B (see table 3) depend on whether the Reynolds number is above or below the value for which a vortex street exists in the wake of the wire. This value of the Reynolds number (R [eDot ] 44) is independent of the intensity and scale of the stream turbulence. The theoretical heat transfer relation based on the Oseen approximation is approached asymptotically as R → 0, provided free convection is negligible.

Free convection effects diminish rapidly with increasing Reynolds number so that the orientation of the wire with respect to the vertical has a negligible influence on heat transfer except at very low velocities. For horizontal wires at very low Reynolds numbers, free convection is significant, when, roughly speaking, the Reynolds number is less than the cube root of the Grashof number.

Modelling of the complete second-order structure of homogeneous, neutrally stratified atmospheric boundary-layer turbulence, including spectra of all velocity components and cross-spectra of any combination of velocity components at two arbitrarily chosen points, is attempted. Two models based on Rapid Distortion Theory (RDT) are investigated. Both models assume the velocity profile in the height interval of interest to be approximately linear. The linearized Navier–Stokes equation together with considerations of ‘eddy’ lifetimes are then used to modify the spatial second-order structure of the turbulence. The second model differs from the first by modelling the blocking by the surface in addition to the shear. The resulting models of the spectral velocity tensor contain only three adjustable parameters: a lengthscale describing the size of the largest energy-containing eddies, a non-dimensional number used in the parametrization of ‘eddy’ lifetime, and the third parameter is a measure of the energy dissipation.

Two atmospheric experiments, both designed to investigate the spatial structure of turbulence and both running for approximately one year, are used to test and calibrate the models. Even though the approximations leading to the models are very crude they are capable of predicting well the two-point second-order statistics such as cross-spectra, coherences and phases, on the basis of measurements carried out at one point. The two models give very similar predictions, the largest difference being in the coherences involving vertical velocity fluctuations, where the blocking by the surface seems to have a significant effect.

A model-based description of the scaling and radial location of turbulent fluctuations in turbulent pipe flow is presented and used to illuminate the scaling behaviour of the very large scale motions. The model is derived by treating the nonlinearity in the perturbation equation (involving the Reynolds stress) as an unknown forcing, yielding a linear relationship between the velocity field response and this nonlinearity. We do not assume small perturbations. We examine propagating helical velocity response modes that are harmonic in the wall-parallel directions and in time, permitting comparison of our results to experimental data. The steady component of the velocity field that varies only in the wall-normal direction is identified as the turbulent mean profile. A singular value decomposition of the resolvent identifies the forcing shape that will lead to the largest velocity response at a given wavenumber–frequency combination. The hypothesis that these forcing shapes lead to response modes that will be dominant in turbulent pipe flow is tested by using physical arguments to constrain the range of wavenumbers and frequencies to those actually observed in experiments. An investigation of the most amplified velocity response at a given wavenumber–frequency combination reveals critical-layer-like behaviour reminiscent of the neutrally stable solutions of the Orr–Sommerfeld equation in linearly unstable flow. Two distinct regions in the flow where the influence of viscosity becomes important can be identified, namely wall layers that scale with R+1/2 and critical layers where the propagation velocity is equal to the local mean velocity, one of which scales with R+2/3 in pipe flow. This framework appears to be consistent with several scaling results in wall turbulence and reveals a mechanism by which the effects of viscosity can extend well beyond the immediate vicinity of the wall. The model reproduces inner scaling of the small scales near the wall and an approach to outer scaling in the flow interior. We use our analysis to make a first prediction that the appropriate scaling velocity for the very large scale motions is the centreline velocity, and show that this is in agreement with experimental results. Lastly, we interpret the wall modes as the motion required to meet the wall boundary condition, identifying the interaction between the critical and wall modes as a potential origin for an interaction between the large and small scales that has been observed in recent literature as an amplitude modulation of the near-wall turbulence by the very large scales.

The radial dynamics of a spherical bubble in a compressible liquid is studied by means of a simplified singular-perturbation method to first order in the bubble-wall Mach number. It is shown that, at this order, a one-parameter family of approximate equations for the bubble radius exists, which includes those previously derived by Herring and Keller as special cases. The relative merits of these and other equations of the family are judged by comparison with numerical results obtained from the complete partial-differential-equation formulation by the method of characteristics. It is concluded that an equation close to the Keller form, but written in terms of the enthalpy of the liquid at the bubble wall, rather than the pressure, is most accurate, at least for the cases considered of collapse in a constant-pressure field and collapse driven by a Gaussian pressure pulse. A physical discussion of the magnitude and nature of compressibility effects is also given.

This paper describes a detailed experimental study of turbulent boundary-layer development over rough walls in both zero and adverse pressure gradients. In contrast to previous work on this problem the skin friction was determined by pressure tapping the roughness elements and measuring their form drag.

Two wall roughness geometries were chosen each giving a different law of behaviour; they were selected on the basis of their reported behaviour in pipe flow experiments. One type gives a Clauser type roughness function which depends on a Reynolds number based on the shear velocity and on a length associated with the size of the roughness. The other type of roughness (typified by a smooth wall containing a pattern of narrow cavities) has been tested in pipes and it is shown here that these pipe results indicate that the corresponding roughness function does not depend on roughness scale but depends instead on the pipe diameter. In boundary-layer flow the first type of roughness gives a roughness function identical to pipe flow as given by Clauser and verified by Hama and Perry & Joubert. The emphasis of this work is on the second type of roughness in boundary-layer flow. No external length scale associated with the boundary layer that is analogous to pipe diameter has been found, except perhaps for the zero pressure gradient case. However, it has been found that results for both types of roughness correlate with a Reynolds number based on the wall shear velocity and on the distance below the crests of the elements from where the logarithmic distribution of velocity is measured. One important implication of this is that a zero pressure gradient boundary layer with a cavity type rough wall conforms to Rotta's condition of precise self preserving flow. Some other implications of this are also discussed.

The Rayleigh stability equation of inviscid linearized stability theory was integrated numerically for amplified disturbances of the hyperbolic-tangent velocity profile. The evaluation of the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions is followed by a discussion of the streamline pattern of the disturbed flow. Here no qualitative distinction is found between an amplified and the neutral disturbance. But considering the vorticity distribution of the disturbed flow it is shown that in the case of amplified disturbances two concentrations of vorticity occur within a disturbance wavelength, while in the neutral case only one maximum of vorticity exists. The results are discussed with respect to the instability mechanism of free boundary-layer flow.