A theoretical method is given for the determination of the shape of a fluid drop in steady and unsteady flows by making an expansion in terms of the drop deformation. Effects of fluid viscosity and interfacial tension are taken into account. Examples given include the determination of the shape of a drop in shear and in hyperbolic flow when each is started impulsively from rest.

The stability properties of the flow past an infinitely long circular cylinder are studied in the context of linear theory. An immersed-boundary technique is used to represent the cylinder surface on a Cartesian mesh. The characteristics of both direct and adjoint perturbation modes are studied and the regions of the flow more sensitive to momentum forcing and mass injection are identified. The analysis shows that the maximum of the perturbation envelope amplitude is reached far downstream of the separation bubble, where as the highest receptivity is attained in the near wake of the cylinder, close to the body surface. The large difference between the spatial structure of the two-dimensional direct and adjoint modes suggests that the instability mechanism cannot be identified from the study of either eigenfunctions separately. For this reason a structural stability analysis of the problem is used to analyse the process which gives rise to the self-sustained mode. In particular, the region of maximum coupling among the velocity components is localized by inspecting the spatial distribution of the product between the direct and adjoint modes. Results show that the instability mechanism is located in two lobes placed symmetrically across the separation bubble, confirming the qualitative results obtained through a locally plane-wave analysis. The relevance of this novel technique to the development of effective control strategies for vortex shedding behind bluff bodies is illustrated by comparing the theoretical predictions based on the structural perturbation analysis with the experimental data of Strykowski & Sreenivasan (J. Fluid Mech. vol. 218, 1990, p. 71).

In the outer region of fully developed turbulent pipe flow very large-scale motions reach wavelengths more than 8$R$–16$R$ long (where $R$ is the pipe radius), and large-scale motions with wavelengths of $2R$–$3R$ occur throughout the layer. The very-large-scale motions are energetic, typically containing half of the turbulent kinetic energy of the streamwise component, and they are unexpectedly active, typically containing more than half of the Reynolds shear stress. The spectra of the $y$-derivatives of the Reynolds shear stress show that the very-large-scale motions contribute about the same amount to the net Reynolds shear force, d$\overline{-u'v'}/{\rm d}y$, as the combination of all smaller motions, including the large-scale motions and the main turbulent motions. The main turbulent motions, defined as the motions small enough to be in a statistical equilibrium (and hence smaller than the large-scale motions) contribute relatively little to the Reynolds shear stress, but they constitute over half of the net Reynolds shear force.

Direct numerical solutions of the three-dimensional time-dependent Navier-Stokes equations are presented for the evolution of three-dimensional finite-amplitude disturbances of plane Poiseuille and plane Couette flows. Spectral methods using Fourier series and Chebyshev polynomial series are used. It is found that plane Poiseuille flow can sustain neutrally stable two-dimensional finite-amplitude disturbances at Reynolds numbers larger than about 2800. No neutrally stable two-dimensional finite-amplitude disturbances of plane Couette flow were found.

Three-dimensional disturbances are shown to have a strongly destabilizing effect. It is shown that finite-amplitude disturbances can drive transition to turbulence in both plane Poiseuille flow and plane Couette flow at Reynolds numbers of order 1000. Details of the resulting flow fields are presented. It is also shown that plane Poiseuille flow cannot sustain turbulence at Reynolds numbers below about 500.

The ability of a large-eddy simulation to represent the large-scale motions in the interior of a turbulent flow is well established. However, concerns remain for the behaviour close to rigid surfaces where, with the exception of low-Reynolds-number flows, the large-eddy description must be matched to some description of the flow in which all except the larger-scale ‘inactive’ motions are averaged. The performance of large-eddy simulations in this near-surface region is investigated and it is pointed out that in previous simulations the mean velocity profile in the matching region has not had a logarithmic form. A number of new simulations are conducted with the Smagorinsky (1963) subgrid model. These also show departures from the logarithmic profile and suggest that it may not be possible to eliminate the error by adjustments of the subgrid lengthscale. An obvious defect of the Smagorinsky model is its failure to represent stochastic subgrid stress variations. It is shown that inclusion of these variations leads to a marked improvement in the near-wall flow simulation. The constant of proportionality between the magnitude of the fluctuations in stress and the Smagorinsky stresses has been empirically determined to give an accurate logarithmic flow profile. This value provides an energy backscatter rate slightly larger than the dissipation rate and equal to idealized theoretical predictions (Chasnov 1991).

The primary objective of this investigation is to determine experimentally the sources of jet mixing noise. In the present study, four different approaches are used. It is reasonable to assume that the characteristics of the noise sources are imprinted on their radiation fields. Under this assumption, it becomes possible to analyse the characteristics of the far-field sound and then infer back to the characteristics of the sources. The first approach is to make use of the spectral and directional information measured by a single microphone in the far field. A detailed analysis of a large collection of far-field noise data has been carried out. The purpose is to identify special characteristics that can be linked directly to those of the sources. The second approach is to measure the coherence of the sound field using two microphones. The autocorrelations and cross-correlations of these measurements offer not only valuable information on the spatial structure of the noise field in the radial and polar angle directions, but also on the sources inside the jet. The third approach involves measuring the correlation between turbulence fluctuations inside a jet and the radiated noise in the far field. This is the most direct and unambiguous way of identifying the sources of jet noise. In the fourth approach, a mirror microphone is used to measure the noise source distribution along the lengths of high-speed jets. Features and trends observed in noise source strength distributions are expected to shed light on the source mechanisms. It will be shown that all four types of data indicate clearly the existence of two distinct noise sources in jets. One source of noise is the fine-scale turbulence and the other source is the large turbulence structures of the jet flow. Some of the salient features of the sound field associated with the two noise sources are reported in this paper.

The non-equilibrium behaviour of concentrated colloidal dispersions is studied using Stokesian Dynamics, a molecular-dynamics-like simulation technique for analysing suspensions of particles immersed in a Newtonian fluid. The simulations are of a monodisperse suspension of Brownian hard spheres in simple shear flow as a function of the Péclet number, Pe, which measures the relative importance of hydrodynamic and Brownian forces, over a range of volume fraction 0.316 [les ] ϕ [les ] 0.49. For Pe < 10, Brownian motion dominates the behaviour, the suspension remains well-dispersed, and the viscosity shear thins. The first normal stress difference is positive and the second negative. At higher Pe, hydrodynamics dominate resulting in an increase in the long-time self-diffusivity and the viscosity. The first normal stress difference changes sign when hydrodynamics dominate. Simulation results are shown to agree well with both theory and experiment.

When a smooth jet of water falls vertically on to a horizontal plane, it spreads out radially in a thin layer bounded by a circular hydraulic jump, outside which the depth is much greater. The motion in the layer is studied here by means of boundary-layer theory, both for laminar and for turbulent flow, and relations are obtained for the radius of the hydraulic jump. These relations are compared with experimental results. The analogous problems of two-dimensional flow are also treated.

We use machine learning to perform super-resolution analysis of grossly under-resolved turbulent flow field data to reconstruct the high-resolution flow field. Two machine learning models are developed, namely, the convolutional neural network (CNN) and the hybrid downsampled skip-connection/multi-scale (DSC/MS) models. These machine learning models are applied to a two-dimensional cylinder wake as a preliminary test and show remarkable ability to reconstruct laminar flow from low-resolution flow field data. We further assess the performance of these models for two-dimensional homogeneous turbulence. The CNN and DSC/MS models are found to reconstruct turbulent flows from extremely coarse flow field images with remarkable accuracy. For the turbulent flow problem, the machine-leaning-based super-resolution analysis can greatly enhance the spatial resolution with as little as 50 training snapshot data, holding great potential to reveal subgrid-scale physics of complex turbulent flows. With the growing availability of flow field data from high-fidelity simulations and experiments, the present approach motivates the development of effective super-resolution models for a variety of fluid flows.

Experimental results for the release of a fixed volume of one homogeneous fluid into another of slightly different density are presented. From these results and those obtained by previous experiments, it is argued that the resulting gravity current can pass through three states. There is first a slumping phase, during which the current is retarded by the counterflow in the fluid into which it is issuing. The current remains in this slumping phase until the depth ratio of current to intruded fluid is reduced to less than about 0.075. This may be followed by a (previously investigated) purely inertial phase, wherein the buoyancy force of the intruding fluid is balanced by the inertial force. Motion in the surrounding fluid plays a negligible role in this phase. There then follows a viscous phase, wherein the buoyancy force is balanced by viscous forces. It is argued and confirmed by experiment that the inertial phase is absent if viscous effects become important before the slumping phase has been completed. Relationships between spreading distance and time for each phase are obtained for all three phases for both two-dimensional and axisymmetric geometries. Some consequences of the retardation of the gravity current during the slumping phase are discussed.

Analysis of combustion instabilities relies in most cases on linear analysis but most observations of these processes are carried out in the nonlinear regime where the system oscillates at a limit cycle. The objective of this paper is to deal with these two manifestations of combustion instabilities in a unified framework. The flame is recognized as the main nonlinear element in the system and its response to perturbations is characterized in terms of generalized transfer functions which assume that the gain and phase depend on the amplitude level of the input. This ‘describing function’ framework implies that the fundamental frequency is predominant and that the higher harmonics generated in the nonlinear element are weak because the higher frequencies are filtered out by the other components of the system. Based on this idea, a methodology is proposed to investigate the nonlinear stability of burners by associating the flame describing function with a frequency-domain analysis of the burner acoustics. These elements yield a nonlinear dispersion relation which can be solved, yielding growth rates and eigenfrequencies, which depend on the amplitude level of perturbations impinging on the flame. This method is used to investigate the regimes of oscillation of a well-controlled experiment. The system includes a resonant upstream manifold formed by a duct having a continuously adjustable length and a combustion region comprising a large number of flames stabilized on a multipoint injection system. The growth rates and eigenfrequencies are determined for a wide range of duct lengths. For certain values of this parameter we find a positive growth rate for vanishingly small amplitude levels, indicating that the system is linearly unstable. The growth rate then changes as the amplitude is increased and eventually vanishes for a finite amplitude, indicating the existence of a limit cycle. For other values of the length, the growth rate is initially negative, becomes positive for a finite amplitude and drops to zero for a higher value. This indicates that the system is linearly stable but nonlinearly unstable. Using calculated growth rates it is possible to predict amplitudes of oscillation when the system operates on a limit cycle. Mode switching and instability triggering may also be anticipated by comparing the growth rate curves. Theoretical results are found to be in excellent agreement with measurements, indicating that the flame describing function (FDF) methodology constitutes a suitable framework for nonlinear instability analysis.

An apparatus is described for determining particle passages through any selected point on a tube cross-section. The method depends on the simultaneous blocking out of two mutually perpendicular light beams by a particle passing through their common region. The coincidence is registered and counted electronically. At higher particle concentrations coincidences are also registered arising from a pair-wise occupation of the light beams by two particles. An analysis is presented showing that these pair coincidences can be allowed for exactly in terms of experimentally measurable quantities.

The reliability and reproducibility of the method is discussed and illustrated by examples from sphere suspensions in Poiseuille flow.

We report on lattice-Boltzmann simulations of slow fluid flow past mono- and bidisperse random arrays of spheres. We have measured the drag force on the spheres for a range of diameter ratios, mass fractions and packing fractions; in total, we studied 58 different parameter sets. Our simulation data for the permeability agrees well with previous simulation results and the experimental findings. On the basis of our data for the individual drag force, we have formulated new drag force relations for both monodisperse and polydisperse systems, based on the Carman–Kozeny equations; the average deviation of our binary simulation data with the new relation is less than 5%. We expect that these new relations will significantly improve the numerical modelling of gas–solid systems with polydisperse particles, in particular with respect to mixing and segregation phenomena. For binary systems with large diameter ratios (1:4), the individual drag force on a particle, as calculated from our relations, can differ by up to a factor of five compared with predictions presently favoured in chemical engineering.

The onset of periodic behaviour in two-dimensional laminar flow past bodies of various shapes is examined by means of finite-element simulations. The transition from steady to periodic flow is marked by a Hopf bifurcation, which we locate by solving an appropriate extended set of steady-state equations. The bodies considered are a circular cylinder, triangular prisms of various shapes, and flat plates and elliptical cylinders aligned over a range of angles to the direction of flow. Our results for the circular cylinder are in good agreement with experimental observations and with the results of time-dependent calculations.

Experiments have been performed on the tip vortex trailing from a rectangular NACA 0012 half-wing. Preliminary studies showed the vortex to be insensitive to the introduction of a probe and subject only to small wandering motions. Meaningful velocity measurements could therefore be made using hot-wire probes.

Detailed analysis of the effects of wandering was performed to properly reveal the flow structure in the core region and to give confidence in measurements made outside the core. A theory has been developed to correct mean-velocity profiles for the effects of wandering and to provide complete quantitative estimates of its amplitude and contributions to Reynolds stress fields. Spectral decomposition was found to be the most effective method of separating these contributions from velocity fluctuations due to turbulence.

Outside the core the flow structure is dominated by the remainder of the wing wake which winds into an ever-increasing spiral. There is no large region of axisymmetric turbulence surrounding the core and little sign of turbulence generated by the rotational motion of the vortex. Turbulence stress levels vary along the wake spiral in response to the varying rates of strain imposed by the vortex. Despite this complexity, the shape of the wake spiral and its turbulent structure reach an approximately self-similar form.

On moving from the spiral wake to the core the overall level of velocity fluctuations greatly increases, but none of this increase is directly produced by turbulence. Velocity spectra measured at the vortex centre scale in a manner that implies that the core is laminar and that velocity fluctuations here are a consequence of inactive motion produced as the core is buffeted by turbulence in the surrounding spiral wake. Mean-velocity profiles through the core show evidence of a two-layered structure that dies away with distance downstream.

This paper summarizes experimental studies of incompressible elliptic jets of different aspect ratios and initial conditions, and effects of excitations at selected frequencies and amplitudes. Elliptic jets are quite different from the extensively studied plane and circular jets - owing mainly to the fact that the azimuthal curvature variation of a vortical structure causes its non-uniform self-induction and hence complex three-dimensional deformation. Such deformation, combined with properly selected excitation can substantially alter entrainment and other turbulence phenomena, thus suggesting preference for the elliptic shape in many jet applications. The dominance of coherent structures in the jet far field is evident from the finding that switching over of the cross-section shape continues at least up to 100 equivalent diameters De. The locations and the number of switchovers are strongly dependent on the initial condition, on the aspect ratio, and, when excited, on the Strouhal number and the excitation level. We studied jets with constant exit momentum thickness θe, all around the perimeter, thus separating the effects of azimuthal variations of θe, (typical of elliptic jets) and of the shear-layer curvature. Also investigated are the instability characteristics, and enhanced entrainment caused by bifurcation as well as pairing of vortical structures. We discuss shear-layer and jet- column domains, and find the latter to be characterized by two modes : the preferred mode and the stable pairing mode - similar to those found in circular jets -both modes scaling on the newly-defined lengthscale De. The paper documents some time- average measurements and their comparison with those in circular and plane jets.

This paper describes some experiments in swirling flows in a diverging cylindrical tube in which various types of vortex breakdowns were observed.

In one set of experiments, the position of the breakdown, axial component of the velocity of the vortex core, swirl angle distribution ahead of the breakdown, and the pressure distribution along the tube were determined for various flow rates and for various values of circulation imparted to the fluid (water). Basically, three types of vortex breakdown were observed, viz. mild (double helix) breakdown, spiral breakdown (followed by turbulent mixing), and axisymmetric breakdown (followed by a thicker vortex core, then a spiral breakdown, and finally by turbulent mixing). The type and the location of the stationary breakdowns were found to be dependent, for the particular vortex tube used, upon the Reynolds and circulation numbers of the flow. In a spiral breakdown, the vortex core filament maintained the same sense of rotation as the upstream fluid elements. In an axisymmetric breakdown, the bubble included an inclined vortex-ring whose axis gyrated about the axis of the tube.

In a second set of experiments, the response of the abrupt structural change along the axis of flow to gradual and abrupt changes in the upstream and downstream flow conditions was examined. The axisymmetric breakdown responded in a manner analogous to the hydraulic jump in open-channel flow before if reached a new stationary position along the axis of the tube.

The observations reported and the evidence presented herein revealed that the axisymmetric breakdown is a finite transition between two sequent states of flow as proposed by Benjamin (1962, 1965, 1967) on theoretical grounds.

In most work on the theory of stability of laminar flow, infinitesimal disturbances only have been considered, so that only the initial growth of the disturbance has been determined. It is the object of the present paper to extend the theory to larger amplitudes and to study the mechanics of disturbance growth with the inherent non-linearity of the hydrodynamical system taken into account.

The Reynolds stress (where averages are taken with respect to some suitable space coordinate) is the fundamental consequence of the non-linearity, and its effects can be anticipated as follows. Initially a disturbance grows exponentially with time according to the linear theory, but eventually it reaches such a size that the transport of momentum by the finite fluctuations is appreciable and the associated mean stress (the Reynolds stress) then has an appreciable effect on the mean flow. This distortion of the mean flow modifies the rate of transfer of energy from the mean flow to the disturbance and, since this energy transfer is the cause of the growth of the disturbance, there is a modification of the rate of growth of the latter.

It is suggested that, in many cases, an equilibrium state may be possible in which the rate of transfer of energy from the (distorted) mean flow to the disturbance balances precisely the rate of viscous dissipation of the energy of disturbance. A theory based on certain assumptions about the energy flow is given to describe both the growth of the disturbance and the final equilibrium state, and application is made to the cases of Poiseuille flow between parallel planes and flow between rotating cylinders. The distorted mean flow in the equilibrium state can be calculated and from this, in the latter case, the torque required to maintain the cylinders in motion. Good agreement is obtained with G. I. Taylor's measurements of the torque for the case when the inner cylinder rotates and the outer cylinder is at rest.

A formal algebraic analogy is drawn between meteorological parameters, such as the Richardson number, and the parameters describing the effect of rotation or streamline curvature on a turbulent flow. The analogy between the phenomena is a good first approximation. Semi-quantitative use of the analogy to apply meteorological data to curved shear layers shows that the effects of curvature on the apparent mixing length are appreciable if the shear-layer thickness exceeds roughly 1/300 of the radius of curvature; larger effects may occur in compressible flow. Application of the Monin-Oboukhov formula considerably improves the agreement between prediction and experiment in boundary layers on curved surfaces.

The paper describes studies of the turbulence of the liquid in a bubbly, grid-generated turbulent flow field. Laser-Doppler and hot-film anemometry are used for the experimental investigation. It is found that the turbulent kinetic energy increases strongly with the void fraction α. Roughly speaking, there exist two distinct regimes: the first one corresponds to low value of α, where hydrodynamic interactions between bubbles are negligible, and the second one to higher values, for which, owing to their mutual interactions, the bubbles transfer a greater amount of kinetic energy to the liquid. The Reynolds stress tensor shows that the quasi-isotropy is not altered. At low enough values of α, the difference between the turbulent kinetic energy in the liquid phase and the energy associated with the grid-generated turbulence proves to be approximately equal to the intensity of the pseudo-turbulence, defined as the fluctuating energy that would be induced by the motion of the bubbles under non-turbulent conditions. The one-dimensional spectra exhibit a large range of high frequencies associated with the wakes of the bubbles and the classical $-\frac{5}{3}$ power law is progressively replaced by a $-\frac{8}{3}$ dependence.