The paper presents a theory of nonlinear evolution and secondary instabilities in Marangoni (surface-tension-driven) convection in a two-layer liquid–gas system with a deformable interface, heated from below. The theory takes into account the motion and convective heat transfer both in the liquid and in the gas layers. A system of nonlinear evolution equations is derived that describes a general case of slow long-scale evolution of a short-scale hexagonal Marangoni convection pattern near the onset of convection, coupled with a long-scale deformational Marangoni instability. Two cases are considered: (i) when interfacial deformations are negligible; and (ii) when they lead to a specific secondary instability of the hexagonal convection.

In case (i), the extent of the subcritical region of the hexagonal Marangoni convection, the type of the hexagonal convection cells, selection of convection patterns – hexagons, rolls and squares – and transitions between them are studied, and the effect of convection in the gas phase is also investigated. Theoretical predictions are compared with experimental observations.

In case (ii), the interaction between the short-scale hexagonal convection and the long-scale deformational instability, when both modes of Marangoni convection are excited, is studied. It is shown that the short-scale convection suppresses the deformational instability. The latter can appear as a secondary long-scale instability of the short-scale hexagonal convection pattern. This secondary instability is shown to be either monotonic or oscillatory, the latter leading to the excitation of deformational waves, propagating along the short-scale hexagonal convection pattern and modulating its amplitude.

We report an experimental study of confinement effects in quasi-2-D turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection. The experiments were conducted in five rectangular cells with their height $H$ and length $L$ being the same and fixed, while the width $W$ was different for each cell to produce lateral aspect ratios (${\it\Gamma}=W/H$) of 0.6, 0.3, 0.2, 0.15 and 0.1. Direct flow field measurements reveal that the large-scale flow slows down as ${\it\Gamma}$ decreases and there are more plumes travelling through the bulk region. Moreover, the reversal frequency of the large-scale flow is found to increase drastically in smaller ${\it\Gamma}$ cells, by more than 1000-fold for the highest value of Rayleigh number reached in the experiment. The reversal frequency can be well described by a stochastic model developed by Ni et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 778, 2015, R5) and the probability density functions (PDF) of the time interval between successive reversals are found to follow Poisson statistics as in the 3-D system. It is further observed that the bulk temperature fluctuation increases significantly and its PDF changes from exponential to Gaussian as ${\it\Gamma}$ decreases. The influences of geometric confinement on the global heat transport are also investigated. The measured Nu–Ra relationship suggests that, as the lateral aspect ratio decreases, the relative weight of the boundary layer contribution in the global heat transport increases compared to that from the bulk. These results demonstrate that in the quasi-2-D geometry, geometric confinement has strong effects on both the global and local properties in turbulent convective flows, which are very different from the previous findings in 3-D and true 2-D systems.

A fluid contained in a rotating cylinder has an inertial mode which is excited by forced precession of the container. Wood's (1965, 1966) early work specifically excluded resonance phenomena. Recently McEwan (1970) has discussed resonance phenomena for strong amplitude of excitation, corresponding to rapid precession in this work.

In this paper the magnitude of the resonant response for small precession rate is precisely calculated by matching the Ekman layer suction to the precessional forces. The procedure is to find the resonant mode v1, compute its boundary layers, $\tilde{{\bf v}}_1$, and the associated Ekman layer suction. The second-order problem has a solvability condition which is satisfied by matching the Ekman layer suction to the precession.

The improvement of heat transfer conditions in liquid-metal magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) flows is of prime importance for self-cooled fusion blanket design concepts. For many years the research was based on stationary inertialess assumptions since it was expected that time-dependent inertial flows would be suppressed by strong electromagnetic damping, especially in the extreme range of fusion relevant parameters. In the present analysis the stationary inertialess assumptions are abandoned. Nevertheless, the classical ideas usually used to obtain inertialess asymptotic solutions are drawn on. The basic inertial equations are reduced to a coupled two-dimensional problem by analytical integration along magnetic field lines. The magnetic field is responsible for a quasi-two-dimensional flow; the non-uniform distribution of the wall conductivity creates a wake-type profile, the MHD effect reducing to a particular forcing and friction. The solution for the two-dimensional variables, the field aligned component of vorticity, the stream function, and the electric potential are obtained by numerical methods. In a flat channel with non-uniform electrical wall conductivity, time-dependent solutions similar to the Kármán vortex street behind bluff bodies are possible. The onset of the vortex motion, i.e. the critical Reynolds number depends strongly on the strength of the magnetic field expressed by the Hartmann number. Stability analyses in viscous hydrodynamic wakes often use the approximation of a unidirectional flow which does not take into account the spatial evolution of the wake. The present problem exhibits a wake-type basic flow, which does not change along the flow path. It represents, therefore, an excellent example to which the simple linear analysis on the basis of Orr-Sommerfeld-type equations applies exactly. Once unstable, the flow first exhibits a regular time periodic vortex pattern which is rearranged further downstream. One can observe an elongation, pairing, or sometimes more complex merging of vortices. All these effects lead to larger flow structures with lower frequencies. The possibility for a creation and maintenance of time-dependent vortex-type flow pattern in MHD flows is demonstrated.

In this work the quantitative and qualitative ability of a kinetic-theory-based two-fluid model (KT-TFM) is assessed in a state of fully periodic sedimentation (fluidization), with a focus on statistically steady, unstable (clustered) states. The accuracy of KT-TFM predictions is evaluated via direct comparison to direct numerical simulation (DNS) data. The KT-TFM and DNS results span a rather wide parameter space: mean-flow Reynolds numbers on the order of 1 and 10, mean solid volume fractions from 0.1 to 0.4, solid-to-fluid density ratios from 10 to 1000 and elastic and moderately inelastic (restitution coefficient of 0.9) conditions. Data from both KT-TFM and DNS display a rich variety of statistically steady yet unstable structures (clusters). Instantaneous snapshots of KT-TFM and DNS demonstrate remarkable qualitative agreement. This qualitative agreement is quantified by calculating the critical density ratio at which the structure transitions from a chaotic, dynamic state to a regular, plug-flow state, with good overall comparisons. Further quantitative assessments of mean and fluctuating velocities show good agreement at high density ratios but weaker agreement at intermediate to low density ratios depending on the mean-flow Reynolds numbers and solid fractions. Deviations of the KT-TFM results from the DNS data were traced to a breakdown in one of the underlying assumptions of the kinetic theory derivation: high thermal Stokes number. Surprisingly, however, even though the low Knudsen number assumption, also associated with the kinetic theory derivation, is violated throughout most of the parameter space, it does not seem to affect the good quantitative accuracy of KT-TFM simulations.

Particle image velocimetry and filtered Rayleigh scattering experiments were performed over a range of Reynolds numbers to study the scaling and structure of a smooth, flat-plate turbulent boundary layer with a free stream Mach number of 7.5. The measurements indicate few, if any, dynamic differences due to Mach number. Mean and fluctuating streamwise velocities in the outer layer show strong similarity to incompressible flows at comparable Reynolds numbers when scaled according to van Driest and Morkovin. In addition, correlation lengths and structure angles based on velocity statistics were found to be less sensitive to compressibility than indicated by previous studies based on density fields or mass-weighted statistics, suggesting that the density and velocity fields obey different scaling. Finally, the boundary layer displays uniform momentum zones, with the number of these zones similar to incompressible boundary layers at comparable Reynolds numbers.

We present here an in-depth analysis of particle levitation stability and the role of the radial and axial forces exerted on fixed spherical and ellipsoidal particles levitated in an axisymmetric acoustic levitator, over a wide range of particle sizes and surrounding medium viscosities. We show that the stability behaviour of a levitated particle in an axisymmetric levitator is unequivocally connected to the radial forces: the loss of levitation stability is always due to the change of the radial force sign from positive to negative. It is found that the axial force exerted on a sphere of radius increases with increasing viscosity for ( is the acoustic wavelength), with the viscous contribution of this force scaling with the inverse of the sphere radius. The axial force decreases with increasing viscosity for spheres with . The radial force, on the other hand, decreases monotonically with increasing viscosity. The radial and axial forces exerted on an ellipsoidal particle are larger than those exerted on a volume-equivalent sphere, up to the point where the ellipsoid starts to act as an obstacle to the formation of the standing wave in the levitator chamber.

The stability of the co-current stratified flow of oil and water was investigated experimentally in a horizontal rectangular conduit. Laminar-turbulent transitions were determined for both phases. With the two-phase system the transition to turbulence in the water phase occurred at a higher Reynolds number in the presence of a laminar oil layer provided the input water-to-oil ratio was relatively high, while the transition in the oil phase took place at a lower Reynolds number in the presence of a turbulent water layer. The appearance of first interfacial waves coincided with the transition to turbulence of the less viscous or water phase. This suggests that in the system investigated the resonance mechanism as proposed by Phillips (1957) was responsible for the generation of these first waves. However, at relatively high water flow rates and water-to-oil ratios more pronounced waves were observed which appeared to be generated by an instability in the mean flow.

The first part of the paper is an extension of the statistical theory of turbulent diffusion to the problem of turbulent diffusion from a point or line source in an inhomogeneous straining flow such as flow round a two-dimensional body. The new effects which have to be considered are the convergence and divergence of mean streamlines, the inhomogeneity of the mean and turbulent velocities, and the presence of a boundary. We assume that the upstream turbulence intensity $u^{\prime}_{\infty}/\overline{u}_{\infty} $ is weak, i.e. $u^{\prime}_{\infty}/\overline{u}_{\infty} $ [Lt ] 1, and that molecular diffusion is negligible, i.e. $(\overline{u}_{\infty}/u^{\prime}_{\infty})^2[D/(a\overline{u}_{\infty})] $ [Lt ] 1, D and a being the molecular diffusivity and the scale of the obstacle respectively. The theory predicts the mean-square dispersion of the plume about the mean streamline through the source in terms of the Lagrangian statistics of the turbulence. Making the further assumption that the scale LE of the turbulence is large enough to satisfy the condition that ($(u^{\prime}_{\infty}/\overline{u}_{\infty}) $) (a/LE) [Lt ] 1, it is shown that the turbulent dispersion can be calculated in terms of the Eulerian statistics, which can either be measured or in some cases calculated. In the second part we analyse diffusion from various sources in potential flows over two-dimensional obstacles assuming constant (or variable) eddy diffusivity, and compare the results with those of the more rigorous statistical analysis for sources one or two diameters upwind of the obstacle. However, unlike the statistical analysis, this eddy-diffusivity analysis can also be extended to calculate diffusion from sources placed some distance upwind of an obstacle, and an example is given of how this analysis may be applied to calculating concentrations on hills due to distant sources.

Steady and unsteady numerical simulations of two-dimensional flow in a collapsible channel were carried out to study the flow limitation which typically occurs when the upstream transmural pressure is held constant while flow rate and pressure gradient along the collapsible channel can vary independently. Multiple steady solutions are found for a range of upstream transmural pressures and Reynolds number using an arclength control method. The stability of these steady solutions is tested in order to check the correlation between flow limitation and self-excited oscillations (the latter being a consequence of unstable steady solutions). Both stable and unstable solutions are found when flow is limited. Self-excited oscillations and divergence instabilities are observed in certain solution branches. The instability of the steady solutions seems to depend on the unsteady boundary conditions used, i.e. on which parameters are allowed to vary. However, steady solutions associated with the solution branch before flow limitation where the membrane wall bulges are found to be stable for each of the three different boundary conditions employed. We conclude that there is no one to one correlation between the two phenomena in this two dimensional channel model.

This work aims to gain a relatively thorough understanding of unsteady predominant coherent structures around an Ahmed body with a slant angle of $25^{\circ }$, corresponding to the high-drag regime. Extensive hot-wire, flow visualization and particle image velocimetry measurements were conducted in a wind tunnel at $\mathit{Re}=(0.45{-}2.4)\times 10^{5}$ around the Ahmed body. A number of distinct Strouhal numbers (St) have been found, two over the rear window, three behind the vertical base and two above the roof. The origin of every St has been identified. The two detected above the roof are ascribed to the hairpin vortices that emanate from the recirculation bubble formed near the leading edge and to the oscillation of the core of longitudinal vortices that originate from bubble pulsation, respectively. The two captured over the window originate from the hairpin vortices and the shear layers over the roof and side surface, respectively. One measured in the wake results from the structures emanating alternately from the upper and lower recirculation bubbles. The remaining two detected behind the lower edge of the base are connected to the cylindrical struts, respectively, which simulate wheels. These unsteady structures and corresponding St reconcile the widely scattered St data in the literature. The dependence on Re of these Strouhal numbers is also addressed, along with the effect of the turbulent intensity of oncoming flow on the flow structures. A conceptual model is proposed for the first time, which embraces both steady and unsteady coherent structures around the body.

A three-dimensional numerical model is developed to simulate the process of collision between an evaporative droplet and a high-temperature particle. This phenomenon is of direct relevance to many engineering process operations, such as fluid catalytic cracking (FCC), polyethylene synthesis, and electronic materials coating. In this study, the level-set method and the immersed-boundary method are combined to describe the droplet–particle contact dynamics in a fixed Eulerian grid. The droplet deformation is captured by one level-set function while the solid–fluid boundary condition is imposed on the particle surface through the immersed-boundary method involving another level-set function. A two-dimensional vapour-layer model is developed to simulate the vapour flow dynamics. Equations for the heat transfer characteristics are formulated for each of the solid, liquid and gas phases. The incompressible flow-governing equations are solved using the finite-volume method with the ALE (arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) technique. The simulation results are validated through comparisons with experimental data obtained from the new experimental set-up designed in this study. An important feature of the droplet impacting on a particle with film boiling is that the droplet undergoes a spreading, recoiling and rebounding process, which is reproduced by the numerical simulation based on the model. Details of the collision such as spread factor, contact time and temperature distribution are provided. Simulations are also conducted to examine the effects of the particle size and the collision velocity. Although the value for the maximum spread factor is larger for a higher impact velocity and for a smaller particle, the contact time is independent of the impact velocity and particle size. Both the normal collision and the oblique collision are considered in this study.

The shape of impacting drops onto a solid surface is investigated by probing the local flow velocity and the local thickness profile of the spreading lamella during the drop impact. First, as a model situation of no viscous coupling between the liquid and the substrate, the impact of a drop onto hot plates, above the Leidenfrost temperature, is considered. In this case, we demonstrate that the velocity and thickness profiles are in good agreement with inviscid convective flow theory. This local description allows us to revisit the modelling of well-studied global behaviour such as drop spreading. Building from this idealized situation, viscous boundary-layer effects emerging from frictional coupling on a cold surface are then captured.

In a recent study on a coupled laser system, Thévenin et al. (Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 107, 2011, 104101) reported the first experimental evidence of phase trapping, a partially synchronous state characterized by frequency locking without phase locking. To determine whether this state can arise in a hydrodynamic system, we reanalyse the data from our recent experiment on a periodically forced self-excited low-density jet (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 726, 2013, pp. 624–655). We find that this jet exhibits the full range of phase dynamics predicted by model oscillators with weak nonlinearity. These dynamics include (i) phase trapping between phase drifting and phase locking when the jet is forced far from its natural frequency and (ii) phase slipping during phase drifting when it is forced close to its natural frequency. This raises the possibility that similar phase dynamics can be found in other similarly self-excited flows. It also strengthens the validity of using low-dimensional nonlinear dynamical systems based on a universal amplitude equation to model such flows, many of which are of industrial importance.

Whistling behaviour of two geometrically periodic systems, namely corrugated pipes and multiple side branch systems, is investigated both experimentally and numerically. Tests are performed on corrugated pipes with various lengths and cavity geometries. Experiments show that the peak-whistling Strouhal number, where the maximum amplitude in pressure fluctuations is registered, is independent of the pipe length. Experimentally, a decrease of the peak-whistling Strouhal number by a factor of two is observed with increasing confinement ratio, i.e. the ratio of pipe diameter to cavity width. A numerical methodology that combines incompressible flow simulations with vortex sound theory is proposed to estimate the acoustic source power in periodic systems. The methodology successfully predicts the Strouhal number ranges of acoustic energy production/absorption and the nonlinear saturation mechanism responsible for the stabilization of the limit cycle oscillation. The methodology predicts peak-whistling Strouhal numbers in agreement with experiments and explains the dependence of the peak-whistling Strouhal number on the confinement ratio. Combined with an energy balance, the proposed methodology is used to estimate the acoustic fluctuation amplitudes.

The impulsively starting motion of a circular cylinder submerged horizontally below a free surface is studied analytically using a small-time expansion. The series expansion is taken as far as necessary to include the leading gravitational effects for two cases: constant velocity and constant acceleration, both commencing from rest. The hydrodynamic force on the cylinder and the surface elevation are calculated and expressed in terms of bipolar coordinates. Comparisons are also made with earlier theoretical and experimental work. The theory is valid for arbitrary value of submergence depth to cylinder radius.

Two direct numerical simulations of several buoyant bubbles in a two-dimensional periodic domain are presented. The average rise Reynolds number of the bubbles is close to 2, and surface tension is high, resulting in small bubble deformation. The void fraction is relatively high, and the bubbles interact strongly. Simulations of the motion of both 144 and 324 bubbles show the formation of flow structures much larger than the bubble size, and a continuous increase in the energy of the low-wavenumber velocity modes. Plots of the energy spectrum show a range of wavenumbers with an approximately -5/3 slope. This suggests that a part of the work done by the buoyant bubbles is not dissipated, but instead increases the energy of flow structures much larger than the bubbles. This phenomenon, which is also seen in numerical simulation of forced two-dimensional turbulence, prevents the appearance of a statistically steady-state motion that is independent of the size of the computational domain.

A numerical study of turbulent channel flow at various Reynolds numbers (Reτ=115, 210, 300) is conducted in order to examine the requirements for a reliable subgrid modelling in large-eddy simulations of wall-bounded flows. Using direct numerical simulation data, the interactions between large and small scales in the near-wall flow are analysed in detail which sheds light on the origin of the inverse cascade of turbulent kinetic energy observed in the buffer layer. It is shown that the correlation of the wall-normal subgrid stress and the wall-normal derivative of the streamwise grid-scale velocity plays the key role in the occurrence of the inverse cascade. A brief a priori test of several subgrid models shows that currently applied models are not capable of accounting properly for the complex interactions in the near-wall flow. A series of large-eddy simulations gives evidence that this deficiency may cause significant errors in important global quantities of the flow such as the mean wall shear stress. A study of the eddy-viscosity ansatz is conducted which reveals that the characteristic scales usually employed for the definition of the eddy viscosity are inappropriate in the vicinity of a wall. Therefore, a novel definition of the eddy viscosity is derived from the analysis of the near-wall energy budget. This new definition, which employs the wall-normal subgrid stress as a characteristic scale, is more consistent with the near-wall physics. No significant Reynolds-number effects are encountered in the present analysis which suggests that the findings may be generalized to flows at higher Reynolds numbers.

The effects of compressibility, pitch rate and Reynolds number on the initial stages of two-dimensional unsteady separation of laminar subsonic flow over a pitching NACA-0012 airfoil have been studied numerically. The approach involves the simulation of the flow by solving the two-dimensional unsteady compressible laminar Navier-Stokes equations employing the implicit approximate-factorization algorithm of Beam & Warming and a boundary-fitted C-grid. The algorithm has been extensively validated through comparison with analytical and previous numerical results. The computations display several important trends for the ‘birth’ of the primary recirculating region which is a principal precursor to leading-edge separation. Increasing the non-dimensional pitch rate from 0.05 to 0.2 at a fixed Reynolds number and Mach number delays the formation of the primary recirculating region. The primary recirculating region also forms closer to the leading edge. Increasing the Mach number from 0.2 to 0.5 at a fixed Reynolds number and pitch rate causes a delay in the formation of the primary recirculating region and also leads to its formation farther from the airfoil top surface. The length scale associated with the recirculating regions increases as well. Increasing the Reynolds number from 104 to 105 at a fixed Mach number and pitch rate hastens the appearance of the primary recirculating region. A shock appears on the top surface at a Reynolds number of 105 along with the simultaneous formation of multiple recirculating regions near the leading edge.