A simple model is presented to explain the observed generation of a quasi-steady vortex at the leading edge of an animal wing that rotates in a horizontal plane about a body-centred axis. Vorticity formed by separation at the leading edge is transported outwards by a spanwise velocity field generated by two sources of spanwise pressure gradient, one induced centrifugally and the other by variations in the vortex size and circulation. The vorticity is then deposited into a trailing vortex system that takes the form of a downward propagating vortex ring. This mechanism appears to apply generally to flying animals but is modelled here for those in hovering flight.

Fluid–structure interaction (FSI) simulations are carried out to investigate vortex-induced vibrations of a sphere, mounted on elastic supports in all three spatial directions. The reduced velocity () is systematically varied in the range , while the Reynolds number and reduced mass are held fixed at and , respectively. In the lock-in regime, two distinct branches are observed in the response curve, each corresponding to a distinct type of vortex shedding, namely, hairpin and spiral vortices. While shedding of hairpin vortices has been observed in several previous investigations of stationary and vibrating spheres, the shedding of intertwined, longitudinal spiral vortices in the wake of a vibrating sphere is reported herein for the first time. When the wake is in the hairpin shedding mode, the sphere moves along a linear path in the transverse plane, while when spiral vortices are shed, the sphere vibrates along a circular orbit. In the spiral mode branch, the simulations reveal hysteresis in the response amplitude at the beginning of the lock-in regime. Lower-amplitude vibrations are found as the sphere sheds hairpin vortices for increasing up until the beginning of the synchronization regime. On the other hand, higher-amplitude oscillations persist for the spiral mode as is decreased from the point of the start of the synchronization. The hairpin mode is found to be unstable for the value of reduced velocity where the spiral and hairpin solution branches merge together. When this point is approached along the hairpin solution branch, the sphere naturally transitions from shedding hairpin vortices and moving along a linear path to shedding spiral vortices and moving along a circular path in the transverse plane. The spiral mode was not observed in the work of Horowitz & Williamson (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 651, 2010, pp. 251–294), who studied experimentally the vibration modes of a freely rising or falling sphere and only reported zigzag vibrations. Our results suggest that this apparent discrepancy between experiments and simulations should be attributed to the fact that, for the range of governing parameters considered in the simulations, the elastic supports act to suppress streamwise vibrations, thus subjecting the sphere to a nearly axisymmetric elasticity constraint and enabling it to vibrate transversely along a circular path.

The problem of obtaining a numerical solution for the steady flow between two coaxial infinite disks, one fixed and porous, the other rotating, is reduced by von Kámán's hypothesis to solution of a system of nonlinear equations. A Newton-type iteration results in several solutions to these equations, as a number of authors have already indicated. Nevertheless, an interval in which only one solution is found exists for small values of the Reynolds number based on the angular velocity of the rotating disk, the distance between the disks and the kinematic viscosity of the fluid. At large values of this Reynolds number, two solutions appear and have been the subject of intense controversy.

In this paper, both physical and numerical arguments are presented which support a Batchelor-type solution for the flow between infinite disks, in which part of the fluid rotates as a solid body. The other solution, following Stewartson, assumes that the velocity of the fluid outside the boundary layers is entirely axial. This only seems to be verified experimentally when the distance between the disks is large compared with the (finite) radius of the disks.

A study of the flow within the critical layer of a forced Rossby-wave is made, using a high-resolution numerical model. The possibility of growth of disturbances through barotropic instability and the extent to which these disturbances modify the subsequent time evolution is of particular interest. The flow is characterized by a parameter μ, equal to the cross-stream lengthscale divided by a downstream wavelength. In the long-wavelength case, μ [Lt ] 1, where there is a clear conceptual division between the instability and the basic flow, the results of the simulation confirm the importance of the growing and saturating disturbances in rearranging the vorticity within the critical layer. When the wavelength is not so long, the distinction between the instability and the straightforward time evolution of the basic flow is less clear. Nonetheless for μ < 0.25 the ultimate evolution is still sensitive to the details of the initial perturbations and in this sense the flow may be regarded as being unstable. The time-integrated absorptivity of the critical layer may be considerably increased by the effects of the instability, sometimes to three or four times that predicted by the Stewartson-Warn-Warn solution. The nature of the flow, at least during the period in which the dynamics are essentially inviscid, does not seem to change when higher harmonics to the forced wave are resonant. The behaviour seen in Béland's (1976) numerical model is re-examined in the light of these findings. A simple model of the redistribution of vorticity by the unstable disturbances is formulated, and its predictions are shown to agree well with the numerical simulations.

The classical boundary-layer scaling laws proposed by Howard for Rayleigh–Bénard convection at high Rayleigh number extend to the analogous case of convection in saturated porous media. We computationally study two-dimensional porous-media convection near the onset of this scaling behaviour. The main result of the paper is the observation and study of instabilities that lead to deviations from the scaling relations.

At Rayleigh numbers below the scaling regime, boundary-layer fluctuations born at a Hopf bifurcation strengthen and eventually develop into thermal plumes. The appearance of plumes corresponds to the onset of the boundary-layer scaling behaviour of the oscillation frequency and mean Nusselt number, in agreement with the classical theory. As the Rayleigh number increases further, the flow undergoes instabilities that lead to ‘bubbles’ in parameter space of quasi-periodic flow, and eventually to weakly chaotic flow. The instabilities disturb the plume formation process, effectively leading to a phase modulation of the process and to deviations from the scaling laws. We argue that these instabilities correspond to parametric resonances between the timescale for plume formation and the characteristic convection timescale of the flow.

Direct numerical simulation is used to study the mixing of a passive scalar by a vortex ring issuing from a nozzle into stationary fluid. The ‘formation number’ (Gharib et al. J. Fluid Mech. vol. 360, 1998, p. 121), is found to be 3.6. Simulations are performed for a range of stroke ratios (ratio of stroke length to nozzle exit diameter) encompassing the formation number, and the effect of stroke ratio on entrainment and mixing is examined. When the stroke ratio is greater than the formation number, the resulting vortex ring with trailing column of fluid is shown to be less effective at mixing and entrainment. As the ring forms, ambient fluid is entrained radially into the ring from the region outside the nozzle exit. This entrainment stops once the ring forms, and is absent in the trailing column. The rate of change of scalar-containing fluid is found to depend linearly on stroke ratio until the formation number is reached, and falls below the linear curve for stroke ratios greater than the formation number. This behaviour is explained by considering the entrainment to be a combination of that due to the leading vortex ring and that due to the trailing column. For stroke ratios less than the formation number, the trailing column is absent, and the size of the vortex ring increases with stroke ratio, resulting in increased mixing. For stroke ratios above the formation number, the leading vortex ring remains the same, and the length of the trailing column increases with stroke ratio. The overall entrainment decreases as a result.

A height- and flow-dependent model for turbulent viscosity is employed to explain the generation of sand waves in tidal seas. This new model resolves the problem of excitation of very long waves in sand wave formation, because it leads to damping of the long waves and gives a finite separation between the most excited mode and the zero mode. For parameters within their physically realistic ranges, a linear analysis of the resulting system yields a first excited mode whose wavelength is similar to the characteristic wavelength of sand waves observed in nature. The physical mechanism of sand wave formation as predicted by the new model is explained in detail. The dispersion relation obtained can be the starting point for a weakly nonlinear analysis of the system.

An analytical theory of barotropic β-plane vortices is presented in the form of an asymptotic series based on the inverse of vortex nonlinearity. In particular, a solution of the initial value problem is given, in which the vortex is idealized as a radially symmetric function of arbitrary structure. Motion of the vortex is initiated by its interaction with the so-called ‘β-gyres’ which, in turn, are generated by the vortex circulation. Comparisons of analytical and numerical predictions for vortex motion are presented and demonstrate the utility of the present theory for times comparable to the ‘wave’ timescale. The latter exceeds the temporal limit derived from formal considerations. The properties of the far-field planetary wave radiation are also computed.

This theory differs from previous calculations by considering more general initial vortex profiles and by obtaining a more complete solution for the perturbation fields. Vortex trajectory predictions accrue error systematically by integrating vortex propagation rates which are too strong. This appears to be connected to higher-order planetary wave radiation effects.

We consider the flow of a Newtonian fluid in a three-dimensional domain, rotating about a vertical axis and driven by a vertically invariant horizontal body force. This system admits vertically invariant solutions that satisfy the 2D Navier–Stokes equation. At high Reynolds number and without global rotation, such solutions are usually unstable to three-dimensional perturbations. By contrast, for strong enough global rotation, we prove rigorously that the 2D (and possibly turbulent) solutions are stable to vertically dependent perturbations. We first consider the 3D rotating Navier–Stokes equation linearized around a statistically steady 2D flow solution. We show that this base flow is linearly stable to vertically dependent perturbations when the global rotation is fast enough: under a Reynolds-number-dependent threshold value $Ro_{c}(Re)$ of the Rossby number, the flow becomes exactly 2D in the long-time limit, provided that the initial 3D perturbations are small. We call this property linear two-dimensionalization. We compute explicit lower bounds on $Ro_{c}(Re)$ and therefore determine regions of the parameter space $(Re,Ro)$ where such exact two-dimensionalization takes place. We present similar results in terms of the forcing strength instead of the root-mean-square velocity: the global attractor of the 2D Navier–Stokes equation is linearly stable to vertically dependent perturbations when the forcing-based Rossby number $Ro^{(f)}$ is lower than a Grashof-number-dependent threshold value $Ro_{c}^{(f)}(Gr)$. We then consider the fully nonlinear 3D rotating Navier–Stokes equation and prove absolute two-dimensionalization: we show that, below some threshold value $Ro_{\mathit{abs}}^{(f)}(Gr)$ of the forcing-based Rossby number, the flow becomes two-dimensional in the long-time limit, regardless of the initial condition (including initial 3D perturbations of arbitrarily large amplitude). These results shed some light on several fundamental questions of rotating turbulence: for arbitrary Reynolds number $Re$ and small enough Rossby number, the system is attracted towards purely 2D flow solutions, which display no energy dissipation anomaly and no cyclone–anticyclone asymmetry. Finally, these results challenge the applicability of wave turbulence theory to describe stationary rotating turbulence in bounded domains.

In this work, three different approaches are used for evaluating some Lagrangian properties of homogeneous turbulence containing anisotropy due to the application of a stable stratification and a solid-body rotation. The two external frequencies are the magnitude of the system vorticity $2\Omega$, chosen vertical here, and the Brunt–Väisälä frequency $N$, which gives the strength of the vertical stratification. Analytical results are derived using linear theory for the Eulerian velocity correlations (single-point, two-time) in the vertical and the horizontal directions, and Lagrangian ones are assumed to be equivalent, in agreement with an additional Corrsin assumption used by Kaneda (2000). They are compared with results from the kinematic simulation model (KS) by Nicolleau & Vassilicos (2000), which also incorporates the wave–vortex dynamics inherited from linear theory, and directly yields Lagrangian correlations as well as Eulerian ones. Finally, results from direct numerical simulations (DNS) are obtained and compared for the rotation-dominant case $B\,{=}\,2\Omega/N\,{=}\,10$, the stratification-dominant case $B\,{=}\,1/10$, the non-dispersive case $B\,{=}\,1$, and pure stratification $B\,{=}\,0$ and pure rotation $N\,{=}\,0$. The last situation is shown to be singular with respect to the mixed stratified/rotating ones. We address the question of the validity of Corrsin's simplified hypothesis, which states the equivalence between Eulerian and Lagrangian correlations. Vertical correlations are found to follow this postulate, but not the horizontal ones. Consequences for the vertical and horizontal one-particle dispersion are examined. In the analytical model, the squared excursion lengths are calculated by time integrating the Lagrangian (equal to the Eulerian) two-time correlations, according to Taylor's procedure. These quantities are directly computed from fluctuating trajectories by both KS and DNS. In the case of pure rotation, the analytical procedure allows us to relate Brownian $t$-asymptotic laws of dispersion in both the horizontal and vertical directions to the angular phase-mixing properties of the inertial waves. If stratification is present, the inertia–gravity wave dynamics, which affects the vertical motion, yields a suppressed vertical diffusivity, but not a suppressed horizontal diffusivity, since part of the horizontal velocity field escapes wavy motion.

This article examines a reduced form of the ‘purely dissipative’ model proposed several years ago as a general continuum model for the rheology of non-colloidal particle dispersions, ranging from Stokesian suspensions to non-cohesive granular media. Essential to the model is a positive-definite viscosity tensor $\boldsymbol{\eta}$, depending on the history of deformation and providing a crucial restriction on related models for anisotropic fluids and suspensions. In the present treatment, $\boldsymbol{\eta}$ is assumed to be as an isotropic function of a history-dependent second-rank ‘texture’ or ‘fabric’ tensor ${\textsfbi A}$. A formula for $\boldsymbol{\eta}({\textsfbi A})$ borrowed from the analogous theory of linear elasticity, and its subsequent expansion for weak anisotropy provides an explicit expression for the stress tensor in terms of fabric, strain-rate and eight material constants.

Detailed consideration is given to the special case of Stokesian suspensions, which represent an intriguing subset of memory materials without characteristic time. For this idealized fluid one finds linear dependence of all stresses, including viscometric normal stress, on present deformation rate, with the provision for an arbitrary fabric evolution (‘thixotropy’) in unsteady deformations. As a concrete example, a co-rotational memory integral is adopted for ${\textsfbi A}$ in terms of strain-rate history, and a memory kernel with two-mode exponential relaxation gives close agreement with the rather sparse experimental data on transient shear experiments. In the proposed model, an extremely rapid mode of relaxation is required to mimic the incomplete reversal of stress observed in experiments involving abrupt reversal of steady shearing, supporting the conclusion of others that non-hydrodynamic effects, with breaking of Stokesian symmetry, may be implicated in such experiments.

Qualitative comparisons are made to a closely related model, derived from a micro-mechanical analysis of Stokesian suspensions, but also involving non-Stokesian effects.

The present analysis may point the way to improved micro-mechanical analysis and to further experiments. Possible extensions of the model to the viscoplasticity of dry and liquid-saturated granular media also are discussed briefly.

A numerical investigation of two locally applied drag-reducing control schemes is carried out in the configuration of a spatially developing turbulent boundary layer (TBL). One control is designed to damp near-wall turbulence and the other induces constant mass flux in the wall-normal direction. Both control schemes yield similar local drag reduction rates within the control region. However, the flow development downstream of the control significantly differs: persistent drag reduction is found for the uniform blowing case, whereas drag increase is found for the turbulence damping case. In order to account for this difference, the formulation of a global drag reduction rate is suggested. It represents the reduction of the streamwise force exerted by the fluid on a plate of finite length. Furthermore, it is shown that the far-downstream development of the TBL after the control region can be described by a single quantity, namely a streamwise shift of the uncontrolled boundary layer, i.e. a changed virtual origin. Based on this result, a simple model is developed that allows the local drag reduction rate to be related to the global one without the need to conduct expensive simulations or measurements far downstream of the control region.

Ice scallops are a small-scale (5–20 cm) quasi-periodic ripple pattern that occurs at the ice–water interface. Previous work has suggested that scallops form due to a self-reinforcing interaction between an evolving ice-surface geometry, an adjacent turbulent flow field and the resulting differential melt rates that occur along the interface. In this study, we perform a series of laboratory experiments in a refrigerated flume to quantitatively investigate the mechanisms of scallop formation and evolution in high resolution. Using particle image velocimetry, we probe an evolving ice–water boundary layer at sub-millimetre scales and 15 Hz frequency. Our data reveal three distinct regimes of ice–water interface evolution: a transition from flat to scalloped ice; an equilibrium scallop geometry; and an adjusting scallop interface. We find that scalloped-ice geometry produces a clear modification to the ice–water boundary layer, characterized by a time-mean recirculating eddy feature that forms in the scallop trough. Our primary finding is that scallops form due to a self-reinforcing feedback between the ice-interface geometry and shear production of turbulent kinetic energy in the flow interior. The length of this shear production zone is therefore hypothesized to set the scallop wavelength.

Controlling vortex shedding using spanwise-varying passive or active actuation (namely three-dimensional control) has recently been reported as a very efficient method for regulating two-dimensional bluff-body wakes. However, the mechanism of how the designed controller regulates vortex shedding is not clearly understood. To understand this mechanism, we perform a linear stability analysis of two-dimensional wakes, the base flow of which is modified with a given spanwise waviness. Absolute and convective instabilities of the spanwise wavy base flows are investigated using Floquet theory. Two types of base-flow modification are considered: varicose and sinuous. Both of these modifications attenuate absolute instability of two-dimensional wakes. In particular, the varicose modification is found to be much more effective in the attenuation than the sinuous one, and its spanwise lengths resulting in maximum attenuation show good agreement with those in three-dimensional controls. The physical mechanism of the stabilization is found to be associated with the formation of streamwise vortices from tilting of two-dimensional Kármán vortices and the subsequent tilting of these streamwise vortices by the spanwise shear in the base flow. Finally, the sensitivity of absolute instability to spanwise wavy base-flow modification is investigated. It is shown that absolute instability of two-dimensional wakes is much less sensitive to spanwise wavy base-flow modification than to two-dimensional modification. This suggests that the high efficiency observed in several three-dimensional controls is not due to the sensitive response of the wake instability to the spanwise waviness in the base flow.

Linear sinusoidal disturbances are introduced into the boundary layer over a heated flat plate of uniform surface temperature using a vibrating ribbon. The experiment is performed in a low turbulence water tunnel with free-stream turbulence intensities of 0[sdot ]1–0[sdot ]2%. Measurements are made using temperature-compensated hot-film anemometry. Neutral-stability characteristics obtained for the unheated case agree favourably with previous results obtained both in water and in air. Neutral-stability and spatial disturbance-growth-rate characteristics measured for wall temperatures up to 8°F above the free-stream temperature verify trends established by parallel-flow solutions of the disturbance momentum and energy equations. Disturbance growth rates and the band of amplified disturbance frequencies both decrease as wall heating is increased. The experimentally observed increase in the minimum critical Reynolds number Recmin with increased wall heating agrees with the trend predicted by theory. However, effects of non-parallel flow act to reduce the measured values of Recmin by about 120 units compared with predicted parallel-flow values independent of the level of wall heating.

An extension of proper orthogonal decomposition is applied to the wall layer of a turbulent channel flow ($Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}=590$), so that empirical eigenfunctions are defined in both space and time. Due to the statistical symmetries of the flow, the eigenfunctions are associated with individual wavenumbers and frequencies. Self-similarity of the dominant eigenfunctions, consistent with wall-attached structures transferring energy into the core region, is established. The most energetic modes are characterized by a fundamental time scale in the range 200–300 viscous wall units. The full spatio-temporal decomposition provides a natural measure of the convection velocity of structures, with a characteristic value of 12$u_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}$ in the wall layer. Finally, we show that the energy budget can be split into specific contributions for each mode, which provides a closed-form expression for nonlinear effects.

A dual-plane snapshot proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis of turbulent pipe flow at a Reynolds number of 104 000 is presented. The high-speed particle image velocimetry data were simultaneously acquired in two planes, a cross-stream plane (2D–3C) and a streamwise plane (2D–2C) on the pipe centreline. The cross-stream plane analysis revealed large structures with a spatio-temporal extent of $1{-}2R$, where $R$ is the pipe radius. The temporal evolution of these large-scale structures is examined using the time-shifted correlation of the cross-stream snapshot POD coefficients, identifying the low-energy intermediate modes responsible for the transition between the large-scale modes. By conditionally averaging based on the occurrence/intensity of a given cross-stream snapshot POD mode, a complex structure consisting of wall-attached and -detached large-scale structures is shown to be associated with the most energetic modes. There is a pseudo-alignment of these large structures, which together create structures with a spatio-temporal extent of approximately $6R$, which appears to explain the formation of the very-large-scale motions previously observed in pipe flow.

We investigate the behaviour of large-scale coherent structures in a spanwise-heterogeneous turbulent boundary layer, using particle image velocimetry on multiple orthogonal planes. The statistical three-dimensionality is imposed by a herringbone riblet surface, although the key results presented here will be common to many cases of wall turbulence with embedded secondary flows in the form of mean streamwise vortices. Instantaneous velocity fields in the logarithmic layer reveal elongated low-momentum streaks located over the upwash-flow region, where their spanwise spacing is forced by the $2\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ periodicity of the herringbone pattern. These streaks largely resemble the turbulence structures that occur naturally (and randomly located) in spanwise-homogeneous smooth-/rough-wall boundary layers, although here they are directly formed by the roughness pattern. In the far outer region, the large spanwise spacing permits the streaks to aggressively meander. The mean secondary flows are the time-averaged artefact of the unsteady and spanwise asymmetric large-scale roll modes that accompany these meandering streaks. Interestingly, this meandering, or instability, gives rise to a pronounced streamwise periodicity (i.e. an alternating coherent pattern) in the spatial statistics, at wavelengths of approximately 4.5$\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$. Overall, the observed behaviours largely resemble the streak-instability model that has been proposed for the buffer region, only here at a much larger scale and at a forced spanwise spacing. This observation further confirms recent observations that such features may occur at an entire hierarchy of scales throughout the turbulent boundary layer.