A model is proposed with which the statistics of the fluctuating streamwise velocity in the inner region of wall-bounded turbulent flows are predicted from a measured large-scale velocity signature from an outer position in the logarithmic region of the flow. Results, including spectra and all moments up to sixth order, are shown and compared to experimental data for zero-pressure-gradient flows over a large range of Reynolds numbers. The model uses universal time-series and constants that were empirically determined from zero-pressure-gradient boundary layer data. In order to test the applicability of these for other flows, the model is also applied to channel, pipe and adverse-pressure-gradient flows. The results support the concept of a universal inner region that is modified through a modulation and superposition of the large-scale outer motions, which are specific to the geometry or imposed streamwise pressure gradient acting on the flow.

Axisymmetric steady flows driven by an electric field about a deformable fluid drop suspended in an immiscible fluid are studied within the framework of the leaky dielectric model. Deformations of the drop and the flow fields are determined by solving the nonlinear free-boundary problem composed of the Navier-Stokes system governing the flow field and Laplace's system governing the electric field. The solutions are obtained by using the Galerkin finite-element method with an elliptic mesh generation scheme. Under conditions of creeping flow and vanishingly small drop deformations, the results of finite-element computations recover the asymptotic results. When drop deformations become noticeable, the asymptotic results are often found to underestimate both the flow intensity and drop deformation. By tracking solution branches in parameter space with an arc-length continuation method, curves in parameter space of the drop deformation parameter D versus the square of the dimensionless field strength E usually exhibit a turning point when E reaches a critical value Ec. Along such a family of drop shapes, steady solutions do not exist for E > Ec. The nonlinear relationship revealed computationally between D and E2 appears to be capable of providing insight into discrepancies reported in the literature between experiments and predictions based on the asymptotic theory. In some special cases with fluid conductivities closely matched, however, drop deformations are found to grow with E2 indefinitely and no critical value Ec is encountered by the corresponding solution branches. For most cases with realistic values of physical properties, the overall electrohydrodynamic behaviour is relatively insensitive to effects of finite-Reynolds-number flow. However, under extreme conditions when fluids of very low viscosities are involved, computational results illustrate a remarkable shape turnaround phenomenon: a drop with oblate deformation at low field strength can evolve into a prolate-like drop shape as the field strength is increased.

The flow over a circular cylinder controlled by a two-dimensional synthetic jet positioned at the mean rear stagnation point has been experimentally investigated in a water channel at the cylinder Reynolds number Re = 950. This is an innovative arrangement and the particle-image-velocimetry measurement indicates that it can lead to a novel and interesting phenomenon. The synthetic-jet vortex pairs induced near the exit convect downstream and interact with the vorticity shear layers behind both sides of the cylinder, resulting in the formation of new induced wake vortices. The present vortex synchronization occurs when the excitation frequency of the synthetic jet is between 1.67 and 5.00 times the natural shedding frequency at the dimensionless stroke length 99.5. However, it is suggested that the strength of the synthetic-jet vortex pair plays a more essential role in the occurrence of vortex synchronization than the excitation frequency. In addition, the wake-vortex shedding is converted into a symmetric mode from its original antisymmetric mode. The symmetric shedding mode weakens the interaction between the upper and lower wake vortices, resulting in a decrease in the turbulent kinetic energy produced by them. It also has a significant influence on the global flow field, including the velocity fluctuations, Reynolds stresses and flow topology. However, their distributions are still dominated by the large-scale coherent structures.

A model is proposed which attempts to explain the complete ‘burst cycle’. This model views the wall streak as a sub-boundary layer, within the conventionally defined boundary layer, and the lift-up stage of bursting either as an upwelling motion of this sub-boundary layer which is similar to a local, convected separation or, equivalently, as the consequence of a vortex roll-up. ‘Sweeps’ are thought to represent the passage of a previous burst from further upstream. They appear either to impress on the wall streak the temporary adverse pressure gradient required to bring about its lifting or, alternatively, to provide the outer vortex which rolls up with the vortex associated with the wall streak. The model is also used to explain how the interactions between a burst and a sweep bring about (i) breakup, as well as (ii) new wall streaks further downstream.

Arguments are presented to demonstrate that the three kinds of oscillatory growth reported by Kim, Kline & Reynolds (1971) may be associated with just one type of flow structure: the stretched and lifted vortex described by Kline et al. (1967).

A simple phenomenological drag relation is used to characterize weak dynamic coupling of a liquid membrane to an adjacent solid substrate. With this linear velocity-dependent drag relation, the inertialess equations of motion for membrane flow are easily solved for steady translation and rotation of a disk-like particle. The resulting drag coefficients exhibit functional dependencies on the dimensionless particle size very similar to the relations obtained for particle motion in a membrane bounded by semi-infinite liquid domains (Hughes et al. 1981), although the scaling of particle size is different. Within this phenomenological approach, diffusivities of molecular probes in membranes can be used to investigate the intrinsic molecular drag at a solid-liquid membrane interface and to estimate properties of thin lubricating liquid layers between membrane and substrate.

It is shown that the Orr-Sommerfeld equation, which governs the stability of any mean shear flow in an unbounded domain which approaches a constant velocity in the far field, has a continuous spectrum. This result applies to both the temporal and the spatial stability problem. Formulae for the location of this continuum in the complex wave-speed plane are given. The temporal continuum eigenfunctions are calculated for two sample problems: the Blasius boundary layer and the two-dimensional laminar jet. The nature of the eigenfunctions, which are very different from the Tollmien-Schlichting waves, is discussed. Three mechanisms are proposed by which these continuum modes could cause transition in a shear flow while bypassing the usual linear Tollmien-Schlichting stage.

We present an experimental and theoretical investigation of some aspects of the coupling between a premixed laminar quasi-planar flame front and acoustic standing waves in tubes. A multidimensional instability of the front arises from its interaction with the oscillating field of acceleration. This instability can be described by the Clavin–Williams laminar wrinkled flame theory in which the periodic acceleration created by the acoustic field is added to the acceleration due to gravity. As first suggested by Markstein, the resulting equation can be reduced to the Mathieu equation for a parametric oscillator. A cellular instability appears with a finite excitation threshold. This instability is responsible for the spontaneous generation of intense acoustic oscillations observed elsewhere. The value of the acoustic field at the threshold of instability and the wavelength of the cellular structures are measured experimentally for propane flames and are found to be in good agreement with the calculated values. It is also seen, both experimentally and theoretically, that for certain amplitudes of pumping, the parametric mechanism can also stabilize an initially unstable system.

Noise generation is investigated in subsonic isothermal round jets at Mach numbers M = 0.6 and M = 0.9, with Reynolds numbers ReD = 1700 and ReD ≥ 105, using causality methods on data provided by large-eddy simulations. The correlations between broadband sound pressure signals and broadband turbulence signals along the jet axis and the shear layer are calculated. The normalized correlations are found to be significant between the pressure emitted in the downstream direction and centreline flow quantities. They are much smaller in the cases involving flow quantities along the shear layer, and fall for large emission angles. The maximum correlations obtained between centreline turbulence and downstream sound pressure are observed just at the end of the potential core for time delays corresponding to the times of propagation evaluated along ray paths. They also appear to be lower as the Mach number is reduced, and to be enhanced as the Reynolds number is decreased. These correlation levels can reasonably be attributed to the noise source which is predominant at small emission angles. This source is therefore located on the jet centreline at the end of the potential core, in a flow region which is shown to be characterized by a dominant Strouhal number over a large axial distance, by a strong level of intermittency, and by a high convection velocity. This supports the contention that the downstream jet-noise component is connected to the periodic and intermittent intrusion of vortical structures into the jet core.

Laser-Doppler velocity measurements in water are reported for the flow in the plane of symmetry of a turbulent spot. The unsteady mean flow, defined as an ensemble average, is fitted to a conical growth law by using data at three streamwise stations to determine the virtual origin in x and t. The two-dimensional unsteady stream function is expressed as $\psi = U^2_{\infty}tg(\xi, \eta) $ in conical similarity co-ordinates ζ = x/U∞t and η = y/U∞t. In these co-ordinates, the equations for the unsteady particle displacements reduce to an autonomous system. This system is integrated graphically to obtain particle trajectories in invariant form. Strong entrainment is found to occur along the outer part of the rear interface and also in front of the spot near the wall. The outer part of the forward interface is passive. In terms of particle trajectories in conical co-ordinates, the main vortex in the spot appears as a stable focus with celerity 0·77U∞. A second stable focus with celerity 0·64U∞ also appears near the wall at the rear of the spot.

Some results obtained by flow visualization with a dense, nearly opaque suspension of aluminium flakes are also reported. Photographs of the sublayer flow viewed through a glass wall show the expected longitudinal streaks. These are tentatively interpreted as longitudinal vortices caused by an instability of Taylor-Görtler type in the sublayer.

In this study, a CFD-based linear dynamics model combined with the direct Computational Fluid Dynamics/Computational Structural Dynamics (CFD/CSD) simulation method is utilized to study the physical mechanisms underlying frequency lock-in in vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs). An identification method is employed to construct the reduced-order models (ROMs) of unsteady aerodynamics for the incompressible flow past a vibrating cylinder at low Reynolds numbers ($Re$). Reduced-order-model-based fluid–structure interaction models for VIV are also constructed by coupling ROMs and structural motion equations. The effects of the natural frequency of the cylinder, mass ratio and structural damping coefficient on the dynamics of the coupled system at $Re=60$ are investigated. The results show that the frequency lock-in phenomenon at low Reynolds numbers can be divided into two patterns according to different induced mechanisms. The two patterns are ‘resonance-induced lock-in’ and ‘flutter-induced lock-in’. When the natural frequency of the cylinder is in the vicinity of the eigenfrequency of the uncoupled wake mode (WM), only the WM is unstable. The dynamics of the coupled system is dominated by resonance. Meanwhile, for relatively high natural frequencies (i.e. greater than the eigenfrequency of the uncoupled WM), the structure mode becomes unstable, and the coupling between the two unstable modes eventually leads to flutter. Flutter is the root cause of frequency lock-in and the higher vibration amplitude of the cylinder than that of the resonance region. This result provides evidence for the finding of De Langre (J. Fluids Struct., vol. 22, 2006, pp. 783–791) that frequency lock-in is caused by coupled-mode flutter. The linear model exactly predicts the onset reduced velocity of frequency lock-in compared with that of direct numerical simulations. In addition, the transition frequency predicted by the linear model is in close coincidence with the amplitude of the lift coefficient of a fixed cylinder for high mass ratios. Therefore, it confirms that linear models can capture a significant part of the inherent physics of the frequency lock-in phenomenon.

A general theory is put forward for the effect of wall proximity on the Stokes resistance of an arbitrary particle. The theory is developed completely for the case where the motion of the particle is parallel to a principal axis of resistance. In this case, the wall-effect correction can be calculated entirely from a knowledge of the force experienced by the particle in an unbounded fluid, providing (i) that the wall correction is already known for a spherical particle and (ii) that the particle is small in comparison to its distance from the boundary. Experimental data are cited which confirm the theory. The theory is extended to the wall effect on a particle rotating near a boundary.

The structures of the flow induced by a circular cylinder performing sinusoidal oscillations in a fluid at rest are investigated by means of flow visualization. The experiments are carried out at Keulegan–Carpenter numbers between 1.6 and 15 and at Stokes numbers between 5 and 160. Above a certain value of Keulegan–Carpenter number, depending on the Stokes number, some asymmetry appears in the flow separation and the associated vortex development behind the cylinder. The two vortices that are developed in a half cycle differ in strength and may be convected in different directions. This results in a fascinating set of flow patterns. Eight different regimes of flow can be identified within the ranges of Keulegan–Carpenter number and Stokes number studied. Furthermore, most of the resulting flows show a three-dimensional instability along the axis of the cylinder. Measurements of the wavelength of these disturbances are presented.

A drop that falls into a deep liquid can either coalesce with the receiving liquid and form a vortex ring or splash. Which phenomenon actually occurs depends on the impact conditions. When the impact conditions are gradually changed the transition between coalescence and splashing proceeds via a number of intermediate steps. These are studied by means of high-speed photography of the normal impact of water drops on a plane water surface. The characteristics of different flows that appear in the transitional regime and possible mechanisms causing these flows are discussed in detail. The phenomena considered include the rise of thick jets and the ejection of high-rising thin jets out of the impact crater, the entrainment of gas bubbles, crater dynamics, crown formation and the generation of splash droplets. Finally, a classification of the phenomena characteristic of the transitional regime is given.

The prevalence in a turbulent mixing layer of dynamical events with a coherent history over substantial times suggests that it is profitable to study in detail entirely deterministic versions of this flow and to attempt to use a simplified synthesis of these solutions as the fundamental representation in a stochastic treatment of the layer. It is proposed that the deterministic representation of the flow be achieved by the embedding of a short hierarchy of motions which are studied in detail, though not exhaustively, in Parts 1, 2 and 3. Part 1 deals with the fundamental or first-order motion, which is the evolution of a layer constrained to be purely two-dimensional.

This paper investigates the influence of different three-dimensional multi-mode initial conditions on the rate of growth of a mixing layer initiated via a Richtmyer–Meshkov instability through a series of well-controlled numerical experiments. Results are presented for large-eddy simulation of narrowband and broadband perturbations at grid resolutions up to 3 × 109 points using two completely different numerical methods, and comparisons are made with theory and experiment. It is shown that the mixing-layer growth is strongly dependent on initial conditions, the narrowband case giving a power-law exponent θ ≈ 0.26 at low Atwood and θ ≈ 0.3 at high Atwood numbers. The broadband case uses a perturbation power spectrum of the form P(k) ∝ k−2 with a proposed theoretical growth rate of θ = 2/3. The numerical results confirm this; however, they highlight the necessity of a very fine grid to capture an appropriately broad range of initial scales. In addition, an analysis of the kinetic energy decay rates, fluctuating kinetic energy spectra, plane-averaged volume fraction profiles and mixing parameters is presented for each case.

This article gives a review of six areas of current activity and importance in aero-acoustics, including (i) the generation of sound and vorticity by vorticity and sound, respectively, (ii) the basis for, and consequences of, the application of a Kutta condition in unsteady leading- and trailing-edge flows, and (iii) the suppression or amplification of broadband hydrodynamic and acoustic fields in a jet under the influence of weak discrete tone forcing. The intention is also to promote acceptance once again of acoustics as a serious branch of fluid mechanics.

A spectacular feature of transient cavity collapse in the neighbourhood of a rigid boundary is the formation of a high-speed liquid jet that threads the bubble and ultimately impacts upon the side of the bubble nearest to the boundary. The bubble then evolves into some toroidal form, the flow domain being doubly connected. In this work, the motion of the toroidal bubble is computed by connecting the jet tip to the side of the bubble upon which it impacts. This connection is via a cut introduced into the flow domain and across which the potential is discontinuous, the value of this discontinuity being equal to the circulation in the flow. A boundary integral algorithm is developed to account for this geometry and some example computations are presented. Consideration of the pressure field in the fluid has implications for possible damage mechanisms to structures due to nearby cavity collapse.

The turbulent/non-turbulent interface in a zero-pressure-gradient turbulent boundary layer at high Reynolds number ($\mathit{Re}_\tau =14\, 500$) is examined using particle image velocimetry. An experimental set-up is utilized that employs multiple high-resolution cameras to capture a large field of view that extends $2\delta \times 1.1\delta $ in the streamwise/wall-normal plane with an unprecedented dynamic range. The interface is detected using a criteria of local turbulent kinetic energy and proves to be an effective method for boundary layers. The presence of a turbulent/non-turbulent superlayer is corroborated by the presence of a jump for the conditionally averaged streamwise velocity across the interface. The steep change in velocity is accompanied by a discontinuity in vorticity and a sharp rise in the Reynolds shear stress. The conditional statistics at the interface are in quantitative agreement with the superlayer equations outlined by Reynolds (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 54, 1972, pp. 481–488). Further analysis introduces the mass flux as a physically relevant parameter that provides a direct quantitative insight into the entrainment. Consistency of this approach is first established via the equality of mean entrainment calculations obtained using three different methods, namely, conditional, instantaneous and mean equations of motion. By means of ‘mass-flux spectra’ it is shown that the boundary-layer entrainment is characterized by two distinctive length scales which appear to be associated with a two-stage entrainment process and have a substantial scale separation.

A model equation is derived which approximately describes the propagation of periodic surface waves in water of slowly varying depth. Numerical solutions to the model equation are obtained for the scattering of an incident plane wave by a conical island.