A transonic interaction between a shock wave and a turbulent boundary layer is experimentally and theoretically investigated. The configuration is a transonic channel flow over a bump, where a shock wave causes the separation of the boundary layer in the form of a recirculating bubble downstream of the shock foot. Different experimental techniques allow for the identification of the main unsteadiness features. As recognised in similar shock-wave/boundary-layer interactions, the flow field exhibits two distinct characteristic frequencies, whose origins are still controversial: a low-frequency motion which primarily affects the shock wave; and medium-frequency perturbations localised in the shear layer. A Fourier analysis of a series of Schlieren snapshots is performed to precisely characterise the structure of the perturbations at low- and medium-frequencies. Then, the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations closed with a Spalart–Allmaras turbulence model are solved to obtain a mean flow, which favourably compares with the experimental results. A global stability analysis based on the linearization of the full RANS equations is then performed. The eigenvalues of the Jacobian operator are all damped, indicating that the interaction dynamic cannot be explained by the existence of unstable global modes. The input/output behaviour of the flow is then analysed by performing a singular-value decomposition of the Resolvent operator; pseudo-resonances of the flow may be identified and optimal forcings/responses determined as a function of frequency. It is found that the flow strongly amplifies both medium-frequency perturbations, generating fluctuations in the mixing layer, and low-frequency perturbations, affecting the shock wave. The structure of the optimal perturbations and the preferred frequencies agree with the experimental observations.

We report that the well-known Marangoni film thickening in surfactant-laden Landau–Levich–Bretherton coating flow can be completely suppressed by wall slip. The analysis is made by mainly looking at how the deposited film thickness varies with the capillary number $Ca$ ($\ll 1$) and the dimensionless slip length ${\it\Lambda}={\it\lambda}/R$ ($\ll 1$) in the presence of a trace amount of insoluble surfactant, where ${\it\lambda}$ is the slip length and $R$ is the radius of the meniscus. When slip effects are weak at sufficiently large $Ca$ (but still $\ll 1$) such that $Ca\gg {\it\Lambda}^{3/2}$, the film thickness can still vary as $Ca^{2/3}$ and be thickened by surfactant as if wall slip were absent. However, when slip effects become strong by lowering $Ca$ to $Ca\ll {\it\Lambda}^{3/2}$, the film, especially when surface diffusion of surfactant is negligible, does not get thinner according to the strong-slip quadratic law reported previously (Liao et al., Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 111, 2013, 136001; Li et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 741, 2014, pp. 200–227). Instead, the film behaves as if both surfactant and wall slip were absent, precisely following the no-slip $2/3$ law without surfactant. Effects of surface diffusion are also examined, revealing three distinct regimes as $Ca$ is varied from small to large values: the strong-slip quadratic scaling without surfactant, the no-slip $2/3$ scaling without surfactant and the film thickening along the no-slip $2/3$ scaling with surfactant. An experiment is also suggested to test the above findings.

A hydrodynamic description of dilute binary gas mixtures comprising smooth inelastic spheres interacting by binary collisions with a random coefficient of restitution is presented. Constitutive relations are derived using the Chapman–Enskog perturbative method, associated with a computer-aided method to allow high-order Sonine polynomial expansions. The transport coefficients obtained are checked against DSMC simulations. The resulting equations are applied to the analysis of a vertically vibrated system. It is shown that differences in the shape of the distributions of the coefficient of restitution are sufficient to produce partial segregation.

The problem of active feedback control of fluid flows falls into a class of problems in the area of distributed parameter control. Distributed parameter systems are typically defined by partial differential equations that model the time and spatial evolution of the process. We consider the problem of locating sensors for effective feedback control of a fluid flow problem described by the Navier–Stokes equations. In this setting, the state of the system is the velocity field $\boldsymbol{v}(t,x)$, and hence all feedback laws are a function of this velocity field or, in most practical settings, a function of sensor outputs. In many designs, the feedback control law can be represented as a linear function of the state defined by an integral operator with a kernel function called the functional gain. In this paper we show that these functional gains can be used to determine effective sensor placement in complex flow control applications. The approach is to choose measurements of the state that would provide good quadrature points for the integral operator. We provide a computational validation of this approach by controlling the vortex shedding in a two-dimensional cylinder flow using a pair of fluid actuators on the cylinder surface. This model is linearized about the mean flow and a feedback control is designed by pole placement. Distributed parameter control theory yields the existence and form of the functional gains which are used to locate sensors. In particular, we use the location of the supports of the functional gains to determine two sets of four sensor locations in the wake. One of these measurement sets coincides with large magnitudes of the gain and the other set coincides with small magnitudes. Numerical experiments with a reduced-order model confirm superior performance of the closed-loop (CL) system using the former sensor set. We also show that choosing sensor locations associated with small magnitudes of the functional gains actually destabilizes the CL system.

We present a numerical study on the self-induced flapping dynamics of an inverted flexible foil in a uniform flow. A high-order coupled fluid–structure solver based on fully coupled Navier–Stokes and nonlinear structural dynamic equations has been employed. Unlike a conventional flexible foil flapping where the leading edge is clamped, the inverted elastic foil is fixed at the trailing edge and the leading edge is allowed to oscillate freely. We investigate the evolution of flapping instability of an inverted foil as a function of the non-dimensional bending rigidity, $K_{B}$, Reynolds number, $\mathit{Re}$, and structure-to-fluid mass ratio, $m^{\ast }$, and identify three distinct stability regimes, namely (i) fixed-point stable, (ii) deformed steady and (iii) unsteady flapping state. With the aid of a simplified analytical model, we show that the fixed-point stable regime loses its stability by static-divergence instability. The transition from the deformed steady state to the unsteady flapping regime is marked by a flow separation at the leading edge. We also show that an inverted foil is more vulnerable to static divergence than a conventional foil. Three distinct unsteady flapping modes have been observed as a function of decreasing $K_{B}$: (i) inverted limit-cycle oscillations, (ii) deformed flapping and (iii) flipped flapping. We characterize the transition to the deformed-flapping regime through a quasistatic equilibrium analysis between the structural restoring and the fluid forces. We further examine the effects of $m^{\ast }$ on the post-critical flapping dynamics at a fixed $\mathit{Re}=1000$. Finally, we present the net work done by the fluid and the bending strain energy developed in a flexible foil due to the flapping motion. For small $m^{\ast }$, we demonstrate that the flapping of an inverted flexible foil can generate $O(10^{3})$ times more strain energy in comparison to a conventional flexible foil flapping, which has a profound impact on energy harvesting devices.

We consider the wetting of water droplets on substrates with different chemical composition and molecular spacing, but with an identical equilibrium contact angle. A combined approach of large-scale molecular dynamics simulations and a continuum phase field model allows us to identify and quantify the influence of the microscopic physics at the contact line on the macroscopic droplet dynamics. We show that the substrate physico-chemistry, in particular hydrogen bonding, can significantly alter the flow. Since the material parameters are systematically derived from the atomistic simulations, our continuum model has only one adjustable parameter, which appears as a friction factor at the contact line. The continuum model approaches the atomistic wetting rate only when we adjust this contact line friction factor. However, the flow appears to be qualitatively different when comparing the atomistic and continuum models, highlighting that non-trivial continuum effects can come into play near the interface of the wetting front.

The emptying–filling box problem is examined theoretically in a general non-Boussinesq case. The steady solutions are first reviewed and expressed both as a function of a pure geometrical parameter and as a function of a dimensionless number ${\it\Theta}$ that characterizes the strength of the buoyant source relative to the box height. A linearization of the conservation equations is performed around the steady state and a second-order differential equation is derived that facilitates consideration of the existence of underdamped oscillations in the emptying–filling process. These oscillations are quantified in terms of frequency, damping ratio and phase shift, which constitutes the major outcome of this study. It is shown that oscillations can exist whatever the strength of the buoyancy source, even if their amplitude remains extremely weak for ‘small plumes’.

The variation of $S$, the velocity derivative skewness, with the Taylor microscale Reynolds number $\mathit{Re}_{{\it\lambda}}$ is examined for different turbulent flows by considering the locally isotropic form of the transport equation for the mean energy dissipation rate $\overline{{\it\epsilon}}_{iso}$. In each flow, the equation can be expressed in the form $S+2G/\mathit{Re}_{{\it\lambda}}=C/\mathit{Re}_{{\it\lambda}}$, where $G$ is a non-dimensional rate of destruction of $\overline{{\it\epsilon}}_{iso}$ and $C$ is a flow-dependent constant. Since $2G/\mathit{Re}_{{\it\lambda}}$ is found to be very nearly constant for $\mathit{Re}_{{\it\lambda}}\geqslant 70$, $S$ should approach a universal constant when $\mathit{Re}_{{\it\lambda}}$ is sufficiently large, but the way this constant is approached is flow dependent. For example, the approach is slow in grid turbulence and rapid along the axis of a round jet. For all the flows considered, the approach is reasonably well supported by experimental and numerical data. The constancy of $S$ at large $\mathit{Re}_{{\it\lambda}}$ has obvious ramifications for small-scale turbulence research since it violates the modified similarity hypothesis introduced by Kolmogorov (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 13, 1962, pp. 82–85) but is consistent with the original similarity hypothesis (Kolmogorov, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, vol. 30, 1941, pp. 299–303).

This study revisits the problem of a steadily propagating semi-infinite hydraulic fracture in which the processes of toughness-related energy release, viscous dissipation and leak-off compete on multiple length scales. This problem typically requires the solution of a system of integro-differential equations with a singular kernel, which is complicated by the need to capture extremely disparate length scales. In this study the governing equations are rewritten in the form of one non-singular integral equation. This reformulation enables the use of standard numerical techniques to capture the complete multiscale behaviour accurately and efficiently. This formulation also makes it possible to approximate the problem by a separable ordinary differential equation, whose closed-form solution captures the multiscale behaviour sufficiently accurately to be used in practical applications. We also consider a similar reformulation of the equations governing the propagation of a buoyancy-driven semi-infinite hydraulic fracture. The resulting numerical solution is able to capture the near-tip multiscale behaviour efficiently and agrees well with published solutions calculated in the large-toughness limit.

Evaporating suspensions of colloidal particles lead to the formation of a variety of patterns, ranging from a left-over ring of a dried coffee drop to uniformly distributed solid pigments left behind wet paint. To characterize the transition between rings and uniform deposits, we investigate the dynamics of a drying droplet via a multiphase model of colloidal particles in a solvent. Our theory couples the inhomogeneous evaporation at the evolving droplet interface to the dynamics inside the drop. This includes the liquid flow, local variations of the particle concentration leading to a cross-over between dilute and dense suspensions, and the resulting propagation of the deposition front. A dimensionless parameter combining the capillary number and the droplet aspect ratio captures the formation conditions of different pattern types while correctly accounting for the transition from Stokes flow to Darcy flow at high solute concentrations.

Two-dimensional free-surface flow over a spatially periodic channel bed topography is examined using a steady periodically forced Korteweg–de Vries equation. The existence of new forced solitary-type waves with periodic tails is demonstrated using recently developed non-autonomous dynamical-systems theory. Bound states with two or more co-existing solitary waves are also identified. The solution space for varying amplitude of forcing is explored using a numerical method. A rich bifurcation structure is uncovered and shown to be consistent with an asymptotic theory based on small forcing amplitude.

The spatial and orientational distribution in a dilute active suspension of non-Brownian run-and-tumble spherical swimmers confined between two planar hard walls is calculated theoretically. Using a kinetic model based on coupled bulk/surface probability density functions, we demonstrate the existence of a concentration wall boundary layer with thickness scaling with the run length, the absence of polarization throughout the bulk of the channel, and the presence of sharp discontinuities in the bulk orientation distribution in the neighbourhood of orientations parallel to the wall in the near-wall region. Our model is also applied to calculate the swim pressure in the system, which approaches the previously proposed ideal-gas behaviour in wide channels but is found to decrease in narrow channels as a result of confinement. Monte Carlo simulations are also performed for validation and show excellent quantitative agreement with our theoretical predictions.

We perform direct numerical simulations of an unstably stratified turbulent channel flow to address the effects of buoyancy on the boundary layer dynamics and mean field quantities. We systematically span a range of parameters in the space of friction Reynolds number ($\mathit{Re}_{{\it\tau}}$) and Rayleigh number ($\mathit{Ra}$). Our focus is on deviations from the logarithmic law of the wall due to buoyant motion. The effects of convection in the relevant ranges are discussed, providing measurements of mean profiles of velocity, temperature and Reynolds stresses as well as of the friction coefficient. A phenomenological model is proposed and shown to capture the observed deviations of the velocity profile in the log-law region from the non-convective case.

It is shown theoretically how the scaling of coherent structures in shear flows changes their asymptotic development at large Reynolds number. Based on the theory a family of nonlinear self-sustained states at Kolmogorov microscale is numerically identified on the laminar–turbulent boundary of shear flows. Theoretically and numerically the states connect to known asymptotic states existing at larger scale. The asymptotically very small amplitude of the new states may explain why strongly sheared, linearly stable laminar flows can cause a turbulent transition by small disturbances. The numerically obtained Kolmogorov-scale solutions can be used to describe the theoretically minimal self-sustained structures appearing in various shear flows.