The flow about a body placed inside a channel differs from its unbounded counterpart because of the effects of wall confinement, shear in the incoming velocity profile, and separation of vorticity from the channel walls. The case of a circular cylinder placed between two parallel walls is here studied numerically with a finite element method based on the vorticity–streamfunction formulation for values of the Reynolds number consistent with a two-dimensional assumption.

The transition from steady flow to a periodic vortex shedding regime has been analysed: transition is delayed as the body approaches one wall because the interaction between the cylinder wake and the wall boundary layer vorticity constrains the separating shear layer, reducing its oscillations. The results confirm previous observations of the inhibition of vortex shedding for a body placed near one wall. The unsteady vortex shedding regime changes, from a pattern similar to the von Kármán street (with some differences) when the body is in about the centre of the channel, to a single row of same-sign vortices as the body approaches one wall. The separated vortex dynamics leading to this topological modification is presented.

The mean drag coefficients, once they have been normalized properly, are comparable when the cylinder is placed at different distances from one wall, down to gaps less than one cylinder diameter. At smaller gaps the body behaves similarly to a surface-mounted obstacle. The lift force is given by a repulsive component plus an attractive one. The former, well known from literature, is given by the deviation of the wake behind the body. Evidence of the latter, which is a consequence of the shear in front of the body, is given.

We study the effect of proportional feedback control on the onset and development of finite-wavelength Rayleigh–Bénard–Marangoni (RBM) convection using weakly nonlinear theory as applied to Nield's model, which includes both thermocapillarity and buoyancy but ignores deformation of the free surface. A two-layer model configuration is used, which has a purely conducting gas layer on top of the liquid. In the feedback control analysis, a control action in the form of temperature or heat flux is considered. Both measurement and control action are assumed to be continuous in space and time. Besides demonstrating that stabilization of the basic state can be achieved on a linear basis, the results also indicate that a wide range of weakly nonlinear flow properties can also be altered by the linear and nonlinear control processes used here. These include changing the nature of hexagonal convection and the amount of subcritical hysteresis associated with subcritical bifurcation.

We investigate the basic mechanism whereby bars form in tidal channels or estuaries. The channel is assumed to be long enough to allow neglect of the effects of end conditions on the process of bar formation. In this respect, the object of the present analysis differs from that of Schuttelaars & de Swart (1999) who considered bars of length scaling with the finite length of the tidal channel. The channel bottom is assumed to be cohesionless and consisting of uniform sediments. Bars are shown to arise from a mechanism of instability of the erodible bed subject to the propagation of a tidal wave. Sediment is assumed to be transported both as bedload and as suspended load. A fully three-dimensional model is employed both for the hydrodynamics and for sediment transport. At the leading order of approximation considered, the effects of channel convergence, local inertia and Coriolis forces on bar instability are shown to be negligible. Unlike fluvial free bars, in the absence of mean currents tidal free bars are found to be non-migrating features (in the mean). Instability arises for large enough values of the mean width to depth ratio of the channel, for given mean values of the Shields parameter and of the relative channel roughness. The role of suspended load is such as to stabilize bars in the large-wavenumber range and destabilize them for small wavenumbers. Hence, for large values of the mean Shields stress, it turns out that the first critical mode (the alternate bar mode) is characterized by a very small value of the critical width to depth ratio. Furthermore, the order-m mode being characterized by a critical value of the width to depth ratio equal to m times the critical value for the first mode, it follows that for large values of the mean Shields stress several unstable modes are simultaneously excited for relatively low values of the aspect ratio. This suggests that the actual bar pattern observed in nature may arise from an interesting nonlinear competition among different unstable modes.

In this paper we investigate the large-eddy simulation (LES) of the interaction between a turbulent shear flow and a free surface at low Froude numbers. The benchmark flow field is first solved by using direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the Navier–Stokes equations at fine (1282 × 192 grid) resolution, while the LES is performed at coarse resolution. Analysis of the ensemble of 25 DNS datasets shows that the amount of energy transferred from the grid scales to the subgrid scales (SGS) reduces significantly as the free surface is approached. This is a result of energy backscatter associated with the fluid vertical motions. Conditional averaging reveals that the energy backscatter occurs at the splat regions of coherent hairpin vortex structures as they connect to the free surface. The free-surface region is highly anisotropic at all length scales while the energy backscatter is carried out by the horizontal components of the SGS stress only. The physical insights obtained here are essential to the efficacious SGS modelling of LES for free-surface turbulence. In the LES, the SGS contribution to the Dirichlet pressure free-surface boundary condition is modelled with a dynamic form of the Yoshizawa (1986) expression, while the SGS flux that appears in the kinematic boundary condition is modelled by a dynamic scale-similarity model. For the SGS stress, we first examine the existing dynamic Smagorinsky model (DSM), which is found to capture the free-surface turbulence structure only roughly. Based on the special physics of free-surface turbulence, we propose two new SGS models: a dynamic free-surface function model (DFFM) and a dynamic anisotropic selective model (DASM). The DFFM correctly represents the reduction of the Smagorinsky coefficient near the surface and is found to capture the surface layer more accurately. The DASM takes into account both the anisotropy nature of free-surface turbulence and the dependence of energy backscatter on specific coherent vorticity mechanisms, and is found to produce substantially better surface signature statistics. Finally, we show that the combination of the new DFFM and DASM with a dynamic scale-similarity model further improves the results.

The trajectories of small heavy particles in a gravitational field, having fall speed in still fluid V˜T and moving with velocity V˜ near fixed line vortices with radius R˜v and circulation Γ˜, are determined by a balance between the settling process and the centrifugal effects of the particles' inertia. We show that the main characteristics are determined by two parameters: the dimensionless ratio VT = V˜TR˜v/Γ˜ and a new parameter (Fp) given by the ratio between the relaxation time of the particle (t˜p) and the time (Γ˜/V˜2T) for the particle to move around a vortex when VT is of order unity or small.

The average time ΔT˜ for particles to settle between two levels a distance Y˜0 above and below the vortex (where Y˜0 [Gt ] Γ˜/VT) and the average vertical velocity of particles 〈Vy〉L along their trajectories depends on the dimensionless parameters VT and Fp. The bulk settling velocity 〈Vy〉B = 2Y˜0/〈ΔT˜〉, where the average value of 〈ΔT˜〉 is taken over all initial particle positions of the upper level, is only equal to 〈V˜y〉L for small values of the effective volume fraction within which the trajectories of the particles are distorted, α = (Γ˜/V˜T)2/ Y˜20. It is shown here how 〈Vy〉B is related to Δ&η;(X˜0), the difference between the vertical settling distances with and without the vortex for particles starting on (X˜0, Y˜0) and falling for a fixed period Δt˜T [Gt ] &Γtilde;/V˜2T; 〈V˜y〉B = V˜T[1 − αD], where D = ∫∞−∞(Δ&η;dX˜0/ (&Γtilde;/V˜T)2) is the drift integral. The maximum value of 〈V˜〉B for any constant value of VT occurs when Fp = FpM ∼ 1 and the minimum when Fp = Fpm > FpM, where typically 3 < Fpm < 5.

Individual trajectories and the bulk quantities D and 〈Vy〉B have been calculated analytically in two limits, first Fp → 0, finite VT, and secondly VT [Gt ] 1. They have also been computed for the range 0 < Fp < 102, 0 < VT < 5 in the case of a Rankine vortex. The results of this study are consistent with experimental observations of the pattern of particle motion and on how the fall speed of inertial particles in turbulent flows (where the vorticity is concentrated in small regions) is typically up to 80% greater than in still fluid for inertial particles (Fp ∼ 1) whose terminal velocity is less than the root mean square of the fluid velocity, ũ′, and typically up to 20% less for particles with a terminal velocity larger than ũ′. If V˜T/ũ′ > 4 the differences are negligible.

The late-stage demixing following spinodal decomposition of a three-dimensional symmetric binary fluid mixture is studied numerically, using a thermodynamically consistent lattice Boltzmann method. We combine results from simulations with different numerical parameters to obtain an unprecedented range of length and time scales when expressed in reduced physical units. (These are the length and time units derived from fluid density, viscosity, and interfacial tension.) Using eight large (2563) runs, the resulting composite graph of reduced domain size l against reduced time t covers 1 [lsim ] l [lsim ] 105, 10 [lsim ] t [lsim ] 108. Our data are consistent with the dynamical scaling hypothesis that l(t) is a universal scaling curve. We give the first detailed statistical analysis of fluid motion, rather than just domain evolution, in simulations of this kind, and introduce scaling plots for several quantities derived from the fluid velocity and velocity gradient fields. Using the conventional definition of Reynolds number for this problem, Reϕ = ldl/dt, we attain values approaching 350. At Reϕ [gsim ] 100 (which requires t [gsim ] 106) we find clear evidence of Furukawa's inertial scaling (l ∼ t2/3), although the crossover from the viscous regime (l ∼ t) is both broad and late (102 [lsim ] t [lsim ] 106). Though it cannot be ruled out, we find no indication that Reϕ is self-limiting (l ∼ t1/2) at late times, as recently proposed by Grant & Elder. Detailed study of the velocity fields confirms that, for our most inertial runs, the RMS ratio of nonlinear to viscous terms in the Navier–Stokes equation, R2, is of order 10, with the fluid mixture showing incipient turbulent characteristics. However, we cannot go far enough into the inertial regime to obtain a clear length separation of domain size, Taylor microscale, and Kolmogorov scale, as would be needed to test a recent ‘extended’ scaling theory of Kendon (in which R2 is self-limiting but Reϕ not). Obtaining our results has required careful steering of several numerical control parameters so as to maintain adequate algorithmic stability, efficiency and isotropy, while eliminating unwanted residual diffusion. (We argue that the latter affects some studies in the literature which report l ∼ t2/3 for t [lsim ] 104.) We analyse the various sources of error and find them just within acceptable levels (a few percent each) in most of our datasets. To bring these under significantly better control, or to go much further into the inertial regime, would require much larger computational resources and/or a breakthrough in algorithm design.

We examine the spreading of a liquid on a solid surface when the liquid surface has a spread monolayer of insoluble surfactant, and the surfactant transfers through the contact line between the liquid surface and the solid. We show that, as in surfactant-free systems, a singularity appears at the moving contact line. However, unlike surfactant-free systems, the singularity cannot be removed by the same assumptions as long as surfactant transfer takes place. In an attempt to avoid modelling difficulties posed by the question of how the singularity might be removed, we identify parameters which describe the dynamics of the macroscopic spreading process. These parameters, which depend on the details of the fluid motion next to the contact line as in the pure-fluid case, also depend on the state of the spread surfactant in the macroscopic region, in sharp contrast to the pure-fluid case where actions at the macroscopic scale did not affect material spreading parameters. A model of the viscous-controlled region near the contact line which accounts for surfactant transfer shows that, at steady state, some ranges of dynamic contact angles and of capillary number are forbidden. For a given surfactant–liquid pair, these disallowed ranges depend upon the actual contact angle and on the transfer flux of surfactant.

We also examine a possible inner model which accounts for the transfer via surface diffusivity and regularizes the stress via a slip model. We show that the asymptotic behaviour of this model at distances from the contact line large compared to the inner length scale matches to the viscous-controlled region. An example of how the information propagates is given.

This work is an experimental study of the rise of an air bubble in still water. For the bubble diameter considered, path oscillations develop in the absence of shape oscillations and the effect of surfactants is shown to be negligible. Both the three-dimensional motion of the bubble and the velocity induced in the liquid are investigated. After the initial acceleration stage, the bubble shape remains constant and similar to an oblate ellipsoid with its symmetry axis parallel to the bubble-centre velocity, and with constant velocity magnitude. The bubble motion combines path oscillations with slow trajectory displacements. (These displacements, which consist of horizontal drift and rotation about a vertical axis, are shown to have no influence on the oscillations). The bubble dynamics involve two unstable modes which have the same frequency and are π/2 out of phase. The primary mode develops first, leading to a plane zigzag trajectory. The secondary mode then grows, causing the trajectory to progressively change into a circular helix. Liquid-velocity measurements are taken up to 150 radii behind the bubble. The nature of the liquid flow field is analysed from systematic comparisons with potential theory and direct numerical simulations. The flow is potential in front of the bubble and a long wake develops behind. The wake structure is controlled by two mechanisms: the development of a quasi-steady wake that spreads around the non-rectilinear bubble trajectory; and the wake instability that generates unsteady vortices at the bubble rear. The velocities induced by the wake vortices are small compared to the bubble velocity and, except in the near wake, the flow is controlled by the quasi-steady wake.

The effect of interfacial bending stiffness on the deformation of liquid capsules enclosed by elastic membranes is discussed and investigated by numerical simulation. Flow-induced deformation causes the development of in-plane elastic tensions and bending moments accompanied by transverse shear tensions due to the non-infinitesimal membrane thickness or to a preferred configuration of an interfacial molecular network. To facilitate the implementation of the interfacial force and torque balance equations involving the hydrodynamic traction exerted on either side of the interface and the interfacial tensions and bending moments developing in the plane of the interface, a formulation in global Cartesian coordinates is developed. The balance equations involve the Cartesian curvature tensor defined in terms of the gradient of the normal vector extended off the plane of the interface in an appropriate fashion. The elastic tensions are related to the surface deformation gradient by constitutive equations derived by previous authors, and the bending moments for membranes whose unstressed shape has uniform curvature, including the sphere and a planar sheet, arise from a constitutive equation that involves the instantaneous Cartesian curvature tensor and the curvature of the resting configuration. A numerical procedure is developed for computing the capsule deformation in Stokes flow based on standard boundary-element methods. Results for spherical and biconcave resting shapes resembling red blood cells illustrate the effect of the bending modulus on the transient and asymptotic capsule deformation and on the membrane tank-treading motion.

The three-dimensional problem of blunt-body impact onto the free surface of an ideal incompressible liquid is considered within the Wagner theory. The theory is formally valid during an initial stage of the impact. The problem has been extensively studied in both two-dimensional and axisymmetric cases. However, there are no exact truly three-dimensional solutions of the problem even within the Wagner theory. At present, three-dimensional effects in impact problems are mainly handled approximately by using a sequence of two-dimensional solutions and/or aspect-ratio correction factor. In this paper we present exact analytical rather than approximate solutions to the three-dimensional Wagner problem. The solutions are obtained by the inverse method. In this method the body velocity and the projection on the horizontal plane of the contact line between the liquid free surface and the surface of the entering body are assumed to be given at any time instant. The shape of the impacting body is determined from the Wagner condition. It is proved that an elliptic paraboloid entering calm water at a constant velocity has an elliptic contact line with the free surface. Most of the results are presented for elliptic contact lines, for which analytical solutions of the inverse Wagner problem are available. The results obtained can be helpful in testing other numerical approaches and studying the influence of three-dimensional effects on the liquid flow and the hydrodynamic loads.

Some h-p finite element computations have been carried out to obtain solutions for fully developed laminar flows in curved pipes with curvature ratios from 0.001 to 0.5. An Oldroyd-3-constant model is used to represent the viscoelastic fluid, which includes the upper-convected Maxwell (UCM) model and the Oldroyd-B model as special cases. With this model we can examine separately the effects of the fluid inertia, and the first and second normal-stress differences. From analysis of the global torque and force balances, three criteria are proposed for this problem to estimate the errors in the computations. Moreover, the finite element solutions are accurately confirmed by the perturbation solutions of Robertson & Muller (1996) in the cases of small Reynolds/Deborah numbers.

Our numerical solutions and an order-of-magnitude analysis of the governing equations elucidate the mechanism of the secondary flow in the absence of second normal-stress difference. For Newtonian flow, the pressure gradient near the wall region is the driving force for the secondary flow; for creeping viscoelastic flow, the combination of large axial normal stress with streamline curvature, the so-called hoop stress near the wall, promotes a secondary flow in the same direction as the inertial secondary flow, despite the adverse pressure gradient there; in the case of inertial viscoelastic flow, both the larger axial normal stress and the smaller inertia near the wall promote the secondary flow.

For both Newtonian and viscoelastic fluids the secondary volumetric fluxes per unit of work consumption and per unit of axial volumetric flux first increase then decrease as the Reynolds/Deborah number increases; this behaviour should be of interest in engineering applications.

Typical negative values of second normal-stress difference can drastically suppress the secondary flow and in the case of small curvature ratios, make the flow approximate the corresponding Poiseuille flow in a straight pipe. The viscoelasticity of Oldroyd-B fluid causes drag enhancement compared to Newtonian flow. Adding a typical negative second normal-stress difference produces large drag reductions for a small curvature ratio δ = 0.01; however, for a large curvature ratio δ = 0.2, although the secondary flows are also drastically attenuated by the second normal-stress difference, the flow resistance remains considerably higher than in Newtonian flow.

It was observed that for the UCM and Oldroyd-B models, the limiting Deborah numbers met in our steady solution calculations obey the same scaling criterion as proposed by McKinley et al. (1996) for elastic instabilities; we present an intriguing problem on the relation between the Newton iteration for steady solutions and the linear stability analyses.

The spreading of a two-dimensional, viscous gravity current propagating over and draining into a deep porous substrate is considered both theoretically and experimentally. We first determine analytically the rate of drainage of a one-dimensional layer of fluid into a porous bed and find that the theoretical predictions for the downward rate of migration of the fluid front are in excellent agreement with our laboratory experiments. The experiments suggest a rapid and simple technique for the determination of the permeability of a porous medium. We then combine the relationships for the drainage of liquid from the current through the underlying medium with a formalism for its forward motion driven by the pressure gradient arising from the slope of its free surface. For the situation in which the volume of fluid V fed to the current increases at a rate proportional to t3, where t is the time since its initiation, the shape of the current takes a self-similar form for all time and its length is proportional to t2. When the volume increases less rapidly, in particular for a constant volume, the front of the gravity current comes to rest in finite time as the effects of fluid drainage into the underlying porous medium become dominant. In this case, the runout length is independent of the coefficient of viscosity of the current, which sets the time scale of the motion. We present numerical solutions of the governing partial differential equations for the constant-volume case and find good agreement with our experimental data obtained from the flow of glycerine over a deep layer of spherical beads in air.

The second-order velocity structure tensor of weakly anisotropic strong turbulence is decomposed into its SO(3) invariant amplitudes dj(r). Their scaling is derived within a scaling approximation of a variable-scale mean-field theory of the Navier–Stokes equation. In the isotropic sector j = 0 Kolmogorov scaling d0(r) ∝ r2/3 is recovered. The scaling of the higher j amplitudes (j even) depends on the type of the external forcing that maintains the turbulent flow. We consider two options: (i) for an analytic forcing and for decreasing energy input into the sectors with increasing j, the scaling of the higher sectors j > 0 can become as steep as dj(r) ∝ rj+2/3; (ii) for a non-analytic forcing we obtain dj(r) ∝ r4/3 for all non-zero and even j.

Swash on a plane beach is modelled by using a solution of the shallow-water equations due to Shen & Meyer (1963). The equations are used in a form appropriate for a plane at a finite angle to the horizontal. The beach is cut-off at a level below that of the maximum run-up, and the water is taken to fall freely over the end of the beach. An explicit solution is found which permits evaluation of the overtopping flow and total volume for one swash event.

Observations of the downstream evolution of an oceanic zonal horizontal shear flow at a Reynolds number of about 1011, formed as the westward North Equatorial Current passes the island of Hawai‘i, reveal finite-amplitude anticyclonic vortices resulting from instability of the shear. The initial orbital period of the vortices is exactly one pendulum day (3.1 days at this latitude), centrifugal instability presumably inhibiting stronger vortices from forming. As they move downstream, they appear to pair and merge into successively larger vortices, in a geometric sequence of longer orbital periods; three subharmonic transitions are suggested with final orbital periods near 6, 12 and 24 days.