A global stability analysis of the boundary layer in the leading edge of a swept wing is performed in the incompressible flow regime. It is demonstrated that the global eigenfunctions display the features characterizing the local instability of the attachment line, as in swept Hiemenz flow, and those of local cross-flow instabilities further downstream along the wing. A continuous connection along the chordwise direction is established between the two local eigenfunctions. An adjoint-based receptivity analysis reveals that the global eigenfunction is most responsive to forcing applied in the immediate vicinity of the attachment line. Furthermore, a sensitivity analysis identifies the wavemaker at a location that is also very close to the attachment line where the corresponding local instability analysis holds: the local cross-flow instability further along the wing is merely fed by its attachment-line counterpart. As a consequence, global mode calculations for the entire leading-edge region only need to include attachment-line structures. The result additionally implies that effective open-loop control strategies should focus on base-flow modifications in the region where the local attachment-line instability prevails.

I consider the hydrodynamic stability of imploding ideal gases as an idealized model for inertial confinement fusion capsules, sonoluminescent bubbles and the gravitational collapse of astrophysical gases. For oblate modes (short-wavelength incompressive modes elongated in the direction of the mean flow), a second-order ordinary differential equation is derived that can be used to assess the stability of any time-dependent flow with planar, cylindrical or spherical symmetry. Upon further restricting the analysis to homologous flows, it is shown that a monatomic gas is governed by the Schwarzschild criterion for buoyant stability. Under buoyantly unstable conditions, both entropy and vorticity fluctuations experience power-law growth in time, with a growth rate that depends upon mean flow gradients and, in the absence of dissipative effects, is independent of mode number. If the flow accelerates throughout the implosion, oblate modes amplify by a factor $(2C)^{|N_{0}|t_{i}}$, where $C$ is the convergence ratio of the implosion, $N_{0}$ is the initial buoyancy frequency and $t_{i}$ is the implosion time scale. If, instead, the implosion consists of a coasting phase followed by stagnation, oblate modes amplify by a factor $\exp ({\rm\pi}|N_{0}|t_{s})$, where $N_{0}$ is the buoyancy frequency at stagnation and $t_{s}$ is the stagnation time scale. Even under stable conditions, vorticity fluctuations grow due to the conservation of angular momentum as the gas is compressed. For non-monatomic gases, this additional growth due to compression results in weak oscillatory growth under conditions that would otherwise be buoyantly stable; this over-stability is consistent with the conservation of wave action in the fluid frame. The above analytical results are verified by evolving the complete set of linear equations as an initial value problem, and it is demonstrated that oblate modes are the fastest-growing modes and that high mode numbers are required to reach this limit (Legendre mode $\ell \gtrsim 100$ for spherical flows). Finally, comparisons are made with a Lagrangian hydrodynamics code, and it is found that a numerical resolution of ${\sim}30$ zones per wavelength is required to capture these solutions accurately. This translates to an angular resolution of ${\sim}(12/\ell )^{\circ }$, or ${\lesssim}0.1^{\circ }$ to resolve the fastest-growing modes.

The classical problem of foam film rupture dynamics has been investigated when the film interfaces exhibit very high rigidity due to the presence of specific surfactants. Two new features are reported. First, a strong deviation from the well-known Taylor–Culick law is observed. Second, crack-like patterns can be visualized in the film; these patterns are shown to appear at a well-defined film shrinkage. The key role of surface-active material on these features is quantitatively investigated, pointing to the importance of surface elasticity to describe these fast dynamical processes and thus providing an alternative tool to characterize surface elasticity in conditions extremely far from equilibrium. The origin of the cracks and their consequences on film rupturing dynamics are also discussed.

Large-scale secondary flows can sometimes appear in turbulent boundary layers formed over rough surfaces, creating low- and high-momentum pathways along the surface (Barros & Christensen, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 748, 2014, R1). We investigate experimentally the dependence of these secondary flows on surface/flow conditions by measuring the flows over streamwise strips of roughness with systematically varied spanwise spacing. We find that the large-scale secondary flows are accentuated when the spacing of the roughness elements is roughly proportional to the boundary layer thickness ${\it\delta}$, and do not appear for cases with finer spacing. Cases with coarser spacing also generate ${\it\delta}$-scale secondary flows with tertiary flows in the spaces in between. These results show that the ratio of the spanwise length scale of roughness heterogeneity to the boundary layer thickness is a critical parameter for the occurrence of these secondary motions in turbulent boundary layers over rough walls.

Using high-resolution imaging and dye studies, we investigate experimentally the mixing of a tracer by the eddies within a two-dimensional turbulent buoyant plume. Instantaneously, the plume consists of a series of eddies, and at each point along the centreline of the plume, the along-plume speed of the leading edge of the eddies $w_{e}\approx 1.3f^{1/3}$, where $f$ is the buoyancy flux, while the product of the length scale, $A$, and frequency, ${\it\omega}$, of the eddies ${\it\omega}A\approx 0.15f^{1/3}$. The circulation and flow associated with the eddies lead to longitudinal mixing relative to the mean flow. To illustrate this mixing, we analyse the evolution of the horizontally averaged dye front produced by adding a constant flux of dye to a steady plume for times $t>0$. We show that the centre of mass of the horizontally averaged dye front has an along-plume speed ${\approx}1.04f^{1/3}$. This is consistent with the predictions of a time-averaged model for the evolution of the horizontally averaged mass, momentum and buoyancy flux in the plume. The new data also show that the longitudinal spreading of the horizontally averaged dye front can be described in terms of a dispersivity ${\approx}\,0.02f^{1/3}z$, where $z$ is the vertical distance below the source. This model of longitudinal mixing enables calculation of the residence time distribution of material in the plume, which may be key to modelling the products of a reaction in which the reaction time is comparable to the travel time in the plume.

The mechanism of turbulent drag reduction (DR) with super-hydrophobic (SH) surfaces is investigated by direct numerical simulation (DNS) and analysis of the governing equations in channel flow. The DNS studies were performed using lattice Boltzmann methods in channels with ‘idealized’ SH surfaces on both walls, comprised of longitudinal micro-grooves (MG), transverse MG, or micro-posts. DRs of $5\,\%$ to $83\,\%$, $-4\,\%$ to $20\,\%$, and $14\,\%$ to $81\,\%$ were realized in DNS with longitudinal MG, transverse MG, and micro-posts, respectively. By mathematical analysis of the governing equations, it is shown that, in SH channel flows with any periodic SH micro-pattern on the walls, the magnitude of DR can be expressed as $DR=U_{slip}/U_{bulk}+O({\it\varepsilon})$, where the first term represents the DR resulting from the effective slip on the walls, and the second term represents the DR or drag increase (DI) resulting from modifications to the turbulence dynamics and any secondary mean flows established in the SH channel compared to a channel flow with no-slip walls at the same bulk Reynolds number as the SH channel. Comparison of this expression to DNS results shows that, with all SH surface micro-patterns studied, between 80 % and 100 % of the DR in turbulent flow arises from the effective slip on the walls. Modifications to the turbulence dynamics contribute no more than 20 % of the total DR with longitudinal MG or micro-posts of high shear-free fraction (SFF), and a DI with transverse MG or micro-posts of moderate SFF. The effect of the SH surface on the normalized dynamics of turbulence is found to be small in all cases, and confined to additional production of turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) within a thin ‘surface layer’ of thickness of the order of the width of surface micro-indentations. Outside of this ‘surface layer’, the normalized dynamics of turbulence proceeds as in a turbulent channel flow with no-slip walls at the friction Reynolds number of the SH channel flow.

When two spherical bubbles touch, a hole is formed in the fluid sheet between them, and capillary pressure acting on its tightly curved edge drives an outward radial flow which widens the hole joining the bubbles. Recent images of the early stages of this process (Paulsen et al., Nat. Commun., vol. 5, 2014) show that the radius of the hole $r_{\!E}$ at time $t$ grows proportional to $t^{1/2}$, and that the rate is dependent on the fluid viscosity. Here, we explain this behaviour in terms of similarity solutions to a third-order system of radial extensional-flow equations for the thickness and velocity of the sheet of fluid between the bubbles, and determine the growth rate as a function of the Ohnesorge number $\mathit{Oh}$. The initially quadratic sheet profile allows the ratio of viscous and inertial effects to be independent of time. We show that the sheet is slender for $r_{\!E}\ll a$ if $\mathit{Oh}\gg 1$, where $a$ is the bubble radius, but only slender for $r_{\!E}\ll \mathit{Oh}^{2}a$ if $\mathit{Oh}\ll 1$ due to a compressional boundary layer of length $L\propto \mathit{Oh}\,r_{\!E}$, after which there is a change in the structure but not the speed of the retracting sheet. For $\mathit{Oh}\ll 1$, the detailed analysis justifies a simple momentum-balance argument, which gives the analytic prediction $r_{\!E}\sim (32a{\it\gamma}/3{\it\rho})^{1/4}t^{1/2}$, where ${\it\gamma}$ is the surface tension and ${\it\rho}$ is the density.

We report experimental, theoretical and numerical results on the shapes of liquid menisci connecting a planar boundary and the surface of a horizontal cylinder placed above. The gradient of confinement traps the wetting drops in the most confined regions, which promotes their elongation along the line of smallest gap between the walls. The experimental shapes of these stretched capillary bridges are shown to be in good quantitative agreement with the numerical solution of the equation describing their contour. In particular, we show that the measured shapes are better described when taking into account the correction resulting from the coupling of in-plane and transverse interfacial curvatures calculated by Park & Homsy (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 139, 1984, pp. 291–308) over thirty years ago.

An overlooked conservation law for near-inertial waves (NIWs) propagating in a steady background flow provides a new perspective on the concentration of these waves in regions of anticyclonic vorticity. The conservation law implies that this concentration is a direct consequence of the decrease in spatial scales experienced by an initially homogeneous wave field. Scaling arguments and numerical simulations of a reduced-gravity model of mixed-layer NIWs confirm this interpretation and elucidate the influence of the strength of the background flow relative to the dispersion.

We report the first simulations of the Faraday instability using the full three-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations in domains much larger than the characteristic wavelength of the pattern. We use a massively parallel code based on a hybrid front-tracking/level-set algorithm for Lagrangian tracking of arbitrarily deformable phase interfaces. Simulations performed in square and cylindrical domains yield complex patterns. In particular, a superlattice-like pattern similar to those of Douady & Fauve (Europhys. Lett., vol. 6, 1988, pp. 221–226) and Douady (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 221, 1990, pp. 383–409) is observed. The pattern consists of the superposition of two square superlattices. We conjecture that such patterns are widespread if the square container is large compared with the critical wavelength. In the cylinder, pentagonal cells near the outer wall allow a square-wave pattern to be accommodated in the centre.

Based on a similarity between piston-mode sloshing in a two-dimensional rectangular moonpool and a small-amplitude oscillatory flow through a slot in a slatted screen, a pressure discharge in the moonpool opening is theoretically quantified. This makes it possible, by changing the dynamic free-surface condition inside the moonpool, to account for the vortex-induced damping and thereby to modify the inviscid potential flow statement. The present paper is an important addition to Faltinsen et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 575, 2007, pp. 359–397), where a discrepancy between the potential flow theory and model tests was reported. New calculations are supported by the earlier model tests of the authors as well as numerical data obtained by means of viscous solvers.

Recently published experimental observations of slender bacteria swimming in channel flow demonstrate that the bacteria become trapped in regions of high shear, leading to reduced concentrations near the channel’s centreline. However, the commonly used advection–diffusion equation, formulated in macroscopic space variables and originally derived for unbounded homogeneous shear flow, predicts that the concentration of bacteria is uniform across the channel in the absence of chemotactic bias. In this paper, we instead use a Smoluchowski equation to describe the probability distribution of the bacteria, in macroscopic (physical) and microscopic (orientation) space variables. We demonstrate that the Smoluchowski equation is able to predict the trapping phenomena and compare the full numerical solution of the Smoluchowski equation with experimental results when there is no chemotactic bias and also in the presence of a uniform cross-channel chemotactic gradient. Moreover, a simple analytic approximation for the equilibrium distribution provides an excellent approximate solution for slender bacteria, suggesting that the dominant effect on equilibrium behaviour is flow-induced modification of the bacteria’s swimming direction. A continuum framework is thus provided to explain how the equilibrium distribution of slender chemotactic bacteria is altered in the presence of spatially varying shear flow. In particular, we demonstrate that while advection is an appropriate description of transport due to the mean swimming velocity, the random reorientation mechanism of the bacteria cannot be simply modelled as diffusion in physical space.

We report the results of three-dimensional direct numerical simulations for incompressible viscous fluid in a circular pipe flow with a gradual expansion. At the inlet, a parabolic velocity profile is applied together with a constant finite-amplitude perturbation to represent experimental imperfections. Initially, at low Reynolds number, the solution is steady. As the Reynolds number is increased, the length of the recirculation region near the wall grows linearly. Then, at a critical Reynolds number, a symmetry-breaking bifurcation occurs, where linear growth of asymmetry is observed. Near the point of transition to turbulence, the flow experiences oscillations due to a shear layer instability for a narrow range of Reynolds numbers. At higher Reynolds numbers, the recirculation region breaks into a turbulent state which remains spatially localised and unchanged when the perturbation is removed from the flow. Spatial correlation analysis suggests that the localised turbulence in the gradual expansion possesses a different flow structure from the turbulent puff of uniform pipe flow.

The physical interpretation of velocity potential is used to propose a model of the mean flow boundary of a row of plumes or jets. Generalised plume equations incorporating the plume area and net entrainment are closed with an entrainment assumption. The resulting model is shown to approach the appropriate limiting similarity solutions above and below the merging height in an unstratified environment. The virtual origin of the far-field flow is hence predicted. An application to plume rise in channels of varying aspect ratio shows that the model may be used to predict the depth of the outflow along the channel.

Transition to turbulence in straight pipes occurs in spite of the linear stability of the laminar Hagen–Poiseuille flow if both the amplitude of flow perturbations and the Reynolds number $\mathit{Re}$ exceed a minimum threshold (subcritical transition). As the pipe curvature increases, centrifugal effects become important, modifying the basic flow as well as the most unstable linear modes. If the curvature (tube-to-coiling diameter $d/D$) is sufficiently large, a Hopf bifurcation (supercritical instability) is encountered before turbulence can be excited (subcritical instability). We trace the instability thresholds in the $\mathit{Re}-d/D$ parameter space in the range $0.01\leqslant d/D\leqslant 0.1$ by means of laser-Doppler velocimetry and determine the point where the subcritical and supercritical instabilities meet. Two different experimental set-ups are used: a closed system where the pipe forms an axisymmetric torus and an open system employing a helical pipe. Implications for the measurement of friction factors in curved pipes are discussed.

The force and couple that result from the shearing motion of a viscous, unbounded fluid on a Janus drop are the subjects of this investigation. A pair of immiscible, viscous fluids comprise the Janus drop and render it with a ‘perfect’ shape: spherical with a flat, internal interface, in which each constituent fluid is bounded by a hemispherical domain of equal radius. The effect of the arrangement of the internal interface (drop orientation) relative to the unidirectional shear flow is explored within the Stokes regime. Projection of the external flow into a reference frame centred on the drop simplifies the analysis to three cases: (i) a shear flow with a velocity gradient parallel to the internal interface, (ii) a hyperbolic flow, and (iii) two shear flows with a velocity gradient normal to the internal interface. Depending on the viscosity of the internal fluids, the Janus drop behaves as a simple fluid drop or as a solid body with broken fore and aft symmetry. The resultant couple arises from both the straining and swirling motions of the external flow in analogy with bodies of revolution. Owing to the anisotropic resistance of the Janus drop, it is inferred that the drop can migrate lateral to the streamlines of the undisturbed shear flow. The grand resistance matrix and Bretherton constant are reported for a Janus drop with similar internal viscosities.

Three-dimensional numerical simulation is used to investigate intermittency in incompressible weak magnetohydrodynamic turbulence with a strong uniform magnetic field $\boldsymbol{b}_{\mathbf{0}}$ and zero cross-helicity. At leading order, this asymptotic regime is achieved via three-wave resonant interactions with the scattering of a wave on a 2D mode for which $k_{\Vert }=0$. When the interactions with the 2D modes are artificially reduced, we show numerically that the system exhibits an energy spectrum with $k_{\bot }^{-3/2}$, whereas the expected exact solution with $k_{\bot }^{-2}$ is recovered with the full nonlinear system. In the latter case, strong intermittency is found when the vector separation of structure functions is taken transverse to $\boldsymbol{b}_{\mathbf{0}}$. This result may be explained by the influence of the 2D modes whose regime belongs to strong turbulence. In addition to shedding light on the origin of this intermittency, we derive a log-Poisson law, ${\it\zeta}_{p}=p/8+1-(1/4)^{p/2}$, which fits the data perfectly and highlights the important role of parallel current sheets.

Recent experimental research on rotating cylinder wakes has found that a previously numerically predicted subharmonic instability mode, mode C, occurs for considerably lower rotation rates than predicted through stability analysis, yet other mode transitions occur closer to the predicted onset. One difference between the theoretical and experimental set-ups is the use of a small-diameter hydrogen bubble visualisation wire placed upstream of the rotating cylinder. The current paper tests the hypothesis that a wire, of only $1/100$th of the cylinder diameter, placed five diameters upstream of the cylinder, sufficiently perturbs the flow to substantially affect certain wake transitions, including the onset of mode C. This is achieved using stability analysis of a flow that includes the upstream wire. The results indeed show that the wire of a tiny diameter induces a non-negligible asymmetry in the flow, triggering the subharmonic mode at substantially lower rotation rates. Furthermore, at higher rotation rates, the onset of two other three-dimensional modes are delayed to higher Reynolds numbers. These results make the point that even seemingly minute perturbations caused by minimally intrusive methods may result in substantially altered experimental flow behaviour.

Motivated by the need to characterize the spatio-temporal structure of turbulence in wall-bounded flows, we study wavenumber–frequency spectra of the streamwise velocity component based on large-eddy simulation (LES) data. The LES data are used to measure spectra as a function of the two wall-parallel wavenumbers and the frequency in the equilibrium (logarithmic) layer. We then reformulate one of the simplest models that is able to reproduce the observations: the random sweeping model with a Gaussian large-scale fluctuating velocity and with additional mean flow. Comparison with LES data shows that the model captures the observed temporal decorrelation, which is related to the Doppler broadening of frequencies. We furthermore introduce a parameterization for the entire wavenumber–frequency spectrum $E_{11}(k_{1},k_{2},{\it\omega};z)$, where $k_{1}$, $k_{2}$ are the streamwise and spanwise wavenumbers, ${\it\omega}$ is the frequency and $z$ is the distance to the wall. The results are found to be in good agreement with LES data.

We consider steady advection–diffusion about a slender body of revolution at arbitrary $O(1)$ Péclet numbers ($\mathit{Pe}$). The transported scalar attenuates at large distances and is governed by axisymmetric (either Dirichlet or Neumann) data prescribed at the body boundary. The advecting field is assumed to be an axisymmetric Stokes flow approaching a uniform stream at large distances and satisfying impermeability at the boundary; otherwise, the interfacial distribution of tangential velocity is assumed to be arbitrary, irrotational and no-slip Stokes flows being particular cases. Employing the method of matched asymptotic expansions, we develop a systematic scheme for the calculation of the scalar concentration in increasing powers of $\ln ^{-1}(1/{\it\epsilon})$, ${\it\epsilon}\ll 1$ being the body’s characteristic thickness to length ratio. The leading term in the inner expansion coincides with the pure diffusion case, the second term depends nonlinearly on the magnitude of the far-field stream and higher-order terms depend on the boundary distribution of tangential velocity. In the special case of irrotational flow and Neumann boundary conditions the logarithmic expansion terminates, leaving an algebraic error in ${\it\epsilon}$. The general formulae developed can be directly applied to numerous physical scenarios. We here consider the classical problem of forced heat convection from an isothermal body, finding a two-term expansion for $\mathit{Nu}({\it\epsilon},\mathit{Pe})/\mathit{Nu}({\it\epsilon},0)$, the ratio of the Nusselt number to its value at $\mathit{Pe}=0$. This ratio is insensitive to the particle shape at the asymptotic orders considered; at moderately large $\mathit{Pe}$ ($\ll {\it\epsilon}^{-1}$) its deviation from unity is $O[\ln (\mathit{Pe})/\text{ln}\,(1/{\it\epsilon})]$, marking the poor effectiveness of advection about slender bodies. The expansion is compared with a numerical computation in the case of a prolate spheroid in both irrotational and no-slip Stokes flows.