Considerable confusion surrounds the longstanding question of what constitutes a vortex, especially in a turbulent flow. This question, frequently misunderstood as academic, has recently acquired particular significance since coherent structures (CS) in turbulent flows are now commonly regarded as vortices. An objective definition of a vortex should permit the use of vortex dynamics concepts to educe CS, to explain formation and evolutionary dynamics of CS, to explore the role of CS in turbulence phenomena, and to develop viable turbulence models and control strategies for turbulence phenomena. We propose a definition of a vortex in an incompressible flow in terms of the eigenvalues of the symmetric tensor ${\bm {\cal S}}^2 + {\bm \Omega}^2$; here ${\bm {\cal S}}$ and ${\bm \Omega}$ are respectively the symmetric and antisymmetric parts of the velocity gradient tensor ${\bm \Delta}{\bm u}$. This definition captures the pressure minimum in a plane perpendicular to the vortex axis at high Reynolds numbers, and also accurately defines vortex cores at low Reynolds numbers, unlike a pressure-minimum criterion. We compare our definition with prior schemes/definitions using exact and numerical solutions of the Euler and Navier–Stokes equations for a variety of laminar and turbulent flows. In contrast to definitions based on the positive second invariant of ${\bm \Delta}{\bm u}$ or the complex eigenvalues of ${\bm \Delta}{\bm u}$, our definition accurately identifies the vortex core in flows where the vortex geometry is intuitively clear.

The description of coherent features of fluid flow is essential to our understanding of fluid-dynamical and transport processes. A method is introduced that is able to extract dynamic information from flow fields that are either generated by a (direct) numerical simulation or visualized/measured in a physical experiment. The extracted dynamic modes, which can be interpreted as a generalization of global stability modes, can be used to describe the underlying physical mechanisms captured in the data sequence or to project large-scale problems onto a dynamical system of significantly fewer degrees of freedom. The concentration on subdomains of the flow field where relevant dynamics is expected allows the dissection of a complex flow into regions of localized instability phenomena and further illustrates the flexibility of the method, as does the description of the dynamics within a spatial framework. Demonstrations of the method are presented consisting of a plane channel flow, flow over a two-dimensional cavity, wake flow behind a flexible membrane and a jet passing between two cylinders.

A direct numerical simulation of a turbulent channel flow is performed. The unsteady Navier-Stokes equations are solved numerically at a Reynolds number of 3300, based on the mean centreline velocity and channel half-width, with about 4 × 106 grid points (192 × 129 × 160 in x, y, z). All essential turbulence scales are resolved on the computational grid and no subgrid model is used. A large number of turbulence statistics are computed and compared with the existing experimental data at comparable Reynolds numbers. Agreements as well as discrepancies are discussed in detail. Particular attention is given to the behaviour of turbulence correlations near the wall. In addition, a number of statistical correlations which are complementary to the existing experimental data are reported for the first time.

The paper develops proposals for a model of turbulence in which the Reynolds stresses are determined from the solution of transport equations for these variables and for the turbulence energy dissipation rate ε. Particular attention is given to the approximation of the pressure-strain correlations; the forms adopted appear to give reasonably satisfactory partitioning of the stresses both near walls and in free shear flows.

Numerical solutions of the model equations are presented for a selection of strained homogeneous shear flows and for two-dimensional inhomogeneous shear flows including the jet, the wake, the mixing layer and plane channel flow. In addition, it is shown that the closure does predict a very strong influence of secondary strain terms for flow over curved surfaces.

Plane turbulent mixing between two streams of different gases (especially nitrogen and helium) was studied in a novel apparatus. Spark shadow pictures showed that, for all ratios of densities in the two streams, the mixing layer is dominated by large coherent structures. High-speed movies showed that these convect at nearly constant speed, and increase their size and spacing discontinuously by amalgamation with neighbouring ones. The pictures and measurements of density fluctuations suggest that turbulent mixing and entrainment is a process of entanglement on the scale of the large structures; some statistical properties of the latter are used to obtain an estimate of entrainment rates. Large changes of the density ratio across the mixing layer were found to have a relatively small effect on the spreading angle; it is concluded that the strong effects, which are observed when one stream is supersonic, are due to compressibility effects, not density effects, as has been generally supposed.

It is shown that a sphere moving through a very viscous liquid with velocity V relative to a uniform simple shear, the translation velocity being parallel to the streamlines and measured relative to the streamline through the centre, experiences a lift force 81·2μVa2k½/v½ + smaller terms perpendicular to the flow direction, which acts to deflect the particle towards the streamlines moving in the direction opposite to V. Here, a denotes the radius of the sphere, κ the magnitude of the velocity gradient, and μ and v the viscosity and kinematic viscosity, respectively. The relevance of the result to the observations by Segrée & Silberberg (1962) of small spheres in Poiseuille flow is discussed briefly. Comments are also made about the problem of a sphere in a parabolic velocity profile and the functional dependence of the lift upon the parameters is obtained.

The flow of an idealized granular material consisting of uniform smooth, but nelastic, spherical particles is studied using statistical methods analogous to those used in the kinetic theory of gases. Two theories are developed: one for the Couette flow of particles having arbitrary coefficients of restitution (inelastic particles) and a second for the general flow of particles with coefficients of restitution near 1 (slightly inelastic particles). The study of inelastic particles in Couette flow follows the method of Savage & Jeffrey (1981) and uses an ad hoc distribution function to describe the collisions between particles. The results of this first analysis are compared with other theories of granular flow, with the Chapman-Enskog dense-gas theory, and with experiments. The theory agrees moderately well with experimental data and it is found that the asymptotic analysis of Jenkins & Savage (1983), which was developed for slightly inelastic particles, surprisingly gives results similar to the first theory even for highly inelastic particles. Therefore the ‘nearly elastic’ approximation is pursued as a second theory using an approach that is closer to the established methods of Chapman-Enskog gas theory. The new approach which determines the collisional distribution functions by a rational approximation scheme, is applicable to general flowfields, not just simple shear. It incorporates kinetic as well as collisional contributions to the constitutive equations for stress and energy flux and is thus appropriate for dilute as well as dense concentrations of solids. When the collisional contributions are dominant, it predicts stresses similar to the first analysis for the simple shear case.

Experiments giving the mass efflux of a Poiseuille flow over a naturally permeable block are reported. The efflux is greatly enhanced over the value it would have if the block were impermeable, indicating the presence of a boundary layer in the block. The velocity presumably changes across this layer from its (statistically average) Darcy value to some slip value immediately outside the permeable block. A simple theory based on replacing the effect of the boundary layer with a slip velocity proportional to the exterior velocity gradient is proposed and shown to be in reasonable agreement with experimental results.

Extensive visual and quantitative studies of turbulent boundary layers are described. Visual studies reveal the presence of surprisingly well-organized spatially and temporally dependent motions within the so-called ‘laminar sublayer’. These motions lead to the formation of low-speed streaks in the region very near the wall. The streaks interact with the outer portions of the flow through a process of gradual ‘lift-up’, then sudden oscillation, bursting, and ejection. It is felt that these processes play a dominant role in the production of new turbulence and the transport of turbulence within the boundary layer on smooth walls.

Quantitative data are presented providing an association of the observed structure features with the accepted ‘regions’ of the boundary layer in non-dimensional co-ordinates; these data include zero, negative and positive pressure gradients on smooth walls. Instantaneous spanwise velocity profiles for the inner layers are given, and dimensionless correlations for mean streak-spacing and break-up frequency are presented.

Tentative mechanisms for formation and break-up of the low-speed streaks are proposed, and other evidence regarding the implications and importance of the streak structure in turbulent boundary layers is reviewed.

The hypotheses concerning the local structure of turbulence at high Reynolds number, developed in the years 1939-41 by myself and Oboukhov (Kolmogorov 1941 a,b,c; Oboukhov 1941 a,b) were based physically on Richardson's idea of the existence in the turbulent flow of vortices on all possible scales l < r < L between the ‘external scales’ L and the ‘internal scale’ l and of a certain uniform mechanism of energy transfer from the coarser-scaled vortices to the finer.

This paper describes a theoretical investigation into (i) the response of a spherical particle to a one-dimensional fluid flow, (ii) the motion of a spherical particle in a uniform two-dimensional fluid flow about a circular cylinder and (iii) the motion of a particle about a lifting aerofoil section. In all three cases the drag of the particle is allowed to vary with (instantaneous) Reynolds number by using an analytical approximation to the standard experimental drag-Reynolds-number relationship for spherical particles.

The phenomenon in question arises when a periodic progressive wave train with fundamental frequency ω is formed on deep water—say by radiation from an oscillating paddle—and there are also present residual wave motions at adjacent side-band frequencies ω(1 ± δ), such as would be generated if the movement of the paddle suffered a slight modulation at low frequency. In consequence of coupling through the non-linear boundary conditions at the free surface, energy is then transferred from the primary motion to the side bands at a rate that, as will be shown herein, can increase exponentially as the interaction proceeds. The result is that the wave train becomes highly irregular far from its origin, even when the departures from periodicity are scarcely detectable at the start.

In this paper a theoretical investigation is made into the stability of periodic wave trains to small disturbances in the form of a pair of side-band modes, and Part 2 which will follow is an account of some experimental observations in accord with the present predictions. The main conclusion of the theory is that infinitesimal disturbances of the type considered will undergo unbounded magnification if \[ 0 < \delta \leqslant (\sqrt{2})ka, \] where k and a are the fundamental wave-number and amplitude of the perturbed wave train. The asymptotic rate of growth is a maximum for δ = ka.

The effect of Brownian motion of particles in a statistically homogeneous suspension is to tend to make uniform the joint probability density functions for the relative positions of particles, in opposition to the tendency of a deforming motion of the suspension to make some particle configurations more common. This smoothing process of Brownian motion can be represented by the action of coupled or interactive steady ‘thermodynamic’ forces on the particles, which have two effects relevant to the bulk stress in the suspension. Firstly, the system of thermodynamic forces on particles makes a direct contribution to the bulk stress; and, secondly, thermodynamic forces change the statistical properties of the relative positions of particles and so affect the bulk stress indirectly. These two effects are analysed for a suspension of rigid spherical particles. In the case of a dilute suspension both the direct and indirect contributions to the bulk stress due to Brownian motion are of order ø2, where ø([Lt ] 1) is the volume fraction of the particles, and an explicit expression for this leading approximation is constructed in terms of hydrodynamic interactions between pairs of particles. The differential equation representing the effects of the bulk deforming motion and the Brownian motion on the probability density of the separation vector of particle pairs in a dilute suspension is also investigated, and is solved numerically for the case of relatively strong Brownian motion. The suspension has approximately isotropic structure in this case, regardless of the nature of the bulk flow, and the effective viscosity representing the stress system to order ϕ2 is found to be \[ \mu^{*} = \mu(1+2.5\phi + 6.2\phi^2). \] The value of the coefficient of ø2 for steady pure straining motion in the case of weak Brownian motion is known to be 7[sdot ]6, which indicates a small degree of ‘strain thickening’ in the ø2-term.

A new and very general technique for simulating solid–fluid suspensions is described; its most important feature is that the computational cost scales linearly with the number of particles. The method combines Newtonian dynamics of the solid particles with a discretized Boltzmann equation for the fluid phase; the many-body hydrodynamic interactions are fully accounted for, both in the creeping-flow regime and at higher Reynolds numbers. Brownian motion of the solid particles arises spontaneously from stochastic fluctuations in the fluid stress tensor, rather than from random forces or displacements applied directly to the particles. In this paper, the theoretical foundations of the technique are laid out, illustrated by simple analytical and numerical examples; in a companion paper (Part 2), extensive numerical tests of the method, for stationary flows, time-dependent flows, and finite-Reynolds-number flows, are reported.

A long bubble of a fluid of negligible viscosity is moving steadily in a tube filled with liquid of viscosity μ at small Reynolds number, the interfacial tension being σ. The angle of contact at the wall is zero. Two related problems are treated here.

In the first the tube radius r is so small that gravitational effects are negligible, and theory shows that the speed U of the bubble exceeds the average speed of the fluid in the tube by an amount UW, where $W \simeq 1\cdot 29(3 \mu U|\sigma)^{\frac {2}{3}}\;\;\; as\;\;\; \mu U|\sigma$ (This result is in error by no more than 10% provided $\mu U |\sigma \; \textless \;5 \times 10^{-3}\rightarrow 0$). The pressure drop, P, across such a bubble is given by $P \simeq 3\cdot 58(3\mu U|\sigma)^{\frac {2}{3}}\sigma|r \; \; \;as\; \; \; \mu U|\sigma \rightarrow 0$ and W is uniquely determined by conditions near the leading meniscus. The interface near the rear meniscus has a wave-like appearance. This provides a partial theory of the indicator bubble commonly used to measure liquid flowrates in capillaries. A similar theory is applicable to the two-dimensional motion round a meniscus between two parallel plates. Experimental results given here for the value of W agree well neither with theory nor with previous experiments by other workers. No explanation is given for the discrepancies.

In the second problem the tube is wider, vertical, and sealed at one end. The bubble now moves under the effect of gravity, but it is shown that it will not rise at all if $\rho gr^2| \sigma \; \textless \; 0 \cdot 842,$ where ρ is the difference in density between the fluids inside and outside the bubble. If $0 \cdot 842 \; \textless \; 1 \cdot 04,$ then $\rho gr^2| \sigma - 0 \cdot842 \simeq 1 \cdot 25 (\mu U|\sigma)^{\frac {2}{9}} + 2 \cdot 24(\mu U|\sigma)^{\frac {1}{3}},$ accurate to within 10%. Experiments are adduced in support of these results, though there is disagreement with previous work.

The evolution of a single hairpin vortex-like structure in the mean turbulent field of a low-Reynolds-number channel flow is studied by direct numerical simulation. The structure of the initial three-dimensional vortex is extracted from the two-point spatial correlation of the velocity field by linear stochastic estimation given a second-quadrant ejection event vector. Initial vortices having vorticity that is weak relative to the mean vorticity evolve gradually into omega-shaped vortices that persist for long times and decay slowly. As reported in Zhou, Adrian & Balachandar (1996), initial vortices that exceed a threshold strength relative to the mean flow generate new hairpin vortices upstream of the primary vortex. The detailed mechanisms for this upstream process are determined, and they are generally similar to the mechanisms proposed by Smith et al. (1991), with some notable differences in the details. It has also been found that new hairpins generate downstream of the primary hairpin, thereby forming, together with the upstream hairpins, a coherent packet of hairpins that propagate coherently. This is consistent with the experimental observations of Meinhart & Adrian (1995). The possibility of autogeneration above a critical threshold implies that hairpin vortices in fully turbulent fields may occur singly, but they more often occur in packets. The hairpins also generate quasi-streamwise vortices to the side of the primary hairpin legs. This mechanism bears many similarities to the mechanisms found by Brooke & Hanratty (1993) and Bernard, Thomas & Handler (1993). It provides a means by which new quasi-streamwise vortices, and, subsequently, new hairpin vortices can populate the near-wall layer.

Past evidence suggests that a large-scale orderly pattern may exist in the noiseproducing region of a jet. Using several methods to visualize the flow of round subsonic jets, we watched the evolution of orderly flow with advancing Reynolds number. As the Reynolds number increases from order 102 to 103, the instability of the jet evolves from a sinusoid to a helix, and finally to a train of axisymmetric waves. At a Reynolds number around 104, the boundary layer of the jet is thin, and two kinds of axisymmetric structure can be discerned: surface ripples on the jet column, thoroughly studied by previous workers, and a more tenuous train of large-scale vortex puffs. The surface ripples scale on the boundary-layer thickness and shorten as the Reynolds number increases toward 105. The structure of the puffs, by contrast, remains much the same: they form at an average Strouhal number of about 0·3 based on frequency, exit speed, and diameter.

To isolate the large-scale pattern at Reynolds numbers around 105, we destroyed the surface ripples by tripping the boundary layer inside the nozzle. We imposed a periodic surging of controllable frequency and amplitude at the jet exit, and studied the response downstream by hot-wire anemometry and schlieren photography. The forcing generates a fundamental wave, whose phase velocity accords with the linear theory of temporally growing instabilities. The fundamental grows in amplitude downstream until non-linearity generates a harmonic. The harmonic retards the growth of the fundamental, and the two attain saturation intensities roughly independent of forcing amplitude. The saturation amplitude depends on the Strouhal number of the imposed surging and reaches a maximum at a Strouhal number of 0·30. A root-mean-square sinusoidal surging only 2% of the mean exit speed brings the preferred mode to saturation four diameters downstream from the nozzle, at which point the entrained volume flow has increased 32% over the unforced case. When forced at a Strouhal number of 0·60, the jet seems to act as a compound amplifier, forming a violent 0·30 subharmonic and suffering a large increase of spreading angle. We conclude with the conjecture that the preferred mode having a Strouhal number of 0·30 is in some sense the most dispersive wave on a jet column, the wave least capable of generating a harmonic, and therefore the wave most capable of reaching a large amplitude before saturating.

We consider the response of a Newtonian fluid, saturating the pore space of a rigid isotropic porous medium, subjected to an infinitesimal oscillatory pressure gradient across the sample. We derive the analytic properties of the linear response function as well as the high- and low-frequency limits. In so doing we present a new and well-defined parameter Λ, which enters the high-frequency limit, characteristic of dynamically connected pore sizes. Using these results we construct a simple model for the response in terms of the exact high- and low-frequency parameters; the model is very successful when compared with direct numerical simulations on large lattices with randomly varying tube radii. We demonstrate the relevance of these results to the acoustic properties of non-rigid porous media, and we show how the dynamic permeability/tortuosity can be measured using superfluid 4He as the pore fluid. We derive the expected response in the case that the internal walls of the pore space are fractal in character.

We present a technique for describing the global behaviour of complex nonlinear flows by decomposing the flow into modes determined from spectral analysis of the Koopman operator, an infinite-dimensional linear operator associated with the full nonlinear system. These modes, referred to as Koopman modes, are associated with a particular observable, and may be determined directly from data (either numerical or experimental) using a variant of a standard Arnoldi method. They have an associated temporal frequency and growth rate and may be viewed as a nonlinear generalization of global eigenmodes of a linearized system. They provide an alternative to proper orthogonal decomposition, and in the case of periodic data the Koopman modes reduce to a discrete temporal Fourier transform. The Arnoldi method used for computations is identical to the dynamic mode decomposition recently proposed by Schmid & Sesterhenn (Sixty-First Annual Meeting of the APS Division of Fluid Dynamics, 2008), so dynamic mode decomposition can be thought of as an algorithm for finding Koopman modes. We illustrate the method on an example of a jet in crossflow, and show that the method captures the dominant frequencies and elucidates the associated spatial structures.

Kolmogorov's ‘third hypothesis’ asserts that in intermittent turbulence the average ε of the dissipation ε, taken over any domain D, is ruled by the lognormal probability distribution. This hypothesis will be shown to be inconsistent, save under assumptions that are extreme and unlikely. Further, a widely used justification of lognormality, due to Yaglom and based on probabilistic argument involving a self-similar cascade, will be discussed. In this model, lognormality indeed applies strictly when D is ‘an eddy’, typically a three-dimensional box embedded in a self-similar hierarchy, and may perhaps remain a reasonable approximation when D consists of a few such eddies. On the other hand, the experimental situation is described better by considering averages taken over essentially one-dimensional domains D. The first purpose of this paper is to carry out Yaglom's cascade argument, labelled as ‘microcanonical’, for such averaging domains. The second is to replace Yaglom's model by a different, less constrained one, based upon the concept of ‘canonical cascade’. It will be shown, both for one-dimensional domains in a microcanonical cascade, and for all domains in canonical cascades, that in every non-degenerate caJe the distribution of ε differs from the lognormal distribution. Depending upon various parameters, the discrepancy may be either moderate, or considerable, or even extreme. In the latter two cases, high-order moments of E turn out to be infinite. This avoids various paradoxes (to be explored) that are present in Kolmogorov's and Yaglom's approaches. The third purpose is to note that high-order moments become infinite only when the number of levels of the cascade tends to infinity, meaning that the internal scale η tends to zero. Granted the usual value of η, this number of levels is actually small, so the representativity of the limit is questionable. This issue was investigated through computer simulation. The results bear upon the question of the extent to which Kolmogorov's second hypothesis applies in the face of intermittency. The fourth purpose is as follows. Yaglom noted that the cascade model predicts that dissipation only occurs in a portion of space of very small total volume. In order to describe the structure of this portion of space, it will be shown useful to introduce the concept of the ‘intrinsic fractional dimension’ A of the carrier of intermittent turbulence. The fifth purpose is to study the relations between the parameters ruling the distribution of η, and those ruling its spectral and dimensional properties. Both conceptually and numerically, these various parameters turn out to be distinct, which opens up several problems for empirical study.