The vectoring of an incompressible, two-dimensional jet in a co-flowing stream is investigated by means of direct numerical simulation. The control input used to stimulate jet vectoring is accomplished through distributed suction from blunt-faced lips at the exit of the jet. The thrust vector methodology is based on suppression of global instabilities in the wake-shear layers formed between the co-flow and the jet. Once a critical suction volume flux needed to suppress these global instabilities is exceeded, local flow control can be realized through varying the distribution of suction across the base of the jet lips. It is found that the critical suction flux scales primarily with the ambient co-flow, not with the jet speed, and that lift-to-thrust ratios exceeding 15% can be realized. The effects of jet Reynolds number, jet-to- ambient velocity ratio, boundary-layer thickness, and geometric parameters on various performance characteristics are examined. It is also shown that the asymmetric flow control approach used for vectoring the jet can also be implemented in a symmetric configuration to enhance jet spreading. Significant increases in jet spreading can be realized when the symmetrically applied suction flux is sufficient to stimulate the sinuous mode of instability of the jet such that energetic apping motion ensues.

The characteristics of an acidic turbulent jet and plume injected into an alkaline environment are examined theoretically and experimentally. Fluid-flow and chemistry models are combined to understand how the concentration of acid in a parcel of fluid changes as it reacts with alkaline fluid entrained from the ambient. The resulting model is tested in an experimental study in which nitric acid jets or plumes are injected into a large tank containing a variety of alkaline substances. A video camera records a pH-sensitive dye in the jet or plume, which changes colour with variations in the pH. The results were time averaged and processed to measure distance from the source to the point of neutralization. The agreement between predictions and observations of neutralization distances is good, confirming that the model captures the salient physics of the problem. Using empirically determined titration curves, a combined fluid flow and chemistry model is applied to discuss the environmental implications of a warm acidic turbulent plume injected into an alkaline river or sea.

We present an idealized study of rotating stratified wave turbulence in a two-dimensional vertical slice model of the Boussinesq equations, focusing on the peculiar case of equal Coriolis and buoyancy frequencies. In this case the fully nonlinear fluid dynamics can be shown to be isotropic in the vertical plane, which allows the classical methods of isotropic turbulence to be applied. Contrary to ordinary two-dimensional turbulence, here a robust downscale flux of total energy is observed in numerical simulations that span the full parameter regime between Ozmidov and forcing scales. Notably, this robust downscale flux of the total energy does not hold separately for its various kinetic and potential components, which can exhibit both upscale and downscale fluxes, depending on the parameter regime. Using a suitable extension of the classical Kármán–Howarth–Monin equation, exact expressions that link third-order structure functions and the spectral energy flux are derived and tested against numerical results. These expressions make obvious that even though the total energy is robustly transferred downscale, the third-order structure functions are sign indefinite, which illustrates that the sign and the form of measured third-order structure functions are both crucially important in determining the direction of the spectral energy transfer.

A good approximation to modelling the shape of a liquid–air meniscus advancing or receding in a capillary tube of radius a can be constructed by balancing the curvature of the interface with the sum of a viscous stress valid near the contact line and a constant static pressure. This model has unique solutions for each value of the boundary condition, i.e. the dynamic contact angle. When the meniscus recedes at very small capillary numbers, the model predicts a critical receding velocity beyond which a liquid layer of the receding fluid (a liquid tail) develops along the solid (see figure 4). The length of the layer increases as the receding speed and the contact angle decrease. This layer regime is characterized by menisci whose macroscopic curvature is >1/a.

The current paper presents an experimental study of the energy budget of a two-dimensional internal wave attractor in a trapezoidal domain filled with uniformly stratified fluid. The injected energy flux and the dissipation rate are simultaneously measured from a two-dimensional, two-component, experimental velocity field. The pressure perturbation field needed to quantify the injected energy is determined from the linear inviscid theory. The dissipation rate in the bulk of the domain is directly computed from the measurements, while the energy sink occurring in the boundary layers is estimated using the theoretical expression for the velocity field in the boundary layers, derived recently by Beckebanze et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 841, 2018, pp. 614–635). In the linear regime, we show that the energy budget is closed, in the steady state and also in the transient regime, by taking into account the bulk dissipation and, more importantly, the dissipation in the boundary layers, without any adjustable parameters. The dependence of the different sources on the thickness of the experimental set-up is also discussed. In the nonlinear regime, the analysis is extended by estimating the dissipation due to the secondary waves generated by triadic resonant instabilities, showing the importance of the energy transfer from large scales to small scales. The method tested here on internal wave attractors can be generalized straightforwardly to any quasi-two-dimensional stratified flow.

In arc welding electromagnetic forces are thought to be the major cause of motion in the weldpool, and it has recently been found by experimentalists that the application to the workpiece of a uniform magnetic field normal to the weldpool surface appears to stabilize the welding process. In this paper we investigate motion in a hemisphere due to a stationary distributed current source with a superimposed uniform magnetic field applied parallel to the axis of symmetry. When inertial effects are ignored and a simple source-sink model of the current source is introduced, we obtain an analytic solution for the fluid flow valid for low currents and low applied fields. A numerical scheme is then developed to solve the full nonlinear-flow problem and results are obtained for the source-sink model of the current source and for a more realistic numerically constructed distributed current source. For values of the externally applied magnetic field and the current flowing through the hemisphere typical of those occurring in practical welding situations we discover that the flow in an axial section through the pool is radially outwards on the free surface. This is in the opposite direction to that generally predicted by the theory when there is no superimposed magnetic field.

We propose a fully spatio-temporal approach for identifying spatially varying modes of oscillation in fluid dynamics simulation output by means of multitaper frequency–wavenumber spectral analysis. One-dimensional spectrum estimation has proven to be a valuable tool in the analysis of turbulence data applied spatially to determine the rate of energy transport between spatial scales, or temporally to determine frequencies of oscillatory flows. It also allows for the quantitative comparison of flow characteristics between two scenarios using a standard basis. It has the limitation, however, that it neglects coupling between spatial and temporal structures. Two-dimensional frequency–wavenumber spectral analysis allows one to decompose waveforms into standing or travelling variety. The extended higher-dimensional multitaper method proposed here is shown to have improved statistical properties over conventional non-parametric spectral estimators, and is accompanied by confidence intervals which estimate their uncertainty. Multitaper frequency–wavenumber analysis is applied to a canonical benchmark problem, namely, a direct numerical simulation of von Kármán vortex shedding off a square wall-mounted cylinder with two inflow scenarios with matching momentum-thickness Reynolds numbers $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}}\approx 1000$ at the obstacle. Frequency–wavenumber analysis of a two-dimensional section of these data reveals that although both the laminar and turbulent inflow scenarios show a turbulent $-5/3$ cascade in wavenumber ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D708}$) and frequency ($f$), the flow characteristics differ in that there is a significantly more prominent discrete harmonic oscillation near $(f,\unicode[STIX]{x1D708})=(0.2,0.21)$ in wavenumber and frequency in the laminar inflow scenario than the turbulent scenario. This frequency–wavenumber pair corresponds to a travelling wave with velocity near one near the centre path of the vortex street.

The behavioural characteristics of thermal boundary layer inception dictate the efficiency of heat exchangers and the operational limits of fluid machinery. The specific time required by the thermal boundary layer to be established is vital to optimize flow control strategies, as well as the thermal management of systems exposed to ephemeral phenomena, typically on the millisecond scale. This paper presents the time characterization of the momentum and thermal boundary layer development in transient turbulent compressible air flows. We present a new framework to perform such estimations based on detailed unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier–Stokes simulations that may be extended to higher fidelity simulations. First of all, the aerodynamic boundary layer initiation is described using adiabatic simulations. Additional numerical calculations were then performed by setting the isothermal wall condition to evaluate the additional time required by the thermal boundary layer to establish after the aerodynamic boundary layer reaches its steady state. Finally, full conjugate simulations were executed to compute the warm up effect of the solid during the blowdown of a hot fluid over a colder metallic test model. The transient performance of the turbulent thermal and momentum boundary layers is quantified through numerical simulations of air blowdown over a flat plate for different mainstream flow conditions. The effects of Reynolds number, free stream velocity, transient duration, test article length and free stream temperature were independently assessed, to then define a mathematical expression of the momentum boundary layer settlement. This paper presents a novel numerical correlation of the additional time required by the thermal boundary layer to be stablished after the settlement of the momentum boundary layer. The time scales of the aerodynamic and thermal boundary layers are presented as a function of relevant non-dimensional numbers, as well as the description of the response of the near wall flow to sudden free stream changes. The characterization of the boundary layer mechanisms discussed in this paper contribute to the establishment of an evidence-based foundation for advances in the field of flow control.

A hierarchy of models is formulated for the deflection of a thin two-dimensional liquid jet as it passes over a thin air-cushioning layer above a rigid flat impermeable substrate. We perform a systematic derivation of the leading-order equations of motion for the jet in the distinguished limit in which the air pressure jump, surface tension and gravity affect the displacement of the centreline of the jet, but not its thickness or velocity. We identify thereby the axial length scales for centreline deflection in regimes in which the air layer is dominated by viscous or inertial effects. The derived length scales and reduced equations aim to expand the suite of tools available for future analyses of the evolution of lamellae and ejecta in impact problems. Assuming that the jet is sufficiently long that tip and entry effects can be neglected, we demonstrate that the centreline of a constant-thickness jet moving with constant axial speed is destabilised by the air layer for sufficiently small surface tension. Expressions for the fastest-growing modes are obtained in both the viscous-dominated air and inertia-dominated air regimes. For a finite-length jet emanating from a nozzle, we show that, in one particular asymptotic limit, the evolution of the jet centreline is akin to the flapping of an unfurling flag above a thin air layer. We discuss the distinguished limit in which tip retraction can be neglected and perform numerical investigations into the resulting model. We show that the cushioning layer causes the jet centreline to bend, leading to rupture of the air layer. We discuss how our toolbox of models can be adapted and utilised in the context of recent experimental and numerical studies of splash dynamics.

Strato-rotational instability (SRI) is normally interpreted as the resonant interactions between normal modes of the internal or Kelvin variety in three-dimensional settings in which the stratification and rotation are orthogonal to both the background flow and its shear. Using a combination of asymptotic analysis and numerical solution of the linear eigenvalue problem for plane Couette flow, it is shown that such resonant interactions can be destroyed by certain singular critical levels. These levels are not classical critical levels, where the phase speed $c$ of a normal mode matches the mean flow speed $U$ , but are a different type of singularity where $(c-U)$ matches a characteristic gravity-wave speed $\pm N/k$ , based on the buoyancy frequency $N$ and streamwise horizontal wavenumber $k$ . Instead, it is shown that a variant of SRI can occur due to the coupling of a Kelvin or internal wave to such ‘baroclinic’ critical levels. Two characteristic situations are identified and explored, and the conservation law for pseudo-momentum is used to rationalize the physical mechanism of instability. The critical level coupling removes the requirement for resonance near specific wavenumbers $k$ , resulting in an extensive continuous band of unstable modes.

Previously, we proposed a novel mechanism to produce a nonlinear thermokinetic phenomenon (NTKP) around a metal cylinder in an electrolyte on the basis of analytical discussion. In this study, by using a non-steady direct multi-physics simulation technique based on the Stokes equation coupled with the electroosmotic equation that considers normal diffusion, electrophoresis and thermal diffusion, we directly verify the NTKP and show that the original driving force is the excess ions pressed on the particle by the thermokinetic force and that the NTKP vortex flow around the particle is generated by the interaction between the excess ion and the electric field that is made by the excess ions and/or the Seebeck electric field due to the blocking boundary condition on the wall. Namely, two types of NTKP exist and they are explained in a self-consistent manner by our new theory. In addition, through the discussion of a dielectric particle, we show that the NTKP is a general phenomenon that can be found in both metal and dielectric particles. We believe that our findings provide a new unified viewpoint to understand complex thermokinetic phenomena near metal and dielectric particles.

The two-dimensional problem of the free sloshing of an inviscid fluid in a vertically walled tank with an arbitrary bed shape is solved at both first and second order in the Stokes expansion of the velocity potential. The approach employed at both orders uses Green's functions for a flat bed in conjunction with the Cauchy–Riemann equations to derive integral equations for the tangential flux along the varying bed. The first- and second-order potentials everywhere in the fluid may then be related to these fluxes. Significant analytic progress is made with the calculation of various contributions to the integral equations at second order. The equations at first and second order are ultimately solved using a variational principle equivalent to the Galerkin method, giving efficient and accurate results. In particular, the work involved in determining the second-order solution is no more intensive than in solving the first-order problem. The first-order solution is shown to reproduce known results for specific bed shapes. The method is applied to a range of bed shapes and the second-order correction to the free-surface elevation is illustrated.

We analyse the singular effects of weak inertia on the heat (or equivalently mass) transport problem from drops in linear shearing flows. For small spherical drops embedded in hyperbolic planar linear flows, which constitute a one-parameter family (the parameter being $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ with $0\leqslant \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}\leqslant 1$, and whose extremal members are simple shear ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}=0$) and planar extension ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}=1$)), there are two distinct regimes for scalar (heat or mass) transport at large Péclet numbers ($Pe$) depending on the exterior streamline topology (Krishnamurthy & Subramanian, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 850, 2018, pp. 439–483). When the drop-to-medium viscosity ratio ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}$) is larger than a critical value, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{c}=2\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}/(1-\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC})$, the drop is surrounded by a region of closed streamlines in the inertialess limit ($Re=0$, $Re$ being the drop Reynolds number). Convection is incapable of transporting heat away on account of the near-field closed streamline topology, and the transport remains diffusion limited even for $Pe\rightarrow \infty$. However, weak inertia breaks open the closed streamline region, giving way to finite-$Re$ spiralling streamlines and convectively enhanced transport. For $Re=0$ the closed streamlines on the drop surface, for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}>\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{c}$, are Jeffery orbits, a terminology originally used to describe the trajectories of an axisymmetric rigid particle in a simple shear flow. Based on this identification, a novel boundary layer analysis that employs a surface-flow-aligned non-orthogonal coordinate system, is used to solve the transport problem in the dual asymptotic limit $Re\ll 1$, $RePe\gg 1$, corresponding to the regime where inertial convection balances diffusion in an $O(RePe)^{-1/2}$ boundary layer. Further, the separation of time scales in the aforementioned limit, between rapid convection due to the Stokesian velocity field and the slower convection by the $O(Re)$ inertial velocity field, allows one to average the convection–diffusion equation over the phase of the Stokesian surface streamlines (Jeffery orbits), allowing a simplification of the original three-dimensional non-axisymmetric transport problem to a form resembling a much simpler axisymmetric one. A self-similar ansatz then leads to the boundary layer temperature field, and the resulting Nusselt number is given by $Nu={\mathcal{H}}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC},\unicode[STIX]{x1D706})(RePe)^{1/2}$ with ${\mathcal{H}}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC},\unicode[STIX]{x1D706})$ given in terms of a one-dimensional integral; the prefactor ${\mathcal{H}}(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC},\unicode[STIX]{x1D706})$ diverges for $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}\rightarrow \unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{c}^{+}$ due to assumptions underlying the Jeffery-orbit-averaged analysis breaking down. Although the separation of time scales necessary for the validity of the analysis no longer exists in the transition regime ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}$ in the neighbourhood of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}_{c}$), scaling arguments nevertheless highlight the manner in which the Nusselt number function connects smoothly across the open and closed streamline regimes for any finite $Pe$.

Using water–salt water laboratory experiments, we investigate the mechanism of erosion by a turbulent jet impinging onto a density interface, for moderate Reynolds and Froude numbers. The Froude number is defined by $Fr_{i}=u_{i}/\sqrt{b_{i}g^{\prime }}$, with $u_{i}$ and $b_{i}$, the typical velocity and width of the jet at the interface, and $g^{\prime }$ the reduced gravitational acceleration. The Froude number $Fr_{i}$ characterizes the competition between inertial forces against the restoring buoyancy force. Contrary to previous observations reporting baroclinic destabilization of the interface, we show that the entrainment, in the range of parameters explored here, is driven by interfacial gravity waves. The waves are generated by the barotropic excitation coming from the turbulent fluctuations of the jet; they are then amplified by a mechanism of wave-induced stress; and they finally break and induce entrainment and mixing. Based on those physical observations, we introduce a scaling model for the entrainment rate, which varies continuously from $Fr_{i}^{3}$ to an $Fr_{i}$ power law from small to large Froude numbers, in agreement with the present and some of the previous laboratory data.

The interaction of a pitching circular disk with the motion induced by the disk in the surrounding fluid is investigated in this paper. MacCamy's (1961) method of simplifying the three-dimensional problem of a circular disk to the two-dimensional problem is found to apply in the present analysis. The integral equation is solved numerically to determine the dependence of pressure, added moment of inertia, and damping coefficient on the frequency of the oscillation.

Understanding the dynamics of a droplet pushed by an external fluid in a confined geometry calls for the identification of all the dissipation mechanisms at play in the lubrication film between droplet and cell wall. Experimentally, reflection interference contrast microscopy has proven an efficient tool to measure the thickness of such lubrication films for microfluidic droplets, with a precision of a few nanometres (Huerre et al., Lab on a Chip, vol. 16 (5), 2016, pp. 911–916). The present work takes advantage of the high accuracy of this technique to chart quantitatively the lubrication film between oil droplets and the glass wall of a microfluidic chamber. We find that the lubrication films exhibit a complex three-dimensional shape, which we are able to rationalize using a hydrodynamical model in the lubrication approximation. We show that the complete topography cannot be recovered using a single model boundary condition along the whole interface. Rather, surface tension gradients are negligible at the front of the droplet, whereas they significantly modify the film profile at the rear, where surfactant accumulation induces local thickening of the lubrication film. The presence of ravines on the sides of the droplet is due to three-dimensional effects which can be qualitatively reproduced numerically. To our knowledge, this is the first experimental investigation of such local effects on travelling droplets.

This article reports the results of theoretical research concerning linear waves propagating on the surface of water in a uniform horizontal channel of arbitrary crosssection. Three different versions of the problem are considered. The first is the hydrodynamic problem when surface tension is neglected. The second and third include capillary effects, necessitating the use of edge conditions at the points of contact of the free edges and the channel walls. Two sets of edge constraints are used: pinned edges, where the lines of contact are fixed, and free edges, where the surface meets locally vertical walls orthogonally. These choices are physically realistic and have certain advantages for mathematical analysis.

The hydrodynamic problems are shown to have a Hamiltonian structure in which the non-local operators inherent in the water-wave problem are explicitly exhibited. The existence, properties and applications of normal-mode solutions are discussed, and a qualitative comparison of those obtained for each problem is given. Explicit and numerical calculations of the dispersion relations for the normal modes are also carried out. A long-wave theory based upon a decomposition of the hydrodynamic problems in Fourier-transform space is developed. Finally a bifurcation theory for linear travelling waves is discussed, a potential application of which is the construction of an existence theory for periodic travelling-wave solutions of the corresponding nonlinear problems.

We study the instability of finite-amplitude waves on uniform vortex layers of finite thickness bounded by a plane rigid surface. A weakly nonlinear analysis of vorticity interface perturbations, and spectral stability calculations using the full equations of motion, together show that steady progressive waves are unstable to general subharmonic pertubations in the range 0.094 < d/λ < 1.7, where d is the mean layer thickness and λ is the primary wavelength. The relevance of this instability to ultimate interface filamentation is tested by performing several numerical contourdynamical simulations of the nonlinear interface evolution for initial disturbances consisting of the finite amplitude wave plus eigenfunctions obtained from the spectral calculations. The results indicate that within the band of unstable wavelengths, small perturbations to the steady non-uniform flow given by the finite amplitude wave motion (vortex equilibrium) are able to grow in magnitude, until at a time tf, the wave extremum encounters a hyperbolic critical point of the velocity field after which filamentation occurs. Arguments are put forward based on the unsteady simulations with the purpose of identifying the preferred frame of reference for viewing the kinematical events controlling the filamentation process. An estimate for tf is then made, and the mechanism of filamentation found is discussed in relation to the recently proposed nonlinear-cascade mechanism of Dritschel (1988a).

An asymptotic theory describes the stationary instability of convective flow between differentially heated vertical planes at large Prandtl numbers. The theory is concerned with the structure for A [Gt ] 1 where A is a Rayleigh number based on the horizontal temperature difference and the distance between the planes. As such it is relevant to the instability of flow in a vertical slot of aspect ratio h [Gt ] 1 where the convective regime corresponds to order-one values of a non-dimensional parameter γ which partly depends on the vertical temperature gradient generated in the slot and can be approximated by γ4 = A/8h. Instability is shown to set in at a critical value of γ that compares well with experimental observation. The lower branch of the neutral curve conforms to a boundary-layer type approximation while the upper branch has a critical-layer structure midway between the planes which becomes fully developed as the first reversal of the vertical velocity of the base flow is encountered near the centreline.

Results of experimental and numerical studies are presented for a class of horizontal thermal convection in a long box forced at one horizontal boundary by two regions of destabilizing buoyancy flux separated by a region of stabilizing buoyancy flux. The steady-state circulation with zero net heat input is examined. The circulation generally involves two plumes, one at each end of the box, which drive overturning throughout the domain. The flow is classified into three regimes according to the pattern of interior circulation and depending on the relative heat input applied to the two destabilizing regions. Unequal heat inputs can double the interior stratification above that created by symmetric flow with two identical plumes, and when the heat inputs differ by more than 10%, the interior stratification is set by the stronger plume. The arrangement of boundary forcing broadly parallels the distribution of the zonally averaged surface cooling and heating in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres, and the results suggest that ocean overturning circulations may be sensitive to interhemispheric differences in the buoyancy inputs.