A new extension of the Kolmogorov theory, for the two-point pressure–velocity correlation, is studied by LES of homogeneous turbulence with a large inertial subrange in order to capture the high Reynolds number nonlinear dynamics of the flow. Simulations of both decaying and forced anisotropic homogeneous turbulence were performed. The forcing allows the study of higher Reynolds numbers for the same number of modes compared with simulations of decaying turbulence. The forced simulations give statistically stationary turbulence, with a substantial inertial subrange, well suited to test the Kolmogorov theory for turbulence that is locally isotropic but has significant anisotropy of the total energy distribution. This has been investigated in the recent theoretical studies of Lindborg (1996) and Hill (1997) where the role of the pressure terms was given particular attention. On the surface the two somewhat different approaches taken in these two studies may seem to lead to contradictory conclusions, but are here reconciled and (numerically) shown to yield an interesting extension of the traditional Kolmogorov theory. The results from the simulations indeed show that the two-point pressure–velocity correlation closely adheres to the predicted linear relation in the inertial subrange where also the pressure-related term in the general Kolmogorov equation is shown to vanish. Also, second- and third-order structure functions are shown to exhibit the expected dependences on separation.

The dynamics of long water waves are considered in a curved geometry representing a canal bend. The presence of the bend is found to produce a spectrum of transverse oscillations in the canal. The associated dominant amplitudes are evaluated for both tidal periods and higher frequencies representative of tsunamis. It is found that low-frequency waves do not lead to significant transverse amplitudes. For tsunamis, the presence of the bend may result in considerable changes in the local wave amplitude.

It is shown that some variational methods of quantum mechanics can be re-formulated for application to the problem of the diffusion of marked particles in a fluid in random motion. As an example, a variational derivation of the Wiener-Hermite approximation procedure is given. The simplest such approxi- mation is examined and it is made plausible that it gives the exact form for both the one- and two-particle distribution functions in a certain limiting situation.

We propose here to investigate the impact of small-scale effects on the bulk evolution of a two-phase flow system. More precisely, we choose to examine the sole influence of a small-scale (with respect to the bulk velocity) off-equilibrium velocity on the system. In order to narrow our analysis and avoid complex well-posedness issues, we choose to examine a simple barotropic 5-equation two-phase flow model that accounts for an equilibrium common bulk velocity and a small-scale off-equilibrium velocity. A full derivation of the model is presented: it is based on a variational principle which allows us to insert the two-scale kinematics into the model by considering two different kinetic energies. Additional entropy dissipation requirements allow us to add dissipative structures to the model. This system is neutral with respect to the topology of the flow structure and is equipped with parameters that can be connected to relaxation processes. When considering instantaneous relaxations, we obtain two limit systems of the literature that are used for the simulation of separated-phase flows. In this sense we obtain a hierarchy of models. We show that the parent 5-equation model is also compatible with the description of a bubbly fluid that allows small-scale vibrations for the disperse phase. This identification is verified and discussed through comparisons with experimental measurements of sound dispersion (Silberman, J. Acoust. Soc. Am., vol. 29, 1957, pp. 925–933; Leroy et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am., vol. 123, 2008, pp. 1931–1940) and with the dispersion relations of a reference model for bubbly flows by Cheng et al. (Trans. ASME J. Heat Transfer, vol. 107, 1985, pp. 402–408). The present work is a first contribution to a larger effort that aims at unifying models that can describe both separated and disperse two-phase flows, coupling small-scale modelling with large-scale resolution.

From visualizations and velocity measurements, we study the formation of new spiral patterns at the periphery of a rotor-stator cavity when an axial inward throughflow is superimposed. We determine the transition diagram for a given intermediate aspect ratio in the plane (${\hbox {\it Re}},V_z$), where ${\hbox {\it Re}}$ is the rotational Reynolds number and $V_z$ the axial velocity in the radial gap between the rotating disk and the shroud. Both techniques are used to characterize the frequency, the azimuthal wavenumber, the inclination angle of the spirals and to localize them axially and radially. We also show that this new instability is a crossflow instability due to the strong competition between rotation and throughflow.

We derive a set of equations in conformal variables that describe a potential flow of an ideal two-dimensional inviscid fluid with free surface in a bounded domain. This formulation is free of numerical instabilities present in the equations for the surface elevation and potential derived in Dyachenko et al. (Plasma Phys. Rep. vol. 22 (10), 1996, pp. 829–840) with some restrictions on analyticity relieved, which allows to treat a finite volume of fluid enclosed by a free-moving boundary. We illustrate with a comparison of numerical simulations of the Dirichlet ellipse, an exact solution for a zero surface tension fluid. We demonstrate how the oscillations of the free surface of a unit disc droplet may lead to breaking of one droplet into two when surface tension is present.

Euromech colloquium 339 was organized by C. Staquet in Lyon (France) from September 6 to 9, 1995. It involved seventy-six participants from fourteen countries. Papers were presented on various aspects of stably stratified flows: (i) internal waves, their generation mechanisms, propagation and reflection properties, their instabilities leading to breaking; (ii) vortex structures in stably stratified fluids, which can be slow layerwise structures, or small intense vortices, appearing for instance in shear flow instabilities; (iii) statistical properties of random wave fields or stratified turbulence; (iv) mixing properties resulting from internal wave fields and stratified turbulence. These quite different dynamical regimes are often closely connected in actual flow problems, and one purpose of this colloquium was to better understand these connections. Participants were interested in fundamental aspects or in more specific applications, in engineering, geophysics and astrophysics. The colloquium was a rare opportunity to gather together scientists with these different points of view, to compare approaches and results, and to highlight general problems.

An analysis is made of the effect of a longitudinal gravity field on two-dimensional supercavitating flow past wedges. Under the assumption that the flow is both irrotational and incompressible, a non-linear theory is developed for steady flow. By utilizing conformal mapping in combination with the Schwarz reflexion principle, the mathematical problem is reduced to a three-parameter, non-linear integral equation with one constraint. The equation is derived by reflecting the flow about the rigid boundaries; the constraint is obtained by requiring the net singularity strength inside the cavity-wedge system to be zero. A successive-approximation procedure is used to obtain a numerical solution of the integral equation. Typical results are presented in graphs and tables, and the results of the present work are compared to those of Acosta's linear theory.

We develop a model to describe the spreading of a reacting liquid which is injected at a steady rate into a permeable rock. We focus on the case in which there is a density difference between the host reservoir fluid and the injected liquid. We examine reactions which lead to precipitation and a decrease in permeability or dissolution and an increase in permeability. In both cases, we assume the reaction is rapid compared to the speed of the flow. As the current spreads under gravity, we show that the interface between the injected fluid and the original fluid and also the reaction front, may be described by similarity solutions. The morphology of the two interfaces is controlled by two parameters: the permeability ratio across the reaction front, k, and the speed of the reaction front as a fraction of the interstitial speed, λ. For a precipitation reaction, the reaction front lags some distance behind the leading edge of the region occupied by the injected fluid, and tends to terminate in a sharp vertical front. In contrast, for a dissolution reaction, the reaction front migrates as a gravity-driven finger along the base of the formation. In the case of large changes in permeability, kλ > 1, this finger advances to the front of the flow, whereas for smaller increases in permeability, kλ < 1, the finger is overrun with injected fluid which has already reacted and passed through the reaction front. We illustrate how these results are affected if the density of the reacting fluid decreases across the reaction zone. In the case of precipitation, small changes in density smooth out the leading edge of the reaction front, whereas large changes in density lead to slumping of the reaction front along the base of the current, and ultimately it extends to the nose of the flow. For dissolution reactions, the decrease in density across the reaction front causes the lateral extent of the finger to increase. As a result the critical value of the permeability ratio, k, for which the reaction front reaches the nose of the current decreases.

The effect of Prandtl number on the linear stability of a plane thermal plume is analysed under quasi-parallel approximation. At large Prandtl numbers (Pr > 100), we found that there is an additional unstable loop whose size increases with increasing Pr. The origin of this new instability mode is shown to be tied to the coupling of the momentum and thermal perturbation equations. Analyses of the perturbation kinetic energy and thermal energy suggest that the buoyancy force is the main source of perturbation energy at high Prandtl numbers that drives this instability.

We present a local stability analysis to investigate the effects of differential diffusion between momentum and density (quantified by the Schmidt number $Sc$) on the three-dimensional, short-wavelength instabilities in planar vortices with a uniform stable stratification along the vorticity axis. Assuming small diffusion in both momentum and density, but arbitrary values for $Sc$, we present a detailed analytical/numerical analysis for three different classes of base flows: (i) an axisymmetric vortex, (ii) an elliptical vortex and (iii) the flow in the neighbourhood of a hyperbolic stagnation point. While a centrifugally stable axisymmetric vortex remains stable for any $Sc$, it is shown that $Sc$ can have significant effects in a centrifugally unstable axisymmetric vortex: the range of unstable perturbations increases when $Sc$ is taken away from unity, with the extent of increase being larger for $Sc\ll 1$ than for $Sc\gg 1$. Additionally, for $Sc>1$, we report the possibility of oscillatory instability. In an elliptical vortex with a stable stratification, $Sc\neq 1$ is shown to non-trivially influence the three different inviscid instabilities (subharmonic, fundamental and superharmonic) that have been previously reported, and also introduce a new branch of oscillatory instability that is not present at $Sc=1$. The unstable parameter space for the subharmonic (instability IA) and fundamental (instability IB) inviscid instabilities are shown to be significantly increased for $Sc<1$ and $Sc>1$, respectively. Importantly, for sufficiently small and large $Sc$, respectively, the maximum growth rate for instabilities IA and IB occurs away from the inviscid limit. The new oscillatory instability (instability III) is shown to occur only for sufficiently small $Sc<1$, the signature of which is nevertheless present with zero growth rate in the inviscid limit. The Schmidt number is then shown to play no role in the evolution of transverse perturbations on the flow around a hyperbolic stagnation point with a stable stratification. We conclude by discussing the physical length scales associated with the $Sc\neq 1$ instabilities, and their potential relevance in various realistic settings.

Scaling of grid turbulence with a constant mean cross-stream temperature gradient is investigated using a combination of theoretical predictions and experimental data. A novel nanoscale temperature probe (T-NSTAP) was used to acquire temperature data. Conditions for self-similarity of the governing equations and the scalar spectrum are investigated, which reveals necessary conditions for the existence of a self-similar solution. These conditions provide a theoretical framework for scaling of the temperature spectrum as well as the temperature flux spectrum. One necessary condition, predicted by the theory, is that the characteristic length scale describing the scalar spectrum must vary as $\sqrt{t}$ in the case of a zero virtual origin for a self-similar solution to exist. As predicted by the similarity analysis, the data show the variance growing as a power law with streamwise position. When scaled with the similarity variable, as found through the theoretical analysis, the temperature spectra show a good collapse over all wavenumbers. A new method to determine the quality of the scaling was developed, comparing the coefficient of variation. The minimum coefficient of variation, and thus the best scaling, for the measured spectra agrees well with the similarity requirements. The theoretical work also reveals an additional requirement related to the scaling of the scalar flux spectrum.

We present theoretical and experimental analyses of the critical condition where the inertial–buoyancy or viscous–buoyancy regime is preserved in a uniform-density gravity current (which propagates over a horizontal plane) of time-variable volume ${\mathcal{V}}=qt^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}}$ in a power-law cross-section (with width described by $f(z)=bz^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}}$, where $z$ is the vertical coordinate, $b$ and $q$ are positive real numbers, and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}$ are non-negative real numbers) occupied by homogeneous or linearly stratified ambient fluid. The magnitude of the ambient stratification is represented by the parameter $S$, with $S=0$ and $S=1$ describing the homogeneous and maximum stratification cases respectively. Earlier theoretical and experimental results valid for a rectangular cross-section ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}=0$) and uniform ambient fluid are generalized here to a power-law cross-section and stratified ambient. Novel time scalings, obtained for inertial and viscous regimes, allow a derivation of the critical flow parameter $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}_{c}$ and the corresponding propagation rate as $Kt^{\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}_{c}}$ as a function of the problem parameters. Estimates of the transition length between the inertial and viscous regimes are also derived. A series of experiments conducted in a semicircular cross-section ($\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}=1/2$) validate the critical values $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}_{c}=2$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}_{c}=9/4$ for the two cases $S=0$ and $1$. The ratio between the inertial and viscous forces is determined by an effective Reynolds number proportional to $q$ at some power. The threshold value of this number, which enables a determination of the regime of the current (inertial–buoyancy or viscous–buoyancy) in critical conditions, is determined experimentally for both $S=0$ and $S=1$. We conclude that a very significant generalization of the insights and results from two-dimensional (rectangular cross-section channel) gravity currents to power-law cross-sections is available.

The oscillatory flow around a spherical object lying on a rough bottom is investigated by means of direct numerical simulations of the continuity and Navier–Stokes equations. The rough bottom is simulated by a layer/multiple layers of spherical particles, the size of which is much smaller that the size of the object. The period and amplitude of the velocity oscillations of the free stream are chosen to mimic the flow at the bottom of sea waves and the size of the small spherical particles falls in the range of coarse sand/very fine gravel. Even though the computational costs allow only the simulation of moderate values of the Reynolds number characterizing the bottom boundary layer, the results show that the coherent vortex structures, shed by the spherical object, can break up and generate turbulence, if the Reynolds number of the object is sufficiently large. The knowledge of the velocity field allows the dynamics of the large-scale coherent vortices shed by the object to be determined and turbulence characteristics to be evaluated. Moreover, the forces and torques acting on both the large spherical object and the small particles, simulating sediment grains, can be determined and analysed, thus laying the groundwork for the investigation of sediment dynamics and scour developments.

In this paper a study of the energy-transfer processes associated with the motion of a viscous, heat-conducting fluid is begun. The class of motions considered are unsteady, two-dimensional, vortical flows. After developing simplified equations of motion and energy appropriate to this type of flow in the low Mach-number limit, general solutions of the momentum equations are presented.

The concept of a line impulse of angular momentum is introduced as an example of this class of motions for which a solution of the energy field is obtainable in closed form. The solution for the line impulse can be viewed as a combination of velocity, pressure, and temperature waves concurrently radiating from the origin of the impulse and decaying with time. Particular examples of the development of the energy field of the impulse in both liquids and gases are presented for selected values of Prandtl number. The energy-transfer processes are discussed in some detail, and the resulting differences in the energy fields for liquid gases are emphasized.

The use of a classical eddy parametrization in the analysis of continental boundary currents leads to the diffusion of momentum and relative vorticity and fails to recognize that the relevant eddies are dominated by the conservation of potential vorticity, which in turn may produce an increase in the mean relative vorticity. To illustrate this effect, we examine a non-inflected barotropic shear flow destabilized by the cross-steam variation in the bottom topògraphy of a continental slope. The finiteamplitude evolution of the waves is analysed in a simple model with a step-like bottom topography and with a piecewise-uniform potential vorticity distribution. The increase in maximum mean vorticity is computed for various values of the Rossby number and the topographic elevation, and it is suggested that a similar effect, taking into account the isopycnal topography as well as the isobaths, could maintain the large inshore shear of the Gulf Stream. Cross-shelf transport of different water ‘types’ (i.e. potential vorticity and passive tracers) are also computed and suggested to be pertinent to the more realistic oceanic problem involving baroclinic effects. The numerical calculation employs the well-known method of contour dynamics, and the Green's function appropriate for the step-like topography is derived.