Detailed three-dimensional phase-averaged measurements of the spanwise and streamwise vorticity formation and evolution in a forced mixing layer have been obtained. A plane two-stream mixing layer with a velocity ratio (U2/U1) of 0.6, a maximum Reynolds number (Reδ) of about 3150 and laminar initial boundary layers was generated in a mixing layer wind tunnel. Acoustic forcing, consisting of a fundamental roll-up frequency and its subharmonic, was used to phase-lock the initial development and first pairing of the spanwise vortical structures. For the first time, phase-averaged measurements of all three velocity components have been obtained on a three-dimensional grid, yielding the spanwise and streamwise vorticity distributions without invoking Taylor's hypothesis. The phase-averaged results show that the streamwise vorticity first appears in the form of ‘ribs’ just upstream of the first spanwise vortex roll-up. At the same time, the first spanwise roller becomes kinked, thus also contributing to the streamwise vorticity. As a result, in cross-stream cuts through the spanwise rollers, the streamwise vorticity appears in a ‘three-tier’ arrangement with opposite-signed vorticity in the centre. In terms of phase-averaged quantities, the maximum streamwise vorticity in the initial ribs is equivalent to about 10–15% of the peak spanwise vorticity and the streamwise rib circulation is equivalent to about 5–10% of the spanwise circulation. Further downstream, the peak streamwise vorticity decreases with increasing distance, while the average circulation remains approximately constant. Downstream of the pairing, the streamwise vorticity levels in the spanwise rollers are reduced. However, the spanwise spacing of the streamwise vortices does not increase within the measurement domain. Phase-averaged Reynolds stress measurements show that relatively high stress levels (periodic and random) were generated in the cores of the spanwise vortices.

We conduct direct numerical simulations (DNS) of the Cahn–Hilliard–Navier–Stokes (CHNS) equations to investigate the statistical properties of a turbulent phase-separating symmetric binary-fluid mixture. Turbulence causes an arrest of the phase separation which leads to the formation of a statistically steady emulsion. We characterise turbulent velocity fluctuations in an emulsion for different values of the Reynolds number and the Weber number. Our scale-by-scale kinetic energy budget analysis shows that the interfacial terms in the CHNS equations provide an alternative route for the kinetic energy transfer. By studying the probability distribution function (p.d.f.) of the energy dissipation rate, the vorticity magnitude and the joint-p.d.f. of the velocity-gradient invariants we show that the statistics of the turbulent fluctuations do not change with the Weber number.

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

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

This paper extends previous theoretical work on inextensible sails in two ways. First, the asymptotic expansion of sail camber in terms of the small angle of attack α is continued to include terms of order α3, because only at this order can one obtain information about the longitudinal static stability of a sail aerofoil. Secondly, to describe aerofoils such as those found in pterodactyl or bat wings, we also consider pretensioned membranes which acquire camber by stretching the surface material, or bending the supporting structure. Approximate formulae are derived for the aerodynamic coefficients in the limits of large and small tension, and the effect of sail and structural flexibility on these coefficients is discussed.

The role of radiative energy transfer in turbulent boundary layers is carefully analysed, focusing on the effect on temperature fluctuations and turbulent heat flux. The study is based on direct numerical simulations (DNS) of channel flows with hot and cold walls coupled to a Monte-Carlo method to compute the field of radiative power. In the conditions studied, the structure of the boundary layers is strongly modified by radiation. Temperature fluctuations and turbulent heat flux are reduced, and new radiative terms appear in their respective balance equations. It is shown that they counteract turbulence production terms. These effects are analysed under different conditions of Reynolds number and wall temperature. It is shown that collapsing of wall-scaled profiles is not efficient when radiation is considered. This drawback is corrected by the introduction of a radiation-based scaling. Finally, the significant impact of radiation on turbulent heat transfer is studied in terms of the turbulent Prandtl number. A model for this quantity, based on the new proposed scaling, is developed and validated.

Evolution of thermally stratified open channel flow after removal of a volumetric heat source is investigated using direct numerical simulation. The heat source models radiative heating from above and varies with height due to progressive absorption. After removal of the heat source the initial stable stratification breaks down and the channel approaches a fully mixed isothermal state. The initial state consists of three distinct regions: a near-wall region where stratification plays only a minor role, a central region where stratification has a significant effect on flow dynamics and a near-surface region where buoyancy effects dominate. We find that a state of local energetic equilibrium observed in the central region of the channel in the initial state persists until the late stages of the destratification process. In this region local turbulence parameters such as eddy diffusivity $k_{h}$ and flux Richardson number $R_{f}$ are found to be functions only of the Prandtl number $Pr$ and a mixed parameter ${\mathcal{Q}}$, which is equal to the ratio of the local buoyancy Reynolds number $Re_{b}$ and the friction Reynolds number $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}$. Close to the top and bottom boundaries turbulence is also affected by $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}$ and vertical position $z$. In the initial heated equilibrium state the laminar surface layer is stabilised by the heat source, which acts as a potential energy sink. Removal of the heat source allows Kelvin–Helmholtz-like shear instabilities to form that lead to a rapid transition to turbulence and significantly enhance the mixing process. The destratifying flow is found to be governed by bulk parameters $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}$, $Pr$ and the friction Richardson number $Ri_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}$. The overall destratification rate ${\mathcal{D}}$ is found to be a function of $Ri_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}$ and $Pr$.

Direct numerical simulations were performed to investigate the effect of severe contamination on interfacial gas transfer in the presence of isotropic turbulence diffusing from below. A no-slip boundary condition was employed at the interface to model the severe contamination effect. The influence of both Schmidt number ($Sc$) and turbulent Reynolds number ($R_{T}$) on the transfer velocity ($K_{L}$) was studied. In the range from $Sc=2$ up to $Sc=500$ it was found that $K_{L}\propto Sc^{-2/3}$, which is in agreement with predictions based on solid–liquid transport models, see e.g. Davies (1972, Turbulence Phenomena, Academic). For similar $R_{T}$, the transfer velocity was observed to reduce significantly compared with the free-slip conditions. The reduction becomes more pronounced with increasing Schmidt number. Similar to the observation for free-slip conditions made by Theofanous et al. (Intl J. Heat Mass Transfer, vol. 19 (6), 1976, pp. 613–624), the normalized $K_{L}$ in the present no-slip case was also found to depend on $R_{T}^{-1/2}$ and $R_{T}^{-1/4}$ for small and large turbulent Reynolds numbers, respectively.

The effect of viscosity on the trailing-wave system well downstream of a uniformly moving surface disturbance is determined. Solutions are obtained by series expansions in inverse powers of a Reynolds number and coefficients in the viscous exponential decay-factor found. It is seen that the diverging wave pattern is much more heavily damped than the transverse waves.

Results from an earlier experimental assessment of fractal scale similarity in one-dimensional spatial and temporal intersections in turbulent flows are here extended to two- and three-dimensional spatial intersections. Over 25000 two-dimensional (2562) intersections and nearly 40 three-dimensional (2563) intersections, collectively representing more than 2.3 billion data points, were analysed using objective statistical methods to determine which intersections were as fractal as stochastically scale-similar fractal gauge sets having the same record length. Results for the geometry of Sc [Gt ]1 scalar isosurfaces and the scalar dissipation support span the range of lengthscales between the scalar and viscous diffusion scales λD and λν. The present study finds clear evidence for stochastic fractal scale similarity in the dissipation support. With increasing intersection dimension n, the data show a decrease in the fraction of intersections satisfying the criteria for fractal scale similarity, consistent with the presence of localized non-fractal inclusions. Local scale similarity analyses on three-dimensional (643) intersections directly show such intermittent non-fractal inclusions with characteristic lengthscale comparable to λν. These inclusions lead to failure of the relation among codimensions Dn≡D−(3−n) when applied to simple average dimensions, which has formed the basis for most previous assessments of fractal scale-similarity. Unlike the dissipation support geometry, scalar isosurface geometries from the same data were found not to be as fractal as fractional Brownian motion gauge sets over the range of scales examined.

The evolution of the interface between two viscous fluid layers in a two-dimensional horizontal channel confined between two parallel walls is considered in the limit of Stokes flow. The motion is generated either by the translation of the walls, in a shear-driven or plane-Couette mode, or by an axial pressure gradient, in a plane-Poiseuille mode. Linear stability analysis for infinitesimal perturbations and fluids with matched densities shows that when the viscosities of the fluids are different and the Reynolds number is sufficiently high, the flow is unstable. At vanishing Reynolds number, the flow is stable when the surface tension has a non-zero value, and neutrally stable when the surface tension vanishes. We investigate the behaviour of the interface subject to finite-amplitude two-dimensional perturbations by solving the equations of Stokes flow using a boundary-integral method. Integral equations for the interfacial velocity are formulated for the three modular cases of shear-driven, pressure-driven, and gravity-driven flow, and numerical computations are performed for the first two modes. The results show that disturbances of sufficiently large amplitude may cause permanent interfacial deformation in which the interface folds, develops elongated fingers, or supports slowly evolving travelling waves. Smaller amplitude disturbances decay, sometimes after a transient period of interfacial folding. The ratio of the viscosities of the two fluids plays an important role in determining the morphology of the emerging interfacial patterns, but the parabolicity of the unperturbed velocity profile does not affect the character of the motion. Increasing the contrast in the viscosities of the two fluids, while keeping the channel capillary number fixed, destabilizes the interfaces; re-examining the flow in terms of an alternative capillary number that is defined with respect to the velocity drop across the more-viscous layer shows that this is a reasonable behaviour. Comparing the numerical results with the predictions of a lubrication-flow model shows that, in the absence of inertia, the simplified approach can only describe a limited range of motions, and that the physical relevance of the steadily travelling waves predicted by long-wave theories must be accepted with a certain degree of reservation.

Experimental results for dissociating nitrogen flow over a wedge, obtained in a free-piston shock tunnel, are described. Interferograms of the flow show clearly the curvature of the shock wave and the rise in fringe shift after the shock associated with the dissociation. It is shown that the shock curvature a t the tip of the wedge can be used to calculate the initial dissociation rate and that it is a more sensitive indication of the rate than can be obtained from fringe shift measurements under the prevailing experimental conditions. Because the free-stream dissociation fraction can be adjusted in the shock tunnel, the dependence on atomic nitrogen concentration of the dissociation rate can be determined by the shock curvature method. A detailed calculation of the flow field by an inverse method, starting from the measured shock shape, shows good agreement with experiments.

In this study, the flow dynamics and heat transfer in partially filled pin-based microchannel heat sinks (MCHS) are examined. The lattice Boltzmann method is used to analyse the physics of these systems and examine the effects of the flow, pin configuration, size and porous medium height. The results of the study reveal that, unlike the fully filled pin-based MCHS, there is no unique behaviour for the pin configuration effects and the performance of partially filled pin-based MCHS depends on the porous medium size and structure as well as the inertial forces in the flow. In particular, it is found that there are hydrodynamic and thermal-based critical porous medium heights at which the best performance in terms of heat removal switches from the inline to the staggered configuration. The dependence of these critical heights on the Reynolds number and the porous medium properties are analysed and the effects of the flow dynamics are further unravelled through a particle tracing technique. Furthermore, a simple flow model is developed, and is shown to capture well the main trends obtained from the simulations and to bring to light more of the system physics that help explain the interplay between the different parameters.

In Couette flow between coaxial cylinders, ring-shaped vortices, illustrated schematically in figure 1, develop at a Reynolds number which depends strongly on the geometry of the system, as treated analytically for Newtonian fluids by Chandrasekhar (1958). The problem was first considered by Taylor (1923) who, examining simple (micromolecular) liquids, arrived at an equation for the critical Reynolds number Rei above which instability (vortex formation) would occur when the inner cylinder rotated and the outer is stationary, and when the gap is small compared to the radius.

Experiments and theory show that hydrodynamic instabilities can arise during flow of viscoelastic liquids in curved geometries. A recent study has found that a relatively weak steady transverse flow can delay the onset of instability in the circular Couette geometry until the azimuthal Weissenberg number Weθ is significantly higher than without axial flow. In this work we investigate the effect of superposition of a time-periodic axial Couette flow on the viscoelastic circular Couette and Dean flow instabilities. The analysis, carried out for the upper-convected Maxwell and Oldroyd-B fluids, generally shows increased stability compared to when there is no axial flow. However, we also find that the system shows instability – synchronous resonance – for some values of the axial Weissenberg number, Wez and forcing frequency ω. In particular, instability can be induced not only when ω is of the order of the inverse relaxation time of the fluid but also when it is much smaller. Scaling arguments and numerical results indicate that the high-ω, low-Wez regime is essentially equivalent to Wez=0 in the steady case, implying no stabilization. At high values of ω and Wez, scaling analysis shows that the flow will always be stable. Numerical results are in agreement with these conclusions. Consistent with previous results on parametrically forced systems, we find that the zero-frequency limit is singular. In this limit, the disturbances display quiescent intervals punctuated by periods of large transient growth and subsequent decay.

This study also presents linear and nonlinear stability results for the addition of steady axial Couette and Poiseuille flows to viscoelastic instabilities in azimuthal Dean flows. It is shown that, for high Wez, the qualitative effect of adding a steady axial flow is similar to that in the circular Couette geometry, with a linear relationship between the critical Weθ and Wez. For low Wez, we find that the flow is stabilized, unlike in the circular Couette flow where the critical value of Weθ decreases at low Wez. Further, weakly nonlinear analysis shows that the criticality of the bifurcation depends on the value of Wez and the solvent viscosity, S. Finally, we also show the presence of a codimension-2 Takens–Bogdanov bifurcation point in the linear stability curve of Dean flow. This point represents a transition from one mechanism of instability to another.

Jet-like surface waves generated by an electric-spark-generated underwater bubble are experimentally studied. Three different motions of jet-like surface waves are observed depending on the inception position of the bubble ($d$: 0.28–7 mm) below the free surface and the maximum radius of the bubble ($R_{m}$: 1.5–3.6 mm). When $d/R_{m}>1.3$, the surface wave shows a simple smooth hump (case 1). When $0.82<d/R_{m}<1.3$, a single droplet or multiple droplets are pinched off sequentially or simultaneously at the tip or from some points of the jet-like surface wave (case 2). Finally, when $d/R_{m}<0.82$, a series of squirting and jetting phenomena are observed at the top of the jet-like surface wave (case 3). For case 1, a proportional relationship is found between $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}gh/\unicode[STIX]{x0394}p$ and $(d/R_{m})^{-4.4}$, where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}$ is the density of the fluid, $g$ is the gravitational acceleration and $\unicode[STIX]{x0394}p$ is the difference between the reference atmospheric pressure and the vapour pressure inside a bubble. This proportional relationship is explained semi-analytically using a scaling argument and conservation of momentum and energy, with the help of the Kelvin impulse theory. In addition, we solve the relevant axisymmetric Cauchy–Poisson problem where the initial condition is a jet-like surface wave near its maximum height. By comparing the analytical wave solution with the observed surface wave pattern, it is found that the resultant surface waves are indeed gravity–capillary waves where both the gravity and the surface tension are equally important.

A complete nonlinear self-similar solution that characterizes the impact of two liquid wedges symmetric about the velocity direction is obtained assuming the liquid to be ideal and incompressible, with negligible surface tension and gravity effects. Employing the integral hodograph method, analytical expressions for the complex potential and for its derivatives are derived. The boundary value problem is reduced to two integro-differential equations in terms of the velocity modulus and angle to the free surface. Numerical results are presented in a wide range of wedge angles for the free surface shapes, streamline patterns, and pressure distributions. It is found that the splash jet may cause secondary impacts. The regions with and without secondary impacts in the plane of the wedge angles are determined.

The dissolution of a single droplet, containing a mixture of oils, in water is experimentally studied. The oils in the droplet varied in terms of their solubility in water and their hydrophobicity. We demonstrate that the polarity of the droplet constituents strongly influences the dissolution dynamics. A binary-component droplet, containing two polar components (one soluble the other insoluble) exhibits a retarded dissolution as compared to a droplet containing only the soluble component. We argue that in this case the mixture in the droplet can be assumed homogeneous, leading to a smaller effective contact area of the soluble liquid in the droplet with the bulk water, and thus delayed dissolution. On the other hand, it is shown that this is not the case when a polar, soluble component is mixed with an insoluble non-polar component, in which case segregation between the different liquids inside the droplet occurs, leading to Marangoni flows and superspreading of the droplet. The segregation is confirmed by volumetric measurements and by the use of a solvatochromic dye in combination with confocal microscopy, which clearly showed that during dissolution local concentration differences inside the droplet developed.

We present simultaneous two-dimensional velocity and scalar measurements on a central vertical plane in an axisymmetric pure turbulent plume. We use an edge-detection algorithm to determine the edge of the plume, and compare the data obtained in both a fixed Eulerian frame and a frame relative to local coordinates defined in terms of the instantaneous plume edge. In an Eulerian frame we observe that the time-averaged distributions of vertical and horizontal velocity are self-similar, the vertical velocity being well represented by a Gaussian distribution. We condition these measurements on whether fluid is inside or outside of the plume, and whether fluid inside is mixed plume fluid or engulfed ambient fluid. We find that, on average, 5 % of the total vertical volume transport occurs outside the plume and this figure rises to nearly 14 % at heights between large-scale coherent structures. We show that the fluxes of engulfed fluid within the plume envelope are slightly larger than the vertical transport outside the plume – indicating that ambient fluid is engulfed into the plume envelope before being nibbled across the turbulent/non-turbulent interface (TNTI) and then ultimately irreversibly mixed. Our new measurements in the plume coordinate (following the meandering fluctuating plume) show the flow within the plume and in the nearby ambient fluid is strongly influenced by whether an eddy is present locally within the plume, or absent. When an eddy is present and the plume is wide, the vertical velocities near the plume edge are small and hence all vertical transport is inside the plume. In regions where the plume is narrow and there is no eddy, large vertical velocities and hence transport are observed outside the plume suggesting that pressure forces associated with the eddies accelerate ambient fluid which is then engulfed into the plume. Finally, we show that observing significant vertical velocities beyond the scalar edge of the plume does not suggest that the characteristic width of the velocity distribution is greater than that of the scalar field; on the contrary, we show our observations to be consistent with a buoyancy distribution that is up to 20 % wider than that of the velocity. Measurements in the plume coordinates show that the mixing of momentum across the plume results in a distribution for which the differential entropy is close to maximal and the mixing of momentum is uninhibited (i.e. not bounded) by the TNTI of the plume. Furthermore, our measurements suggest that the scalar mixing across the plume may also result in a distribution for which the differential entropy is close to maximal but, in contrast to the momentum, the scalar mixing is strictly bounded by the plume edge.