The increase in hypervelocity launcher velocities, the tendency for models to become more fragile and the use of sabot techniques has made it increasingly more important to reduce peak accelerations during the launch phase. At the same time a high acceleration must be maintained to enable a launcher barrel of reasonable length to be used. This paper considers the theoretical design of a launcher to give constant acceleration to the model. A similarity solution is found for the launcher barrel and the solution is extended to the first stage of the launcher. Departure from ideal gas laws is also discussed and the theory is extended to include the effect of molecular volume. The motion of the driving piston in the first stage is considered in detail and techniques to ensure that the piston motion results in constant base pressure on the model are presented.

The steady and quasi-steady motion achieved in a rotating stratified sphere of fluid is studied in the context of a linearized Boussinesq model. In certain parameter ranges an explicit expression is obtained for the flow field as a functional of the surface stress. The non-singular interior solution is used to examine the behaviour of the boundary layer close to the equator. The results agree with previous conclusions about the behaviour of a rotating stratified fluid in simpler geometries. Viewing the problem as a simple model for the interior core of the sun, this work indicates a solar spin-down time that is within the lifetime of the sun.

High-resolution direct numerical simulations are used to investigate freely decaying two-dimensional turbulence. We focus on the interplay between coherent vortices and vortex filaments, the second of which give rise to an inertial range. We find that Batchelor's prediction for the inertial-range enstrophy spectrum Eω(k, t) ~ β2/3k−1, where β is the enstrophy dissipation rate, is reasonably well satisfied once the turbulence is fully developed, but that the assumptions which underpin the usual interpretation of his theory are not valid. For example, the lack of a quasi-equilibrium cascade means the enstrophy flux Πω(k) is highly non-uniform throughout the inertial range, thus the common assumption that β can act as a surrogate for Πω(k) becomes questionable. We present a variant of Batchelor's theory which accounts for the wavenumber-dependence of Πω; in particular we propose Eω(k, t) ~ Πω(k1)2/3k−1, where k1 is the wavenumber marking the start of the observed k−1 region of the enstrophy spectrum. This provides a better collapse of the data and, unlike Batchelor's original theory, can be justified on theoretical grounds. The basis for our proposal is the observation that the straining of the vortex filaments, which fuels the enstrophy flux through the inertial range, comes almost exclusively from the strain field of the coherent vortices, and this can be characterized by Πω(k1)1/3. Thus Eω(k) is a function of only k and Πω(k1) in the inertial range, and dimensional analysis then yields Eω ~ Πω(k1)2/3k−1. We also confirm the prediction by Davidson (Phys. Fluids, vol. 20, 2008, 025106) that in the inertial range Πω varies as Πω(k)/Πω(k1) = 1 − a−1 ln(k/k1), where a is a constant of order 1. This corresponds to ∂Eω/∂t ~ k−1. Surprisingly, the measured enstrophy fluxes imply that the dynamics of the inertial range as defined by the behaviour of Πω extend to wavenumbers much smaller than k1, but this is masked in Eω(k, t) by the presence of coherent vortices which also contribute to Eω in this region. In fact, we find that kEω(k, t) ≈ H(k) + A(t), or ∂Eω/∂t ~ k−1 in this extended low-k region, where H(k) is almost independent of time and represents the signature of the coherent vortices. In short, the inertial range defined by ∂Eω/∂t ~ k−1 or Πω(k) ~ ln(k) is much broader than the observed Eω ~ k−1 region.

We develop a reduced-order model for large-scale unsteadiness (vortex shedding) in a two-dimensional diffuser and use the model to show how periodic mass injection near the separation point reduces stagnation pressure loss. The model estimates the characteristic frequency of vortex shedding and stagnation pressure loss by accounting for the accumulated circulation due to the vorticity flux into the separated region. The stagnation pressure loss consists of two parts: a steady part associated with the time-averaged static pressure distribution on the wall, and an unsteady part caused by vortex shedding. To validate the model, we perform numerical simulations of compressible unsteady laminar diffuser flows in two dimensions. The model and simulation show good agreement as we vary the Mach number and the area ratio of the diffuser. To investigate the effects of periodic mass injection near the separation point, we also perform simulations over a range of the injection frequencies. Periodic mass injection causes vortices to be pinched off with a smaller size as observed in experiments. Consequently, their convective velocity is increased, absorption of circulation from the wall is enhanced, and the reattached point is shifted upstream. Thus, in accordance with the model, the stagnation pressure loss, particularly the unsteady part, is substantially reduced even though the separation point is nearly unchanged. This study helps explain experimental results of separation control using unsteady mass injection in diffusers and on airfoils.

Theoretical arguments suggest that progressive gravity waves incident on a vertical wall can produce periodic standing waves only if the incident wave steepness ak is quite small, certainly less than 0.284. Laboratory experiments are carried out in which an incident wave train of almost uniform amplitude meets a vertical barrier. At wave steepnesses greater than 0.236 the resulting motion near the barrier is non-periodic. A growing instability is observed in which every third wave crest is steeper than its neighbours. The steep waves develop sharp crests, or vertical jets. The two neighbouring crests are rounded, at-topped, or of intermediate form. The instability grows by a factor of about 2.2 for every three wave periods, almost independently of the incident wave steepness.

Turbulent two-phase plumes consisting of a continuous phase of entrained fluid and a dispersed phase, in the form of buoyant droplets/bubbles, are investigated. Chemical reaction or dissolution causes both a decrease in the size of the droplets/bubbles and a change in the buoyancy of the plume. The behaviours of such a plume in environments with uniform and stratified density are considered. We show that the dynamics of the plume are determined by two dimensionless groups: $N/ T$ and $G/ T$. Here, $N$ is the buoyancy frequency of the environment, $G$ measures the ability of the reaction to change buoyancy and $T$ reflects the effect of reaction on the size of the droplets/bubbles. We identify four regimes of behaviour of a plume in a stratified environment depending on whether the dominant effect on buoyancy arises from reaction or stratification, and on the occurrence of either multiple or single zero-buoyancy levels. For a uniform environment, perturbation solutions for the fluxes of volume, momentum, buoyancy and chemical species as a function of ascent distance are obtained. We apply our findings to understand the dynamics of both of the cases of a release of methane and a release of carbon dioxide in the ocean. For a methane release in the Gulf of Mexico, the motion of the plume is shown to be controlled by external density stratification for a bubble diameter of methane above ${\sim }1$–2 mm. In the case of a carbon dioxide release in the Norwegian Sea, dissolution determines the motion of the plume when the bubble diameter is smaller than ${\sim }0. 5$–3.5 cm. In both scenarios, the plume releases seawater enriched with the chemical at multiple levels.

This paper examines the core–annular flow of two immiscible fluids in a straight circular tube with a small corrugation, in the limit where the ratio ε of the mean undisturbed annulus thickness to the mean core radius and the corrugation (characterized by the parameter σ) are both asymptotically small and where the surface tension is small. It is motivated by the problems of liquid–liquid displacement in irregular rock pores such as occur in secondary oil recovery and in the evolution of the liquid film lining the bronchii in the lungs whose diameters vary over different generations of branching. We investigate the asymptotic base flow in this limit and consider the linear stability of its leading order (in the corrugation parameter) solution. For the chosen scalings of the non-dimensional parameters the core's base flow slaves that of the annulus. The equation governing the leading-order interfacial position for a given wall corrugation function shows a competition between shear and capillarity. The former tends to align the interface shape with that of the wall and the latter tends to introduce a phase shift, which can be of either sign depending on whether the circumferential or the longitudinal component of capillarity dominates. The asymptotic linear stability of this leading-order base flow reduces to a single partial differential equation with non-constant coefficients deriving from the non-uniform base flow for the time evolution of an interfacial disturbance. Examination of a single mode k wall function allows the use of Floquet theory to analyse this equation. Direct numerical solutions of the above partial differential equation agree with the predictions of the Floquet analysis. The resulting spectrum is periodic in α- space, α being the disturbance wavenumber space. The presence of a small corrugation not only modifies (at order σ2) the primary eigenvalue of the system. In addition, short-wave order-one disturbances that would be stabilized flowing to capillarity in the absence of corrugation can, in the presence of corrugation and over time scales of order ln(1/σ), excite higher wall harmonics (α±nk) leading to the growth of unstable long waves. Similar results obtain for more complicated wall shape functions. The main result is that a small corrugation makes a core–annular flow unstable to far more disturbances than would destabilize the same uncorrugated flow system. A companion paper examines that competition between this added destabilization due to pore corrugation with the wave steepening and stabilization in the weakly nonlinear regime.

This paper presents an experimental study of internal waves generated by circular and rectilinear oscillations of a circular cylinder in a uniformly stratified fluid. The synthetic schlieren technique is used for quantitative analysis of the internal-wave parameters. It is shown that at small oscillation amplitudes, the wave pattern observed for circular oscillations is in good agreement with linear theory: internal waves are radiated in the wave beams passing through the first and third quadrants of a Cartesian coordinate system for the clockwise direction of the cylinder motion, and the intensity of these waves is twice the intensity measured for ‘St Andrew's cross’ waves generated by purely horizontal or vertical oscillations of the same frequency and amplitude. As the amplitude of circular oscillations increases, significant nonlinear effects are observed: (i) a strong density-gradient ‘zero-frequency’ disturbance is generated, and (ii) a region of intense fluid stirring is formed around the cylinder serving as an additional dissipative mechanism that changes the shape of wave envelopes and decreases the intensity of wave motions. In the same range of oscillation amplitudes, the wave generation by rectilinear (horizontal and vertical) oscillations is shown to be by and large a linear process, with moderate manifestations of nonlinearity such as weak ‘zero-frequency’ disturbance and weak variation of the shape of wave envelopes with the oscillation amplitude. Analysis of spatiotemporal images reveals different scenarios of transient effects in the cases of circular and rectilinear oscillations. In general, circular oscillations tend to generate disturbances evolving at longer time scales.

Instability waves in a laminar planar jet are extracted using hybrid unsteady-flow simulation combining particle tracking velocimetry (PTV) and direct numerical simulation (DNS). Unsteady velocity fields on a laser sheet in a water tunnel are measured with time-resolved PTV; subsequently, PTV velocity fields are rectified in a least squares sense so that the equation of continuity is satisfied, and they are transplanted to a two-dimensional incompressible Navier–Stokes solver by setting a multiple of the computational time step equal to the frame rate of the PTV system. As a result, the unsteady hybrid velocity field approaches that of the measured one over time, and we can simultaneously acquire the unsteady pressure field. The resultant set of flow quantities satisfies the governing equations, and their resolution is comparable to that of numerical simulation with the noise level much lower than the original PTV data. From hybrid unsteady velocity fields, we extract eigenfunctions using bi-orthogonal decomposition as a spatial problem for viscous instability. We also investigate stability/convergence characteristics of the hybrid simulation referring to linear stability analysis.

Compressibility profoundly affects many aspects of turbulence in high-speed flows, most notably stability characteristics, anisotropy, kinetic–potential energy interchange and spectral cascade rate. We develop a unified framework for modelling pressure-related compressibility effects by characterizing the role and action of pressure in different speed regimes. Rapid distortion theory is used to examine the physical connection between the various compressibility effects leading to model form suggestions for pressure–strain correlation, pressure–dilatation and dissipation evolution equations. The closure coefficients are established using fixed-point analysis by requiring consistency between model and DNS asymptotic behaviour in compressible homogeneous shear flow. The closure models are employed to compute high-speed mixing layers and boundary layers. The self-similar mixing-layer profile, increased Reynolds stress anisotropy and diminished mixing-layer growth rates with increasing Mach number are all well captured. High-speed boundary-layer results are also adequately replicated even without the use of advanced thermal-flux models or low-Reynolds-number corrections.

Stratified cocurrent flow of air and water was studied experimentally in a 5 cm diameter horizontal pipe. The velocity in the liquid phase was measured using planar particle image velocimetry, and the instantaneous interfacial profile was recorded using a separate camera. The resulting velocity fields extended from the pipe wall to the wavy interface. The principal aims of the study were to investigate the laminar–turbulent transition of the liquid phase in stratified gas–liquid flow, and to explore the interaction between the transition process and the interfacial waves. The boundaries of transition were determined in both the smooth and the wavy region. The occurrence of waves had the effect of increasing the Reynolds numbers at the end of transition. On the other hand, the transition to turbulence caused a change from the ‘2D small-amplitude’ to the ‘3D small-amplitude’ wave pattern, which were seen to correspond to the capillary–gravity and gravity–capillary solutions of the dispersion relationship respectively. In light of this, the flowmap of the wavy region was recast into Weber number–Froude number coordinates, which provided a physical interpretation of the interaction between the developing turbulence and the changing wave patterns.

Transonic high-Reynolds-number flows through channels which are so narrow that the classical boundary-layer approach fails locally are considered in the presence of a weak stationary normal shock. As a consequence, the properties of the inviscid core and the viscosity-dominated boundary-layer region can no longer be determined in subsequent steps but have to be calculated simultaneously in a small interaction region. Under the requirement that the core-region flow should be considered to be one-dimensional to the leading order the resulting problem of shock–boundary-layer interaction is formulated by the means of matched asymptotic expansions for laminar flows of dense gases (Bethe–Zel'dovich–Thompson, or BZT, fluids). Such fluids have the distinguishing feature that the fundamental derivative of gas dynamics can become negative or even change sign under the thermodynamic conditions to be considered. The regularizing properties of the mechanism of viscous–inviscid interactions on the different anomalous shock forms possible in the flow of dense gases with mixed nonlinearity, namely rarefaction, sonic, double-sonic and split shocks, will be discussed. To this end we show the consistency of the resulting internal-shock profiles because of strong shock–boundary-layer interaction with a generalized shock admissibility criterion formulated for the case of purely inviscid flows. Representative solutions for the internal-shock structures are presented, and the importance of such flow phenomena in technical applications in the near future are shortly discussed by considering estimates of the actual dimensions of the interaction region for a specific representative situation in which the BZT fluid PP10 (C13F22) has been selected.

This paper is focused on the investigation of vortex rings evolving in a tube. A new theoretical model for a confined axisymmetric vortex ring is developed. The predictions of this model are shown to be in agreement with available experimental data and numerical simulations. The model combines the viscous vortex ring model, developed by Kaplanski & Rudi (Phys. Fluids, vol. 17, 2005, 087101), with Brasseur’s (PhD thesis, Stanford University) approach to deriving a wall-induced streamfunction correction. Using the power-law assumption for the time variation of the viscous length of the vortex ring, the time variations of the main integral characteristics, circulation, kinetic energy and translational velocity are obtained. Direct numerical simulation (DNS) is used to test the range of applicability of the model and to investigate new physical features of confined vortex rings recently reported in the experimental study by Stewart et al. (Exp. Fluids, vol. 53, 2012, pp. 163–171). The model is shown to lead to a very good approximation of the spatial distribution of the Stokes streamfunction, obtained by DNS. The vortex signature and the time evolution of the energy of the vortex are also accurately predicted by the model. A procedure for fitting the model with realistic vortex rings, obtained by DNS, is suggested. This opens the way to using the model for practical engineering applications.

The non-linear stability of hydromagnetic flows is investigated by applying energy methods. A universal stability estimate, namely a stability limit for motions subject to arbitrary non-linear disturbances, is obtained for bounded or periodic domains. Our analysis is restricted to fluids possessing constant density and electrical conductivity and we do not take into account temperature or Hall effects. This result establishes the existence of an open region of certain stability near the origin of the $(\tilde{R}_e, \tilde{R}_m)$ Cartesian plane for every fixed Pm (where $(\tilde{R}_e, \tilde{R}_m)$ and Pm are the Reynolds number, magnetic Reynolds number and magnetic Prandtl number, respectively). The universal stability limit can then be improved by suitably defining a maximum problem using variational techniques, and obtaining the relevant Euler–Lagrange equations. The tentative solution to this problem gives a stability limit which enlarges the universal stability region. Our results are then compared with linear and experimental ones, with special emphasis given to the role played by the magnetic field.

A wide range of initial-value problems in fluid mechanics in particular, and in the physical sciences in general, are described by nonlinear partial differential equations. Recourse must often be made to numerical solutions, but a powerful, well-established technique is to solve the problem in terms of similarity variables. A disadvantage of the similarity solution is that it is almost always independent of any specific initial conditions, with the solution to the full differential equation approaching the similarity solution for times $t\gg t_{\ast }$, for some $t_{\ast }$. But what is $t_{\ast }$? In this paper we consider the situation of viscous gravity currents and obtain useful formulae for the time of approach, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}(p)$, for a number of different initial shapes, where $p$ is the percentage disagreement between the radius of the current as determined by the full numerical solution of the governing partial differential equation and the similarity solution normalised by the similarity solution. We show that for any initial shape of volume $V,\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}\propto 1/(\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}V^{1/3}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{0}^{8/3}p)$ (as $p\downarrow 0$), where $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FD}=g\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}/(3\unicode[STIX]{x1D707})$, with $g$ representing the acceleration due to gravity, $\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}$ the density difference between the gravity current and the ambient, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}$ the dynamic viscosity of the fluid that makes up the gravity current and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FE}_{0}$ the initial aspect ratio. This framework can used in many other situations, including where it is not an initial condition (in time) that is studied but one valid for specified values at a special spatial coordinate.

Here we show that weakly nonlinear flexural-gravity wave packets, such as those propagating on the surface of ice-covered waters, admit three-dimensional fully localized solutions that travel with a constant speed without dispersion or dissipation. These solutions, that are formed at the intersection of line-soliton mean-flow tracks, have exponentially decaying tails in all directions and are called dromions in contrast to lumps that decay only algebraically. We derive, by asymptotic expansion and assuming multiple scales for spatial and temporal variations, the three-dimensional weakly nonlinear governing equations that describe the coupled motion of the wavepacket envelope and the underlying mean current. We show that in the limit of long waves and strong flexural rigidity these equations reduce to a system of nonlinear elliptic–hyperbolic partial differential equations similar to the Davey–Stewartson I (DSI) equation, but with major differences in the coefficients. Specifically, and contrary to DSI equations, the elliptic and hyperbolic operators in the flexural-gravity equations are not canonical resulting in complications in analytical considerations. Furthermore, standard computational techniques encounter difficulties in obtaining the dromion solution to these equations owing to the presence of a spatial hyperbolic operator whose solution does not decay at infinity. Here, we present a direct (iterative) numerical scheme that uses pseudo-spectral expansion and pseudo-time integration to find the dromion solution to the flexural-gravity wave equation. Details of this direct simulation technique are discussed and properties of the solution are elaborated through an illustrative case study. Dromions may play an important role in transporting energy over the ice cover in the Arctic, resulting in the ice breaking far away from the ice edge, and also posing danger to icebreaker ships. In fact we found that, contrary to DSI dromions that only exist in water depths of less than 5 mm, flexural-gravity dromions exist for a broad range of ice thicknesses and water depths including values that may be realized in polar oceans.

The Reynolds stress associated with the adjustment of two-dimensional isotropic eddies subject to a large-scale shear flow is examined in a series of initial-value calculations in a periodic channel. Several stages in the temporal evolution of the stress can be identified. Initially, there is a brief period associated with quasi-passive straining of the eddy field in which the net Reynolds stress and the associated eddy viscosity remain essentially zero. In spectral space this is characterized by mutual cancellation of contributions to the Reynolds stress at high and low eddy wavenumbers. Subsequently, eddy–eddy interactions produce a tendency to restore isotropy at higher eddy wavenumbers, leading to an overall positive eddy viscosity associated with the dominant contribution to the Reynolds stress at low eddy wavenumbers. These results are consistent with theoretical predictions of positive eddy viscosity for initially isotropic homogeneous two-dimensional turbulence. Due to the inverse cascade, the accumulation with time of energy at the scale of the channel produces a competing tendency to negative eddy viscosity associated with linear shearing of the disturbances. This finite-domain effect may become dominant if the nonlinearity of the eddy field is relatively weak.

A time-stepping numerical model of uniform circular orbital flow around a cylinder provides results which are compared with the steady-state predictions of a boundary-layer solution by Riley. At small amplitudes of motion excellent agreement is found in most respects, but in the numerical model the outer recirculating flow and related components of loading do not reach a steady state after any finite time. At a Stokes parameter β of 500, the boundary-layer approach remains reasonably accurate for amplitudes of motion up to about 8 % of the cylinder diameter; for amplitudes up to twice this at the same value of β the flow remains largely attached. The strength of the outer recirculating flow is enhanced by nonlinear interactions, but the computed nonlinear loading exceeds that observed in experiments. Flow visualization shows a three-dimensional structure in the flow, and it is argued that this has an important effect on the loading that cannot yet be predicted. A computed force component at a frequency of about 30 % of that of the ambient flow is related to the retrogressive motion of vortex structures around the cylinder.

The motion of a spherical particle suspended in an incompressible Newtonian fluid flowing longitudinally between hexagonally arranged circular cylinders has been numerically analysed by a finite-element method in the Stokes flow regime. The results are applied to study the diffusive and convective transport of spherical solutes across the vascular endothelial surface glycocalyx, based on the quasi-periodic ultrastructural model. The obtained values of diffusive permeability and reflection coefficient of the solutes show a reasonable agreement with experimental observations, and conform to the hypothesis that the endothelial surface glycocalyx forms the primary size selective structure to solutes in microvascular permeability.

We perform an experimental study to investigate the turbulent boundary layer above a stationary solid glass bed in the absence of mean shear. High Reynolds number $(Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}\sim 300)$ horizontally homogeneous isotropic turbulence is generated via randomly actuated synthetic jet arrays (RASJA – Variano & Cowen J. Fluid Mech. vol. 604, 2008, pp. 1–32). Each of the arrays is controlled by a spatio-temporally varying algorithm, which in turn minimizes the formation of secondary mean flows. One array consists of an $8\times 8$ grid of jets, while the other is a $16\times 16$ array. Particle image velocimetry measurements are used to study the isotropic turbulent region and the boundary layer formed beneath as the turbulence encounters a stationary wall. The flow is characterized with statistical metrics including the mean flow and turbulent velocities, turbulent kinetic energy, integral scales and the turbulent kinetic energy transport equation, which includes the energy dissipation rate, production and turbulent transport. The empirical constant in the Tennekes (J. Fluid Mech. vol. 67, 1975, pp. 561–567) model of Eulerian frequency spectra is calculated based on the dissipation results and temporal frequency spectra from acoustic Doppler velocimetry measurements. We compare our results to prior literature that addresses mean shear free turbulent boundary layer characterizations via grid-stirred tank experiments, moving-bed experiments, rapid-distortion theory and direct numerical simulations in a forced turbulent box. By varying the operational parameters of the randomly actuated synthetic jet array, we also find that we are able to control the turbulence levels, including integral length scales and dissipation rates, by changing the mean on-times in the jet algorithm.