The effects of crossflow on the growth rate of inviscid Görtler vortices in a hypersonic boundary layer with pressure gradient are studied in this paper. Attention is focused on the inviscid mode trapped in the temperature adjustment layer; this mode has greater growth rate than any other mode at the minimum order of the Görtler number at which Görtler vortices may exist. The eigenvalue problem which governs the relationship between the growth rate, the crossflow amplitude and the wavenumber is solved numerically, and the results are then used to clarify the effects of crossflow on the growth rate of inviscid Görtler vortices. It is shown that crossflow effects stabilize Görtler vortices in different manners for incompressible and hypersonic flows. The neutral mode eigenvalue problem is found to have an exact solution, and as a byproduct, we have also found the exact solution to a neutral mode eigenvalue problem which was formulated, but unsolved before, by Bassom & Hall (1991).

We study the bifurcation structure of zonal flows on a rotating sphere. The setting of our problem is similar to the Kolmogorov problem on a flat torus, where the vorticity forcing is given by a single eigenfunction of the Laplacian. First we prove the global stability of two-jet zonal flow for arbitrary Reynolds number and the rotation rate of the sphere. Then we study the bifurcation structure of steady solutions arising from three-jet zonal flow. In the non-rotating case, we find that two steady travelling-wave solutions bifurcate from a three-jet zonal flow via Hopf bifurcation. As the Reynolds number increases, steady-travelling solutions arise via pitchfork bifurcation from the steady-travelling solutions. On the other hand, in the rotating case, we find saddle-node bifurcations and closed-loop branches. We carry out time integration to study the properties of unsteady solutions at high Reynolds numbers. In the non-rotating case, the unsteady solution is chaotic and it wanders around the steady-travelling solutions bifurcating from three-jet zonal flow. We show that a linear combination of the steady and steady-travelling solutions gives a good approximation of the zonal-mean zonal flow of the unsteady solution, suggesting that the chaotic solution at high Reynolds numbers exists mostly within a relatively low-dimensional space spanned by the steady and steady-travelling solutions, which become unstable at low Reynolds numbers.

The planar laminar flow resulting from the impingement of two gaseous jets of different density issuing into an open space from aligned steadily fed slot nozzles of semi-width $H$ separated by a distance $2L$ is investigated by numerical and analytical methods. Specific consideration is given to the high Reynolds and low Mach number conditions typically present in counterflow-flame experiments, for which the flow is nearly inviscid and incompressible. It is shown that introduction of a density-weighted vorticity–streamfunction formulation effectively reduces the problem to one involving two jets of equal density, thereby removing the vortex-sheet character of the interface separating the two jet streams. Besides the geometric parameter $L/H$, the solution depends only on the shape of the velocity profiles in the feed streams and on the jet momentum-flux ratio. While conformal mapping can be used to determine the potential solution corresponding to uniform velocity profiles, numerical integration is required in general to compute rotational flows, including those arising with Poiseuille velocity profiles, with simplified solutions found in the limits $L/H\ll 1$ and $L/H\gg 1$. The results are used to quantify the near-stagnation-point region, of interest in counterflow-flame studies, including the local value of the strain rate as well as the curvature of the separating interface and the variations of the strain rate away from the stagnation point.

Atmospheric turbulence is encountered frequently in flight and it creates oncoming flow disturbances of varying direction and magnitude for aircraft passing through turbulent zones. The unique measurement set-up on a motorised glider enables the investigation of the flow processes acting on a laminar wing section in flight through atmospheric turbulence. The expected quasi-steady aerofoil characteristics are deduced from an investigation of boundary-layer transition under calm flight conditions. Spanwise frequency–wavenumber spectra and comparisons with linear stability theory (LST) yield insight into the linear and weakly nonlinear stages of transition. Simultaneous measurement of the oncoming flow, characteristic flow quantities on the wing section and the motion of the aerofoil enables correlations between these quantities and provides insight into the unsteady flight physics. Emphasis is placed on the response of laminar–turbulent transition to moderate free-stream turbulence on both sides of the wing section. On the lower side of the aerofoil significant and rapid upstream fluctuations of transition are observed, which correspond closely to variations in the pressure distribution. Wavelet analysis is applied to gain insight into the composition of these streamwise excursions of the transition front in the time-pseudo-frequency domain. It is shown that they are driven by rapid transient base-flow changes and that transition is initiated by a short growth stage of Tollmien–Schlichting (TS) waves.

The present study aims at relating lift and drag to flow structures around a delta wing of elliptic section. Aerodynamic forces are analysed in terms of fluid elements of non-zero vorticity and density gradient. The flow regime considered is Mα = 0.6 ∼ 1.8 and α = 5° ∼ 19°, where Mα denotes the free-stream Mach number and α the angle of attack. Let ρ denote the density, u velocity, and ω vorticity. It is found that there are two major source elements Re(x) and Ve(x) which contribute about 95% or even more to the aerodynamic forces for all the cases under consideration, \[R_e({\bm x})=-\frac{1}{2} {\bm u}^2 \nabla\rho \cdot \nabla\phi\quad {\rm and}\quad V_e ({\bm x}) = -\rho{\bm u}\times {\bm \omega}\cdot \nabla\phi,\] where θ is an acyclic potential, generated by the delta wing moving with unit velocity in the negative direction of the force (lift or drag). All the physical quantities are non-dimensionalized. Detailed force contributions are analysed in terms of the flow structures and the elements Re(x) and Ve(x). The source elements Re(x) and Ve(x) are concentrated in the following regions: the boundary layer in front of (below) the delta wing, the primary and secondary vortices over the delta wing, and a region of expansion around the leading edge. It is shown that Ve(x) due to vorticity prevails as the source of forces at relatively low Mach number, Mα < 0.7. Above about Mα = 0.75, Re(x) due to compressibility generally becomes the dominating contributor to the lift, while the overall contribution from Ve(x) decreases with increasing Mα, and even becomes negative at Mα = 1.2 for the lift, and at a higher Mα for the drag. The analysis is carried out with the aid of detailed numerical results by solving the Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations, which are in close agreement with experiments in comparisons of the surface pressure distributions.

An acoustic line source is placed in the neighbourhood of a circular cylinder. Acoustic streaming is generated in a Stokes shear-wave layer, at the surface of the cylinder, beyond which it persists. It is the streaming outside the Stokes layer, for large values of a streaming Reynolds number, that is the subject of the present paper.

We derive a two-dimensional depth-averaged model for coastal waves with both dispersive and dissipative effects. A tensor quantity called enstrophy models the subdepth large-scale turbulence, including its anisotropic character, and is a source of vorticity of the average flow. The small-scale turbulence is modelled through a turbulent-viscosity hypothesis. This fully nonlinear model has equivalent dispersive properties to the Green–Naghdi equations and is treated, both for the optimization of these properties and for the numerical resolution, with the same techniques which are used for the Green–Naghdi system. The model equations are solved with a discontinuous Galerkin discretization based on a decoupling between the hyperbolic and non-hydrostatic parts of the system. The predictions of the model are compared to experimental data in a wide range of physical conditions. Simulations were run in one-dimensional and two-dimensional cases, including run-up and run-down on beaches, non-trivial topographies, wave trains over a bar or propagation around an island or a reef. A very good agreement is reached in every cases, validating the predictive empirical laws for the parameters of the model. These comparisons confirm the efficiency of the present strategy, highlighting the enstrophy as a robust and reliable tool to describe wave breaking even in a two-dimensional context. Compared with existing depth-averaged models, this approach is numerically robust and adds more physical effects without significant increase in numerical complexity.

This paper investigates the steady round laminar jet discharging into a coaxial duct when the jet Reynolds number, Rej, is large and the ratio of the jet radius to the duct radius, ε, is small. The analysis considers the distinguished double limit in which the Reynolds number Rea = Rejε for the final downstream flow is of order unity, when four different regions can be identified in the flow field. Near the entrance, the outer confinement exerts a negligible influence on the incoming jet, which develops as a slender unconfined jet with constant momentum flux. The jet entrains outer fluid, inducing a slow back flow motion of the surrounding fluid near the backstep. Further downstream, the jet grows to fill the duct, exchanging momentum with the surrounding recirculating flow in a slender region where the Reynolds number is still of the order of Rej. The streamsurface bounding the toroidal vortex eventually intersects the outer wall, in a non-slender transition zone to the final downstream region of parallel streamlines. In the region of jet development, and also in the main region of recirculating flow, the boundary-layer approximation can be used to describe the flow, while the full Navier–Stokes equations are needed to describe the outer region surrounding the jet and the final transition region, with Rea = Rejε entering as the relevant parameter to characterize the resulting non-slender flows.

This paper deals with perturbed unsteady laminar flows in a pipe. Three types of flows are considered: a flow accelerated from rest; a flow in a pipe generated by the controlled motion of a piston; and a water hammer flow where the transient is generated by the instantaneous closure of a valve. Methods of linear stability theory are used to analyse the behaviour of small perturbations in the flow. Since the base flow is unsteady, the linearized problem is formulated as an initial-value problem. This allows us to consider arbitrary initial conditions and describe both short-time and long-time evolution of the flow. The role of initial conditions on short-time transients is investigated. It is shown that the phenomenon of transient growth is not associated with a certain type of initial conditions. Perturbation dynamics is also studied for long times. In addition, optimal perturbations, i.e. initial perturbations that maximize the energy growth, are determined for all three types of flow discussed. Despite the fact that these optimal perturbations, most probably, will not occur in practice, they do provide an upper bound for energy growth and can be used as a point of reference. Results of numerical simulation are compared with previous experimental data. The comparison with data for accelerated flows shows that the instability cannot be explained by long-time asymptotics. In particular, the method of normal modes applied with the quasi-steady assumption will fail to predict the flow instability. In contrast, the transient growth mechanism may be used to explain transition since experimental transition time is found to be in the interval where the energy of perturbation experiences substantial growth. Instability of rapidly decelerated flows is found to be associated with asymptotic growth mechanism. Energy growth of perturbations is used in an attempt to explain previous experimental results. Numerical results show satisfactory agreement with the experimental features such as the wavelength of the most unstable mode and the structure of the most unstable disturbance. The validity of the quasi-steady assumption for stability studies of unsteady non-periodic laminar flows is discussed.

This international scientific workshop was organized in Lyon, France, from 10 to 12 May 2000. Its focus was ‘Two-point closures and their applications’, with the understanding that the analysis and design of such models requires expert knowledge coming from a wide range of areas in turbulence research, e.g. experiments, numerical simulations, asymptotic models, etc.

In the global challenge of turbulence modelling, two-point closures prove useful in many ways. Two-point correlations and spectra are useful measures of the distortion of the eddy structure of turbulence by stratification, large-scale strains, rotation, etc. In some cases, e.g. near boundaries, spectra can be drastically changed. In addition to the accurate characterization of turbulence, the explicit computation of two-point correlations or spectra shows how the internal dynamics of the various scales of motion are affected by such distortion, especially the cascade process on which the production/dissipation relationship depends. Distortion can be the cause of large departures from isotropic homogeneous turbulence, pulling turbulent flows far away from the local equilibrium that is often assumed. A rather weak departure can allow the use of linearized theories such as rapid distortion theory, for the applicability of which rational bounds may be estimated by comparisons with weakly nonlinear calculations. A different approach is necessary when dealing with larger departures, for instance due to growth of instabilities. In that case new physical or similarity arguments have to be employed to obtain a satisfactory description of the modification to the cascade process, which can even undergo reversal in the limit when three-dimensional turbulence becomes two-dimensional. Of course, significant changes in spectra have direct implications for one-point measures of turbulence – which can be explicitly derived by integration of two-point correlations – used in most industrial closure schemes. Such one-point models consequently need to be adapted when turbulence is strongly affected by distortion.

The interface formation model is applied to describe the initial stages of the coalescence of two liquid drops in the presence of a viscous ambient fluid whose dynamics is fully accounted for. Our focus is on understanding (a) how this model’s predictions differ from those of the conventionally used one, (b) what influence the ambient fluid has on the evolution of the shape of the coalescing drops and (c) the coupling of the intrinsic dynamics of coalescence and that of the ambient fluid. The key feature of the interface formation model in its application to the coalescence phenomenon is that it removes the singularity inherent in the conventional model at the onset of coalescence and describes the part of the free surface ‘trapped’ between the coalescing volumes as they are pressed against each other as a rapidly disappearing ‘internal interface’. Considering the simplest possible formulation of this model, we find experimentally verifiable differences with the predictions of the conventional model showing, in particular, the effect of drop size on the coalescence process. According to the new model, for small drops a non-monotonic time dependence of the bridge expansion speed is a feature that could be looked for in further experimental studies. Finally, the results of both models are compared to recently available experimental data on the evolution of the liquid bridge connecting coalescing drops, and the interface formation model is seen to give a better agreement with the data.

Recent experimental studies have shown rich transition behaviour in rotating plane Couette flow (RPCF). In this paper we study the transition in supercritical RPCF theoretically by determination of equilibrium and periodic orbit tertiary states via Floquet analysis on secondary Taylor vortex solutions. Two new tertiary states are discovered which we name oscillatory wavy vortex flow (oWVF) and skewed vortex flow (SVF). We present the bifurcation routes and stability properties of these new tertiary states and, in addition, we describe a bifurcation procedure whereby a set of defected wavy twist vortices is approached. Further to this, transition scenarios at flow parameters relevant to experimental works are investigated by computation of the set of stable attractors which exist on a large domain. The physically observed flow states are shown to share features with states in our set of attractors.

The three-dimensional mixing layer between two grazing perpendicular streams is investigated both theoretically and experimentally. Similar shear velocity profiles are present about 40 initial momentum thicknesses downstream of the splitter edges. Thereafter the velocity component in the resultant direction of the two streams is shown to be constant through the layer; the profile perpendicular to this (the shear direction) has approximately an error function form. The ratio of the maximum shear stress to the square of the shear velocity difference is about 50% greater than in a two-dimensional layer.

The flow of a rotating homogeneous incompressible fluid over a step is investigated. In the physical system considered the rotation axis is vertical and the step, which is assumed to be infinitely long, is located on a horizontal plane surface. Upstream of the step the fluid is in a uniform free stream motion at an angle α to a line perpendicular to the step axis. The analysis is restricted by the following: E [Lt ] 1, Ro ∼ E½, h/D ∼ E½, H/D ∼ E0, and cos α ∼ E0 where Ro and E are the Rossby and Ekman numbers and h/D and H/D are the step height to step width and water depth to step width ratios respectively. The flow field is shown to consist of interior geostrophic regions, Ekman layers on the horizontal surfaces and vertical shear layers located in the vicinity of vertical planes defined by the edges of the step. In the vertical layers there is a balance between the inertial, Coriolis, and pressure terms in the momentum equations while the effects of viscosity are found to be negligible. Downstream of the step the streamlines are shifted to the right (positive or Northern Hemisphere rotation) of their upstream locations by a distance of S = 2½(h/D) E−½ cos α. Experiments are presented which are in good agreement with the theory advanced.

It has previously been demonstrated that the drag experienced by a Poiseuille flow in a channel can be reduced by subjecting the flow to a dynamic regime of blowing and suction at the walls of the channel (also known as ‘transpiration’). Furthermore, it has been found to be possible to induce a ‘bulk flow’, or steady motion through the channel, via transpiration alone. In this work, we derive explicit asymptotic expressions for the induced bulk flow via a perturbation analysis. From this we gain insight into the physical mechanisms at work within the flow. The boundary conditions used are of travelling sine waves at either wall, which may differ in amplitude and phase. Here it is demonstrated that the induced bulk flow results from the effect of convection. We find that the most effective arrangement for inducing a bulk flow is that in which the boundary conditions at either wall are equal in magnitude and opposite in sign. We also show that, for the bulk flow induced to be non-negligible, the wavelength of the boundary condition should be comparable to, or greater than, the height of the channel. Moreover, we derive the optimal frequency of oscillation, for maximising the induced bulk flow, under such boundary conditions. The asymptotic behaviour of the bulk flow is detailed within the conclusion. It is found, under certain caveats, that if the amplitude of the boundary condition is too great, the bulk flow induced will become dependent only upon the speed at which the boundary condition travels along the walls of the channel. We propose the conjecture that for all similar flows, if the magnitude of the transpiration is sufficiently great, the bulk flow will depend only upon the speed of the boundary condition.

We consider rotating flows in non-axisymmetric enclosures that are driven by libration, i.e. by a small periodic modulation of the rotation rate. Thanks to its simplicity, this model is relevant to various contexts, from industrial containers (with small oscillations of the rotation rate) to fluid layers of terrestrial planets (with length-of-day variations). Assuming a multipolar $n$-fold boundary deformation, we first obtain the two-dimensional basic flow. We then perform a short-wavelength local stability analysis of the basic flow, showing that an instability may occur in three dimensions. We christen it the libration-driven multipolar instability (LDMI). The growth rates of the LDMI are computed by a Floquet analysis in a systematic way, and compared to analytical expressions obtained by perturbation methods. We then focus on the simplest geometry allowing the LDMI, a librating deformed cylinder. To take into account viscous and confinement effects, we perform a global stability analysis, which shows that the LDMI results from a parametric resonance of inertial modes. Performing numerical simulations of this librating cylinder, we confirm that the basic flow is indeed established and report the first numerical evidence of the LDMI. Numerical results, in excellent agreement with the stability results, are used to explore the nonlinear regime of the instability (amplitude and viscous dissipation of the driven flow). We finally provide an example of LDMI in a deformed spherical container to show that the instability mechanism is generic. Our results show that the previously studied libration-driven elliptical instability simply corresponds to the particular case $n= 2$ of a wider class of instabilities. Summarizing, this work shows that any oscillating non-axisymmetric container in rotation may excite intermittent, space-filling LDMI flows, and this instability should thus be easy to observe experimentally.

The thin helical vortex filament is one of the fundamental exact solutions possible under the local induction approximation (LIA). The LIA is itself an approximation to the non-local Biot–Savart dynamics governing the self-induced motion of a vortex filament, and helical filaments have also been considered for the Biot–Savart dynamics, under a variety of configurations and assumptions. We study the motion of such a helical filament in the Cartesian reference frame by determining the curve defining this filament mathematically from the Biot–Savart model. In order to do so, we consider a matched approximation to the Biot–Savart dynamics, with local effects approximated by the LIA in order to avoid the logarithmic singularity inherent in the Biot–Savart formulation. This, in turn, allows us to determine the rotational and translational velocity of the filament in terms of a local contribution (which is exactly that which is found under the LIA) and a non-local contribution, each of which depends on the wavenumber, $k$, and the helix diameter, $A$. Performing our calculations in such a way, we can easily compare our results to those of the LIA. For small $k$, the transverse velocity scales as $k^{2}$, while for large $k$, the transverse velocity scales as $k$. On the other hand, the rotational velocity attains a maximum value at some finite $k$, which corresponds to the wavenumber giving the maximal torsion.

The stability of a hydraulically driven sill flow in a rotating channel with smoothly varying cross-section is considered. The smooth topography forces the thickness of the moving layer to vanish at its two edges. The basic flow is assumed to have zero potential vorticity, as is the case in elementary models of the hydraulic behaviour of deep ocean straits. Such flows are found to always satisfy Ripa's necessary condition for instability. Direct calculation of the linear growth rates and numerical simulation of finite-amplitude behaviour suggests that the flows are, in fact, always unstable. The growth rates and nonlinear evolution depend largely on the dimensionless channel curvature κ=2αg′/f2, where 2α is the dimensional curvature, g′ is the reduced gravity, and f is the Coriolis parameter. Very small positive (or negative) values of κ correspond to dynamically wide channels and are associated with strong instability and the breakup of the basic flow into a train of eddies. For moderate or large values of κ, the instability widens the flow and increases its potential vorticity but does not destroy its character as a coherent stream. Ripa's condition for stability suggests a theory for the final width and potential vorticity that works moderately well. The observed and predicted growth in these quantities are minimal for κ≥1, suggesting that the zero-potential-vorticity approximation holds when the channel is narrower than a Rossby radius based on the initial maximum depth. The instability results from a resonant interaction between two waves trapped on opposite edges of the stream. Interactions can occur between two Kelvin-like frontal waves, between two inertia–gravity waves, or between one wave of each type. The growing disturbance has zero energy and extracts zero energy from the mean. At the same time, there is an overall conversion of kinetic energy to potential energy for κ>0, with the reverse occurring for κ<0. When it acts on a hydraulically controlled basic state, the instability tends to eliminate the band of counterflow that is predicted by hydraulic theory and that confounds hydraulic-based estimates of volume fluxes in the field. Eddy generation downstream of the controlling sill occurs if the downstream value of κ is sufficiently small.

This paper is a numerical analysis of the flow over a exible sail with the usual two-dimensional model of ideal weightless incompressible fluid. The sail is assumed to be impervious, inelastic and weightless, and may or may not be mounted on a mast. Separated or attached flows are considered at any angle of attack. Our method is validated by numerical and experimental results, i.e. the sail shape and velocity field are determined by particle imaging velocimetry, and lift and drag by aerodynamic balance. Despite the simplicity of the wake model we use (the Helmholtz model), the computed free streamline geometry and especially the sail shape are in good agreement with the experimental and numerical data.