Time-varying force/moment measurements and digital particle image velocimetry (DPIV) were conducted to reveal the influence of an advance ratio $J$ on an insect-like flapping wing. A scaled-up robotic model and a servo-driven towing tank were employed to investigate nine individual $J$ cases – $J=0$ (hovering), 0.0625, 0.1250, 0.1875, 0.25, 0.50, 0.75, 1.0 and $\infty$ (gliding motion) – at a high Reynolds number ($Re\sim 10^{4}$). At $J\leqslant 0.25$, the aerodynamic forces slightly increased from those in hover ($J=0$). The centres of pressure in these cases were concentrated in the outboard section, and the leading-edge vortices (LEVs) grew more conically than those in hover. Spanwise cross-sectional DPIV indicated that the wings generated more balanced downwashes, which effectively supported the slight lift increments in this range. At $J>0.25$, a drastic force drop appeared as $J$ increased. The DPIV results in the $J=0.5$ case clearly showed a strong trailing-edge vortex on the outboard trailing edges encroaching into the upper surface, which had been occupied by the LEV for lower $J$. The LEV vorticity was noticeably weakened, and coherent substructures with substantial turbulence accompanied this vorticity. In the $J=1.0$ case, such encroachment was extended to 50 % of the section, and the LEV outboard became significantly irregular. The near-wake structures also showed that the $J=1.0$ case had the narrowest downwash area, with unstable root and tip vortices, which reflected considerable attenuation in the lift enhancements. It was of note that all of these vortical behaviours were clearly distinguishable from aspect ratio ($AR$) effects. The $J$ even played a similar role to that of the $AR$ in the Navier–Stokes equation. These findings clearly indicated that the $J$ could be an independent quantity governing the overall vortical system and lift enhancing mechanism on a flapping wing of a flapping-wing micro air vehicle.

Despite a growing body of recent evidence on the hierarchical organization of the self-similar energy-containing motions in the form of Townsend’s attached eddies in wall-bounded turbulent flows, their role in turbulent skin-friction generation is currently not well understood. In this paper, the contribution of each of these self-similar energy-containing motions to turbulent skin friction is explored up to $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}\simeq 4000$. Three different approaches are employed to quantify the skin-friction generation by the motions, the spanwise length scale of which is smaller than a given cutoff wavelength: (i) FIK (Fukagata, Iwamoto, Kasagi) identity in combination with the spanwise wavenumber spectra of the Reynolds shear stress; (ii) confinement of the spanwise computational domain; (iii) artificial damping of the motions to be examined. The near-wall motions are found to continuously reduce their role in skin-friction generation on increasing the Reynolds number, consistent with the previous finding at low Reynolds numbers. The largest structures given in the form of very-large-scale and large-scale motions are also found to be of limited importance: due to a non-trivial scale interaction process, their complete removal yields only a 5–8 % skin-friction reduction at all of the Reynolds numbers considered, although they are found to be responsible for 20–30 % of total skin friction at $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}\simeq 2000$. Application of all the three approaches consistently reveals that the largest amount of skin friction is generated by the self-similar motions populating the logarithmic region. It is further shown that the contribution of these motions to turbulent skin friction gradually increases with the Reynolds number, and that these coherent structures are eventually responsible for most of turbulent skin-friction generation at sufficiently high Reynolds numbers.

In the ocean, stratification and rotation allow for the existence of inertia–gravity waves. Instabilities of these waves, such as triadic resonant instability (TRI), may play a key role in the mixing process of the deep ocean. In an experimental set-up, we generate inertia–gravity waves which may become unstable depending on the background rotation and wave frequency. The instability produces secondary waves that match the spatial and temporal resonance conditions of TRI. The effect of rotation is introduced in a pre-existing theory and results in a prediction of the growth rate of TRI in the case of an infinite plane wave. The issue of finite size of the beam is then addressed using a simple model in which we show that the instability is enhanced in a given range of Coriolis parameter. Finally, we compare the experimental threshold of the instability with the model, and find good agreement except at higher rotation rate. At constant primary wave frequency, we analyse the evolution of the secondary wave characteristics with rotation. The appearance of unexpected sub-inertial secondary waves may be related to the discrepancy observed between predicted and experimental thresholds at higher rotation.

An upper bound on the energy dissipation rate per unit mass, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}$, for pressure-driven flow through a channel with rough walls is derived for the first time. For large Reynolds numbers, $Re$, the bound – $\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}\leqslant cU^{3}/h$ where $U$ is the mean flow through the channel, $h$ the channel height and $c$ a numerical prefactor – is independent of $Re$ (i.e. the viscosity) as in the smooth channel case but the numerical prefactor $c$, which is only a function of the surface heights and surface gradients (i.e. not higher derivatives), is increased. Crucially, this new bound captures the correct scaling law of what is observed in rough pipes and demonstrates that while a smooth pipe is a singular limit of the Navier–Stokes equations (data suggest $\unicode[STIX]{x1D700}\sim 1/(\log Re)^{2}U^{3}/h$ as $Re\rightarrow \infty$), it is a regular limit for current bounding techniques. As an application, the bound is extended to oscillatory flow to estimate the energy dissipation rate for tidal flow across bottom topography in the oceans.

Numerical simulations of wall-bounded acceleration-skewed oscillatory flows are here presented. The relevance of this type of boundary layer arises in connection with coastal hydrodynamics and sediment transport, as it is generated at the bottom of sea waves in shallow water. Because of the acceleration skewness, the bed shear stress during the onshore half-cycle is larger than in the offshore half-cycle. The asymmetry in the bed shear stress increases with increasing acceleration skewness, while an increase of the Reynolds number from the laminar regime causes the asymmetry first to decrease and then increase. Low- and high-speed streaks of fluid elongated in the streamwise direction emerge near the wall, shortly after the beginning of each half-cycle, at a phase that depends on the flow parameters. Such flow structures strengthen during the first part of the accelerating phase, without causing a significant deviation of the streamwise wall shear stress from the laminar values. Before the occurrence of the peak of the free stream velocity, the low-speed streaks break down into small turbulent structures causing a large increase in wall shear stress. The ratio of the root-mean-square (r.m.s.) of the fluctuations to the mean value (relative intensity) of the wall shear stress is approximately 0.4 throughout a relatively wide interval of the flow cycle that begins when breaking down of the streaks has occurred in the entire fluid domain. The acceleration skewness and the Reynolds number determine the phase at which this time interval begins. Both the skewness and the flatness coefficients of the streamwise wall shear stress are large when elongated streaks are present, while values of approximately 1.1 and 5.4 respectively occur just after breaking has occurred. The trend of both the relative intensity and the flatness of the spanwise wall shear stress are qualitatively similar to those of the wall shear in the streamwise direction. As a result of the acceleration skewness, the period-averaged Reynolds stress does not vanish. Consequently, an offshore directed steady streaming is generated which persists into the irrotational region.

We consider long-term data from direct numerical simulations of turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection inside two-dimensional (2-D) square cells. For the range of Rayleigh numbers $Ra=10^{7}{-}10^{8}$ and Prandtl numbers $Pr=3.0{-}4.3$ considered, two types of flow regimes are observed: a regime consisting of consecutive reversals, when the global rotation switches sign; and a regime consisting of an extended cessation, when global rotation is absent. A filtering method discriminates these two regimes and allows us to identify two characteristic time scales for the former regime. A time rescaling is then used to tune our records to a common duration, thus putting into evidence a generic reversal cycle. This cycle is composed of three successive phases: acceleration, accumulation and release including a rebound event. We complement this view in terms of a global angular impulse, available mechanical energy, global kinetic energy and their corresponding transfer rates. For a particular realisation of a reversal, each phase is described in terms of the flow patterns (large diagonal roll, counter-rotating corner flows and thermal plumes) and tied to the corresponding energy processes. We conclude by performing linear as well as nonlinear stability studies to account for the triggering mechanism of the release.

The scaling laws for the reconnection of isolated pairs of quantised vortices are characterised by numerically integrating the three-dimensional Gross–Pitaevskii equations, the simplest mean-field equations for a quantum fluid. The primary result is the identification of distinctly different temporal power laws for the pre- and post-reconnection separation distances $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}(t)$ for two configurations. For the initially anti-parallel case, the scaling laws before and after the reconnection time $t_{r}$ obey the dimensional $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}\sim |t_{r}-t|^{1/2}$ prediction with temporal symmetry about $t_{r}$ and physical space symmetry about the mid-point between the vortices $x_{r}$. The extensions of the vortex lines close to reconnection form the edges of an equilateral pyramid. For all of the initially orthogonal cases, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}\sim |t_{r}-t|^{1/3}$ before reconnection and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FF}\sim |t-t_{r}|^{2/3}$ after reconnection are respectively slower and faster than the dimensional prediction. For both configurations, smooth scaling laws are generated due to two innovations. The first innovation is to use an initial low-energy vortex-core density profile that suppresses unwanted density fluctuations as the vortices evolve in time. The other innovation is the accurate identification of the position of the vortex cores from a pseudo-vorticity constructed on the three-dimensional grid from the gradients of the wave function. These trajectories allow us to calculate the Frenet–Serret frames and the curvature of the vortex lines, secondary results that might hold clues for the origin of the differences between the scaling laws of the two configurations. Reconnection takes place in a reconnection plane defined by the average tangents $\boldsymbol{T}_{av}$ and curvature normal $\boldsymbol{N}_{av}$ directions of the pseudo-vorticity curves at the points of closest approach, at time $t\approx t_{r}$. To characterise the structure further, lines are drawn that connect the four arms that extend from the reconnection plane, from which four angles $\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{i}$ between the lines are defined. Their sum is convex or hyperbolic, that is $\sum _{i=1,4}\unicode[STIX]{x1D703}_{i}>360^{\circ }$, for the orthogonal cases, as opposed to the acute angles of the pyramid found for the anti-parallel initial conditions.

We consider waves radiated by a disturbance of oscillating strength moving at constant velocity along the free surface of a shear flow, which, when undisturbed, has uniform horizontal vorticity of magnitude $S$. When no current is present the problem is a classical one and much studied, and in deep water a resonance is known to occur when $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}=|\boldsymbol{V}|\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{0}/g$ equals the critical value $1/4$ ($\boldsymbol{V}$: velocity of disturbance, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D714}_{0}$: oscillation frequency, $g$: gravitational acceleration). We show that the presence of a subsurface shear current can change this picture radically. Not only does the resonant value of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}$ depend strongly on the angle between $\boldsymbol{V}$ and the current’s direction and the ‘shear-Froude number’ $\mathit{Fr}_{s}=|\boldsymbol{V}|S/g$; when $\mathit{Fr}_{s}>1/3$, multiple resonant values – as many as four – can occur for some directions of motion. At sufficiently large values of $\mathit{Fr}_{s}$, the smallest resonance frequency tends to zero, representing the phenomenon of critical velocity for ship waves. We provide a detailed analysis of the dispersion relation for the moving oscillating disturbance, in both finite and infinite water depth, including for the latter case an overview of the different far-field waves which exist in different sectors of wave-vector space under different conditions. Owing to the large number of parameters, a detailed discussion of the structure of resonances is provided for infinite depth only, where analytical results are available.

Rayleigh–Bénard convection in rotating spherical shells can be considered as a simplified analogue of many astrophysical and geophysical fluid flows. Here, we use three-dimensional direct numerical simulations to study this physical process. We construct a dataset of more than 200 numerical models that cover a broad parameter range with Ekman numbers spanning $3\times 10^{-7}\leqslant E\leqslant 10^{-1}$, Rayleigh numbers within the range $10^{3}<Ra<2\times 10^{10}$ and a Prandtl number of unity. The radius ratio $r_{i}/r_{o}$ is 0.6 in all cases and gravity is assumed to be proportional to $1/r^{2}$. We investigate the scaling behaviours of both local (length scales, boundary layers) and global (Nusselt and Reynolds numbers) properties across various physical regimes from onset of rotating convection to weakly rotating convection. Close to critical, the convective flow is dominated by a triple force balance between viscosity, Coriolis force and buoyancy. For larger supercriticalities, a small subset of our numerical data approach the asymptotic diffusivity-free scaling of rotating convection $Nu\sim Ra^{3/2}E^{2}$ in a narrow fraction of the parameter space delimited by $6\,Ra_{c}\leqslant Ra\leqslant 0.4\,E^{-8/5}$. Using a decomposition of the viscous dissipation rate into bulk and boundary layer contributions, we establish a theoretical scaling of the flow velocity that accurately describes the numerical data. In rapidly rotating turbulent convection, the fluid bulk is controlled by a triple force balance between Coriolis, inertia and buoyancy, while the remaining fraction of the dissipation can be attributed to the viscous friction in the Ekman layers. Beyond $Ra\simeq E^{-8/5}$, the rotational constraint on the convective flow is gradually lost and the flow properties continuously vary to match the regime changes between rotation-dominated and non-rotating convection. We show that the quantity $RaE^{12/7}$ provides an accurate transition parameter to separate rotating and non-rotating convection.

We present a new adaptive control strategy to isolate and stabilize turbulent states in transitional, stably stratified plane Couette flow in which the gravitational acceleration (non-dimensionalized as the bulk Richardson number $Ri$) is adjusted in time to maintain the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) of the flow. We demonstrate that applying this method at various stages of decaying stratified turbulence halts the decay process and allows a succession of intermediate turbulent states of decreasing energy to be isolated and stabilized. Once the energy of the initial flow becomes small enough, we identify a single minimal turbulent spot, and lower-energy states decay to laminar flow. Interestingly, the turbulent states which emerge from this process have very similar time-averaged $Ri$, but TKE levels different by an order of magnitude. The more energetic states consist of several turbulent spots, each qualitatively similar to the minimal turbulent spot. This suggests that the minimal turbulent spot may well be the lowest-energy turbulent state which forms a basic building block of stratified plane Couette flow. The fact that a minimal spot of turbulence can be stabilized, so that it neither decays nor grows, opens up exciting opportunities for further study of spatiotemporally intermittent stratified turbulence.

An asymptotic theory is developed for the linear stability curve of rapidly rotating Taylor–Couette flow. The analytic curve obtained by the theory excellently explains the limiting Navier–Stokes stability result for general disturbances. When the cylinders are corotating, the asymptotic theory describes the gap between the neutral curve and the Rayleigh stability criterion. For the case when the cylinders are counter-rotating, it is found that, along the stability boundary, the Reynolds number based on the inner cylinder speed is proportional to that based on the outer cylinder speed to the power of $3/5$.

We investigate numerically the rotational behaviour of a circular porous particle suspended in a two-dimensional (2D) simple shear flow with fluid inertia at particle shear Reynolds number up to 108. We use the volume-averaged macroscopic momentum equation to formulate the flow field inside and outside the moving porous particle, which is solved by a modified single relaxation time lattice Boltzmann method. The effects of fluid inertia, confinement of the bounding walls, and permeability of the particle are studied. Our two-dimensional simulation results confirm that the permeability has little effect on the rotation of a porous particle in unbounded shear flow without fluid inertia (Masoud, Stone & Shelley, J. Fluid Mech., vol. 733, 2013, R6), but also suggest that the role of permeability cannot be neglected when the confinement effect is significant, or the fluid inertia is not negligible. The fluid inertia and the confined walls have similar effects on the rotation of a porous particle as that on a solid impermeable particle. The angular velocity decays with an increase in fluid inertia, and the confinement effect suppresses the angular velocity to a shear rate ratio below 0.5. A simple scaling argument based on the balance of torque exerted by fluid flows adjacent to the two bounding walls and that due to the flow recirculation can explain our results.

We consider the slow motion generated when a body is set into motion relative to an incompressible, inviscid, non-diffusive rotating stratified fluid, showing that there is generated in general a topographic Rossby wave which leads to non-decaying fluctuations in the lift on the obstacle and a fluctuating non-zero drag. The problem is relevant to the flow patterns and forces excited when slow oceanic flows cross bottom topography, and suggests a mechanism for slow fluctuations observed in laboratory experiments.