We propose a method to model manoeuvres in self-propelled flexible-bodied fish by modelling the hydrodynamics coupled to the body inertia. Flexible body motion is prescribed and the equations of motion are solved for the position of the centre of mass and rotation of the body. The governing equations are formulated by applying the conservation of linear and angular momentum. Two independent methods to model the fluid dynamics are pursued: Model 1 is an extension of elongated-body theory, modified for self-propulsion and flexible motion. Model 2 applies a numerical boundary-element formulation with the fish modelled as an infinitely thin rectangular body. The manoeuvring response to an impulsive input is first examined to understand the rigid-body characteristics of the fish. A flexible bend action is included to model C-bends of the type observed during escapes in fish. Models 1 and 2 are used to cross-verify the respective implementations as well as to develop physical insights into manoeuvring. A parameter study shows that fish of intermediate body depths are best adapted to rapid turns whereas the initial dynamic state of the fish is instrumental in affecting the sign as well as the magnitude of the turn angle, for a prescribed bend deflection. Computations for combined swimming and turning show that the initial rigid-body dynamics of the fish is much more effective than the induced effect of the prior shed wake in enhancing the turning response.

The spectrum of the Batchelor vortex can be broadly split into a discrete spectrum, a potential spectrum and a free-stream spectrum where, since the last two spectra are both continuous, they can also be considered as one continuous spectrum. The discrete spectrum has been extensively studied but the continuous spectrum has received limited attention in the context of vortex flow. A local transient growth study is conducted and the contribution of the discrete spectrum and the continuous spectrum to the transient growth is separated by constructing optimal perturbations on the discrete or continuous sub-eigenspaces separately. It is found that the significant transient growth is mainly due to the non-normality of the continuous eigenmodes/spectrum whilst the discrete eigenmodes/spectrum have little contribution to the transient energy growth. A matrix-free method, which reduces to the local analysis when appropriate periodic boundary conditions are imposed, is also applied to investigate the transient growth in both a plane of constant azimuthal angle and a plane constant axial location. Previously studies by other authors have demonstrated that at zero azimuthal wavenumber the transient growth reaches infinitely large values over infinite time intervals while the optimal perturbations are located far from the vortex core. Therefore we limited our scope to small values of the time horizon so as to obtain reasonably strong transient effects stemming from physically relevant optimal perturbations. Two mechanisms of transient growth are observed: namely a redistribution of the azimuthal velocity to the azimuthal vorticity and interaction between out-of-vortex-core structures with those within the vortex core. A direct numerical simulation (DNS) of the vortex perturbed by optimal perturbations is conducted to investigate the nonlinear development of the optimal perturbations. In the azimuthally constant decomposed case, it is found that the optimal perturbation induces a string of bubble structures to be generated as a consequence of the non-orthogonality of continuous eigenmodes and the breakdown bubble is induced by viscous diffusion, while in the axially constant decomposition transient growth analysis, it is observed that the optimal perturbations associated with the continuous eigenmodes drive the vortex to vibrate around the initial vortex centre before eventually returning to its original position at larger times. This transient effect provides a mechanism for the ‘vortex meandering’ observed in previous experimental and numerical studies. These optimal perturbations associated with the continuous spectrum with out-of-vortex-core structures are observed to be activated by anisotropic inflow perturbations in the potential region.

This paper examines the effects of heat conduction in a wall on thermoacoustic-wave propagation in a gas, as a continuation of the previous paper (Sugimoto, J. Fluid Mech., 2010, vol. 658, pp. 89–116), enclosed in two-dimensional channels by a stack of plates or in a periodic array of circular tubes, both being subject to a temperature gradient axially and extending infinitely. Within the narrow-tube approximation employed previously, the linearized system of fluid-dynamical equations for the ideal gas coupled with the equation for heat conduction in the solid wall are reduced to single thermoacoustic-wave equations in the respective cases. In this process, temperatures of the gas and the solid wall are sought to the first order of asymptotic expansions in a small parameter determined by the square root of the product of the ratio of heat capacity of gas per volume to that of the solid, and the ratio of thermal conductivity of the gas to that of the solid. The effects of heat conduction introduce into the equation two hereditary terms due to triple coupling among viscous diffusion, thermal diffusion of the gas and that of the solid, and due to double coupling between thermal diffusions of the gas and solid. While the thermoacoutic-wave equations are valid always for any form of disturbances generally, approximate equations are derived from them for a short-time behaviour and a long-time behaviour. For the short-time behaviour, the effects of heat conduction are negligible, while for the long-time behaviour, they will affect the propagation as a wall becomes thinner. It is unveiled that when the geometry of the channels or the tubes, and the combination of the gas and the solid satisfy special conditions, the asymptotic expansions exhibit non-uniformity, i.e. a resonance occurs, and then the thermoacoustic-wave equations break down. Discussion is given on modifications in the resonant case by taking full account of the effects of heat conduction, and also on the effects on the acoustic fields.

A new regime of droplet ejection following the slow deposition of drops onto a near-complete wetting solid substrate is identified in experiments and direct numerical simulations; a coalescence cascade subsequent to pinch-off is also observed for the first time. Results of numerical simulations indicate that the propagation of capillary waves that lead to pinch-off is closely related to the self-similar behaviour observed in the inviscid recoil of droplets, and that motions of the crests and troughs of capillary waves along the interface do not depend on the wettability and surface tension (or Ohnesorge number). The simulations also show that a self-similar theory for universal pinch-off can be used for the time evolution of the pinching neck. However, although good agreement is also found with the double-cone shape of the pinching neck for droplet ejection in drop deposition on a pool of the same liquid, substantial deviations are observed in such a comparison for droplet ejection in rapid drop spreading (including the newly identified regime). This deviation is shown to result from interference by the solid substrate, a rapid downwards acceleration of the top of the drop surface and the rapid spreading process. The experiments also confirm non-monotonic spreading behaviour observed previously only in numerical simulations, and suggest substantial inertial effects on the relation between an apparent contact angle and the dimensionless contact-line speed.

The flow and sediment transport in the boundary layer at the sea bottom due to the passage of surface waves are determined by considering small values of the wave steepness and of the ratio between the thickness of the boundary layer and the local water depth. Both the velocity field and the sediment transport rate are determined up to the second order of approximation thus evaluating both the steady streaming and the net (wave-averaged) flux of sediment induced by nonlinear effects. The flow regime is assumed to be turbulent and a two-equation turbulence model is used to close the problem. The bed load is evaluated by means of an empirical relationship as function of the bed shear stress. The suspended load is determined by computing the sediment flux, once the sediment concentration is determined by solving an appropriate advection–diffusion equation. The decay of the wave amplitude, which is due to the energy dissipation taking place in the boundary layer, is taken into account. The steady streaming and the sediment transport rate at the bottom of sea waves turn out to be different from those which are observed in a wave tunnel (U-tube), because of the dependence on the streamwise coordinate of the former flow. In particular, in the range of the parameters presently investigated, the sediment transport rate at the bottom of sea waves is found to be always onshore directed while, in a water tunnel (U-tube), the sediment transport rate can be onshore or offshore directed.

In this work, we run a numerical experiment to study the behaviour of incompressible Newtonian fluids with anisotropic temperature-dependent viscosity in forced convection turbulence. We present a systematic analysis of variable-viscosity effects, isolated from gravity, with relevance for aerospace cooling/heating applications. We performed an extensive campaign based on pseudo-spectral direct numerical simulations of turbulent water channel flow in the Reynolds number parameter space. We considered constant temperature boundary conditions and different temperature gradients between the channel walls. Results indicate that average and turbulent fields undergo significant variations. Compared with isothermal flow with constant viscosity, we observe that turbulence is promoted in the cold side of the channel, characterized by viscosity locally higher than the mean: in the range of the examined Reynolds numbers and in absence of gravity, higher values of viscosity determine an increase of turbulent kinetic energy, whereas a decrease of turbulent kinetic energy is determined at the hot wall. Examining in detail the turbulent kinetic energy budget, we find that turbulence modifications are associated with changes in the rate at which energy is produced and dissipated near the walls: specifically, at the hot wall (respectively cold wall) production decreases (respectively increases) while dissipation increases (respectively decreases).

Direct numerical simulation (DNS) is used to study the behaviour of stably-stratified turbulent channel flow with temperature-dependent fluid properties: specifically, viscosity () and thermal expansion coefficient (). The governing equations are solved using a pseudo-spectral method for the case of turbulent water flow in a channel. A systematic campaign of simulations is performed in the shear Richardson number parameter space (, where is the Grashof number and the shear Reynolds number), imposing constant-temperature boundary conditions. Variations of are obtained by changing and keeping constant. Independently of the value of , all cases exhibit an initial transition from turbulent to laminar flow. A return transition to turbulence is observed only if is below a threshold value (which depends also on the flow Reynolds number). After the transient evolution of the flow, a statistically-stationary condition occurs, in which active turbulence and internal gravity waves (IGW) coexist. In this condition, the transport efficiency of momentum and heat is reduced considerably compared to the condition of non-stratified turbulence. The crucial role of temperature-dependent viscosity and thermal expansion coefficient is directly demonstrated. The most striking feature produced by the temperature dependence of viscosity is flow relaminarization in the cold side of the channel (where viscosity is higher). The opposite behaviour, with flow relaminarization occurring in the hot side of the channel, is observed when a temperature-dependent thermal expansion coefficient is considered. We observe qualitative and quantitative modifications of structure and wall-normal position of internal waves compared to previous results obtained for uniform or quasi-uniform fluid properties. From the trend we observe in the investigated low-Reynolds-number range, we can hypothesize that, whereas the effects of temperature-dependent viscosity may be masked at higher Reynolds number, the effects of temperature-dependent thermal expansion coefficient will persist.

High-resolution direct numerical simulations of isotropic homogeneous turbulence are used to understand the differences between the effects of spatial intermittency on the energy dissipation rate and on surrogates for the dissipation rate that are based on measurements of a subset of the strain rate tensor. In particular, the one-dimensional longitudinal and transverse surrogates, as well as a surrogate based on the asymmetric part of the strain rate tensor, are considered. The instantaneous surrogates are studied locally, locally averaged in space and conditionally averaged to see what statistics of the dissipation rate might accurately be inferred given measurements of the surrogates. The simulations with the Reynolds numbers based on the Taylor microscale of 102–235 are highly resolved for accurate evaluation of higher-order statistics. The probability densities of the local and locally averaged surrogates are significantly different from the corresponding statistics for the dissipation rate itself. All of the surrogates are more intermittent than the dissipation rate, the transverse surrogate is more intermittent than the longitudinal and these trends are still prominent even when the fields are spatially averaged at length scales close to the integral length scale. As a consequence, the intermittency exponent computed from the moments of the locally averaged longitudinal and transverse surrogates is approximately 1.5 and 2.2 times higher, respectively, than that computed by the same method from the dissipation rate field. In addition, while different methods of computing intermittency exponent from the dissipation rate field yield the same result, different methods applied to a surrogate are inconsistent.

We consider the classical problem of a single-layer homogeneous fluid at rest and a low, slowly varying, long and positive bottom obstacle, which is abruptly started from rest to move with a constant speed . As a result a system of transient waves will develop, and we assume that locally in the region over the obstacle dispersion can be ignored while nonlinearity cannot. The relevant governing equations for the near-field solution are therefore the nonlinear shallow water (NSW) equations. These are bidirectional and can be formulated in terms of a two-family system of characteristics. We analytically integrate and eliminate the backward-going family and achieve a versatile unidirectional single-family formulation, which covers subcritical, transcritical and supercritical conditions with relatively high accuracy. The formulation accounts for the temporal and spatial evolution of the bound waves in the vicinity of the obstacle as well as the development of the transient free waves generated at the onset of the motion. At some distance from the obstacle, dispersion starts to play a role and undular bores develop, but up to this point the new formulation agrees very well with numerical simulations based on a high-order Boussinesq formulation. Finally, we derive analytical asymptotic solutions to the new equations, providing estimates of the asymptotic surface levels in the vicinity of the obstacle as well as the crest levels of the leading non-dispersive free waves. These estimates can be used to predict the height and speed of the leading waves in the undular bores. The numerical and analytical solutions to the new single-family formulation of the NSW equations are compared to results based on the forced Korteweg–de Vries/Hopf equation and to numerical Boussinesq simulations.

The motion of spanwise vortical elements and large-scale bulges has been tracked in the outer region between wall-normal distance and 0.30 of a turbulent boundary layer at . The experimental dataset of time-resolved three-dimensional velocity fields used has been obtained by tomographic particle image velocimetry. The tracking of these structures yields their respective average trajectories as well as the variations thereof, quantified by the root mean square of the trajectory coordinates as a function of time. It is demonstrated that the variation in convection can be described by a dispersion model for infinitesimal particles in homogeneous turbulence, which suggests that these vortical structures and bulges are transported passively by the external velocity field without significant changes in their topology, at least over the present observation time of . However, this does not mean that the structure’s convection velocity is equal to the local flow velocity at each instant. Differences of the order of the Kolmogorov or wall friction velocity have been observed for the spanwise vortical elements. In addition, the simultaneous detection and tracking of multiple structures allows an evaluation of the relative velocity between two spanwise vortex elements, which are approximately aligned along the streamwise direction. The typical streamwise distance between such neighbouring structures is found to be around . Their relative velocities are small, especially the streamwise component, which shows less variation as may be expected based on the relative flow velocity statistics for the same separation distance. This appears consistent with the hairpin packet model, which comprises a set of streamwise aligned hairpins travelling coherently. In exceptional cases, however, the structures approach each other rapidly, forcing an interaction on a time scale of the order of . It is shown that the measured variation in convection velocity can further be used successfully to predict the temporal development of space–time correlation functions starting from the instantaneous correlation map. In this prediction the structures are assumed to convect without change, following our observations.

We argue that the hypothesis of preservation of shape of dimensionless second- and third-order correlations during decay of incompressible homogeneous magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) turbulence requires, in general, at least two independent similarity length scales. These are associated with the two Elsässer energies. The existence of similarity solutions for the decay of turbulence with varying cross-helicity implies that these length scales cannot remain in proportion, opening the possibility for a wide variety of decay behaviour, in contrast to the simpler classic hydrodynamics case. Although the evolution equations for the second-order correlations lack explicit dependence on either the mean magnetic field or the magnetic helicity, there is inherent implicit dependence on these (and other) quantities through the third-order correlations. The self-similar inertial range, a subclass of the general similarity case, inherits this complexity so that a single universal energy spectral law cannot be anticipated, even though the same pair of third-order laws holds for arbitrary cross-helicity and magnetic helicity. The straightforward notion of universality associated with Kolmogorov theory in hydrodynamics therefore requires careful generalization and reformulation in MHD.

A new formulation is presented of the nonlinear loads exerted on floating bodies by steep irregular surface waves. The forces and moments are expressed in terms of the time derivative of the fluid impulse which circumvents the time-consuming computation of the temporal and spatial derivatives in Bernoulli’s equation. The nonlinear hydrostatic force on a floating body is shown to point vertically upwards and the nonlinear Froude–Krylov force and moment are derived as the time derivative of an impulse that involves the time derivative of a simple integral of the ambient velocity potential over the time-dependent body wetted surface. The nonlinear radiation and diffraction forces and moments are expressed as time derivatives of two impulses, a body impulse and a free surface impulse that represents higher-order wave loads acting along the body waterline. Numerical results are presented illustrating the accuracy of the new force expressions. Applications discussed include the nonlinear seakeeping of ships and offshore platforms and the extreme wave loads and responses of offshore wind turbines.

We analyse the wind and boundary layer properties of turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection in a cylindrical container with aspect ratio one for Prandtl number and Rayleigh numbers () up to by means of highly resolved direct numerical simulations. We identify time periods in which the orientation of the large-scale circulation (LSC) is nearly constant in order to perform a statistical analysis of the LSC. The analysis is then reduced to two dimensions by considering only the plane of the LSC. Within this plane the LSC is treated as a wind with thermal and viscous boundary layers developing close to the horizontal plates. Special focus is on the spatial development of the wind magnitude and the boundary layer thicknesses along the bottom plate. A method for the local analysis of the instantaneous boundary layer thicknesses is introduced which shows a dramatically changing wind magnitude along the wind path. Furthermore a linear increase of the viscous and thermal boundary layer thickness along the wind direction is observed for all considered while their ratio is spatially constant but depends weakly on . A possible explanation is a strong spatial variation of the wind magnitude and fluctuations in the boundary layer region.

We propose a generalization of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) for optimal flow resolution of linearly related observables. This Galerkin expansion, termed ‘observable inferred decomposition’ (OID), addresses a need in aerodynamic and aeroacoustic applications by identifying the modes contributing most to these observables. Thus, OID constitutes a building block for physical understanding, least-biased conditional sampling, state estimation and control design. From a continuum of OID versions, two variants are tailored for purposes of observer and control design, respectively. Firstly, the most probable flow state consistent with the observable is constructed by a ‘least-residual’ variant. This version constitutes a simple, easily generalizable reconstruction of the most probable hydrodynamic state to preprocess efficient observer design. Secondly, the ‘least-energetic’ variant identifies modes with the largest gain for the observable. This version is a building block for Lyapunov control design. The efficient dimension reduction of OID as compared to POD is demonstrated for several shear flows. In particular, three aerodynamic and aeroacoustic goal functionals are studied: (i) lift and drag fluctuation of a two-dimensional cylinder wake flow; (ii) aeroacoustic density fluctuations measured by a sensor array and emitted from a two-dimensional compressible mixing layer; and (iii) aeroacoustic pressure monitored by a sensor array and emitted from a three-dimensional compressible jet. The most ‘drag-related’, ‘lift-related’ and ‘loud’ structures are distilled and interpreted in terms of known physical processes.

In large-eddy simulation (LES), it is often assumed that the filter width is equal to the grid spacing. Predictions from such LES are grid-spacing dependent since any subgrid-scale (SGS) model used in the LES equations is dependent on the resolved flow field which itself varies with grid spacing. Moreover, numerical errors affect the flow field, especially the smallest resolved scales. Thus, predictions using this approach are affected by both modelling and numerical choices. However, grid-spacing-independent LES predictions unaffected by numerical choices are necessary to validate LES models through comparison with a trusted template. First, such a template is created here through direct numerical simulation (DNS). Then, simulations are conducted using the conventional LES equations and also LES equations which are here reformulated so that the small-scale-producing nonlinear terms in these equations are explicitly filtered (EF) to remove scales smaller than a fixed filter width; this formulation is called EFLES. First, LES is conducted with four SGS models, then EFLES is performed with two of the SGS models used in LES; the results from all these simulations are compared to those from DNS and from the filtered DNS (FDNS). The conventional LES solution is both grid-spacing and spatial discretization-order dependent, thus showing that both of these numerical aspects affect the flow prediction. The solution from the EFLES equations is grid independent for a high-order spatial discretization on all meshes tested. However, low-order discretizations require a finer mesh to reach grid independence. With an eighth-order discretization, a filter-width to grid-spacing ratio of two is sufficient to reach grid independence, while a filter-width to grid-spacing ratio of four is needed to reach grid independence when a fourth- or a sixth-order discretization is employed. On a grid fine enough to be utilized in a DNS, the EFLES solution exhibits grid independence and does not converge to the DNS solution. The velocity-fluctuation spectra of EFLES follow those of FDNS independent of the grid spacing used, in concert with the original concept of LES. The reasons for the different predictions of conventional LES or EFLES according to the SGS model used, and the different characteristics of the EFLES predictions compared to those from conventional LES are analysed.

The differential migration of ions in an applied electric field is the basis for the separation of chemical species by capillary electrophoresis. Axial diffusion of the concentration peak limits the separation efficiency. Electromigration dispersion is observed when the concentration of sample ions is comparable to that of the background ions. Under such conditions, the local electrical conductivity is significantly altered in the sample zone making the electric field, and, therefore, the ion migration velocity, concentration dependent. The resulting nonlinear wave exhibits shock-like features and, under certain simplifying assumptions, is described by Burgers’ equation (Ghosal & Chen Bull. Math. Biol., vol. 72, 2010, p. 2047). In this paper, we consider the more general situation where the walls of the separation channel may have a non-zero zeta potential and are therefore able to sustain an electro-osmotic bulk flow. The main result is a one-dimensional nonlinear advection diffusion equation for the area averaged concentration. This homogenized equation accounts for the Taylor–Aris dispersion resulting from the variation in the electro-osmotic slip velocity along the wall. It is shown that in a certain range of parameters, the electro-osmotic flow can actually reduce the total dispersion by delaying the formation of a concentration shock. However, if the electro-osmotic flow is sufficiently high, the total dispersion is increased because of the Taylor–Aris contribution.

Four existing integral models of unsteady turbulent plumes are revisited. We demonstrate that none of these published models is ideal for general descriptions of unsteady behaviour and put forward a modified model. We show that the most recent (top-hat) plume model (Scase et al. J. Fluid Mech., vol. 563, 2006, p. 443), and the earlier (Gaussian) plume models (Delichatsios J. Fluid Mech., vol. 93, 1979, p. 241; Yu Trans. ASME, vol. 112, 1990, p.186), are all ill-posed. This ill-posedness arises from the downstream growth of short-scale waves, which have an unbounded downstream growth rate. We show that both the top-hat and the Gaussian (Yu) models can be regularized, rendering them well-posed, by the inclusion of a velocity diffusion term. The effect of including this diffusive mechanism is to include a vertical structure in the model that can be interpreted as representing the vertical extent of an eddy. The effects of this additional mechanism are small for steady applications, and cases where the plume forcing can be considered to follow a power law (both of which have been studied extensively). However, the inclusion of diffusion is shown to be crucial to the general initial-value problem for unsteady models.

We determine the inviscid dynamics of a point vortex in the vicinity of a flexible filament. For a wide range of filament bending rigidities, the filament is attracted to the point vortex, which generally moves tangentially to it. We find evidence that the point vortex collides with the filament at a critical time, with the separation distance tending to zero like a square root of temporal distance from the critical time. Concurrent with the collision, we find divergences of pressure loading on the filament, filament vortex sheet strength, filament curvature and velocity. We derive the corresponding power laws using the governing equations.

In several recent papers it has been established that the addition of a shear flow to a small-scale velocity field can enhance dynamo action. Many of these studies show that the growth rate of the magnetic energy increases linearly with the shear amplitude over a range of shears. In this paper it is shown analytically that for a variety of dynamo models and very large shear amplitudes , growth rates increase no faster than under plausible conditions on the amplitude of the remaining velocity.