This study investigates the propagation of a semi-infinite buoyancy-driven hydraulic fracture in situations when the fluid is able to solidify along the crack walls. Such problems occur when hot magma ascends from a chamber due to buoyancy forces and solidifies by interacting with colder rock. In the model, the solidification rate is calculated assuming a one-dimensional heat transfer problem, in which case it becomes mathematically equivalent to Carter’s leak-off model, which is commonly used to describe the fluid leak-off from a hydraulic fracture into a porous rock formation. In order to construct a mathematical model for a buoyancy-driven hydraulic fracture with solidification, the aforementioned thermal problem is combined with (i) linear plane-strain elasticity to ensure equilibrium of the rock surrounding the fracture, (ii) linear elastic fracture mechanics to determine the fracture propagation, (iii) lubrication theory to capture the viscous fluid flow inside the crack and to account for the effect of buoyancy, and (iv) volume balance of the magma. To address the problem, the governing equations are first rewritten in terms of one integral equation with a non-singular kernel, which significantly simplifies the analysis and the procedure for obtaining a numerical solution. The latter solution is shown to obey a multiscale behaviour near the fracture tip that is fully resolved by the numerical scheme. In order to understand the structure of the solution and to quantify the regimes of propagation (and the associated transitions), a thorough analysis of the problem has been performed. Finally, the developments are applied to investigate the non-steady propagation of a buoyancy-driven fracture that is fed by a constant flux.

Computations of the breakup of a liquid bridge are used to establish the limits of applicability of similarity solutions derived for different breakup regimes. These regimes are based on particular viscous–inertial balances, that is, different limits of the Ohnesorge number $Oh$. To accurately establish the transitions between regimes, the minimum bridge radius is resolved through four orders of magnitude using a purpose-built multiscale finite element method. This allows us to construct a quantitative phase diagram for the breakup phenomenon which includes the appearance of a recently discovered low-$Oh$ viscous regime. The method used to quantify the accuracy of the similarity solutions allows us to identify a number of previously unobserved features of the breakup, most notably an oscillatory convergence towards the viscous–inertial similarity solution. Finally, we discuss how the new findings open up a number of challenges for both theoretical and experimental analysis.

We present direct numerical simulation (DNS) of a stationary turbulent hydraulic jump with inflow Froude number of 2, Weber number of 1820 and density ratio of 831, consistent with ambient water–air systems, all based on the inlet height and inlet velocity. A non-dissipative geometric volume of fluid (VOF) method is used to track the detailed interactions between turbulent flow structures and the nonlinear interface dynamics. Level set equations are also solved concurrent with VOF in order to calculate the interface curvature and surface tension forces. The mesh resolution is set to resolve a wide range of interfacial scales including the Hinze scale. Calculations are compared against experimental data of void fraction and interfacial scales indicating, reasonable agreement despite a Reynolds number mismatch. Multiple calculations are performed confirming weak sensitivity of low-order statistics and void fraction on the Reynolds number. The presented results provide, for the first time, a comprehensive quantitative data for a wide range of phenomena in a turbulent breaking wave using DNS. These include mean velocity fields, Reynolds stresses, turbulence production and dissipation, velocity spectra and air entrainment data. In addition, we present the energy budget as a function of streamwise location by keeping track of various energy exchange processes in the wake of the jump. The kinetic energy is mostly transferred to pressure work, potential energy and dissipation while surface energy plays a less significant role. Our results indicate that the rate associated with various energy exchange processes peak at different streamwise locations, with exchange to pressure work flux peaking first, followed by potential energy flux and then dissipation. The energy exchange process spans a streamwise length of order ${\sim}10$ jump heights. Furthermore, we report statistics associated with bubble transport downstream of the jump. The bubble formation is found to have a periodic nature. Meaning that the bubbles are generated in patches with a specific frequency associated with the roll-up frequency of the roller at the toe of the jump, with its footprint apparent in the velocity energy spectrum. Our study also provides the ensemble-averaged statistics of the flow which we present in this paper. These results are useful for the development and validation of reduced-order models such as dissipation models in wave dynamics simulations, Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes models and air entrainment models.

Segregation of polydisperse granular materials occurs in many natural and industrial settings, but general theoretical modelling approaches with predictive power have been lacking. Here we describe a model capable of accurately predicting segregation for both discrete and continuous particle size distributions based on a generalized expression for the percolation velocity. The predictions of the model depend on the kinematics of the flow and other physical parameters such as the diffusion coefficient and the percolation length scale, quantities that can be determined directly from experiment, simulation or theory and that are not arbitrarily adjustable. The model is applied to heap and chute flow, and the resulting predictions are consistent with experimentally validated discrete element method (DEM) simulations. Several different continuous particle size distributions are considered to demonstrate the broad applicability of the approach.

The paper presents a model of a cerebral vascular system including two types of vessel networks (arterial and venous) joined by a porous medium as a substitute to a microcapillary system. The aim of the paper is to reproduce numerically experimental data on endovascular measurements of fluid velocity and pressure in the afferent artery and the efferent vein of the arteriovenous malformation (AVM). The suggested model qualitatively simulates all the main features of the experimental $vp$-diagrams: presence of the time shift between velocity and pressure waves, semicircular shape of the diagram, difference in the direction of circulation in the arterial and venous parts and upper-left drift of the diagram during the embolisation of the AVM. The velocity–pressure time shift is analysed on the modelling example of pulsation flow within a vessel in a cylindrical porous medium. The demonstrated adequacy of the model allows its further use for simulation of various strategies of AVM treatment, haemorrhage risk estimations, etc.

Unsteadiness in noise amplifier flows is driven and sustained by upstream environmental perturbations. A dynamic mode decomposition performed with snapshots taken in the statistically steady state extracts marginally stable dynamic modes, which mimic the sustained dynamics but miss the actual intrinsic stable behaviour of these flows. In this study, we present an alternative data-driven technique which attempts to identify and separate the intrinsic linear stable behaviour from the driving term. This technique uses a system-identification algorithm to extract a reduced state-space model of the flow from time-dependent input–output data. Such a model accurately predicts the values of the velocity field (output) from measurements of an upstream sensor that captures the effect of the incoming perturbations (input). The methodology is illustrated on a two-dimensional boundary layer subject to Tollmien–Schlichting instabilities, a canonical example of flow acting as a noise amplifier. The spectrum of the identified model compares well with the results reported in literature for the full-order system. Yet the comparison appears to be only qualitative, due to the poor robustness properties of eigenvalue spectra in noise-amplifier flows. We therefore advocate the use of the frequency response between the upstream sensor and the flow dynamics, which is revealed to be a robust quantity. The frequency response is validated against full-order computations and compares well with a local spatial stability analysis.

A one-dimensional global mode analysis is conducted for low-speed water jets emanating from a circular orifice in microgravity, in which the observed spontaneous convective instability causes almost periodic jet disintegrations at a fixed location for each jet-issue speed that exceeds a certain threshold. The inviscid spatial linear stability analysis identifies four wave modes excitable at the frequency: the Plateau–Rayleigh (PR) unstable wave, its complex conjugate and two neutral waves which may transfer energy upstream. Their linear combination satisfying the orifice exit condition may describe the synchronised reproduction of a PR unstable wave from each neutral wave at the orifice exit. On the other hand, a weakly nonlinear analysis shows that the growth of the nonlinear PR unstable wave produces the two neutral waves near the orifice. Thus, the same PR unstable wave can be reproduced on a newly issued liquid surface owing to the neutral waves produced by its own nonlinear growth. This self-destabilising loop, dominantly operating for the most unstable PR wave, determines the initial PR unstable wave amplitude and, consequently, the breakup length as a function of jet-issue speed. The predicted initial amplitude of the PR unstable wave is in reasonably good agreement with the value calculated from the average breakup length measured in our microgravity experiments. It is found that that the loop consists mainly of the downstream- and upstream-moving neutral waves at relatively high and low jet speeds, respectively. The stability of the self-destabilising loop is also discussed.

We investigate statistically steady states of turbulent flows when molecular degrees of freedom, in particular vibration, are taken into account. Unlike laminar flows initially in thermal non-equilibrium which asymptotically relax towards thermal equilibrium, turbulent flows present persistent departures from thermal equilibrium. This is due to fluctuations in temperature and other thermodynamic variables, which are known to increase with turbulent Mach number. Analytical results are compared to direct numerical simulations at a range of Reynolds and Mach numbers as well as molecular parameters such as relaxation times. Turbulent fluctuations are also shown to disrupt the distribution of energy between translational–rotational–vibrational modes even if thermal equilibrium is attained instantaneously relative to turbulence time scales, an effect that increases with characteristic relaxation times. Because of the nonlinear relation between temperature and vibrational energy in equilibrium, the fluctuation of the latter could be strongly positively skewed with long tails in its probability density function. This effect is stronger in flows with strong temperature fluctuations and when vibrational modes are partially excited. Because of the finite-time relaxation of vibration, departures from equilibrium result in very strong transfers of energy from the translational–rotational mode to the vibrational mode. A simple spectral model can explain the stronger departures from thermal equilibrium observed at the small scales. The spectral behaviour of the instantaneous vibrational energy can be described by classical phenomenology for passive scalars.

Energy concentration and loss due to a violent collapsing bubble are essential phenomena to many applications such as cavitation erosion, biomedical ultrasonics, sonochemistry, cavitation cleaning and underwater explosions. It has been generally known that the energy of a bubble system is radiated away as an acoustic wave and dissipated by viscosity. However, there is no study in the scientific literature on the time history of the energy of a bubble system in a compressible flow. Here we have introduced the local energy of a non-spherical bubble system, consisting of the energy of the interior gas, the interface and the exterior liquid in the inner asymptotic region. The local energy determines the local bubble and flow dynamics, including the concentration of energy, stress and momentum. We obtain a simple formula for the radiated energy associated with acoustic radiation in terms of the bubble volume history. We perform calculations of the energy history for a transient bubble in a compressible liquid in an infinite domain, subject to buoyancy and near a rigid boundary, respectively. Our calculations show that the local energy of a transient bubble follows a step function in time, being nearly conserved for most of each cycle of oscillation but decreasing rapidly and significantly at bubble inception and at the end of collapse, due to the emission of steep pressure waves or shock waves. The loss of the local energy of the bubble system due to the emission of steep pressure waves and the associated damping of the bubble oscillation are diminished by buoyancy effects and decrease with the buoyancy parameter. Similarly, the loss of the local energy of a bubble system is diminished by the presence of a rigid boundary and decreases with the proximity of the bubble to the boundary. We also analyse the energy concentration of single bubble sonoluminescence in a standing acoustic wave.

Numerical simulations and perturbation analysis of a radially imploding laminar premixed flame are used to study the mechanisms responsible for the generation of pressure fluctuations at flame fronts for various Lewis numbers. The relative importance of mechanisms based on unsteady heat release and on vorticity is investigated using an optimization methodology. Particular attention is paid to the influence of non-axisymmetric conditions and local flame curvature. It is shown that vorticity-based noise generation prevails for high-wavenumber, non-axisymmetric disturbances at all curvatures, while heat-release-driven noise generation dominates the axisymmetric and low-wavenumber regimes. These results indicate that short-wavelength vorticity waves actively participate in flame acoustic activity and can surpass acoustic output mechanisms based on heat-release fluctuations in the vicinity of the flame front.

Many previous studies have shown that the turbulent mixing layer under periodic forcing tends to adopt a lock-on state, where the major portion of the fluctuations in the flow are synchronized at the forcing frequency. The goal of this experimental study is to apply closed-loop control in order to provoke the lock-on state, using information from the flow itself. We aim to determine the range of frequencies for which the closed-loop control can establish the lock-on, and what mechanisms are contributing to the selection of a feedback frequency. In order to expand the solution space for optimal closed-loop control laws, we use the genetic programming control (GPC) framework. The best closed-loop control laws obtained by GPC are analysed along with the associated physical mechanisms in the mixing layer flow. The resulting closed-loop control significantly outperforms open-loop forcing in terms of robustness to changes in the free-stream velocities. In addition, the selection of feedback frequencies is not locked to the most amplified local mode, but rather a range of frequencies around it.

The three-dimensional, inviscid and viscous flow instability modes that appear on a solid-body rotation flow in a finite-length straight, circular pipe are analysed. This study is a direct extension of the Wang & Rusak (Phys. Fluids, vol. 8 (4), 1996a, pp. 1007–1016) analysis of axisymmetric instabilities on inviscid swirling flows in a pipe. The linear stability equations are the same as those derived by Kelvin (Phil. Mag., vol. 10, 1880, pp. 155–168). However, we study a general mode of perturbation that satisfies the inlet, outlet and wall conditions of a flow in a finite-length pipe with a fixed in time and in space vortex generator ahead of it. This mode is different from the classical normal mode of perturbations. The eigenvalue problem for the growth rate and the shape of the perturbations for any azimuthal wavenumber $m$ consists of a linear system of partial differential equations in terms of the axial and radial coordinates ($x,r$). The stability problem is solved numerically for all azimuthal wavenumbers $m$. The computed growth rates and the related shapes of the various perturbation modes that appear in sequence as a function of the base flow swirl ratio (${\it\omega}$) and pipe length ($L$) are presented. In the inviscid flow case, the $m=1$ modes are the first to become unstable as the swirl ratio is increased and dominate the perturbation’s growth in a certain range of swirl levels. The $m=1$ instability modes compete with the axisymmetric ($m=0$) instability modes as the swirl ratio is further increased. In the viscous flow case, the viscous damping effects reduce the modes’ growth rates. The neutral stability line is presented in a Reynolds number ($Re$) versus swirl ratio (${\it\omega}$) diagram and can be used to predict the first appearance of axisymmetric or spiral instabilities as a function of $Re$ and $L$. We use the Reynolds–Orr equation to analyse the various production terms of the perturbation’s kinetic energy and establish the elimination of the flow axial homogeneity at high swirl levels as the underlying physical mechanism that leads to flow exchange of stability and to the appearance of both spiral and axisymmetric instabilities. The viscous effects in the bulk have only a passive influence on the modes’ shapes and growth rates. These effects decrease with the increase of $Re$. We show that the inviscid flow stability results are the inviscid-limit stability results of high-$Re$ rotating flows.

A general similarity solution for water-entry problems of a wedge with its inner angle fixed and its sides in expansion is obtained with flow detachment, in which the speed of expansion is a free parameter. The known solutions for a wedge of a fixed length at the initial stage of water entry without flow detachment and at the final stage corresponding to Helmholtz flow are obtained as two special cases, at some finite and zero expansion speeds, respectively. An expanding horizontal plate impacting a flat free surface is considered as the special case of the general solution for a wedge inner angle equal to ${\rm\pi}$. An initial impulse solution for a plate of a fixed length is obtained as the special case of the present formulation. The general solution is obtained in the form of integral equations using the integral hodograph method. The results are presented in terms of free-surface shapes, streamlines and pressure distributions.

This paper deals with the use of the Ffowcs Williams–Hawkings equation for hydroacoustic analysis of rotating blades, and the deep difference between the acoustic fields generated by aeronautical and marine devices in air and underwater. This dissimilarity does not depend on either the different fluid or the (although existing) geometric and structural difference of the blade: it is an intrinsic feature of the generating noise mechanisms related to rotating sources and is essentially due to the remarkable diversity of the rotational speed. It will be shown how the usual assumption of believing the flow nonlinear sources to be negligible for blades rotating at low subsonic speed (coming from decades of research strictly limited to aeroacoustics) is totally wrong when applied to hydroacoustics. Such a goal is achieved through a practical approach, by analysing the general behaviour of the surface integral kernels of the solution for a rotating point source (here named rotpole), and by showing its relationship with a general multibladed device. This analysis suggests that the underwater noise prediction from a marine propeller is an inherently nonlinear problem and, contrary to analogous aeronautical configurations, it always requires an accurate estimation of the nonlinear flow sources just by virtue of the very low rotational speed.

We develop the energy budget equation of the coupled Navier–Stokes–Cahn–Hilliard (NSCH) system. We use the NSCH equations to model the dynamics of liquid droplets in a liquid continuum. Buoyancy effects are accounted for through the Boussinesq assumption. We physically interpret each quantity involved in the energy exchange to gain further insight into the model. Highly resolved simulations involving density-driven flows and the merging of droplets allow us to analyse these energy budgets. In particular, we focus on the energy exchanges when droplets merge, and describe flow features relevant to this phenomenon. By comparing our numerical simulations to analytical predictions and experimental results available in the literature, we conclude that modelling droplet dynamics within the framework of NSCH equations is a sensible approach worthy of further research.

Oscillations of magma in volcanic conduits are thought to be the source of certain seismic and infrasonic signals observed near active volcanoes. However, the multiphase and stratified nature of magma within the conduit complicates the calculation of resonant modes that is required to interpret observations. Here we present a linearized mathematical framework to describe small-amplitude oscillations and waves in a stably stratified column of two-phase magma (liquid melt and gas bubbles) with a traction-free upper surface (a lava lake). We explore the role of time-dependent mass exchange between the phases, depth-varying fluid properties and gravity on the modes of oscillation of inviscid magma within an axisymmetric, vertical conduit. Non-equilibrium phase exchange, which we refer to as bubble growth and resorption (BGR), is parameterized by introduction of a kinetic time scale quantifying mass exchange between the liquid and gas phases that evolves the mixture towards a state of thermodynamic equilibrium. Using a provably stable finite difference method, we solve the eigenvalue problem for the resonance frequencies, decay rates, and spatial structure of the conduit eigenmodes. The numerical method is then extended to time-domain simulations of waves excited by internal volumetric sources in the conduit or forces applied to the surface of the lava lake. We connect time-dependent wave propagation simulations to the modal analysis by identifying the primary modes that are excited by representative excitation processes. Waves propagating through bubbly magma are dispersive, and their behaviour is determined by three dimensionless parameters. One quantifies the importance of buoyancy and gravitational restoring forces relative to compressibility, the second quantifies differences between fluid properties (e.g. mixture compressibility) under equilibrium and non-equilibrium conditions, and the third compares the wave period to the BGR time scale. Pronounced depth variations in background fluid properties, such as the transition from liquid melt with dissolved volatiles at the high pressures at depth to bubbly magma above the gas exsolution depth, segment the conduit into distinct regions. The longest-period modes, which are expressed with the largest amplitudes for typical excitation processes, are most sensitive to the length of the bubbly region and properties of the bubbly magma within it. While the boundary condition at the bottom of the conduit determines whether the fundamental mode is affected by the total conduit length, modes localized above the exsolution depth are remarkably insensitive to the overall conduit length. Our analysis suggests that parameters affecting eruption style, such as total volatile content and kinetic time scales of BGR, along with excitation source characteristics, are imprinted on long-period seismic and infrasonic signals at active volcanoes.

Visualization experiments are performed to investigate the development of instability waves within the boundary layer on a slender cone under high Mach number conditions. The experimental facility is a reflected-shock wind tunnel, allowing both low (Mach-8 flight equivalent) and high-enthalpy conditions to be simulated. Second-mode instability waves are visualized using a high-speed schlieren set-up, with pulse bursting of the light source allowing the propagation speed of the wavepackets to be unambiguously resolved. This, in combination with wavelength information derived from the images, enables the calculation of the disturbance frequencies. At the lower-enthalpy conditions, we concentrate on the late laminar and transitional regions of the flow. General characteristics are revealed through time-resolved and ensemble-averaged spectra on both smooth and porous ceramic surfaces of the cone. Analysis of the development of individual wavepackets is then performed. It is found that the wavepacket structures evolve from a ‘rope-like’ appearance to become more interwoven as the disturbance nears breakdown. The wall-normal disturbance distributions of both the fundamental and first harmonic, which initially have local maxima at the wall and near $y/{\it\delta}=0.7$–0.75, exhibit an increase in signal energy close to the boundary-layer edge during this evolution. The structure angle of the disturbances also undergoes subtle changes as the wavepacket develops prior to breakdown. Experiments are also performed at high-enthalpy ($h_{0}\approx 12~\text{MJ}~\text{kg}^{-1}$) conditions in the laminar regime, and the visualization technique is shown to be capable of resolving wavepacket propagation speeds and frequencies at such conditions. The visualizations reveal a somewhat different wall-normal distribution to the low-enthalpy case, with the disturbance energy concentrated much more towards the wall. This is attributed to the highly cooled nature of the wall at high enthalpy.

The flow of ice sheets and glaciers dissipates significant amounts of heat, which can result in the formation of ‘temperate ice’, a binary mixture of ice and small amounts of melt water that exists at the melting point. Many ice masses are polythermal, in the sense that they contain cold ice, below the melting point, as well as temperate ice. Temperature and melt water (or moisture) content conversely affect the flow of these ice masses through their effect on ice viscosity and sliding behaviour. Ice flow models therefore require a component that can solve for temperature and moisture content, and determine the free boundary between the cold and temperate subdomains. We present such a model, based on the theory of compacting partial melts. By contrast with other models, we describe gravity- and pressure-gradient-driven drainage of moisture, while maintaining a divergence-free ice flow at leading order. We also derive the relevant boundary conditions at the free cold–temperate boundary, and find that the boundary behaves differently depending on whether ice enters or exits the temperate region. The paper also describes a number of test cases used to compare with a numerical solution, and investigates asymptotic solutions applicable to the limit of small compaction pressure gradients in the temperate ice regions. A simplified enthalpy-gradient model is finally proposed, which captures most of the behaviour of the full model in this limit.

The mechanism of surface-charge convection, quantified by the electric Reynolds number $Re$, renders the Melcher–Taylor electrohydrodynamic model inherently nonlinear, with the electrostatic problem coupled to the flow. Because of this nonlinear coupling, the settling speed of a drop under a uniform electric field differs from that in its absence. This difference was calculated by Xu & Homsy (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 564, 2006, pp. 395–414) assuming small $Re$. We here address the same problem using a different route, considering the case where the applied electric field is weak in the sense that the magnitude of the associated electrohydrodynamic velocity is small compared with the settling velocity. As convection is determined at leading order by the well-known flow associated with pure settling, the electrostatic problem becomes linear for arbitrary value of $Re$. The electrohydrodynamic correction to the settling speed is then provided as a linear functional of the electric-stress distribution associated with that problem. Calculation of the settling speed eventually amounts to the solution of a difference equation governing the respective coefficients in a spherical harmonics expansion of the electric potential. It is shown that, despite the present weak-field assumption, our model reproduces the small-$Re$ approximation of Xu and Homsy as a particular case. For finite $Re$, inspection of the difference equation reveals a singularity at the critical $Re$-value $4S(1+R)(1+M)/(1+S)M$, wherein $R$, $S$ and $M$ respectively denote the ratios of resistivity, permittivity and viscosity values in the suspending and drop phases, as defined by Melcher & Taylor (Annu. Rev. Fluid Mech., vol. 1, 1969, pp. 111–146). Straightforward numerical solutions of this equation for electric Reynolds numbers smaller than the critical value reveal a non-monotonic dependence of the settling speed upon the electric field magnitude, including a transition from velocity enhancement to velocity decrement.

The distribution of temporal scale-dependent streamwise velocity increments is investigated in turbulent boundary layer flows at laboratory and atmospheric Reynolds numbers, using the St. Anthony Falls Laboratory wind tunnel and the Surface Layer Turbulence and Environmental Science Test dataset, respectively. The third-order moments of velocity increments, or asymmetry index $A(a,z)$, is computed for varying wall distance $z$ and time scale separation $a$, where it was observed to leave a robust, distinct signature in the form of a hump, independent of Reynolds number and located across the inertial range. The hump is observed in wall region limited to $z^{+}<5\times 10^{3}$, with a tendency to shift towards smaller time scales as the surface is approached ($z^{+}<70$). Comparing the two datasets, the hump, and its location, are found to obey inner wall scaling and is regarded as a genuine feature of the canonical turbulent boundary layer. The magnitude cumulant analysis of the scale-dependent velocity increments further reveals that intermittency is also enhanced near the wall, in the same flow region where the asymmetry signature was observed. The combination of asymmetry and intermittency is inferred to point at non-local energy transfer and scale coupling across a range of scales. From a turbulent structure perspective, such non-local energy transfer can be seen as the result of strong scale-interaction processes between outer scale motions in the logarithmic layer impacting and distorting smaller scales at the wall, through abrupt energy transfer across scales bypassing the typical energy cascade of the inertial range.