The recent study of Laurence et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 797, 2016, pp. 471–503) develops a new Schlieren-based technique for investigating instabilities and transition in hypersonic boundary layers. This method enables pioneering measurements in a reflected-shock wind tunnel of the characteristics of the second mode of instability on a slender cone, within very short time scales (approximately 1 ms). The visualization technique was shown to resolve the structural evolution of individual wave packets. It was revealed that the disturbance strength concentrates near the wall for high-enthalpy conditions.

The linear stability of finite-amplitude capillary waves on inviscid sheets of fluid is investigated. A method similar to that recently used by Tiron & Choi (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 696, 2012, pp. 402–422) to determine the stability of Crapper waves on fluid of infinite depth is developed by extending the conformal mapping technique of Dyachenko et al. (Phys. Lett. A, vol. 221 (1), 1996a, pp. 73–79) to a form capable of capturing general periodic waves on both the upper and the lower surface of the sheet, including the symmetric and antisymmetric waves studied by Kinnersley (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 77 (02), 1976, pp. 229–241). The primary, surprising result is that both symmetric and antisymmetric Kinnersley waves are unstable to small superharmonic disturbances. The waves are also unstable to subharmonic perturbations. Growth rates are computed for a range of steady waves in the Kinnersley family, and also waves found along the bifurcation branches identified by Blyth & Vanden-Broeck (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 507, 2004, pp. 255–264). The instability results are corroborated by time integration of the fully nonlinear unsteady equations. Evidence is presented for superharmonic instability of nonlinear waves via a collision of eigenvalues on the imaginary axis which appear to have the same Krein signature.

One of the principal mechanisms by which surfaces and interfaces affect microbial life is by perturbing the hydrodynamic flows generated by swimming. By summing a recursive series of image systems, we derive a numerically tractable approximation to the three-dimensional flow fields of a stokeslet (point force) within a viscous film between a parallel no-slip surface and a no-shear interface and, from this Green’s function, we compute the flows produced by a force- and torque-free micro-swimmer. We also extend the exact solution of Liron & Mochon (J. Engng Maths, vol. 10 (4), 1976, pp. 287–303) to the film geometry, which demonstrates that the image series gives a satisfactory approximation to the swimmer flow fields if the film is sufficiently thick compared to the swimmer size, and we derive the swimmer flows in the thin-film limit. Concentrating on the thick-film case, we find that the dipole moment induces a bias towards swimmer accumulation at the no-slip wall rather than the water–air interface, but that higher-order multipole moments can oppose this. Based on the analytic predictions, we propose an experimental method to find the multipole coefficient that induces circular swimming trajectories, allowing one to analytically determine the swimmer’s three-dimensional position under a microscope.

Cylindrical gravity currents, produced by a full-depth lock release, in a rotating system are investigated by means of three-dimensional high-resolution simulations of the incompressible variable-density Navier–Stokes equations with the Coriolis term and using the Boussinesq approximation for a small density difference. Here, the depth of the fluid is chosen to be the same as the radius of the cylindrical lock and the ambient fluid is non-stratified. Our attention is focused on the situation when the ratio of Coriolis to inertia forces is not large, namely $0.1\leqslant {\mathcal{C}}\leqslant 0.3$, and the non-rotating case, namely ${\mathcal{C}}=0$, is also briefly considered. The simulations reproduce the major features observed in the laboratory and provide more detailed flow information. After the heavy fluid contained in a cylindrical lock is released in a rotating system, the influence of the Coriolis effects is not significant during the initial one-tenth of a revolution of the system. During the initial one-tenth of a revolution of the system, Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices form and the rotating cylindrical gravity currents maintain nearly perfect axisymmetry. Afterwards, three-dimensionality of the flow quickly develops and the outer rim of the spreading heavy fluid breaks away from the body of the current, which gives rise to the maximum dissipation rate in the system during the entire adjustment process. The detached outer rim of heavy fluid then continues to propagate outward until a maximum radius of propagation is attained. The body of the current exhibits a complex contraction–relaxation motion and new outwardly propagating pulses form regularly in a period slightly less than half-revolution of the system. Depending on the ratio of Coriolis to inertia forces, such a contraction–relaxation motion may be initiated after or before the attainment of a maximum radius of propagation. In the contraction–relaxation motion of the heavy fluid, energy is transformed between potential energy and kinetic energy, while it is mainly the kinetic energy that is consumed by the dissipation. As a new pulse initially propagates outward, the potential energy in the system increases at the expense of decreasing kinetic energy, until a local maximum of potential energy is reached. During the latter part of the new pulse propagation, the kinetic energy in the system increases at the expense of decreasing potential energy, until a local minimum of potential energy is reached and another new pulse takes form. With the use of three-dimensional high-resolution simulations, the lobe-and-cleft structure at the advancing front can be clearly observed. The number of lobes is maintained only for a limited period of time before merger between existing lobes occurs when a maximum radius of propagation is approached. The high-resolution simulations complement the existing shallow-water formulation, which accurately predicts many important features and provides insights for rotating cylindrical gravity currents with good physical assumptions and simple mathematical models.

The reorientation phenomenon of a single red blood cell during sedimentation is simulated using the boundary element method. The cell settles downwards due to a density difference between the internal and external fluids, and it changes orientation toward a vertical orientation regardless of Bond number or viscosity ratio. The reorientation phenomenon is explained by a shape asymmetry caused by the gravitational driving force, and the shape asymmetry increases almost linearly with the Bond number. When velocities are normalised by the driving force, settling/drifting velocities are weak functions of the Bond number and the viscosity ratio, while the angular velocity of the reorientation drastically changes with these parameters: the angular velocity is smaller for lower Bond number or higher viscosity ratio. As a consequence, trajectories of the sedimentation are also affected by the angular velocity, and blood cells with slower reorientation travel longer distances in the drifting direction. We also explain the mechanism of the reorientation using an asymmetric dumbbell. From the analysis, we show that the magnitude of the angular velocity is explained by two main factors: the shape asymmetry and the instantaneous orientation angle.

The effects of the orientation of a bileaflet mechanical heart valve on the viscous and turbulent stresses in the flow past it and on the flow rate in the right coronary artery were investigated in vitro in a mock circulation loop, using a fluid that matched the kinematic viscosity of blood and the refractive index of the aorta model. Measurements were made past the valve mounted in three orientations at the base of an anatomical aorta model, within physiological aortic flow conditions. At peak flow, the turbulent stresses were on average 21 % higher and viscous stresses exceeding 10 Pa (namely of a level that has been associated with blood cell damage) were 30 % more frequent when the valve was oriented with its plane of symmetry normal to the aorta’s plane of curvature than when it was parallel to it. This was attributed to the impingement of a lateral jet on the concave wall of the aorta and to steeper velocity gradients resulting from the geometrical imbalance of the sinuses relative to the valve’s central jet when the valve was in the ‘normal’ orientation. Very high levels of turbulent stresses were found to occur distal to the corners of the valve’s lateral orifices. The bulk flow rate in the right coronary artery was highest when the valve was positioned with its central orifice aligned with the artery’s opening. The coronary flow rate was directly affected by the size, orientation and time evolution of the vortex in the sinus, all of which were sensitive to the valve’s orientation.

We study the partition of energy between waves and vortices in stratified turbulence, with or without rotation, for a variety of parameters, focusing on the behaviour of the waves and vortices in the inverse cascade of energy towards the large scales. To this end, we use direct numerical simulations in a cubic box at a Reynolds number $Re\approx 1000$, with the ratio between the Brunt–Väisälä frequency $N$ and the inertial frequency $f$ varying from $1/4$ to 20, together with a purely stratified run. The Froude number, measuring the strength of the stratification, varies within the range $0.02\leqslant Fr\leqslant 0.32$. We find that the inverse cascade is dominated by the slow quasi-geostrophic modes. Their energy spectra and fluxes exhibit characteristics of an inverse cascade, even though their energy is not conserved. Surprisingly, the slow vortices still dominate when the ratio $N/f$ increases, also in the stratified case, although less and less so. However, when $N/f$ increases, the inverse cascade of the slow modes becomes weaker and weaker, and it vanishes in the purely stratified case. We discuss how the disappearance of the inverse cascade of energy with increasing $N/f$ can be interpreted in terms of the waves and vortices, and identify the main effects that can explain this transition based on both inviscid invariants arguments and viscous effects due to vertical shear.

We use analytical and numerical approaches to investigate head-on collisions between two self-propelled drops described as a phase separated binary mixture. Each drop is driven by chemical reactions that isotropically produce or consume the concentration of a third chemical component, which affects the surface tension of the drop. The isotropic distribution of the concentration field is destabilized by motion of the drop, which is created by the Marangoni flow from the concentration-dependent surface tension. This symmetry-breaking self-propulsion is distinct from other self-propulsion mechanisms due to its intrinsic polarity of squirmers and self-phoretic motion; there is a bifurcation point below which the drop is stationary and above which it moves spontaneously. When two drops are moving in the opposite direction along the same axis, their interactions arise from hydrodynamics and concentration overlap. We found that two drops exhibit either an elastic collision or fusion, depending on the distance from their bifurcation point, which may be controlled, for example, by viscosity. An elastic collision occurs when there is a balance between dissipation and the injection of energy by chemical reactions. We derive the reduced equations for the collision between two drops and analyse the contributions from the two interactions. The concentration-mediated interaction is found to dominate the hydrodynamic interaction for a head-on collision.

This work presents an asymptotic analysis for the propagation and arresting process of a two-dimensional finite granular mass down a rough incline in a shallow configuration. Bulk shear stress and arresting mechanism are formulated according to the coherence length model that considers momentum transport at a length scale over which grains are spatially correlated. A Bagnold-like streamwise velocity and a non-zero transverse velocity are solved and integrated into a surface kinematic condition to give an advection–diffusion equation for the bulk surface profile, $h(x,t)$, that is solved using the matched asymptotic method. These flow solutions are further employed to determine composite solutions for a flow-front trajectory and a local coherence length, $l(x,t)$, which reveals smooth growth of $h(x,t)$ and $l(x,t)$ from zero at the propagating front with $l(x,t)\ll h(x,t)$. At the rear, $h(x,t)$ vanishes but $l(x,t)$ asymptotes to a constant that depends on inclination angle. According to the arresting mechanism, the location where $l(x,t)\sim h(x,t)$ is solved to the leading order to locate the deposition front so that its propagation dynamics can be derived. A finite flow arrest time, $T_{d}$, and the corresponding finite run-out distance, $L_{d}$, are evaluated when all the flowing mass has passed the deposition front and are employed to construct a modified front trajectory with the deposition effect. The predicted run-out distance and front trajectory profile compare reasonably well with experimental data in the literature on inclinations at angles higher than the material repose angle.

A linearly stratified fluid contained in a circular cylinder with a linearly sloped base, whose axis is aligned with the rotation axis, is spun-up from a rotation rate $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}-\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}$ to $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}$ (with $\unicode[STIX]{x0394}\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}\ll \unicode[STIX]{x1D6FA}$) by Rossby waves propagating across the container. Experimental results presented here, however, show that if the Burger number $S$ is not small, then that spin-up looks quite different from that reported by Pedlosky & Greenspan (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 27, 1967, pp. 291–304) for $S=0$. That is particularly so if the Burger number is large, since the Rossby waves are then confined to a region of height $S^{-1/2}$ above the sloped base. Axial vortices, ubiquitous features even at tiny Rossby numbers of spin-up in containers with vertical corners (see van Heijst et al.Phys. Fluids A, vol. 2, 1990, pp. 150–159 and Munro & Foster Phys. Fluids, vol. 26, 2014, 026603, for example), are less prominent here, forming at locations that are not obvious a priori, but in the ‘western half’ of the container only, and confined to the bottom $S^{-1/2}$ region. Both decay rates from friction at top and bottom walls and the propagation speed of the waves are found to increase with $S$ as well. An asymptotic theory for Rossby numbers that are not too large shows good agreement with many features seen in the experiments. The full frequency spectrum and decay rates for these waves are discussed, again for large $S$, and vertical vortices are found to occur only for Rossby numbers comparable to $E^{1/2}$, where $E$ is the Ekman number. Symmetry anomalies in the observations are determined by analysis to be due to second-order corrections to the lower-wall boundary condition.

The interaction of a hypersonic boundary layer on a flat plate with an impinging shock – an order of magnitude stronger than that required for incipient separation of the boundary layer – near sharp and blunt leading edges (with different bluntness radii from 2 to 6 mm) is investigated experimentally, complemented by numerical computations. The resultant separation bubble is of length comparable to the distance of shock impingement from the leading edge, rather than the boundary layer thickness at separation; it is termed large separation bubble. Experiments are performed in the IISc hypersonic shock tunnel HST-2 at nominal Mach numbers 5.88 and 8.54, with total enthalpies 1.26 and $1.85~\text{MJ}~\text{kg}^{-1}$ respectively. Schlieren flow visualization using a high-speed camera and surface pressure measurements using fast response sensors are the diagnostics. For the sharp leading edge case, the separation length was found to follow an inviscid scaling law according to which the scaled separation length $(L_{sep}/x_{r})M_{er}^{3}$ is found to be linearly related to the reattachment pressure ratio $p_{r}/p_{er}$; where $L_{sep}$ is the measured separation length, $x_{r}$ the distance of reattachment from the leading edge, $M$ the Mach number, $p$ the static pressure and the subscripts $r$ and $e$ denote the conditions at the reattachment location and at the edge of the boundary layer at the shock impingement location respectively. However, for all the blunt leading edges $(L_{sep}/x_{r})M_{er}^{3}$ was found to be a constant irrespective of Mach number and much smaller than the sharp leading edge cases. The possible contributions of viscous and non-viscous mechanisms towards the observed phenomena are explored.

Droplets in turbulent flows behave differently from solid particles, e.g. droplets deform, break up, coalesce and have internal fluid circulation. Our objective is to gain a fundamental understanding of the physical mechanisms of droplet–turbulence interaction. We performed direct numerical simulations (DNS) of 3130 finite-size, non-evaporating droplets of diameter approximately equal to the Taylor length scale and with 5 % droplet volume fraction in decaying isotropic turbulence at initial Taylor-scale Reynolds number $\mathit{Re}_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D706}}=83$. In the droplet-laden cases, we varied one of the following three parameters: the droplet Weber number based on the r.m.s. velocity of turbulence ($0.1\leqslant \mathit{We}_{rms}\leqslant 5$), the droplet- to carrier-fluid density ratio ($1\leqslant \unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{d}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{c}\leqslant 100$) or the droplet- to carrier-fluid viscosity ratio ($1\leqslant \unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{d}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{c}\leqslant 100$). In this work, we derive the turbulence kinetic energy (TKE) equations for the two-fluid, carrier-fluid and droplet-fluid flow. These equations allow us to explain the pathways for TKE exchange between the carrier turbulent flow and the flow inside the droplet. We also explain the role of the interfacial surface energy in the two-fluid TKE equation through the power of the surface tension. Furthermore, we derive the relationship between the power of surface tension and the rate of change of total droplet surface area. This link allows us to explain how droplet deformation, breakup and coalescence play roles in the temporal evolution of TKE. Our DNS results show that increasing $\mathit{We}_{rms}$, $\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{d}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D70C}_{c}$ and $\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{d}/\unicode[STIX]{x1D707}_{c}$ increases the decay rate of the two-fluid TKE. The droplets enhance the dissipation rate of TKE by enhancing the local velocity gradients near the droplet interface. The power of the surface tension is a source or sink of the two-fluid TKE depending on the sign of the rate of change of the total droplet surface area. Thus, we show that, through the power of the surface tension, droplet coalescence is a source of TKE and breakup is a sink of TKE. For short times, the power of the surface tension is less than $\pm 5\,\%$ of the dissipation rate. For later times, the power of the surface tension is always a source of TKE, and its magnitude can be up to 50 % of the dissipation rate.

Fundamental solutions (Green’s functions) to Grad’s steady-state linearised 13-moment equations for non-equilibrium gas flows are derived. The creeping microscale gas flows, to which they pertain, are important to understanding the behaviour of atmospheric particulate and the performance of many potential micro/nano technologies. Fundamental solutions are also derived for the regularised form of the steady-state linearised 13-moment equations, due to Struchtrup & Torrilhon (Phys. Fluids, vol. 15 (9), 2003, pp. 2668–2680). The solutions are compared to their classical and ubiquitous counterpart: the Stokeslet. For an illustration of their utility, the fundamental solutions to Grad’s equations are implemented in a linear superposition approach to modelling external flows. Such schemes are mesh free, and benefit from not having to truncate and discretise an infinite three-dimensional domain. The high accuracy of the technique is demonstrated for creeping non-equilibrium gas flow around a sphere, for which an analytical solution exists for comparison. Finally, to demonstrate the method’s geometrical flexibility, the flow generated between adjacent spheres held at a fixed uniform temperature difference is explored.

A kinetic model and corresponding high-order macroscopic model for the accurate description of rarefied polyatomic gas flows are introduced. The different energy exchange processes are accounted for with a two term collision model. The proposed kinetic model, which is an extension of the S-model, predicts correct relaxation of higher moments and delivers the accurate Prandtl ($Pr$) number. Also, the model has a proven linear H-theorem. The order of magnitude method is applied to the primary moment equations to acquire the optimized moment definitions and the final scaled set of Grad’s 36 moment equations for polyatomic gases. At the first order, a modification of the Navier–Stokes–Fourier (NSF) equations is obtained. At third order of accuracy, a set of 19 regularized partial differential equations (R19) is obtained. Furthermore, the terms associated with the internal degrees of freedom yield various intermediate orders of accuracy, a total of 13 different orders. Thereafter, boundary conditions for the proposed macroscopic model are introduced. The unsteady heat conduction of a gas at rest is studied numerically and analytically as an example of a boundary value problem. The results for different gases are given and effects of Knudsen numbers, degrees of freedom, accommodation coefficients and temperature-dependent properties are investigated. For some cases, the higher-order effects are very dominant and the widely used first-order set of the NSF equations fails to accurately capture the gas behaviour and should be replaced by the proposed higher-order set of equations.

This work is dedicated to systematically studying and predicting the wake characteristics of a yawed wind turbine immersed in a turbulent boundary layer. To achieve this goal, wind tunnel experiments were performed to characterize the wake of a horizontal-axis wind turbine model. A high-resolution stereoscopic particle image velocimetry system was used to measure the three velocity components in the turbine wake under different yaw angles and tip-speed ratios. Moreover, power and thrust measurements were carried out to analyse the performance of the wind turbine. These detailed wind tunnel measurements were then used to perform a budget study of the continuity and Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations for the wake of a yawed turbine. This theoretical analysis revealed some notable features of the wakes of yawed turbines, such as the asymmetric distribution of the wake skew angle with respect to the wake centre. Under highly yawed conditions, the formation of a counter-rotating vortex pair in the wake cross-section as well as the vertical displacement of the wake centre were shown and analysed. Finally, this study enabled us to develop general governing equations upon which a simple and computationally inexpensive analytical model was built. The proposed model aims at predicting the wake deflection and the far-wake velocity distribution for yawed turbines. Comparisons of model predictions with the wind tunnel measurements show that this simple model can acceptably predict the velocity distribution in the far wake of a yawed turbine. Apart from the ability of the model to predict wake flows in yawed conditions, it can provide valuable physical insight on the behaviour of turbine wakes in this complex situation.

Buoyancy effects on the turbulent mixing and entrainment processes were analysed in the case of a stratified plane shear layer between two horizontal air flows in conditions leading to relatively low values of the flux Richardson number ($|Ri_{f}|_{max}\simeq 0.02$). Velocity and temperature measurements were made with a single $\times$-wire probe thermo-anemometry technique, using multi-overheat sequences to deliver simultaneous velocity–temperature data at high frequency. The spatial resolution was found to be fine enough, in relation to the dissipative scale and the thermal diffusive scale, to avoid false mixing enhancement in the analysis of the physical mechanisms through velocity–temperature coupling in statistical turbulence quantities. Probability density functions (PDFs) and joint probability density functions (JPDFs) were used to distinguish between the different mechanisms involved in turbulent mixing, namely entrainment, engulfing, nibbling and mixing, and point to the contribution of entrainment in the mixing process. When comparing an unstably stratified configuration to its stably stratified equivalent, no significant difference could be seen in the PDF and JPDF quantities, but a conditional analysis based on temperature thresholding enabled a separation between mixed fluid and two distinct sets of events associated with unmixed fluid entrained from the hot and cold sides of the mixing layer into the mixing layer. This separation allowed a direct calculation of the entrainment velocities on both sides of the mixing layer. A significant increase of the total entrainment could be seen in the case of unstably stratified configuration. The entrainment ratios were compared to their prediction by the Dimotakis model and both a rather good relevance of the model and some need for improvement were found from the comparison. It was hypothesised that the improvement should come from better taking into account the distinct contributions of nibbling and engulfing inside the process of entrainment and mixing.

We examine transient axial creeping flow in the annular gap between a rigid cylinder and a concentric elastic tube. The gap is initially filled with a thin fluid layer. We employ an elastic shell model and the lubrication approximation to obtain governing equations for the elastohydrodynamic interaction. At long axial length scales viscous forces are balanced by elastic tension, while at shorter length scales the viscous–elastic balance is achieved by means of an interplay between elastic bending, tension and shear stresses. Based on a viscous gravity current analogy in the tensile–viscous regime, we devise propagation laws for displacement flows which are induced by a variety of boundary conditions and examine different limits of the prewetting thickness. Next we focus on the moving elastohydrodynamic contact line at the edge of a penetrating film. A uniform matched asymptotic solution connecting the interior tension-based region with a boundary layer region near the propagation front is presented. Finally, a constructive example is shown in which isolated moving deformation patterns are created and superimposed to form a travelling wave displacement field. The presented interaction between viscosity and elasticity may be applied to fields such as soft robotics and micro-scale or larger swimmers by allowing for the time-dependent control of an axisymmetric compliant boundary.

We computationally study the transient motion of an initially spherical capsule flowing through a right-angled tube bifurcation, composed of tubes having the same diameter. The capsule motion and deformation is simulated using a three-dimensional immersed-boundary lattice Boltzmann method. The capsule is modelled as a liquid droplet enclosed by a hyperelastic membrane following the Skalak’s law (Skalak et al., Biophys. J., vol. 13(3), 1973, pp. 245–264). The fluids inside and outside the capsule are assumed to have identical viscosity and density. We mainly focus on path selection of the capsule at the bifurcation as a function of the parameters of the problem: the flow split ratio, the background flow Reynolds number $Re$, the capsule-to-tube size ratio $a/R$ and the capillary number $Ca$, which compares the viscous fluid force acting on the capsule to the membrane elastic force. For fixed physical properties of the capsule and of the tube flow, the ratio $Ca/Re$ is constant. Two size ratios are considered: $a/R=0.2$ and 0.4. At low $Re$, the capsule favours the branch which receives most flow. Inertia significantly affects the background flow in the branched tube. As a consequence, at equal flow split, a capsule tends to flow straight into the main branch as $Re$ is increased. Under significant inertial effects, the capsule can flow into the downstream main tube even when it receives much less flow than the side branch. Increasing $Ca$ promotes cross-stream migration of the capsule towards the side branch. The results are summarized in a phase diagram, showing the critical flow split ratio for which the capsule flows into the side branch as a function of size ratio, $Re$ and $Ca/Re$. We also provide a simplified model of the path selection of a slightly deformed capsule and explore its limits of validity. We finally discuss the experimental feasibility of the flow system and its applicability to capsule sorting.

We study the dynamo instability for a Kazantsev–Kraichnan flow with three velocity components that depend only on two dimensions $\boldsymbol{u}=(u(x,y,t),v(x,y,t),w(x,y,t))$ often referred to as 2.5-dimensional (2.5-D) flow. Within the Kazantsev–Kraichnan framework we derive the governing equations for the second-order magnetic field correlation function and examine the growth rate of the dynamo instability as a function of the control parameters of the system. In particular we investigate the dynamo behaviour for large magnetic Reynolds numbers $Rm$ and flows close to being two-dimensional and show that these two limiting procedures do not commute. The energy spectra of the unstable modes are derived analytically and lead to power-law behaviour that differs from the three-dimensional and two-dimensional cases. The results of our analytical calculation are compared with the results of numerical simulations of dynamos driven by prescribed fluctuating flows as well as freely evolving turbulent flows, showing good agreement.

The nonlinear stability of two-fluid Couette flows is studied using a novel evolution equation whose dynamics is validated by direct numerical simulation (DNS). The evolution equation incorporates inertial effects at arbitrary Reynolds numbers through a non-local term arising from the coupling between the two fluid regions, and is valid when one of the layers is thin. The equation predicts asymmetric solutions and exhibits bistability, features that are essential observations in the experiments of Barthelet et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 303, 1995, pp. 23–53). Related low-inertia models have been used in qualitative predictions rather than the direct comparisons carried out here, and ad hoc modifications appear to be necessary in order to predict asymmetry and bistability. Comparisons between model solutions and DNS show excellent agreement at Reynolds numbers of $O(10^{3})$ found in the experiments. Direct comparisons are also made with the available experimental results of Barthelet et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 303, 1995, pp. 23–53) when the thin layer occupies $1/5$ of the channel height. Pointwise comparisons of the travelling wave shapes are carried out, and once again the agreement is very good.