In 1945–1949, Lars Onsager made an exact analysis of the high-Reynolds-number limit for individual turbulent flow realisations modelled by incompressible Navier–Stokes equations, motivated by experimental observations that dissipation of kinetic energy does not vanish. I review here developments spurred by his key idea that such flows are well described by distributional or ‘weak’ solutions of ideal Euler equations. 1/3 Hölder singularities of the velocity field were predicted by Onsager and since observed. His theory describes turbulent energy cascade without probabilistic assumptions and yields a local, deterministic version of the Kolmogorov $4/5$th law. The approach is closely related to renormalisation group methods in physics and envisages ‘conservation-law anomalies’, as discovered later in quantum field theory. There are also deep connections with large-eddy simulation modelling. More recently, dissipative Euler solutions of the type conjectured by Onsager have been constructed and his $1/3$ Hölder singularity proved to be the sharp threshold for anomalous dissipation. This progress has been achieved by an unexpected connection with work of John Nash on isometric embeddings of low regularity or ‘convex integration’ techniques. The dissipative Euler solutions yielded by this method are wildly non-unique for fixed initial data, suggesting ‘spontaneously stochastic’ behaviour of high-Reynolds-number solutions. I focus in particular on applications to wall-bounded turbulence, leading to novel concepts of spatial cascades of momentum, energy and vorticity to or from the wall as deterministic, space–time local phenomena. This theory thus makes testable predictions and offers new perspectives on large-eddy simulation in the presence of solid walls.

Spray formed by a myriad of secondary droplets generated by the impact of raindrops on a deep-water pool is studied with a laboratory rain facility. Experiments are performed with two rain rates and raindrops fall on the water surface at a nearly constant velocity. The secondary droplets at various heights above the pool's water surface are recorded with a cinematic digital in-line holographic technique that consists of a high-speed camera, a pulsed Nd:YLF laser and associated optics. The experimental results show that in the heat-map scatter plots of radius versus velocity near the water surface of the pool, the droplets are distributed into three regions, corresponding to distinct physical mechanisms of droplet generation. It is found that the diameter distribution of the droplets in the rain field changes with height above the pool's water surfaces. Both numerical simulation and experimental data reveal that the liquid water content, due to the presence of secondary droplets, in the atmospheric surface layer decreases exponentially with increasing height.

Utilizing the discrete element method and the pore network model, we numerically investigate the impact of compaction on the longitudinal dispersion coefficient of porous media. Notably, the dispersion coefficient exhibits a non-monotonic dependence on the degree of compaction, which is distinguished by the presence of three distinct regimes in the variation of dispersion coefficient. The non-monotonic variation of dispersion coefficient is attributed to the disparate effect of compaction on dispersion mechanisms. Specifically, the porous medium tightens with an increasing pressure load, reducing the effect of molecular diffusion that primarily governs at small Péclet numbers. On the other hand, heightened pressure loads enhance the heterogeneity of pore structures, resulting in increased disorder and a higher proportion of stagnant zones within porous media flow. These enhancements further strengthen mechanical dispersion and hold-up dispersion, respectively, both acting at higher Péclet numbers. It is crucial to highlight that hold-up dispersion is induced by the low-velocity regions in porous media flow, which differ fundamentally from zero-velocity regions (such as dead-ends or the interior of permeable grains) as described by the classical theory of dispersion. The competition between weakened molecular diffusion and enhanced hold-up dispersion and mechanical dispersion, together with the shift in the dominance of dispersion mechanisms across various Péclet numbers, results in multiple regimes in the variation of dispersion coefficients. Our study provides unique insights into structural design and modulation of the dispersion coefficient of porous materials.

We present data from direct numerical simulation (DNS) of the fully turbulent flow through nominally two-dimensional channels containing longitudinal, surface-mounted, rectangular ribs whose widths ($W$) are either one third of or equal to the gap ($S-W$) between consecutive ribs across the domain, where $S$ is the span (centre-to-centre spacing) of the ribs. A range of the ratio of channel half-height ($H$) to span ($S$) is considered, covering $0.25\le H/S\le 2.5$. In each case, a fixed rib height ($h$) of $0.1H$ was used, but a number of cases with much smaller heights, $h/H=0.025$ or 0.05, were also studied. The secondary flows resulting from the presence of the ribs are examined, along with their sources in terms of the axial vorticity transport equation, which highlights the effects of spanwise inhomogeneity in the Reynolds stresses. We show that the strength of the secondary flows depends strongly on $H/S$ (and, correspondingly, on $W/S$) and that the major sources of axial vorticity arise near the top corners of the ribs, with convection of that vorticity dominating its spread. We also show that for smaller ribs, the secondary flow strengths are similar to those predicted by Zampino et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 944, 2022, A4) using a linearised model of the Reynolds-averaged equations, which does not include the vorticity convection process; the behaviour of secondary flow topology and strength with varying $W/H$ is thus noticeably different.

Microbes play a primary role in wide-ranging biogeochemical and physiological processes, where ambient fluid flows are responsible for cell dispersal as well as mixing of dissolved resources, signalling molecules and biochemical products. Determining the simultaneous (and often coupled) transport properties of actively swimming cells together with passive scalars is key to understanding and ultimately predicting these complex processes. In recent work, Ran & Arratia (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 988, 2024, A25) present the striking observation that dilute concentrations of swimming bacteria severely hinder scalar transport through Lagrangian vortex boundaries in a chaotic flow. Analysis of rotation-dominated regions suggests that local accumulation of bacteria enhances the strength of transport barriers and highlights the role of understudied elliptical Lagrangian coherent structures in bacterial and multicomponent transport.

The initial flow past an impulsively started rotating and translating circular cylinder is asymptotically analysed using a Brinkman penalization method on the Navier–Stokes equation. In our previous study (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 929, 2021, A31), the asymptotic solution was obtained within the second approximation with respect to the small parameter, $\epsilon$, that is of the order of $1 / \lambda$. Here, $\lambda$ is the penalization parameter. In addition, the Reynolds number based on the cylinder radius and the translating velocity is assumed to be of the order of $\epsilon$. The previous study asymptotically analysed the initial flow past an impulsively started translating circular cylinder and investigated the influence of the penalization parameter $\lambda$ on the drag coefficient. It was concluded that the drag coefficient calculated from the integration of the penalization term exhibits a half-value of the results of Bar-Lev & Yang (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 72, 1975, pp. 625–647) as $\lambda \to \infty$. Furthermore, the derivative of vorticity in the normal direction was found to be discontinuous on the cylinder surface, which is caused by the tangential gradient of the pressure on the cylinder surface. The present study hence aims to investigate the variance on the drag coefficient against the result of Bar-Lev & Yang (1975). First, we investigate the problem of an impulsively started rotating circular cylinder. In this situation, the moment coefficient is independent of the pressure on the cylinder surface so that we can elucidate the role of the pressure to the hydrodynamic coefficients. Then, the problem of an impulsively started rotating and translating circular cylinder is investigated. In this situation, the pressure force induced by the unsteady flow far from the cylinder is found to play a key role on the drag force for the agreement with the result of Bar-Lev & Yang (1975), whereas the variance still exists on the lift force. To resolve the variance, an alternative formula to calculate the hydrodynamic force is derived, assuming that there is the pressure jump between the outside and inside of the cylinder surface. The pressure jump is obtained in this analysis asymptotically. Of particular interest is the fact that this pressure jump can cause the variance on the lift force calculated by the integration of the penalization term.

We investigate the global instability mechanism of the flow past a three-dimensional stepped cylinder. A comprehensive study is performed for different diameter ratios of the two joined cylinders ($r=D/d$) ranging from $r=1.1$ to $r=4$. Independently of $r$, the spectrum of the linearised Navier–Stokes operator reveals a pair of complex conjugate eigenvalues, with Strouhal number $St \approx 0.11$. The initial transition is triggered by a two-dimensional mechanism of the larger cylinder only, not affected by the presence of the junction and the smaller cylinder ($Re_{D,cr}\approx 47$). The structural sensitivity analysis is used to identify where the instability mechanism acts. The onset of transition is solely localised in the large cylinder wake (L cell), where the wavemaker has two symmetric lobes across the separation bubble. When the Reynolds number increases, a second and a third unstable pair of complex conjugate eigenvalues appears. They are localised in the small cylinder (S) wake and modulation (N) region. For any $r$, the appearance of unstable eigenmodes resembling the three cells S–N–L in the wake is observed. The nonlinear simulation results support this finding, in contrast with the previous classification of the laminar vortex shedding in direct (L–S) and indirect (L–N–S) modes interaction Lewis & Gharib (Phys. Fluids, vol. 4, 1992, pp. 104–117). This result indicates that each cell undergoes a supercritical Hopf bifurcation for any $r$. As $r$ approaches $1$, the modal linear stability results also show an unstable eigenmode in the wake of the small cylinder resembling a new modulation cell, named N2, similar to the N cell but mirrored with respect to the junction plane.

This study proposes a self-learning algorithm for closed-loop cylinder wake control targeting lower drag and lower lift fluctuations with the additional challenge of sparse sensor information, taking deep reinforcement learning (DRL) as the starting point. The DRL performance is significantly improved by lifting the sensor signals to dynamic features (DFs), which predict future flow states. The resulting DF-based DRL (DF-DRL) automatically learns a feedback control in the plant without a dynamic model. Results show that the drag coefficient of the DF-DRL model is 25 % less than the vanilla model based on direct sensor feedback. More importantly, using only one surface pressure sensor, DF-DRL can reduce the drag coefficient to a state-of-the-art performance of approximately 8 % at Reynolds number $(Re) = 100$ and significantly mitigates lift coefficient fluctuations. Hence, DF-DRL allows the deployment of sparse sensing of the flow without degrading the control performance. This method also exhibits strong robustness in flow control under more complex flow scenarios, reducing the drag coefficient by 32.2 % and 46.55 % at $Re =500$ and 1000, respectively. Additionally, the drag coefficient decreases by 28.6 % in a three-dimensional turbulent flow at $Re =10\,000$. Since surface pressure information is more straightforward to measure in realistic scenarios than flow velocity information, this study provides a valuable reference for experimentally designing the active flow control of a circular cylinder based on wall pressure signals, which is an essential step toward further developing intelligent control in a realistic multi-input multi-output system.

When a sphere rotates near a rigid boundary coated with a thin layer of viscous liquid, ‘tracks’ are generated both behind and over the sphere. This paper describes a theory for the simplest one-track configuration which can occur under particular experimental conditions. The theoretical predictions are in good agreement with experimental observations.

We use the entropy method to analyse the nonlinear dynamics and stability of a continuum kinetic model of an active nematic suspension. From the time evolution of the relative entropy, an energy-like quantity in the kinetic model, we derive a variational bound on relative entropy fluctuations that can be expressed in terms of orientational order parameters. From this bound we show isotropic suspensions are nonlinearly stable for sufficiently low activity, and derive upper bounds on spatiotemporal averages in the unstable regime that are consistent with fully nonlinear simulations. This work highlights the self-organising role of activity in particle suspensions, and places limits on how organised such systems can be.

We study the stability of a zero-pressure gradient boundary layer subjected to free-stream disturbances by means of local stability analysis. The dataset under study corresponds to a direct numerical simulation (DNS) of a flat plate with a sharp leading edge in realistic wind tunnel conditions, with a turbulence level of 3.45 % at the leading edge. We present a method to track the convective evolution of the secondary instabilities of streaks by performing sequential stability calculations following the wave packet, connecting successive unstable eigenfunctions. A scattered nature, in time and space, of secondary instabilities is seen in the stability calculations. These instabilities can be detected before they reach finite amplitude in the DNS, preceding the nucleation of turbulent spots, and whose appearance is well correlated to the transition onset. This represents further evidence regarding the relevance of secondary instabilities of streaks in the bypass transition in realistic flow conditions. Consistent with the spatio-temporal nature of this problem, our approach allows us to integrate directly the local growth rates to obtain the spatial amplification ratio of the individual instabilities, where it is shown that instabilities reaching an $N$-factor in the range [2.5,4] can be directly correlated to more than 65 % of the nucleation events. Interestingly, it is found that high amplification is not only attained by modes with high growth rates, but also by instabilities with sustained low growth rates for a long time.

Microorganisms are ubiquitous in nature and technology. They inhabit diverse environments, ranging from small river tributaries and lakes, to oceans, as well as wastewater treatment plants and food manufacturing. In many of these environments, microorganisms coexist with settling particles. Here, we investigate the effects of microbial activity (swimming E. coli) on the settling dynamics of passive colloidal particles using particle tracking methods. Our results reveal the existence of two distinct regimes in the correlation length scale ($L_u$) and the effective diffusivity of the colloidal particles ($D_{eff}$), with increasing bacterial concentration ($\phi _b$). At low $\phi _b$, the parameters $L_u$ and $D_{eff}$ increase monotonically with increasing $\phi _b$. Beyond critical $\phi _b$, a second regime is found where both $D_{eff}$ and $L_u$ are independent of $\phi _b$. We demonstrate that the transition between these regimes is characterized by the emergence of bioconvection. We use experimentally measured particle-scale quantities $L_u$ and $D_{eff}$ to predict the critical bacterial concentration for the diffusion–bioconvection transition.

We investigate by direct numerical simulations the fluid–solid interaction of non-dilute suspensions of spherical particles moving in triperiodic turbulence, at the relatively large Reynolds number of $Re_\lambda \approx 400$. The solid-to-fluid density ratio is varied between $1.3$ and $100$, the particle diameter $D$ is in the range $16 \le D/\eta \le 123$ ($\eta$ is the Kolmogorov scale) and the volume fraction of the suspension is $0.079$. Turbulence is sustained using the Arnold–Beltrami–Childress cellular-flow forcing. The influence of the solid phase on the largest and energetic scales of the flow changes with the size and density of the particles. Light and large particles modulate all scales in an isotropic way, while heavier and smaller particles modulate the largest scales of the flow towards an anisotropic state. Smaller scales are isotropic and homogeneous for all cases. The mechanism driving the energy transfer across scales changes with the size and the density of the particles. For large and light particles the energy transfer is only marginally influenced by the fluid–solid interaction. For small and heavy particles, instead, the classical energy cascade is subdominant at all scales, and the energy transfer is essentially driven by the fluid–solid coupling. The influence of the solid phase on the flow intermittency is also discussed. Besides, the collective motion of the particles and their preferential location in relation to properties of the carrier flow are analysed. The solid phase exhibits moderate clustering; for large particles the level of clustering decreases with their density, while for small particles it is maximum for intermediate values.

Pressure-driven flows of viscoelastic fluids in narrow non-uniform geometries are common in physiological flows and various industrial applications. For such flows, one of the main interests is understanding the relationship between the flow rate $q$ and the pressure drop $\Delta p$, which, to date, is studied primarily using numerical simulations. We analyse the flow of the Oldroyd-B fluid in slowly varying arbitrarily shaped, contracting channels and present a theoretical framework for calculating the $q-\Delta p$ relation. We apply lubrication theory and consider the ultra-dilute limit, in which the velocity profile remains parabolic and Newtonian, resulting in a one-way coupling between the velocity and polymer conformation tensor. This one-way coupling enables us to derive closed-form expressions for the conformation tensor and the flow rate–pressure drop relation for arbitrary values of the Deborah number ($De$). Furthermore, we provide analytical expressions for the conformation tensor and the $q-\Delta p$ relation in the high-Deborah-number limit, complementing our previous low-Deborah-number lubrication analysis. We reveal that the pressure drop in the contraction monotonically decreases with $De$, having linear scaling at high Deborah numbers, and identify the physical mechanisms governing the pressure drop reduction. We further elucidate the spatial relaxation of elastic stresses and pressure gradient in the exit channel following the contraction and show that the downstream distance required for such relaxation scales linearly with $De$.

A global transient linear stability analysis of the three-dimensional time-dependent flow around an aerofoil undergoing small-amplitude pitching motion is performed using the optimally time-dependent (OTD) framework. The most salient linear instabilities associated with the instantaneous basic state are computed and tracked over time. The resulting OTD modes reflect the variations in the basic state and can be used as predictors of its spatial and temporal evolution, including the formation of a laminar separation bubble and its gradual spanwise modulation via primary global instability, leading to secondary instability and finally rapid breakdown to turbulence. The study confirms and expands upon earlier stability analyses of the same case based on the local properties of spanwise averaged velocity profiles in the bubble that predicted the onset of absolute instability soon followed by rapid breakdown of the separation bubble. The three-dimensional structure of the most unstable OTD mode is extracted, which compares well with both the locally absolutely unstable mode and the evolution of the basic state itself.

The Holton–Lindzen–Plumb (HLP) model of the quasi-biennial oscillation (QBO) is investigated in order to assess the impact of introducing intermittency in the wave forcing. Intermittency is introduced to HLP by allowing the amplitude of the waves which force the QBO to evolve according to a stationary random process, driven by a stochastic differential equation (SDE) with an associated time scale $\tau$. Provided that $\tau$ is much shorter than the QBO period, it is shown that the impact on the QBO of the intermittent forcing is captured by a single intermittency parameter $\lambda$, and the value of $\lambda$ is proportional to $\tau$ and otherwise depends upon the details of the SDE. Numerical simulations, using a family of mean-reverting Ornstein–Uhlenbeck processes as the choice of SDE, show that the effect of increasing the intermittency parameter is invariably to decrease the QBO amplitude and increase its period. Changes to the QBO amplitude and period are indeed found to collapse onto a single curve controlled by $\lambda$, as predicted by the theory, provided that $\tau$ is small enough for the approximations used to be valid. The extension to broadband forcing is discussed in the context of stochastic gravity wave parameterisation, with the eventual goal of developing a representation of source intermittency in the most general situation with close fidelity to the physics.

Lubrication theory is adapted to incorporate the large normal stresses that occur for order-one Deborah numbers, $De$, the ratio of the relaxation time to the residence time. Comparing with the pressure drop for a Newtonian viscous fluid with a viscosity equal to that of an Oldroyd-B fluid in steady simple shear, we find numerically a reduced pressure drop through a contraction and an increased pressure drop through an expansion, both changing linearly with $De$ at high $De$. For a constriction, there is a smaller pressure drop that plateaus at high $De$. For a contraction, much of the change in pressure drop occurs in the stress relaxation in a long exit channel. An asymptotic analysis for high $De$, based on the idea that normal stresses are stretched by an accelerating flow in proportion to the square of the velocity, reveals that the large linear changes in pressure drop are due to higher normal stresses pulling the fluid through the narrowest gap. A secondary cause of the reduction is that the elastic shear stresses do not have time to build up to their steady-state equilibrium value while they accelerate through a contraction. We find for a contraction or expansion that the high $De$ analysis works well for $De>0.4$.

Turbulent entrainment is a process by which a locally turbulent region draws in an outer irrotational fluid. A large number of small-scale vortices and shear layers exist near the turbulent/non-turbulent interface; these features influence the local entrainment process. Direct numerical simulations of a turbulent front evolving into a quiescent flow without mean shear show that the entrainment rate is amplified by triggering the instability of small-scale shear layers via weak perturbations with a wavelength matching that of the unstable mode of the shear layers. Imposing artificial perturbations with a length scale approximately 30 times the Kolmogorov scale leads to the rapid collapse of small-scale shear layers due to instability, generating vortices near the turbulent/non-turbulent interface. Amplification of the entrainment rate is linked to the enlarged area and increased propagation velocity of the interface. The impact of perturbations on the entrainment rate becomes most pronounced when the flow evolves over approximately 7 times the Kolmogorov time scale, after which their influence diminishes over time. Additionally, the increase in entrainment rate is dictated by the ratio of the perturbation amplitude to the Kolmogorov velocity scale. The entrainment enhancement process is governed by Kolmogorov scales, suggesting that even weak perturbations can amplify the entrainment rate in high Reynolds number flows.

Emptying–filling boxes have been studied in a wide range of configurations for decades, but the flow created in the box by two plumes rising from sources of arbitrary strength and elevation was previously unsolved. Guided by experiments and simplified analytical modelling, we reveal a rich array of two- and three-layer stratifications across seven possible flow regimes. The governing equations for these regimes show how the prevailing regime and stratification properties vary with three key parameters: the relative strength of the plumes, the height difference between their sources and a parameter characterising the resistance of the box to emptying. We observe and explain new behaviours not described in previous studies that are crucial to understanding emptying–filling boxes with multiple plumes. In particular, we demonstrate that the oft-assumed premise that $n$ plumes leads to a stratification with $n+1$ layers is not necessarily true, even in the absence of mixing. Two emptying–filling box models are developed: an analytical model addressing all combinations of the governing parameters and an extended model for three-layer stratifications that incorporates two mixing processes observed in the experiments. The predictions of these two models are in generally excellent agreement with measurements from the experimental campaign covering 69 combinations of the governing parameters. This study improves our understanding of emptying–filling boxes and could facilitate improvements to natural ventilation building design, as demonstrated by an example scenario in which occupants feel cooler upon the addition of a second source of heat.

Although the roll-streak (R-S) is fundamentally involved in the dynamics of wall turbulence, the physical mechanism responsible for its formation and maintenance remains controversial. In this work we investigate the dynamics maintaining the R-S in turbulent Poiseuille flow at $R=1650$. Spanwise collocation is used to remove spanwise displacement of the streaks and associated flow components, which isolates the streamwise-mean flow R-S component and the second-order statistics of the streamwise-varying fluctuations that are collocated with the R-S. This partition of the dynamics into streamwise-mean and fluctuation components facilitates exploiting insights gained from the analytic characterization of turbulence in the second-order statistical state dynamics (SSD), referred to as S3T, and its closely associated restricted nonlinear dynamics (RNL) approximation. Symmetry of the statistics about the streak centreline permits separation of the fluctuations into sinuous and varicose components. The Reynolds stress forcing induced by the sinuous and varicose fluctuations acting on the R-S is shown to reinforce low- and high-speed streaks, respectively. This targeted reinforcement of streaks by the Reynolds stresses occurs continuously as the fluctuation field is strained by the streamwise-mean streak and not intermittently as would be associated with streak-breakdown events. The Reynolds stresses maintaining the streamwise-mean roll arise primarily from the dominant proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) modes of the fluctuations, which can be identified with the time average structure of optimal perturbations growing on the streak. These results are consistent with a universal process of R-S growth and maintenance in turbulent shear flow arising from roll forcing generated by straining turbulent fluctuations, which was identified using the S3T SSD.