In a recent study, Lawson & Dawson (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 780, 2015, pp. 60–98) present experimental results on the fine-scale structure of turbulence, which are obtained with a novel variant of particle image velocimetry, to elucidate the relation between the small-scale structure, dynamics and statistics of turbulence. The results are carefully validated against direct numerical simulation data. Their extensive study focuses on the mean structure of the velocity gradient and the pressure Hessian fields for various small-scale flow topologies. It thereby reveals the dynamical impact of turbulent strain and vorticity structures on the velocity gradient statistics through non-local interactions, and points out ways to improve low-dimensional closure models for the dynamics of small-scale turbulence.

This study investigates the behaviour of a turbulent thermal undergoing a second-order chemical reaction with the fluid entrained from the environment. Environments with uniform and stratified density are considered. We show that the dynamics of such a reactive thermal is fully determined by three dimensionless groups, $N/E$, $G/R$ and $R/E$, where $N$ is the buoyancy frequency of the environment, $G$ measures the ability of the reaction to change buoyancy, $R$ reflects the rate of consumption of the chemical species and $E$ is the rate of entrainment of reactive species from the environment. Exact analytical solutions are found for the limiting cases of slow and instantaneous chemical reaction. The effect of each governing group on the time for neutral buoyancy and depletion of the source chemical is assessed numerically. Our theoretical predictions compare well with new experimental results for the limits of a moderately slow chemical reaction and an instantaneous reaction. It is shown that fast reactions, with $R/E\gg 1$, occur only in a fraction of the total volume of the thermal due to incomplete mixing. Finally, our model is applied to study the dynamics of a radioactive cloud formed after a nuclear accident.

In classical literature, blowout is described as loss of static stability of the combustion system whereas thermoacoustic instability is seen as loss of dynamic stability of the system. At blowout, the system transitions from a stable reacting state to a non-reacting state, indicating loss of static stability of the reaction. However, this simple description of stability margin is inadequate since recent studies have shown that combustors exhibit complex nonlinear behaviour prior to blowout. Recently, it was shown that combustion noise that characterizes the regime of stable operation is itself dynamically complex and exhibits multifractal characteristics. Researchers have already described the transition from combustion noise to combustion instability as a loss of multifractality. In this work, we provide a multifractal description for lean blowout in combustors with turbulent flow and thus introduce a unified framework within which both thermoacoustic instability and blowout can be described. Further, we introduce a method for predicting blowout based on the multifractal description of blowout.

A series of experiments were conducted in a wave basin (50 m long, 10 m wide and 5 m deep) generating two waves propagating at an angle by a directional wavemaker. When the two waves were selected from a resonant triplet, an initially non-existing wave grew as the waves propagated down the tank. The linear growth rate of the resonating wave agreed well with third-order resonance theory based on Zakharov’s reduced gravity equation. Additional experiments with opposing and coflowing mean current with large temporal and spatial variations were conducted. As the flow rate increased, the linear growth was suppressed. As reproduced numerically with Zakharov’s equation, the resonant interaction saturated at time scales inversely proportional to the magnitude of the forced random resonance detuning. It is conjectured that the resonance is detuned by the variation and not by the mean of the current field due to wavelength-dependent Doppler shift and to the refraction of wave rays. Further analysis of the spectral evolution revealed that while discrete peaks appear at high frequencies as a result of dynamical cascading, a continuously saturated spectrum develops in the background as the current speed increases. Additional experiments were conducted studying the evolution of the random directional wave on a dynamical time scale under the influence of current. Due to random resonance detuning by the current, the spectral tail tended to be suppressed.

Ignition in a supersonic mixing layer interacting with an oblique shock wave is investigated analytically and numerically under conditions such that the post-shock flow remains supersonic. The study requires consideration of the structure of the post-shock ignition kernel that is found to exist around the point of maximum temperature, which may be located either near the edge of the mixing layer or in its interior, depending on the profiles of the fuel concentration, temperature and Mach number across the mixing layer. The ignition kernel displays a balance between the rates of chemical reaction and of post-shock flow expansion, including the acoustic interactions of the chemical heat release with the shock wave, leading to increased front curvature. The analysis, which adopts a one-step chemistry model with large activation energy, indicates that ignition develops as a fold bifurcation, the turning point in the diagram of the peak perturbation induced by the chemical reaction as a function of the Damköhler number providing the critical conditions for ignition. While an explicit formula for the critical Damköhler number for ignition is derived when ignition occurs in the interior of the mixing layer, under which condition the ignition kernel is narrow in the streamwise direction, numerical integration is required for determining ignition when it occurs at the edge, under which condition the kernel is no longer slender. Subsequent to ignition, for the Arrhenius chemistry addressed, the lead shock will rapidly be transformed into a thin detonation on the fuel side of the ignition kernel, and, under suitable conditions, a deflagration may extend far downstream, along with the diffusion flame that must separate the rich and lean reaction products. The results can be helpful in describing supersonic combustion for high-speed propulsion.

The transport equation for the isotropic turbulent energy dissipation rate $\overline{{\it\epsilon}}_{iso}$ along the centreline in the far-wake of a circular cylinder is derived by applying the limit at small separations to the two-point energy budget equation. It is found that the imbalance between the production and the destruction of $\overline{{\it\epsilon}}_{iso}$, respectively due to vortex stretching and viscosity, is governed by both the streamwise advection and the lateral turbulent diffusion (the former contributes more to the budget than the latter). This imbalance differs intrinsically from that in other flows, e.g. grid turbulence and the flow along the centreline of a fully developed channel, where either the streamwise advection or the lateral turbulent diffusion of $\overline{{\it\epsilon}}_{iso}$ governs the imbalance. More importantly, the different types of imbalance represent different constraints on the relation between the skewness of the longitudinal velocity derivative $S$ and the destruction coefficient of enstrophy $G$. This results in a non-universal approach of $S$ towards a constant value as the Taylor microscale Reynolds number $R_{{\it\lambda}}$ increases. For the present flow, the magnitude of $S$ decreases initially ($R_{{\it\lambda}}\leqslant 40$) before increasing ($R_{{\it\lambda}}>40$) towards this constant value. The constancy of $S$ at large $R_{{\it\lambda}}$ violates the modified similarity hypothesis introduced by Kolmogorov (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 13, 1962, pp. 82–85) but is consistent with the original similarity hypotheses (Kolmogorov, Dokl. Akad. Nauk SSSR, vol. 30, 1941b, pp. 299–303 (see also 1991 Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, vol. 434, pp. 9–13)) ($K41$), and, more importantly, with the almost completely self-preserving nature of the plane far-wake.

We present new experiments of the motion of a turbulent gravity current produced by the rapid release of a finite volume of dense aqueous solution from a lock of length $L$ into a channel $x>0$ filled with a finite depth, $H$, of fresh water. Using light attenuation we measure the mixing and evolving density of the flow, and, using dye studies, we follow the motion of the current and the ambient fluid. After the fluid has slumped to the base of the tank, there are two phases of the flow. When the front of the current, $x_{n}$, is within the region $2L<x_{n}<7L$, the fluid in the head of the current retains its original density and the flow travels with a constant speed. We find that approximately $0.75(\pm 0.05)$ of the ambient fluid displaced by the head mixes with the fluid in the head. The mixture rises over the head and feeds a growing stratified tail region of the flow. Dye studies show that fluid with the original density continues to reach the front of the current, at a speed which we estimate to be approximately $1.35\pm 0.05$ times that of the front, consistent with data of Berson (Q. J. R. Meteorol. Soc., vol. 84, 1958, pp. 1–16) and Kneller et al. (J. Geophys. Res. Oceans, vol. 104, 1999, pp. 5281–5291). This speed is similar to that of the ‘bore’, the trailing edge of the original lock gate fluid, as described by Rottman & Simpson (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 135, 1983, pp. 95–110). The continual mixing at the front leads to a gradual decrease of the mass of unmixed original lock gate fluid. Eventually, when the nose extends beyond $x_{n}\approx 7L$, the majority of the lock gate fluid has been diluted through the mixing. As the current continues, it adjusts to a second regime in which the position of the head increases with time as $x_{n}\approx 1.7B^{1/3}t^{2/3}$, where $B$ is the total buoyancy of the flow per unit width across the channel, while the depth-averaged reduced gravity in the head decreases through mixing with the ambient fluid according to the relation $g_{n}^{\prime }\approx 4.6H^{-1}B^{2/3}t^{-2/3}$. Measurements also show that the depth of the head $h_{n}(t)$ is approximately constant, $h_{n}\sim 0.38H$, and the reduced gravity decreases with height above the base of the current and with distance behind the front of the flow. Using the depth-averaged shallow-water equations, we derive a new class of self-similar solution which models the lateral structure of the flow by assuming the ambient fluid is entrained into the current in the head of the flow. By comparison with our data, we estimate that a fraction $0.69\pm 0.06$ of the ambient fluid displaced by the head of the current is mixed into the flow in this approximately self-similar regime, and the front of the current has a Froude number $0.9\pm 0.05$. We discuss the implications of our results for the evolution of the buoyancy in a gravity current as a function of the distance from the source.

We propose a theory of weakly nonlinear multidimensional self-sustained detonations based on asymptotic analysis of the reactive compressible Navier–Stokes equations. We show that these equations can be reduced to a model consisting of a forced unsteady small-disturbance transonic equation and a rate equation for the heat release. In one spatial dimension, the model simplifies to a forced Burgers equation. Through analysis, numerical calculations and comparison with the reactive Euler equations, the model is demonstrated to capture such essential dynamical characteristics of detonations as the steady-state structure, the linear stability spectrum, the period-doubling sequence of bifurcations and chaos in one-dimensional detonations and cellular structures in multidimensional detonations.

In laboratory experiments that impose shear deformation on partially molten aggregates of initially uniform porosity, melt segregates into high-porosity sheets (bands in cross-section). The bands emerge at $15^{\circ }$–$20^{\circ }$ to the shear plane. A model of viscous anisotropy can explain these low angles whereas previous simpler models have failed to do so. The anisotropic model is complex, however, and the reason that it produces low-angle bands has not been understood. Here we show that there are two mechanisms: (i) suppression of the well-known tensile instability, and (ii) creation of a new shear-driven instability. We elucidate these mechanisms using linearised stability analysis in a coordinate system that is aligned with the perturbations. We consider the general case of anisotropy that varies dynamically with deviatoric stress, but approach it by first considering uniform anisotropy that is imposed a priori and showing the difference between static and dynamic cases. We extend the model of viscous anisotropy to include a strengthening in the direction of maximum compressive stress. Our results support the hypothesis that viscous anisotropy is the cause of low band angles in experiments.

The interaction of cylindrical converging shock waves with a polygonal heavy gas cylinder is studied experimentally in a vertical annular diaphragmless shock tube. The reliability of the shock tube facility is verified in advance by capturing the cylindrical shock movements during the convergence and reflection processes using high-speed schlieren photography. Three types of air/SF6 polygonal interfaces with cross-sections of an octagon, a square and an equilateral triangle are formed by the soap film technique. A high-speed laser sheet imaging method is employed to monitor the evolution of the three polygonal interfaces subjected to the converging shock waves. In the experiments, the Mach number of the incident cylindrical shock at its first contact with each interface is maintained to be 1.35 for all three cases. The results show that the evolution of the polygonal interfaces is heavily dependent on the initial conditions, such as the interface shapes and the shock features. A theoretical model for circulation initially deposited along the air/SF6 polygonal interface is developed based on the theory of Samtaney & Zabusky (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 269, 1994, pp. 45–78). The circulation depositions along the initial interface result in the differences in flow features among the three polygonal interfaces, including the interface velocities and the perturbation growth rates. In comparison with planar shock cases, there are distinct phenomena caused by the convergence effects, including the variation of shock strength during imploding and exploding (geometric convergence), consecutive reshocks on the interface (compressibility), and special behaviours of the movement of the interface structures (phase inversion).

Linear stability analysis and direct numerical simulation are used to investigate the evolution of a symmetrically unstable uniform frontal zone. Simulations in a three-dimensional computational domain capable of resolving near-symmetric currents develop strong nonlinearities without the emergence of pure symmetric instability. Linear stability analysis demonstrates that for $ft>1$ ( $f$ is the Coriolis parameter and $t$ denotes time) the flow generates strongly asymmetric structures which become nearly symmetric when $ft\gg 1$. Unlike the currents generated during pure symmetric instability, near-symmetric instability generates currents that do not align with isopycnals. This greatly modifies their energetics and evolution, leading to regions of the flow that are unstable to gravitational instability and energized by the reservoir of available potential energy. A high-resolution simulation demonstrates the flow evolution from near-symmetric currents to secondary shear-convective instabilities and finally, through tertiary instabilities, to fully three-dimensional turbulence. The effect of this sequence of instabilities is quantified through velocity and vorticity statistics as well as budgets for turbulent kinetic and potential energy. It is not until $ft\sim 10$ that the energy source for fluctuations is primarily shear, in contrast to the purely symmetric instability which draws its energy exclusively from shear production.

The passive scalar dynamics in a freely decaying turbulent flow is studied. The classical framework of homogeneous isotropic turbulence without forcing is considered. Both low and high Reynolds number regimes are investigated for very small and very large Prandtl numbers. The long time behaviours of integrated quantities such as the scalar variance or the scalar dissipation rate are analysed by considering that the decay follows power laws. This study addresses three major topics. First, the Comte-Bellot and Corrsin (CBC) dimensional analysis for the temporal decay exponents is extended to the case of a passive scalar when the permanence of large eddies is broken. Secondly, using numerical simulations based on an eddy-damped quasi-normal Markovian (EDQNM) model, the time evolution of integrated quantities is accurately determined for a wide range of Reynolds and Prandtl numbers. These simulations show that, whatever the values of the Reynolds and the Prandtl numbers are, the decay follows an algebraic law with an exponent very close to the value predicted by the CBC theory. Finally, the initial position of the scalar integral scale $L_{T}$ has no influence on the asymptotic values of the decay exponents, and an analytical law predicting the relative positions of the kinetic and scalar spectra peaks is derived.

This paper studies the lift and drag experienced by a body in a two-dimensional, viscous, compressible and steady flow. By a rigorous linear far-field theory and the Helmholtz decomposition of the velocity field, we prove that the classic lift formula $L=-{\it\rho}_{0}U{\it\Gamma}_{{\it\phi}}$, originally derived by Joukowski in 1906 for inviscid potential flow, and the drag formula $D={\it\rho}_{0}UQ_{{\it\psi}}$, derived for incompressible viscous flow by Filon in 1926, are universally true for the whole field of viscous compressible flow in a wide range of Mach number, from subsonic to supersonic flows. Here, ${\it\Gamma}_{{\it\phi}}$ and $Q_{{\it\psi}}$ denote the circulation of the longitudinal velocity component and the inflow of the transverse velocity component, respectively. We call this result the Joukowski–Filon theorem (J–F theorem for short). Thus, the steady lift and drag are always exactly determined by the values of ${\it\Gamma}_{{\it\phi}}$ and $Q_{{\it\psi}}$, no matter how complicated the near-field viscous flow surrounding the body might be. However, velocity potentials are not directly observable either experimentally or computationally, and hence neither are the J–F formulae. Thus, a testable version of the J–F formulae is also derived, which holds only in the linear far field. Due to their linear dependence on the vorticity, these formulae are also valid for statistically stationary flow, including time-averaged turbulent flow. Thus, a careful RANS (Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes) simulation is performed to examine the testable version of the J–F formulae for a typical airfoil flow with Reynolds number $Re=6.5\times 10^{6}$ and free Mach number $M\in [0.1,2.0]$. The results strongly support and enrich the J–F theorem. The computed Mach-number dependence of $L$ and $D$ and its underlying physics, as well as the physical implications of the theorem, are also addressed.

We present experimental evidence of the existence of an interfacial instability between two miscible liquids of similar (but non-identical) viscosities and densities under horizontal vibration. A stably stratified two-layer system is composed of the same binary mixture with different concentrations placed in a confined cell (with length twice as large as the height). Unlike the case of immiscible fluids, here, the interface is a transient layer of small but non-zero thickness. In the experiments, the frequency and amplitude were varied within the ranges 2–24 Hz and 1.5–16 mm, respectively. When the value of the oscillatory forcing increases, the amplitudes of the interface perturbations grow continuously, forming a saw-tooth frozen structure. This evolution is also examined numerically. In addition to the solutions of full 3-D Navier–Stokes equations, an averaging approach with separation of time scales is used for situations in which the forcing period is very small compared to the natural time scales of the problem. The simulation of averaged equations provides the explanation of the instability development, the calculations of the full nonlinear equations shed light on the decay of a wavy pattern. The results of numerical modelling perfectly support the experimental observations.

The problems of radiation (sway, heave and roll) of surface and flexural-gravity waves by a submerged cylinder are investigated for two configurations, concerning; (i) a freely floating finite elastic plate modelling an ice floe, and (ii) two semi-infinite elastic plates separated by a region of open water (polynya). The fluid of finite depth is assumed to be inviscid, incompressible and homogeneous. The linear two-dimensional problems are formulated within the framework of potential-flow theory. The method of mass sources distributed along the body contour is applied. The corresponding Green’s function is obtained by using matched eigenfunction expansions. The radiation load (added mass and damping coefficients) and the amplitudes of vertical displacements of the free surface and elastic plates are calculated. Reciprocity relations which demonstrate both symmetry of the radiation load coefficients and the relation of damping coefficients with the far-field form of the radiation potentials are found. It is shown that wave motion essentially depends on the position of the submerged body relative to the elastic plate edges. The results of solving the radiation problem are compared with the solution of the diffraction problem. It is noted that resonant frequencies in the radiation problem correlate with those frequencies at which the reflection coefficient in the diffraction problem has a local minimum.

We perform direct numerical simulations (DNS) of a turbulent channel flow over porous walls. In the fluid region the flow is governed by the incompressible Navier–Stokes (NS) equations, while in the porous layers the volume-averaged Navier–Stokes (VANS) equations are used, which are obtained by volume-averaging the microscopic flow field over a small volume that is larger than the typical dimensions of the pores. In this way the porous medium has a continuum description, and can be specified without the need of a detailed knowledge of the pore microstructure by independently assigning permeability and porosity. At the interface between the porous material and the fluid region, momentum-transfer conditions are applied, in which an available coefficient related to the unknown structure of the interface can be used as an error estimate. To set up the numerical problem, the velocity–vorticity formulation of the coupled NS and VANS equations is derived and implemented in a pseudo-spectral DNS solver. Most of the simulations are carried out at $Re_{{\it\tau}}=180$ and consider low-permeability materials; a parameter study is used to describe the role played by permeability, porosity, thickness of the porous material, and the coefficient of the momentum-transfer interface conditions. Among them permeability, even when very small, is shown to play a major role in determining the response of the channel flow to the permeable wall. Turbulence statistics and instantaneous flow fields, in comparative form to the flow over a smooth impermeable wall, are used to understand the main changes introduced by the porous material. A simulation at higher Reynolds number is used to illustrate the main scaling quantities.

We study the buoyancy-driven spreading of a thin viscous film over a thin elastic membrane. Neglecting the effects of membrane bending and the membrane weight, we study the case of constant fluid injection and obtain a system of coupled partial differential equations to describe the shape of the air–liquid interface, and the deformation and radial tension of the stretched membrane. We obtain self-similar solutions to describe the dynamics. In particular, in the early-time period, the dynamics is dominated by buoyancy-driven spreading of the liquid film, and membrane stretching is a response to the buoyancy-controlled distribution of liquid weight; the location of the liquid front obeys the power-law form $r_{f}(t)\propto t^{1/2}$. However, in the late-time period, the system is quasi-steady, the air–liquid interface is flat, and membrane stretching, due to the liquid weight, causes the spreading of the liquid front; the location of the front obeys a different power-law form $r_{f}(t)\propto t^{1/4}$ before the edge effects of the membrane become significant. In addition, we report laboratory experiments for constant fluid injection using different viscous liquids and thin elastic membranes. Very good agreement is obtained between the theoretical predictions and experimental observations.

Wetting of permeable substrates by liquids is an important phenomenon in many natural and industrial processes. Substrate heterogeneities may significantly alter liquid spreading and interface shapes, which in turn may alter liquid imbibition. A new lubrication-theory-based model for droplet spreading on permeable substrates that incorporates surface roughness is developed in this work. The substrate is assumed to be saturated with liquid, and the contact-line region is described by including a precursor film and disjoining pressure. A novel boundary condition for liquid imbibition is applied that eliminates the need for a droplet-thickness-dependent substrate permeability that has been employed in previous models. A nonlinear evolution equation describing droplet height as a function of time and the radial coordinate is derived and then numerically solved to characterize the influence of substrate permeability and roughness on axisymmetric droplet spreading. Because it incorporates surface roughness, the new model is able to describe the contact-line pinning that has been observed in experiments but not captured by previous models.

The injection of fluid into the narrow liquid-filled gap between a rigid plate and an elastic membrane drives a displacement flow that is controlled by the competition between elastic and viscous forces. We study such flows using the canonical set-up of an elastic-walled Hele-Shaw cell whose upper boundary is formed by an elastic sheet. We investigate both single- and two-phase displacement flows in which the localised injection of fluid at a constant flow rate is accommodated by the inflation of the sheet and the outward propagation of an axisymmetric front beyond which the cell remains approximately undeformed. We perform a direct comparison between quantitative experiments and numerical simulations of two theoretical models. The models couple the Föppl–von Kármán equations, which describe the deformation of the thin elastic membrane, to the equations describing the flow, which we model by (i) the Navier–Stokes equations or (ii) lubrication theory. We identify the dominant physical effects that control the behaviour of the system and critically assess modelling assumptions that were made in previous studies. The insight gained from these studies is then used in Part 2 of this work, where we formulate an improved lubrication model and develop an asymptotic description of the key phenomena.

We investigate the injection of inviscid gas into the narrow liquid-filled gap between a rigid base plate and an overlying elastic sheet. After an early-time transient in which the gas deflects the sheet into a large blister, the viscous liquid displaced by the expanding bubble starts to accumulate in a wedge which advances as the elastic sheet peels away from the base. We analyse theoretically the subsequent interaction between viscous forces, elastic (bending or tension) forces and capillary forces. Asymptotic expressions are derived for the speed of spreading of the bubble, which reveal that the effect of the capillary pressure drop at the bubble tip is to suck down the sheet over the liquid wedge and thereby reduce the speed. We show that the system passes through three different asymptotic regimes in sequence. At early times, capillary effects are weak and hence the spreading of the bubble is controlled dominantly by the viscous-peeling process at the wedge tip. The capillary forces grow in importance with time, and at late times they dominate viscous effects and balance with elastic forces, leading to quasi-static spreading. Finally, at very late times, the capillary suction generates a narrow bottleneck at the wedge tip, which pushes a large ridge of liquid ahead of it. These results hold in the framework of standard lubrication theory as well as with an improved lubrication model, which takes into account films of wetting liquid deposited behind the advancing bubble tip. The predictions of the model are shown to be in excellent agreement with the Navier–Stokes simulations and experimental results from Part 1 of this work.