We present a systematic study to investigate the fluid–structure interaction (FSI) of subaqueous spherical pendulums with several solid-to-fluid mass ratios $m^*\in [1.14, 14.95]$ and corresponding Reynolds numbers of up to $\textit {Re}\sim 10^4$. A digital object tracking (DOT) method was employed to track the oscillating pendulum spheres whereas the time-resolved 3-D particle tracking velocimetry (tr-3D-PTV) was used to measure the flow field around the spheres. The data obtained from the coupling of the two measuring techniques provide novel insights into the dynamics of pendulum sphere oscillations, instantaneous pressure fluctuations related to vortex shedding around the spheres and the way they are influenced by the vortex and wake interactions. Namely, we show that during the downward motion of the pendulum spheres, vortex rings are shed off the spheres which, in turn, induce short-lived propulsion and, subsequently, distinct deceleration. Further, we used the measured data to improve an existing basic model of pendulum motion, which has significant discrepancies for the period and peak amplitude predictions. We did this by incorporating a vortex-induced drag term and a wake interaction term into the equation. Finally, the improved equations are shown to be capable of predicting the subaqueous pendulum dynamics with high accuracy, for the investigated range of $m^*$. The study thus extends the current understanding of basic fluid dynamic mechanisms such as added mass, nonlinear drag, vortex and pressure dynamics.

Analytical expressions for the velocity field and the effective slip length of pressure-driven Stokes flow through slippery pipes and annuli with rotationally symmetrical longitudinal slits are derived. Specifically, the developed models incorporate a finite local slip length and constant shear stress along the slits, and thus go beyond the assumption of perfect slip employed commonly for superhydrophobic surfaces. Thereby, they provide the possibility to assess the influence of both the viscosity of the air or other fluid that is modelled to fill the slits as well as the influence of the micro-geometry of these slits. First, expressions for tubes and annular pipes with superhydrophobic or slippery walls are provided. Second, these solutions are combined to a tube-within-a circular-pipe scenario, where one fluid domain provides a slip to the other. This scenario is interesting as an application to achieve stable fluid–fluid interfaces. With respect to modelling, it illustrates the specification of the local slip length depending on a linked flow field. The comparison of the analytically calculated solutions with numerical simulations shows excellent agreement. The results of this paper thus represent an important instrument for the design and optimization of slippage along surfaces in circular geometries.

The derivation of the Navier–Stokes equation in continuum mechanics leads to a number of consequences which are discussed in depth. In spite of its very high representativity of real flows, this equation presents some artefacts due to the whole notion of the continuous medium. An alternative to the Navier–Stokes equation is proposed, based on the conservation of energy per unit mass instead of momentum. The classical inertial frame of reference is replaced by a set of local frames of reference where interactions are treated as cause and effect. Invoking the principle of equivalence between energy and mass, the latter is eliminated from the quantities used in this new formalism. All quantities, variables and physical properties are thus expressed in units of mass. The law of motion is established in the form of the conservation of acceleration, an energy per unit of mass and length. The acceleration is thus written in the form of a Helmholtz–Hodge decomposition, in two terms, the first curl-free and the second divergence-free as a function of two potentials, scalar and vector. Maxwell's idea of federating the laws of electrodynamics and magnetism to establish electromagnetism is taken up here to establish the new law of motion as a nonlinear wave equation. This approach makes it possible to demonstrate that this law is relativistic from the start. The form of the equation of motion in two Lagrangians gives access to symmetries related to the conservation of certain quantities according to Noether's theorem.

A simple two-dimensional fluid–structure interaction problem, involving viscous oscillatory flow in a channel separated by an elastic membrane from a fluid-filled slender cavity, is analysed to shed light on the flow dynamics pertaining to syringomyelia, a neurological disorder characterized by the appearance of a large tubular cavity (syrinx) within the spinal cord. The focus is on configurations in which the velocity induced in the cavity, representing the syrinx, is comparable to that found in the channel, representing the subarachnoid space surrounding the spinal cord, both flows being coupled through a linear elastic equation describing the membrane deformation. An asymptotic analysis for small stroke lengths leads to closed-form expressions for the leading-order oscillatory flow, and also for the stationary flow associated with the first-order corrections, the latter involving a steady distribution of transmembrane pressure. The magnitude of the induced flow is found to depend strongly on the frequency, with the result that for channel flow rates of non-sinusoidal waveform, as those found in the spinal canal, higher harmonics can dominate the sloshing motion in the cavity, in agreement with previous in vivo observations. Under some conditions, the cycle-averaged transmembrane pressure, also showing a marked dependence on the frequency, changes sign on increasing the cavity transverse dimension (i.e. orthogonal to the cord axis), underscoring the importance of cavity size in connection with the underlying hydrodynamics. The analytic results presented here can be instrumental in guiding future numerical investigations, needed to clarify the pathogenesis of syringomyelia cavities.

When a liquid jet plunges into a pool, it can generate a bubble-laden jet flow underneath the surface. This common and simple phenomenon is investigated experimentally for circular jets to illustrate and quantify the role played by the net gas/liquid void fraction on the maximum bubble penetration depth. It is first shown that an increase in either the impact diameter or the jet fall height to diameter ratio at constant impact momentum leads to a reduction in the bubble cloud size. By measuring systematically the local void fraction using optical probes in the biphasic jet, it is then demonstrated that this effect is a direct consequence of the increase in air content within the cloud. A simple momentum balance model, including only inertia and the buoyancy force, is shown to predict the bubble cloud depth without any fitting parameters. Finally, a Froude number based on the bubble terminal velocity, the cloud depth and also the net void fraction is introduced to propose a simple criterion for the threshold between the inertia-dominated and buoyancy-dominated regimes.

We investigate the linear Floquet stability of two fluid layers undergoing oscillations in the direction parallel to the flexible wall that separates them. This canonical configuration is inspired by the cerebrospinal fluid flow in the spinal canal of subjects with hydromyelia/syringomyelia. The analysis focuses on the marginal conditions for the onset of instability, and how these depend on the spatial wavelength of the perturbation, and on the values of the control parameters, which are the two channel widths, the Reynolds number and the wall stiffness. Unstable perturbations are found to oscillate synchronous with the base flow. The wavelength of the most unstable perturbation, of the order of the stroke length of the basic oscillatory motion, depends strongly on the wall stiffness, but is only weakly influenced by the channel widths and the Reynolds number. In general, around criticality, it was found that increasing the Reynolds number has a destabilizing effect, and that decreasing the canal widths stabilizes the instability. The wall stiffness on the other hand has a non-monotonic effect, exhibiting an intermediate value for which the instability is maximally amplified. The present analysis is a first step towards a better understanding of the physical mechanisms that govern many (bio)fluid mechanical problems that involve oscillatory flows near compliant walls.

The paper studies the statistics of total and static temperature (total $h_t$ and static $h$ enthalpy) in compressible turbulent plane channel flow using direct numerical simulations (DNS) data covering the range of centreline Mach numbers $0.3\lessapprox \bar {M}_{{{CL}}_x} \lessapprox 2.5$ and Huang–Coleman–Bradshaw friction Reynolds numbers $100\lessapprox Re_{\tau ^\star }\lessapprox 1000$. For this class of very-cold-wall flows, the DNS data for correlation coefficients and joint probability density functions (p.d.f.s) show that $h_t'$ is invariably very strongly correlated with the streamwise velocity fluctuation $u'$, in contrast to static temperature (static enthalpy $h'$) whose correlation with $u'$ weakens rapidly with increasing wall distance. We study various correlations and joint p.d.f.s of $h_t'$ and $h'$ in relation to the fluctuating velocity field, including the turbulent Prandtl number $Pr_{{T}}$, and discuss the predictions of Reynolds analogy. The scaling of the mean enthalpy and the fluctuating enthalpy variance and fluxes with respect to inner and outer velocity scales is investigated. The complex behaviour and scaling of different terms in the transport equations for the enthalpy variance and fluxes are discussed.

We study the capillary rise of viscous liquids into sharp corners formed by two surfaces whose geometry is described by power laws $h_i(x) = c_i x^n$, $i = 1,2$, where $c_2 > c_1$ for $n \geq 1$. Prior investigations of capillary rise in sharp corners have shown that the meniscus altitude increases with time as $t^{1/3}$, a result that is universal, i.e. applies to all corner geometries. The universality of the phenomenon of capillary rise in sharp corners is revisited in this work through the analysis of a partial differential equation for the evolution of a liquid column rising into power-law-shaped corners, which is derived using lubrication theory. Despite the lack of geometric similarity of the liquid column cross-section for $n>1$, there exist a scaling and a similarity transformation that are independent of $c_i$ and $n$, which gives rise to the universal $t^{1/3}$ power law for capillary rise. However, the prefactor, which corresponds to the tip altitude of the self-similar solution, is a function of $n$, and it is shown to be bounded and monotonically decreasing as $n\to \infty$. Accordingly, the profile of the interface radius as a function of altitude is also independent of $c_i$ and exhibits slight variations with $n$. Theoretical results are compared against experimental measurements of the time evolution of the tip altitude and of profiles of the interface radius as a function of altitude.

The linear stability of the axisymmetric steady flow in a thermocapillary liquid bridge made from 2-cSt silicone oil $({Pr}=28)$ is investigated numerically. The liquid bridge is heated either from above or below and exposed to an axial air flow which is confined to a concentric tube surrounding the bridge. At the annular inlet, the air flow is fully developed and has the same temperature as the adjacent support rod. Using an extended Oberbeck–Boussinesq approximation in which the density of both fluids depends linearly on the temperature in all equations, critical thermocapillary Reynolds numbers are obtained depending on the strength of the imposed axial air flow. The critical conditions are sensitive with respect to the direction of a weak air flow, because the air flow changes the plateau value of the interfacial temperature midway between the hot and cold ends. For stronger air flow the critical thermocapillary Reynolds number almost saturates at moderate values. Throughout, the instability arises as a hydrothermal wave with the gas phase being passive. The dynamic interface deformations for axisymmetric flow caused by the thermocapillarity flow in the liquid and by the stresses from the air flow are considered separately. Apart from turning points of the critical curve, the impact of dynamic surface deformations on the critical thermocapillary Reynolds number is moderate.

The progressive destabilisation of the incompressible flow in a cubical cavity driven by a constant shear stress is investigated numerically. To that end, one of the square faces of the cube is subjected to a constant shear stress parallel to two opposite edges of that face. The three-dimensional steady basic flow loses its mirror symmetry through a supercritical pitchfork bifurcation leading to a pair of steady stable non-symmetric flow states that are antisymmetric to each other. Upon increase of the strength of the driving, these non-symmetric equilibria become unstable via a Hopf bifurcation resulting in two limit cycles. The bifurcations are investigated using classical linear stability analyses as well as nonlinear simulations. Upon a further increase of the driving shear stress, the limit cycles destabilise through bursts triggering a complex interplay between the unstable equilibria. The transition to turbulence resembles the Pomeau–Manneville scenario.

This study reveals the competitive evolutionary process of the main driving factors in the early, middle and late stages of sandstorms, as shear turbulence becomes dominant and is then suppressed by enhanced thermal stability, based on quadrant analysis of the sand-laden turbulent wind field acquired from field observations over the entire sandstorm process. Moreover, the self-organized state of multiscale structures in the energy-containing region of the sand-laden turbulence is found to change significantly as the sandstorm develops. The logarithmic scaling law that governs the cumulative turbulent kinetic energy for the non-stationary flow in the early and late stages of the sandstorm is different from the existing theoretical formula. The corresponding rate of increase in the cumulative kinetic energy with increasing scale is much higher in these stages than in the middle stage of the sandstorm with steady flow. The change in self-organized state of turbulence is responsible for the flow acceleration and the thermal superimposed effect, rather than the addition of sand particles.

The fundamental resonance (FR) in the nonlinear phase of the boundary-layer transition to turbulence appears when a dominant planar instability mode reaches a finite amplitude and the low-amplitude oblique travelling modes with the same frequency as the dominant mode, together with the stationary streak modes, undergo the strongest amplification among all the Fourier components. This regime may be the most efficient means to trigger the natural transition in hypersonic boundary layers. In this paper, we aim to reveal the intrinsic mechanism of the FR in the weakly nonlinear framework based on the large-Reynolds-number asymptotic technique. It is found that the FR is, in principle, a triad resonance among a dominant planar fundamental mode, a streak mode and an oblique mode. In the major part of the boundary layer, the nonlinear interaction of the fundamental mode and the streak mode seeds the growth of the oblique mode, whereas the interaction of the oblique mode and the fundamental mode drives the roll components (transverse and lateral velocity) of the streak mode, which leads to a stronger amplification of the streamwise component of the streak mode due to the lift-up mechanism. This asymptotic analysis clearly shows that the dimensionless growth rates of the streak and oblique modes are the same order of magnitude as the dimensionless amplitude of the fundamental mode $(\bar {\epsilon }_{10})$, and the amplitude of the streak mode is $O(\bar {\epsilon }_{10}^{-1})$ greater than that of the oblique mode. The main-layer solution of the streamwise velocity, spanwise velocity and temperature of both the streak and the oblique modes become singular as the wall is approached, and so a viscous wall layer appears underneath. The wall layer produces an outflux velocity to the main-layer solution, inclusion of which leads to an improved asymptotic theory whose accuracy is confirmed by comparing with the calculations of the nonlinear parabolised stability equations (NPSEs) at moderate Reynolds numbers and the secondary instability analysis (SIA) at sufficiently high Reynolds numbers.

Capillary folding is the process of folding planar objects into three-dimensional (3-D) structures using capillary force. It has many important industrial applications, e.g. the fabrication of microelectromechanical systems. In this work, we propose a 3-D model for the capillary folding of thin elastic sheets with pinned contact lines. The energy of the system consists of interfacial energies between the different phases and the elastic energy of the sheet. The latter is described by the nonlinear Koiter's model, which can accommodate large deformations of the sheet. From the energy, we derive the governing equations for the static system using a variational approach. We then develop a numerical method to find equilibrium solutions via a relaxation dynamics. At each time step, we evolve the sheet by using the subdivision element method, and update the droplet surface by minimizing a squared area functional using linear finite elements. Qualitatively, numerical solutions for the equilibrium configurations of the sheet–droplet system agree well with those observed in experiments. Furthermore, we identify the critical bendabilities and present bifurcation diagrams for the folding of a triangular sheet. The results exhibit rich and fully 3-D behaviours that were not captured by previous two-dimensional models. Our results provide new insights into the nonlinear process of capillary folding, and may contribute to the advancement of microfabrication techniques.