Physics

The present work reports on the flow physics of turbulent supersonic flow over backward facing step (BFS) at Mach 2 using LES methodology where the dynamic Smagorinsky model is used for SGS modeling, while POD is invoked to identify the coherent structures present in the flow. The mean data obtained through the computations is in good agreement with the experimental measurements, while the iso-surfaces of Q-criterion at different time instants show the complex flow structures. The presence of counter rotating vortex pair in the shear layer along with the complex shock wave/boundary layer interaction leading to the separation of boundary layer is also evident from the contours of both Q and the modulus of vorticity. Further, the POD analysis reveals the presence of coherent structures, where the first and second modes confirm the vortical structures near the step as well as along the shear layer in the downstream region; while the second, third and fourth modes confirm the presence of vortices along the shear layer due to Kelvin-Helmholtz (K-H) instability. Moreover, POD as well as frequency analysis is extended at different planes to extract the detailed flow features.

We study the scale dependence of effective diffusion of fluid tracers, specifically, its dependence on the Péclet number, a dimensionless parameter of the ratio between advection and molecular diffusion. Here, we address the case that length and time scales on which the effective diffusion can be described are not separated from those of advection and molecular diffusion. For this, we propose a new method for characterizing the effective diffusivity without relying on the scale separation. For a given spatial domain inside which the effective diffusion can emerge, a time constant related to the diffusion is identified by considering the spatio-temporal evolution of a test advection-diffusion equation, where its initial condition is set at a pulse function. Then, the value of effective diffusivity is identified by minimizing the L ∞ distance between solutions of the above test equation and the diffusion one with mean drift. With this method, for time-independent gyre and time-periodic shear flows, we numerically show that the scale dependence of the effective diffusivity changes beyond the conventional theoretical regime. Their kinematic origins are revealed as the development of the molecular diffusion across flow cells of the gyre and as the suppression of the drift motion due to a temporal oscillation in the shear.

Wall-roughness induces extra drag in wall-bounded turbulent flows. Mapping any given roughness geometry to its fluid dynamic behaviour has been hampered by the lack of accurate and direct measurements of skin-friction drag. Here the Taylor-Couette (TC) system provides an opportunity as it is a closed system and allows to directly and reliably measure the skin-friction. However, the wall-curvature potentially complicates the connection between the wall friction and the wall roughness characteristics. Here we investigate the effects of a hydrodynamically fully rough surface on highly turbulent, inner cylinder rotating, TC flow. We find that the effects of a hydrodynamically fully rough surface on TC turbulence, where the roughness height k is three orders of magnitude smaller than the Obukhov curvature length Lc (which characterizes the effects of curvature on the turbulent flow, see Berghout et al. arXiv: 2003.03294, 2020), are similar to those effects of a fully rough surface on a flat plate turbulent boundary layer (BL). Hence, the value of the equivalent sand grain height ks, that characterizes the drag properties of a rough surface, is similar to those found for comparable sandpaper surfaces in a flat plate BL. Next, we obtain the dependence of the torque (skin-friction drag) on the Reynolds number for given wall roughness, characterized by ks, and find agreement with the experimental results within 5 percent. Our findings demonstrate that global torque measurements in the TC facility are well suited to reliably deduce wall drag properties for any rough surface.

Starting from the Boltzmann-Enskog kinetic equations, the charge transport equation for bidisperse rapid granular flows with contact electrification is derived with separate mean velocities, total kinetic energies, charges and charge variances for each solid phase. To close locally-averaged transport equations, an isotropic Maxwellian distribution is presumed for both particle velocity and charge. The hydrodynamic equations for bidisperse solid mixtures are first revisited and the resulting model consisting of the transport equations of mass, momentum, total kinetic energy, which is the sum of the granular temperature and the trace of fluctuating kinetic tensor, and charge are then presented. The charge transfer between phases and the charge build-up within a phase are modelled with local charge and effective work function differences between phases and the local electric field. The revisited hydrodynamic equations and the derived charge transport equation with constitutive relations are validated through hard-sphere simulations of three-dimensional spatially homogeneous and quasi-one-dimensional spatially inhomogeneous bidisperse granular gases.

Closed-loop control of turbulent flows is a challenging problem with important practical and fundamental implications. We perform closed-loop control of forced, turbulent jets based on a wave-cancellation strategy. The study is motivated by the success of recent studies in applying wave cancellation to control instability waves in transitional boundary layers and free-shear flows. Using a control law obtained through a system-identification technique, we successfully implement wave-cancellation-based, closed-loop control, achieving order-of-magnitude attenuations of velocity fluctuations. Control is shown to reduce fluctuation levels over an extensive streamwise range.

We present an optimization-based method to efficiently calculate accurate nonlinear models of Taylor vortex flow. We use the resolvent formulation of McKeon & Sharma (2010) to model these Taylor vortex solutions by treating the nonlinearity not as an inherent part of the governing equations but rather as a triadic constraint which must be satisfied by the model solution. We exploit the low rank linear dynamics of the system to calculate an efficient basis for our solution, the coefficients of which are then calculated through an optimization problem where the cost function to be minimized is the triadic consistency of the solution with itself as well as with the input mean flow. Our approach constitutes, what is to the best of our knowledge, the first fully nonlinear and self-sustaining, resolvent-based model described in the literature. We compare our results to direct numerical simulation of Taylor Couette flow at up to five times the critical Reynolds number, and show that our model accurately captures the structure of the flow. Additionally, we find that as the Reynolds number increases the flow undergoes a fundamental transition from a classical weakly nonlinear regime, where the forcing cascade is strictly down scale, to a fully nonlinear regime characterized by the emergence of an inverse (up scale) forcing cascade. Triadic contributions from the inverse and traditional cascade destructively interfere implying that the accurate modeling of a certain Fourier mode requires knowledge of its immediate harmonic and sub-harmonic. We show analytically that this finding is a direct consequence of the structure of the quadratic nonlinearity of the governing equations formulated in Fourier space. Finally, we show that using our model solution as an initial condition to a higher Reynolds number DNS significantly reduces the time to convergence.

Oil spills have posed a serious threat to our marine and ecological environment in recent times. Containment of spills proliferating via small drops merging with oceans/seas is especially difficult since their mitigation is closely linked to the coalescence dependent spreading. This inter-connectivity and its dependence on the physical properties of the drop has not been explored until now. Furthermore, pinch-off behavior and scaling laws for such three-phase systems have not been reported. To this end, we investigate the problem of gentle deposition of a single drop of oil on a pool of water, representative of an oil spill scenario. Methodical study of 11 different n-alkanes, polymers and hydrocarbons with varying viscosity and initial spreading coefficients is conducted. Regime map, scaling laws for deformation features and spreading behavior are established. The existence of a previously undocumented regime of delayed coalescence is revealed. It is seen that the inertia-visco-capillary (I-V-C) scale collapses all experimental drop deformation data on a single line while the early stage spreading is found to be either oscillatory or asymptotically reaching a constant value, depending on the viscosity of the oil drop unlike the well reported monotonic, power law late-time spreading behavior. These findings are equally applicable to applications like emulsions and enhanced oil recovery.

The wake of a SAE squareback vehicle model is studied both experimentally and numerically for a Reynolds-number of R e h =1.0 10 6 .The investigation focuses on the coherent structures of the intermediate to largest length and time scales. Flow field as well as base pressure fields are observed for the understanding of the relation between the signals of these quantities. Generalizations and differentiations are made by comparison with the documented behavior of Ahmed or similar vehicle models or three-dimensional bluff bodies. In comparison the vortex shedding acts similar but is restricted to the upper half of the wake of the SAE vehicle model. Due to the localization and phase behavior of the vortex shedding the connection between the base pressure signals and the flow field is weak. However, the pressure signals may be a viable feedback sensor under certain conditions, for example in flow control applications. A flapping of the near wake is identified for the fluctuations of the low frequency time scales.

The present study deals with the finite element discretization of nanofluid convective transport in an enclosure with variable properties. We study the Buongiorno model, which couples the Navier-Stokes equations for the base fluid, an advective-diffusion equation for the heat transfer, and an advection dominated nanoparticle fraction concentration subject to thermophoresis and Brownian motion forces. We develop an iterative numerical scheme that combines Newton's method (dedicated to the resolution of the momentum and energy equations) with the transport equation that governs the nanoparticles concentration in the enclosure. We show that Stream Upwind Petrov-Galerkin regularization approach is required to solve properly the ill-posed Buongiorno transport model being tackled as a variational problem under mean value constraint. Non-trivial numerical computations are reported to show the effectiveness of our proposed numerical approach in its ability to provide reasonably good agreement with the experimental results available in the literature. The numerical experiments demonstrate that by accounting for only the thermophoresis and Brownian motion forces in the concentration transport equation, the model is not able to reproduce the heat transfer impairment due to the presence of suspended nanoparticles in the base fluid. It reveals, however, the significant role that these two terms play in the vicinity of the hot and cold walls.

A recent article (Khair and Kabarowski; Phys. Rev. Fluids 5, 033702) has studied the cross-streamline migration of electrophoretic particles in unbounded shear flows with weak inertia or viscoelasticity. That work compares their results with those reported in two of our previous studies (Choudhary et al.: J. Fluid Mech. 874; J. Fluid Mech. 898) and reports a disagreement in the derived analytical expressions. In this comment, we resolve this discrepancy. For viscoelastic flows, we show that Khair and Kabarowski have not accounted for a leading order surface integral of polymeric stress in their calculation of first-order viscoelastic lift. When this integral is included, the resulting migration velocity matches exactly with that reported in our work (J. Fluid Mech. 898). This qualitatively changes the migration direction that is reported by Khair and Kabarowski for viscoelastic flows. For inertial flows, we clarify that Khair and Kabarowski find the coefficient of lift to be 1.75 ? , compared to 2.35 ? in our previous work (J. Fluid Mech. 874). We show that this difference occurs because Khair and Kabarowski accurately include the effect of rapidly decaying ?�O(1/ r 4 ) velocity field (a correction to the stresslet field ??/ r 2 ), which was neglected in our previous work (J. Fluid Mech. 874).