Benoît Pier

Local and global instabilities in the wake of a sphere

The global dynamics of open shear flows is closely related to the nature of their local instability characteristics, either convective or absolute. The present investigation revisits the wake of a sphere, obtains its global behaviour by direct numerical simulations and derives its local stability features, computed for the underlying basic flow under a quasi-parallel flow assumption. It is shown that both the axisymmetric and the planar symmetric basic flows exhibit domains of local absolute instability in the near-wake region. The largest absolute growth rates occur for instabilities developing on the non-axisymmetric basic wake and conserving its planar symmetry.

Experimental characterization of transition region in rotating-disk boundary layer

The three-dimensional boundary layer due to a disk rotating in otherwise still fluid is well known for its sudden transition from a laminar to a turbulent regime, the location of which closely coincides with the onset of local absolute instability. The present experimental investigation focuses on the region around transition and analyses in detail the features that lead from the unperturbed boundary layer to a fully turbulent flow. Mean velocity profiles and high-resolution spectra are obtained by constant-temperature hot-wire anemometry. By carefully analysing these measurements, regions in the flow are identified that correspond to linear, weakly nonlinear, or turbulent dynamics. The frequency that dominates the flow prior to transition is explained in terms of spatial growth rates, derived from the exact linear dispersion relation. In the weakly nonlinear region, up to six clearly identifiable harmonic peaks are found. High-resolution spectra reveal the existence of discrete frequency components that ...

Flow around a rotating, semi-infinite cylinder in an axial stream.

This paper concerns steady, high-Reynolds-number flow around a semi-infinite, rotating cylinder placed in an axial stream and uses boundary-layer type of equations which apply even when the boundary-layer thickness is comparable to the cylinder radius, as indeed it is at large enough downstream distances. At large rotation rates, it is found that a wall jet appears over a certain range of downstream locations. This jet strengthens with increasing rotation, but first strengthens then weakens as downstream distance increases, eventually disappearing, so the flow recovers a profile qualitatively similar to a classical boundary layer. The asymptotic solution at large streamwise distances is obtained as an expansion in inverse powers of the logarithm of the distance. It is found that the asymptotic radial and axial velocity components are the same as for a non-rotating cylinder, to all orders in this expansion.

Experimental characterization of the transition region in a rotating-disk boundary layer

A series of experiments were performed to study the transition from laminar to turbulent flow for the boundary layer over a rotating disk and to compare with theoretical results. The mean flow profile measured in the laminar region is found to be in excellent agreement with analytical results, and the spatial growth of natural disturbances matches linear theory predictions. A hot-wire sensor was positioned at different spatial locations to determine the evolution of natural disturbances. Spectral analysis at high resolution and ensemble-averages of velocity time series have been carried out to distinguish different flow regimes.

Global nonlinear dynamics of thin aerofoil wakes

In the present investigation of thin aerofoil wakes we compare the global nonlinear dynamics, obtained by direct numerical simulations, to the associated local instability features, derived from linear stability analyses. A given configuration depends on two control parameters: the Reynolds number Re and the adverse pressure gradient m (with m < 0) prevailing at the aerofoil trailing edge. Global instability is found to occur for large enough Re and |m|; the naturally selected frequency is determined by the local absolute frequency prevailing at the trailing edge.