Lennon Ó Náraigh

Singular solutions of a modified two-component Camassa-Holm equation.

The Camassa-Holm (CH) equation is a well-known integrable equation describing the velocity dynamics of shallow water waves. This equation exhibits spontaneous emergence of singular solutions (peakons) from smooth initial conditions. The CH equation has been recently extended to a two-component integrable system (CH2), which includes both velocity and density variables in the dynamics. Although possessing peakon solutions in the velocity, the CH2 equation does not admit singular solutions in the density profile. We modify the CH2 system to allow a dependence on the average density as well as the pointwise density. The modified CH2 system (MCH2) does admit peakon solutions in the velocity and average density. We analytically identify the steepening mechanism that allows the singular solutions to emerge from smooth spatially confined initial data. Numerical results for the MCH2 system are given and compared with the pure CH2 case. These numerics show that the modification in the MCH2 system to introduce the average density has little short-time effect on the emergent dynamical properties. However, an analytical and numerical study of pairwise peakon interactions for the MCH2 system shows a different asymptotic feature. Namely, besides the expected soliton scattering behavior seen in overtaking and head-on peakon collisions, the MCH2 system also allows the phase shift of the peakon collision to diverge in certain parameter regimes.

Linear and nonlinear spatio-temporal instability in laminar two-layer flows

The linear and nonlinear spatio-temporal stability of an interface separating two Newtonian fluids in pressure-driven channel flow at moderate Reynolds numbers is analysed both theoretically and numerically. A linear, Orr-Sommerfeld-type analysis shows that most of such systems are unstable. The transition to an absolutely unstable regime is investigated, and is shown to occur in an intermediate range of Reynolds numbers and ratios of the thicknesses of the two layers, for near-density matched fluids with a viscosity contrast. A critical Reynolds number is found for transition from convective to absolute instability of relatively thin films. Results obtained from direct numerical simulations (DNSs) of the Navier-Stokes equations for long channels using a diffuse-interface method elucidate that waves generated by random noise at the inlet show that, near the inlet, waves are formed and amplified strongly, leading to ligament formation. Successive waves coalesce with each other further downstream, resulting in longer larger-amplitude waves further downstream. In the linearly absolute regime, the characteristics of the spatially growing wave near the inlet agree with that of the saddle point as predicted by the linear theory. The transition point from a convective to an absolute regime predicted by linear theory is also in agreement with a sharp change in the value of a healing length obtained from the DNSs.

Bubbles and filaments: stirring a Cahn-Hilliard fluid.

The advective Cahn-Hilliard equation describes the competing processes of stirring and separation in a two-phase fluid. Intuition suggests that bubbles will form on a certain scale, and previous studies of Cahn-Hilliard dynamics seem to suggest the presence of one dominant length scale. However, the Cahn-Hilliard phase-separation mechanism contains a hyperdiffusion term and we show that, by stirring the mixture at a sufficiently large amplitude, we excite the diffusion and overwhelm the segregation to create a homogeneous liquid. At intermediate amplitudes we see regions of bubbles coexisting with regions of hyperdiffusive filaments. Thus, the problem possesses two dominant length scales, associated with the bubbles and filaments. For simplicity, we use a chaotic flow that mimics turbulent stirring at large Prandtl number. We compare our results with the case of variable mobility, in which growth of bubble size is dominated by interfacial rather than bulk effects, and find qualitatively similar results.

Dynamical effects and phase separation in cooled binary fluid films.

We study phase separation in thin films using a model based on the Navier-Stokes Cahn-Hilliard equations in the lubrication approximation, with a van der Waals potential to account for substrate-film interactions. We solve the resulting thin-film equations numerically and compare to experimental data. The model captures the qualitative features of real phase-separating fluids, in particular, how concentration gradients produce film thinning and surface roughening. The ultimate outcome of the phase separation depends strongly on the dynamical back reaction of concentration gradients on the flow, an effect we demonstrate by applying a shear stress at the films surface. When the back reaction is small, the phase domain boundaries align with the direction of the imposed stress, while for larger back-reaction strengths, the domains align in the perpendicular direction.

Linear and nonlinear instability in vertical counter-current laminar gas-liquid flows

We consider the genesis and dynamics of interfacial instability in vertical gas-liquid flows, using as a model the two-dimensional channel flow of a thin falling film sheared by counter-current gas. The methodology is linear stability theory (Orr-Sommerfeld analysis) together with direct numerical simulation of the two-phase flow in the case of nonlinear disturbances. We investigate the influence of two main flow parameters on the interfacial dynamics, namely the film thickness and pressure drop applied to drive the gas stream. To make contact with existing studies in the literature, the effect of various density contrasts is also examined. Energy budget analyses based on the Orr-Sommerfeld theory reveal various coexisting unstable modes (interfacial, shear, internal) in the case of high density contrasts, which results in mode coalescence and mode competition, but only one dynamically relevant unstable interfacial mode for low density contrast. A study of absolute and convective instability for low densi...

Bounds on the mixing enhancement for a stirred binary fluid

Abstract The Cahn–Hilliard equation describes phase separation in binary liquids. Here we study this equation with spatially-varying sources and stirring, or advection. We specialize to symmetric mixtures and time-independent sources and discuss stirring strategies that homogenize the binary fluid. By measuring fluctuations of the composition away from its mean value, we quantify the amount of homogenization achievable. We find upper and lower bounds on our measure of homogenization using only the Cahn–Hilliard equation and the incompressibility of the advecting flow. We compare these theoretical bounds with numerical simulations for two model flows: the constant flow, and the random-phase sine flow. Using the sine flow as an example, we show how our bounds on composition fluctuations provide a measure of the effectiveness of a given stirring protocol in homogenizing a phase-separating binary fluid.

An analytical connection between temporal and spatio-temporal growth rates in linear stability analysis

We derive an exact formula for the complex frequency in spatio-temporal stability analysis that is valid for arbitrary complex wavenumbers. The usefulness of the formula lies in the fact that it depends only on purely temporal quantities, which are easily calculated. We apply the formula in two model dispersion relations: the linearized complex Ginzburg–Landau equation, and a model of wake instability. In the first case, a quadratic truncation of the exact formula applies; in the second, the same quadratic truncation yields an estimate of the parameter values at which the transition to absolute instability occurs; the error in the estimate decreases upon increasing the order of the truncation. We outline ways in which the formula can be used to characterize stability results obtained from purely numerical calculations, and point to a further application in global stability analyses.

High-performance computational fluid dynamics: a custom-code approach

We introduce a modified and simplified version of the pre-existing fully parallelized three-dimensional Navier–Stokes flow solver known as TPLS. We demonstrate how the simplified version can be used as a pedagogical tool for the study of computational fluid dynamics (CFDs) and parallel computing. TPLS is at its heart a two-phase flow solver, and uses calls to a range of external libraries to accelerate its performance. However, in the present context we narrow the focus of the study to basic hydrodynamics and parallel computing techniques, and the code is therefore simplified and modified to simulate pressure-driven single-phase flow in a channel, using only relatively simple Fortran 90 code with MPI parallelization, but no calls to any other external libraries. The modified code is analysed in order to both validate its accuracy and investigate its scalability up to 1000 CPU cores. Simulations are performed for several benchmark cases in pressure-driven channel flow, including a turbulent simulation, wherein the turbulence is incorporated via the large-eddy simulation technique. The work may be of use to advanced undergraduate and graduate students as an introductory study in CFDs, while also providing insight for those interested in more general aspects of high-performance computing.

Global modes in nonlinear non-normal evolutionary models: Exact solutions, perturbation theory, direct numerical simulation, and chaos

Abstract This paper is concerned with the theory of generic non-normal nonlinear evolutionary equations, with potential applications in Fluid Dynamics and Optics. Two theoretical models are presented. The first is a model two-level non-normal nonlinear system that not only highlights the phenomena of linear transient growth, subcritical transition and global modes, but is also of potential interest in its own right in the field of nonlinear optics. The second is the fairly familiar inhomogeneous nonlinear complex Ginzburg–Landau (CGL) equation. The two-level model is exactly solvable for the nonlinear global mode and its stability, while for the spatially-extended CGL equation, perturbative solutions for the global mode and its stability are presented, valid for inhomogeneities with arbitrary scales of spatial variation and global modes of small amplitude, corresponding to a scenario near criticality. For other scenarios, a numerical iterative nonlinear eigenvalue technique is preferred. Two global modes of different amplitudes are revealed in the numerical approach. For both the two-level system and the nonlinear CGL equation, the analytical calculations are supplemented with direct numerical simulation, thus showing the fate of unstable global modes. For the two-level model this results in unbounded growth of the full nonlinear equations. For the spatially-extended CGL model in the subcritical regime, the global mode of larger amplitude exhibits a ‘one-sided’ instability leading to a chaotic dynamics, while the global mode of smaller amplitude is always unstable (theory confirms this). However, advection can stabilize the mode of larger amplitude.

Homogenization theory for periodic potentials in the Schrödinger equation

We use homogenization theory to derive asymptotic solutions of the Schrodinger equation for periodic potentials. This approach provides a rigorous framework in which the key concepts in solid-state physics naturally arise (Bloch waves, band gaps, effective mass, and group velocity). We solve the resulting spectral cell problem using numerical spectral methods, and validate our solution in an analytically-solvable case. Finally, we briefly discuss the convergence of our asymptotic approach and we prove that the ground-state k = 0 effective mass is never less than the ordinary inertial mass.