Droplets of an aqueous phase placed on a very hydrophobic, waxy surface bead-up rather than spread, forming a sessile drop with a relatively large contact angle at the edge of the drop. Surfactant molecules, when dissolved in the aqueous phase, can facilitate the wetting of an aqueous drop on a hydrophobic surface. One class of surfactants, superwetters, can cause aqueous droplets to move very rapidly over a hydrophobic surface, thereby completely wetting the surface (superspreading). A recent numerical study of the hydrodynamics of superspreading by Karapetsas, Craster & Matar (J. Fluid Mech., this issue, vol. 670, 2011, pp. 5–37) provides a clear explanation of how these surfactants cause such a dramatic change in wetting behaviour. The study shows that large spreading rates occur when the surfactant can transfer directly from the air/aqueous to the aqueous/hydrophobic solid interface at the contact line. This transfer reduces the concentration of surfactant on the fluid interface, which would otherwise be elevated due to the advection accompanying the drop spreading. The reduced concentration creates a Marangoni force along the fluid surface in the direction of spreading, and a concave rim in the vicinity of the contact line with a large dynamic contact angle. Both of these effects act to increase the spreading rate. The molecular structure of the superwetters allows them to assemble on a hydrophobic surface, enabling the direct transfer from the fluid to the solid surface at the contact line.

The mechanisms driving the surfactant-enhanced spreading of droplets on the surface of solid substrates, and particularly those underlying the superspreading behaviour sometimes observed, are investigated theoretically. Lubrication theory for the droplet motion, together with advection–diffusion equations and chemical kinetic fluxes for the surfactant transport, leads to coupled evolution equations for the drop thickness, interfacial concentrations of surfactant monomers and bulk concentrations of monomers and micellar, or other, aggregates. The surfactant can be adsorbed on the substrate either directly from the bulk monomer concentrations or from the liquid–air interface through the contact line. An important feature of the spreading model developed here is the surfactant behaviour at the contact line; this is modelled using a constitutive relation, which is dependent on the local surfactant concentration. The evolution equations are solved numerically, using the finite-element method, and we present a thorough parametric analysis for cases of both insoluble and soluble surfactants with concentrations that can, in the latter case, exceed the critical micelle, or aggregate, concentration. The results show that basal adsorption of the surfactant plays a crucial role in the spreading process; the continuous removal of the surfactant that lies upon the liquid–air interface, due to the adsorption at the solid surface, is capable of inducing high Marangoni stresses, close to the droplet edge, driving very fast spreading. The droplet radius grows at a rate proportional to ta with a = 1 or even higher, which is close to the reported experimental values for superspreading. The spreading rates follow a non-monotonic variation with the initial surfactant concentration also in accordance with experimental observations. An accompanying feature is the formation of a rim at the leading edge of the droplet. In some cases, the drop spreads to form a ‘pancake’ or creates a ‘secondary’ front separated from the main droplet.

Buoyancy-driven instabilities of a horizontal interface between two miscible solutions in the gravity field are theoretically studied in porous media and Hele-Shaw cells (two glass plates separated by a thin gap). Beyond the classical Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) and double diffusive (DD) instabilities that can affect such two-layer stratifications right at the initial time of contact, diffusive-layer convection (DLC) as well as delayed-double diffusive (DDD) instabilities can set in at a later time when differential diffusion effects act upon the evolving density profile starting from an initial step-function profile between the two miscible solutions. The conditions for these instabilities to occur can therefore be obtained only by considering time evolving base-state profiles. To do so, we perform a linear stability analysis based on a quasi-steady-state approximation (QSSA) as well as nonlinear simulations of a diffusion–convection model to classify and analyse all possible buoyancy-driven instabilities of a stratification of a solution of a given solute A on top of another miscible solution of a species B. Our theoretical model couples Darcy's law to evolution equations for the concentration of species A and B ruling the density of the miscible solutions. The parameters of the problem are a buoyancy ratio R quantifying the ratio of the relative contribution of B and A to the density as well as δ, the ratio of diffusion coefficients of these two species. We classify the region of RT, DD, DDD and DLC instabilities in the (R, δ) plane as a function of the elapsed time and show that, asymptotically, the unstable domain is much larger than the one captured on the basis of linear base-state profiles which can only obtain stability thresholds for the RT and DD instabilities. In addition the QSSA allows one to determine the critical time at which an initially stable stratification of A above B can become unstable with regard to a DDD or DLC mechanism when starting from initial step function profiles. Nonlinear dynamics are also analysed by a numerical integration of the full nonlinear model in order to understand the influence of R and δ on the dynamics.

We investigate the buoyancy-driven ventilation of an enclosed volume of buoyant fluid, which is connected to the exterior through two openings at the top of the enclosure. An exchange flow becomes established, with outflow through one opening being matched by an equal and opposite inflow through the other vent. The inflowing flux of dense exterior fluid develops a turbulent buoyant plume, which mixes with the interior fluid as it cascades to the base of the fluid volume. An upward return flow gradually stratifies the confined volume of fluid, with a first front of relatively dense plume fluid advancing to the top of the space. Initially, the exchange flow is steady, but as the first front rises above the inflow opening, the flow rate wanes. The initial development of the exchange flow and interior stratification follows the classical filling box work of Baines & Turner (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 37, 1969, p. 51), with a plume of constant buoyancy flux. Once the first front exits the space, the volume flux rapidly asymptotes to the form Q = Q0(τ/(τ+t)) from the initial value Q0, where τ is the buoyancy-driven draining time, based on the initial density contrast with the environment. The vertical structure of the interior density stratification asymptotes to a profile of constant shape whose amplitude decays in time as (τ/(τ+t))2, and we identify conditions under which the vertical variation in density is comparable to the difference between mean interior density and the exterior. This generalises the analysis presented by Linden, Lane-Serff & Smeed (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 212, 1990, p. 309), who assumed that the interior fluid is well mixed. New laboratory experiments of the process are shown to be consistent with our predictions of the evolution of the flow, the interior stratification and the migration of contaminants. We also develop our analysis for situations where there are multiple stacks and show how this improves the mixing efficiency for a given ventilation flow. The model has relevance for the design of transient mixing ventilation in a building, especially when the effect of vertical stratification is important for ensuring thermal comfort.

Vortex dipoles in a two-dimensional, inviscid flow are obtained by prescribing the profile function relating the vorticity to the stream function. The profile functions used are smooth, and the solutions obtained have a smooth transition from the exterior flow to the interior of the vortex. The dipoles are nearly elliptical, and this relates this work to the ‘supersmooth’ dipoles obtained recently by Kizner & Khvoles (Regular Chaotic Dyn., vol. 9, 2004, pp. 509–518). The solutions found here are obtained by an iterative method for solving the nonlinear partial differential equation for the stream function. This iterative method is both robust and flexible. Solutions are also obtained in a β-plane, and they are shielded, as has also been found in previous work.

The appearance of travelling-wave-type solutions in pipe Poiseuille flow that are disconnected from the basic parabolic profile is numerically studied in detail. We focus on solutions in the twofold azimuthally-periodic subspace because of their special stability properties, but relate our findings to other solutions as well. Using time-stepping, an adapted Krylov–Newton method and Arnoldi iteration for the computation and stability analysis of relative equilibria, and a robust pseudo-arclength continuation scheme, we unfold a double-zero (Takens–Bogdanov) bifurcating scenario as a function of Reynolds number (Re) and wavenumber (κ). This scenario is extended, by the inclusion of higher-order terms in the normal form, to account for the appearance of supercritical modulated waves emanating from the upper branch of solutions at a degenerate Hopf bifurcation. We provide evidence that these modulated waves undergo a fold-of-cycles and compute some solutions on the unstable branch. These waves are shown to disappear in saddle-loop bifurcations upon collision with lower-branch solutions, in accordance with the bifurcation scenario proposed. The travelling-wave upper-branch solutions are stable within the subspace of twofold periodic flows, and their subsequent secondary bifurcations could contribute to the formation of the phase space structures that are required for turbulent dynamics at higher Re.

Non-normality can cause transient growth of perturbations in thermoacoustic systems with stable eigenvalues. This can cause low-amplitude perturbations to grow to amplitudes high enough to make nonlinear effects significant, and the system can become nonlinearly unstable, even though it is stable under classical linear stability. In this paper, we have demonstrated that this feature can lead to the failure of the traditional controllers that were designed on the basis of classical linear stability analysis. We have also shown in a simple model that it is possible to prevent ‘nonlinear driving’ by controlling transient growth, using linear controllers. The analysis is performed in the context of a horizontal Rijke tube.

We present a theoretical and numerical study of horizontal particle dispersion due to random waves in the three-dimensional rotating and stratified Boussinesq system, which serves as a simple model to study the dispersion of tracers in the ocean by the internal wave field. Specifically, the effective one-particle diffusivity in the sense of Taylor (Proc. Lond. Math. Soc., vol. 20, 1921, p. 196) is computed for a small-amplitude internal gravity wave field modelled as a stationary homogeneous and horizontally isotropic Gaussian random field whose frequency spectrum is bounded away from zero. Dispersion in this system does not arise simply because of a Stokes drift effect, as in the case of surface gravity waves, but in addition it is driven by the nonlinear, second-order corrections to the linear velocity field, which can be computed using the methods of wave–mean interaction theory. A formula for the one-particle diffusivity as a function of the spectrum of the random wave field is presented. It is shown that this diffusivity is much smaller than might be expected from heuristic arguments based on the magnitude of the Stokes drift or the pseudomomentum. This appears to stem from certain incompressibility constraints for the Stokes drift and the second-order velocity field. Finally, the theory is applied to oceanic conditions described by a typical model wave spectrum, the Garrett–Munk spectrum, and also by detailed field observations from the North Atlantic tracer release experiment.

Incompressible turbulent flow in a periodic circular pipe with strong injection is studied as a simplified model for the core flow in a solid-propellant rocket motor and other injection-driven internal flows. The model is based on a multi-scale asymptotic approach. The intended application of the current study is erosive burning of solid propellants. Relevant analysis for easily accessible parameters for this application, such as the magnitudes, main frequencies and wavelengths associated with the near-wall shear, and the assessment of near-wall turbulence viscosity is focused on. It is found that, unlike flows with weak or no injection, the near-wall shear is dominated by the root mean square of the streamwise velocity which is a function of the Reynolds number, while the mean streamwise velocity is only weakly dependent on the Reynolds number. As a result, a new wall-friction velocity , based on the shear stress derived from the sum of the mean and the root mean square, i.e. , is proposed for the scaling of turbulent viscosity for turbulent flows with strong injection. We also show that the mean streamwise velocity profile has an inflection point near the injecting surface.

The relation between the form of a body force driving a turbulent shear flow and the dissipation factor β = ϵℓ/U3 is investigated by means of rigorous upper bound analysis and direct numerical simulation. We consider unidirectional steady forcing functions in a three-dimensional periodic domain and observe that a rigorous infinite Reynolds number bound on β displays the same qualitative behaviour as the computationally measured dissipation factor at finite Reynolds number as the force profile is varied. We also compare the measured mean flow profiles with the Stokes flow profile for the same forcing. The mean and Stokes flow profiles are strikingly similar at the Reynolds numbers obtained in the numerical simulations, lending quantitative credence to the notion of a turbulent eddy viscosity.

This study is concerned with the effect of external turbulence on the decay of vortices. Single vortices and vortex pairs were generated with wing(s) mounted in the sidewalls of a wind tunnel. The distance between the two vortices could be adjusted such that they just touched each other or overlapped. The intensity of the turbulence could be controlled with a turbulence grid. The development of the vortex was measured at a number of downstream stations with particle image velocimetry for a range of wing settings. The results indicate that the single vortex can be described by the ‘two length scales’ model of Jacquin, Fabre & Geffroy (AIAA, vol. 1038, 2001, p. 1). A vortex core, which decays like a Lamb–Oseen vortex, is embedded in a region with an almost constant radius and a much lower azimuthal velocity that obeys a ~r−β power law, with r being the radius measured from the vortex centre. For the turbulence levels and the test section length used in this study, the single-vortex behaviour is independent of the external turbulence and in contrast with the decay of the vortex pair that strongly depends on the external turbulence. In the initial stages of the vortex pair evolution, the vortices decay due to cancellation of vorticity at the symmetry plane. At a later stage, Crow oscillations are observed, followed by a breakdown of the vortices. This vortex breakdown might be due to direct turbulent action. The observed behaviour is in agreement with the theoretical model of Crow & Bate (J. Aircraft, vol. 13, 1976, p. 476).

We consider the evolution of high-Reynolds-number, planar, pulsatile jets in an incompressible viscous fluid. The source of the jet flow comprises a mean-flow component with a superposed temporally periodic pulsation, and we address the spatiotemporal evolution of the resulting system. The analysis is presented for both a free symmetric jet and a wall jet. In both cases, pulsation of the source flow leads to a downstream short-wave linear instability, which triggers a breakdown of the boundary-layer structure in the nonlinear regime. We extend the work of Riley, Sánchez-Sans & Watson (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 638, 2009, p. 161) to show that the linear instability takes the form of a wave that propagates with the underlying jet flow, and may be viewed as a (spatially growing) weakly non-parallel analogue of the (temporally growing) short-wave modes identified by Cowley, Hocking & Tutty (Phys. Fluids, vol. 28, 1985, p. 441). The nonlinear evolution of the instability leads to wave steepening, and ultimately a singular breakdown of the jet is obtained at a critical downstream position. We speculate that the form of the breakdown is associated with the formation of a ‘pseudo-shock’ in the jet, indicating a failure of the (long-length scale) boundary-layer scaling. The numerical results that we present disagree with the recent results of Riley et al. (2009) in the case of a free jet, together with other previously published works in this area.

Massive flow separation from the surface of a plane bluff obstacle in an incompressible uniform stream is addressed theoretically for large values of the global Reynolds number Re. The analysis is motivated by a conclusion drawn from recent theoretical results which is corroborated by experimental findings but apparently contrasts with common reasoning: the attached boundary layer extending from the front stagnation point to the position of separation never attains a fully developed turbulent state, even for arbitrarily large Re. Consequently, the boundary layer exhibits a certain level of turbulence intensity that is linked with the separation process, governed by local viscous–inviscid interaction. Eventually, the latter mechanism is expected to be associated with rapid change of the separating shear layer towards a fully developed turbulent one. A self-consistent flow description in the vicinity of separation is derived, where the present study includes the predominantly turbulent region. We establish a criterion that acts to select the position of separation. The basic analysis here, which appears physically feasible and rational, is carried out without needing to resort to a specific turbulence closure.

The somewhat counter-intuitive effect of how stratification destabilizes shear flows and the rationalization of the Miles–Howard stability criterion are re-examined in what we believe to be the simplest example of action-at-a-distance interaction between ‘buoyancy–vorticity gravity wave kernels’. The set-up consists of an infinite uniform shear Couette flow in which the Rayleigh–Fjørtoft necessary conditions for shear flow instability are not satisfied. When two stably stratified density jumps are added, the flow may however become unstable. At each density jump the perturbation can be decomposed into two coherent gravity waves propagating horizontally in opposite directions. We show, in detail, how the instability results from a phase-locking action-at-a-distance interaction between the four waves (two at each jump) but can as well be reasonably approximated by the interaction between only the two counter-propagating waves (one at each jump). From this perspective the nature of the instability mechanism is similar to that of the barotropic and baroclinic ones. Next we add a small ambient stratification to examine how the critical-level dynamics alters our conclusions. We find that a strong vorticity anomaly is generated at the critical level because of the persistent vertical velocity induction by the interfacial waves at the jumps. This critical-level anomaly acts in turn at a distance to dampen the interfacial waves. When the ambient stratification is increased so that the Richardson number exceeds the value of a quarter, this destructive interaction overwhelms the constructive interaction between the interfacial waves, and consequently the flow becomes stable. This effect is manifested when considering the different action-at-a-distance contributions to the energy flux divergence at the critical level. The interfacial-wave interaction is found to contribute towards divergence, that is, towards instability, whereas the critical-level–interfacial-wave interaction contributes towards an energy flux convergence, that is, towards stability.

The effects induced by long temporal correlations of the velocity gradients on the dynamics of a flexible polymer are investigated by means of theoretical and numerical analysis of the Hookean and finitely extensible nonlinear elastic (FENE) dumbbell models in a random renewing flow. For Hookean dumbbells, we show that long temporal correlations strongly suppress the Weissenberg-number dependence of the power-law tail characterising the probability density function (PDF) of the elongation. For the FENE model, the PDF becomes bimodal, and the coil–stretch transition occurs through the simultaneous drop and rise of the two peaks associated with the coiled and stretched configurations, respectively.

Polymer drag reduction, diffusion and degradation in a high-Reynolds-number turbulent boundary layer (TBL) flow were investigated. The TBL developed on a flat plate at free-stream speeds up to 20ms−1. Measurements were acquired up to 10.7m downstream of the leading edge, yielding downstream-distance-based Reynolds numbers up to 220 million. The test model surface was hydraulically smooth or fully rough. Flow diagnostics included local skin friction, near-wall polymer concentration, boundary layer sampling and rheological analysis of polymer solution samples. Skin-friction data revealed that the presence of surface roughness can produce a local increase in drag reduction near the injection location (compared with the flow over a smooth surface) because of enhanced mixing. However, the roughness ultimately led to a significant decrease in drag reduction with increasing speed and downstream distance. At the highest speed tested (20ms−1) no drag reduction was discernible at the first measurement location (0.56m downstream of injection), even at the highest polymer injection flux (10 times the flux of fluid in the near-wall region). Increased polymer degradation rates and polymer mixing were shown to be the contributing factors to the loss of drag reduction. Rheological analysis of liquid drawn from the TBL revealed that flow-induced polymer degradation by chain scission was often substantial. The inferred polymer molecular weight was successfully scaled with the local wall shear rate and residence time in the TBL. This scaling revealed an exponential decay that asymptotes to a finite (steady-state) molecular weight. The importance of the residence time to the scaling indicates that while individual polymer chains are stretched and ruptured on a relatively short time scale (~10−3s), because of the low percentage of individual chains stretched at any instant in time, a relatively long time period (~0.1s) is required to observe changes in the mean molecular weight. This scaling also indicates that most previous TBL studies would have observed minimal influence from degradation due to insufficient residence times.

The infinite set of the Lundgren-Monin equations for the multi-point velocity distributions of fluid turbulence is closed by making use of the cross-independence closure hypothesis proposed by Tatsumi (Geometry and Statistics of Turbulence, 2001, p. 3), and the minimum deterministic set of equations is obtained as the equations for the one-point velocity distribution f, the two-point velocity distribution f(2) and the two-point local velocity distribution f(2)*. In practice, the two-point distributions f(2) and f(2)* are more conveniently expressed in terms of the velocity-sum and -difference distributions g+, g− and g+*, g−*, respectively.

As an outstanding result, the energy dissipation rate is expressed in terms of the distribution g− which is mainly contributed from small-scale turbulent fluctuations, making clear analogy with the ‘fluctuation-dissipation theorem’ in non-equilibrium statistical mechanics.

It is to be remarked that the integral moments of the equations for the distributions f and f(2) give the equations for the mean flow and the mean velocity procducts of various orders, which are identical with the corresponding equations derived directly from the Navier--Stokes equation. This results clearly shows the exact consistency of the cross-independence closure and gives an overall solution for the classical closure problem concerning the mean velocity products since they are derived from the known distributions.

Although the present work is confined to the two-point statistics of turbulence, the analysis can be extended to the higher-order statistics and even to turbulence in other fluids such as magneto and quantum fluids.

The commonly used forms of the modified nonlinear Schrödinger equations for deep water (Dysthe, Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A, vol. 369, 1979, p. 105) and arbitrary depth (Brinch–Nielsen & Jonsson, Wave Motion, vol. 8, 1986, p. 455) do not conserve momentum and are not Hamiltonian. We show how these equations can be brought into Hamiltonian form, with the action, momentum and Hamiltonian being conserved. We derive the new fourth-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation for arbitrary depth, starting from the Zakharov equation enhanced with the new kernel of Krasitskii (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 272, 1994, p. 1).

The size and shape of capillary microjets are analysed theoretically and experimentally. We focus on the particular case of gas-focused viscous microjets, which are shaped by both the pressure drop in the axial direction occurring in front of the discharge orifice, and the tangential viscous stress caused by the difference between the velocities of the co-flowing gas stream and liquid jet behind the orifice. The momentum equation obtained from the slender approximation reveals that the momentum injected into the jet in these two regions is proportional to the ratio of the pressure drop to the orifice diameter. Thus, the liquid-driving forces can be reduced to a single term in the momentum equation. Besides, the size and shape of gas-focused microjets were experimentally measured. The experiments indicated that the Weber number has a minor influence on the jet diameter for steady, stable jets, while both the axial coordinate and the Reynolds number affect its size significantly. When the experimental results are expressed in terms of conveniently scaled variables, one obtains a remarkable collapse of all measured jet diameters into a single curve. The curve matches a universal self-similar solution of the momentum equation for a constant driving force, first calculated by Clarke (Mathematika, vol. 12, 1966, p. 51) and not yet exploited in the field of steady tip-streaming flows, such as flow focusing and electrospray. This result shows that the driving force or motor mentioned above attains a rather homogeneous value at the region where the gas-focused microjet develops. The approach used in this work can also be applied to study other varied microjet generation means (e.g. co-flowing, electrospray and electrospinning).

We study the shock-driven turbulent mixing that occurs when a perturbed planar density interface is impacted by a planar shock wave of moderate strength and subsequently reshocked. The present work is a systematic study of the influence of the relative molecular weights of the gases in the form of the initial Atwood ratio A. We investigate the cases A = ± 0.21, ±0.67 and ±0.87 that correspond to the realistic gas combinations air–CO2, air–SF6 and H2–air. A canonical, three-dimensional numerical experiment, using the large-eddy simulation technique with an explicit subgrid model, reproduces the interaction within a shock tube with an endwall where the incident shock Mach number is ~1.5 and the initial interface perturbation has a fixed dominant wavelength and a fixed amplitude-to-wavelength ratio ~0.1. For positive Atwood configurations, the reshock is followed by secondary waves in the form of alternate expansion and compression waves travelling between the endwall and the mixing zone. These reverberations are shown to intensify turbulent kinetic energy and dissipation across the mixing zone. In contrast, negative Atwood number configurations produce multiple secondary reshocks following the primary reshock, and their effect on the mixing region is less pronounced. As the magnitude of A is increased, the mixing zone tends to evolve less symmetrically. The mixing zone growth rate following the primary reshock approaches a linear evolution prior to the secondary wave interactions. When considering the full range of examined Atwood numbers, measurements of this growth rate do not agree well with predictions of existing analytic reshock models such as the model by Mikaelian (Physica D, vol. 36, 1989, p. 343). Accordingly, we propose an empirical formula and also a semi-analytical, impulsive model based on a diffuse-interface approach to describe the A-dependence of the post-reshock growth rate.