The evolution of a small-amplitude localized vortex disturbance in an unbounded shear flow with the linear velocity profile is investigated. Based on the exact solution of the initial problem for basic flow, a revision is made of the theoretical approach (suggested by Levinski (1991) and subsequently further developed in a series of other publications) in which the vortex evolution is described in terms of Fluid Impulse of the vortex "core". Although the theoretical predictions obtained on the basis of this approach were excellently confirmed in subsequent experimental studies, its inconsistency is demonstrated in this study.
According to the solution obtained, the localized vortex increases slowly (as power-law with the time) and attains an almost "horizontal" orientation, unlike the previous theory (Levinski, 1991) that predicts the more rapid growth and vortex orientation at the angle of 45 degrees to the flow direction. On the other hand, just the rapid increase and the angle of 45 degrees to the outer flow direction are characteristic for hairpin vortices observed in turbulent boundary layers or artificially synthesized vortices in laminar boundary layers. Thus the issue of adequate theoretical interpretation of the evolution of localized vortices is again on the agenda.
When an object is accelerated in a fluid, a primary vortex is formed through the roll-up of a shear layer. This primary vortex does not grow indefinitely and will reach a limiting size and strength. Additional vorticity beyond the critical limit will end up in a trailing shear layer and accumulate into secondary vortices. The secondary vortices are typically considerably smaller than the primary vortex. Here, we focus on the formation, shedding, and trajectory of secondary vortices generated by a rotating rectangular plate in a quiescent fluid using time-resolved particle image velocimetry. Th…
When a barotropic shear layer becomes unstable, it produces the well known Kelvin-Helmholtz instability (KH). The non-linear manifestation of KH is usually in the form of spiral billows. However, a piecewise linear shear layer produces a different type of KH characterized by elliptical vortices of constant vorticity connected via thin braids. Using direct numerical simulation and contour dynamics, we show that the interaction between two counter-propagating vorticity waves is solely responsible for this KH formation. We investigate the oscillation of the vorticity wave amplitude, the rotation …
A previously unknown instability creates space-filling lattices of 3D vortices in linearly-stable, rotating, stratified shear flows. The instability starts from an easily-excited critical layer. The layer intensifies by drawing energy from the background shear and rolls-up into vortices that excite new critical layers and vortices. The vortices self-similarly replicate to create lattices of turbulent vortices. The vortices persist for all time. This self-replication occurs in stratified Couette flows and in the dead zones of protoplanetary disks where it can de-stabilize Keplerian flows.
We study the morphology of Eulerian vortical structures and their interaction with density interfaces in increasingly turbulent stably-stratified shear layers. We analyse the three-dimensional, simultaneous velocity and density fields obtained in the stratified inclined duct laboratory experiment. We track, across 15 datasets, the evolution of coherent structures from pre-turbulent Holmboe waves, through intermittent turbulence, to full turbulence and mixing. We use the Rortex--Shear decomposition of the vorticity field into a pure rotational part (the rortex vector), and a non-rotational part…
Görtler vortices in boundary layer flows over concave surfaces are caused by the imbalance between centrifugal effects and radial pressure gradients. Depending on various geometrical and/or freestream flow conditions, vortex breakdown via secondary instabilities leads to early transition to turbulence. It is desirable, therefore, to reduce vortex energy in an attempt to delay the transition from laminar to turbulent flow, and thereby achieve a reduced frictional drag. To this end, we apply a proportional control algorithm aimed at reducing the wall shear stress and the energy of Görtler vortic…
Recent field experiments conducted in the near-wake (up to 0.5 rotor diameters downwind of the rotor) of a 2.5 MW wind turbine using snow-based super-large-scale particle image velocimetery (SLPIV) (Hong et al., Nature Comm., vol. 5, 2014, no. 4216) were successful in visualizing tip vortex cores as areas devoid of snowflakes. The so-visualized snow voids, however, suggested tip vortex cores of complex shape consisting of circular cores with distinct elongated comet-like tails. We employ large-eddy simulation (LES) to elucidate the structure and dynamics of the complex tip vortices identified …
This fluid dynamics video provides sample experimental results focusing on the interactions of shear layer vortices with the trailing corner in a 2D open cavity shear layer. These interactions were investigated experimentally in a water tunnel at a Reynolds number of 40,000. Time-resolved particle image velocimetry (PIV) with an image sampling rate of 4500 frames per second was used to simultaneously measure the instantaneous velocity, material acceleration and pressure distributions. The latter was calculated by integrating the spatial distribution of in-plane components of the material accel…
It is shown that the averaged velocity profiles predicted by statistical mechanics of point vortices and statistical mechanics of vortex lines are practically indistinguishable for a shear flow between two parallel walls.
The vortices that appear repeatedly and suggest turbulent dynamics are crucial to the understanding of sheared turbulence. These vortices produce order out of chaos, benefiting the turbulence modelling that focuses only on statistically stable quantities. In three dimensions, the hairpin vortices [J. Zhou, R. Adrian, S. Balachandar, T. Kendall, J. Fluid Mech., 387, 353 (1999); R. Adrian, Phys. Fluids, 19, 041301 (2007)] play such a fundamental role in the transport of momentum and energy for wall bounded sheared turbulence. In two dimensions where the atmospheric flow has a great play, the fun…
Görtler vortices develop along concave walls as a result of the imbalance between the centrifugal force and radial pressure gradient. In this study, we introduce a simple control strategy aimed at reducing the growth rate of Görtler vortices by locally modifying the surface geometry in spanwise and streamwise directions. Such wall deformations are accounted in the boundary region equations (BRE) by using a Prandtl transform of dependent and independent variables. The vortex energy is then controlled via a classical proportional control algorithm for which either the wall-normal velocity or the…
The present work studies the non-linear dynamics of a shear layer, driven by a body force and confined between parallel walls, a simplified setting to study transitional and turbulent shear layers. It was introduced by Nogueira \& Cavalieri (J. Fluid Mech. 907, A32, 2021), and is here studied using a reduced-order model based on a Galerkin projection of the Navier-Stokes system. By considering a confined shear layer with free-slip boundary conditions on the walls, periodic boundary conditions in streamwise and spanwise directions may be used, simplifying the system and enabling the use of meth…
Here we show the hairpin vortices point the upstream direction of flow instead of downstream, and this characteristic is found intrinsic behavior for turbulent buoyancy-driven boundary layer. We uncover the coherent vortices straddle high-speed streak instead of low-speed streak; moreover, the quadrant of the tangential Reynolds shear stresses dominates the first and third quadrant instead of the second and fourth one. These findings may help to improve our understanding of buoyancy-driven flow and buoyancy effects in turbulent models.
We consider the effect of stratification on systematic, large-scale flows generated in anelastic convection. We present results from three-dimensional numerical simulations of convection in a rotating plane layer in which the angle between the axis of rotation and gravity is allowed to vary. This model is representative of different latitudes of a spherical body. We consider two distinct parameter regimes: (i) weakly rotating and (ii) rapidly rotating. In each case, we examine the effect of stratification on the flow structure and heat transport properties focussing on the difference between B…
Turbulent state of spectrally stable shear flows may be developed and sustained according to the bypass scenario of transition. If it works in non-magnetised boundless and homogeneous quasi-Keplerian flow, transiently growing shearing vortices should supply turbulence with energy. Employing the large shearing box approximation, as well as a set of global disc models, we study the optimal growth of the shearing vortices in such a flow in the whole range of azimuthal length-scales, $λ_y$, as compared to the flow scale-height, $H$. It is shown that with the account of the viscosity the highest po…
Monami is the synchronous waving of a submerged seagrass bed in response to unidirectional fluid flow. Here we develop a multiphase model for the dynamical instabilities and flow-driven collective motions of buoyant, deformable seagrass. We show that the impedance to flow due to the seagrass results in an unstable velocity shear layer at the canopy interface, leading to a periodic array of vortices that propagate downstream. Each passing vortex locally weakens the along-stream velocity at the canopy top, reducing the drag and allowing the deformed grass to straighten up just beneath it. This c…
Vortex has been considered as the building block and muscle of turbulence for long time. A new physical quantity called Liutex (previously named Rortex) has been defined as the rigid rotation part of fluid motion. From DNS and experiment, forest of hairpin vortices has been found in flow transition and low Reynolds turbulence, but more and more one leg vortices appear in fully developed turbulence. This letter shows hairpin vortex is unstable. Hairpin vortex will weaken or lose one leg by the shear and vortex interaction. This conclusion is made by Liutex definition and mathematical analysis w…
Numerical simulation of Electroconvective vortices behavior in the presence of Couette flow between two infinitely long electrodes is investigated. The two-relaxation-time Lattice Boltzmann Method with fast Poisson solver solves for the spatiotemporal distribution of flow field, electric field, and charge density. Couette cross-flow is applied to the solutions after the electroconvective vortices are established. Increasing cross-flow velocity deforms the vortices and eventually suppresses them when threshold values of shear stress are reached.
The control of stream-wise vortices in high Reynolds number boundary layer flows often aims at reducing the vortex energy as a means of mitigating the growth of secondary instabilities, which eventually delay the transition from laminar to turbulent flow. In this paper, we aim at utilizing such an energy reduction strategy using optimal control theory to limit the growth of Görtler vortices developing in an incompressible laminar boundary layer flow over a concave wall, and excited by a row of roughness elements with span-wise separation in the same order of magnitude as the boundary layer thi…
Although traditional vortex identification methods such as Q, Delta, Lambda2, Lambdaci remain popular in the identification and visualization of vortices, these methods count on shearing and stretching as a part of vortex strength. However, shearing and stretching do not contribute to fluid rotation. In this paper, the contamination effects of stretching and shearing of these methods are investigated and compared with Liutex method. From our investigation, the Liutex is an exact definition of fluid rotation or vortex, while other vortex identification methods are contaminated by stretching and…
We develop a coarse-grained description of the point-vortex model, finding that a large number of planar vortices and antivortices behave as an inviscid non-Eulerian fluid at large scales. The emergent binary vortex fluid is subject to anomalous stresses absent from Euler's equation, caused by the singular nature of quantum vortices. The binary vortex fluid is compressible, and has an asymmetric Cauchy stress tensor allowing orbital angular momentum exchange with the vorticity and vortex density. An analytic solution for vortex shear flow driven by anomalous stresses is in excellent agreement …
The initial-boundary value problem of the vorticity equation has been solved numerically by an iterative method. A variety of initial vorticity distributions is specified. All of them can be described by simple mathematical functions: there are a vorticity source-sink pair, circular shears out of a localised monopole, a cat's-eye topology and a few flows originating from single or multiple vortices. Our computational results show diverse flow phenomena, such as roll-ups of shear layers, vortex merging or impingement, as well as birth of spiral structures.
Stationary longitudinal vortical rolls emerge in katabatic and anabatic Prandtl slope flows due to the dominance of the normal component of the buoyancy force over flow shear. Here, we further identify self pairing of these longitudinal rolls as a unique flow structure. The topology of the counter-rotating vortex pair bears a striking resemblance to speaker-wires and their interaction with each other is a precursor to further destabilization and breakdown of the flow field into smaller structures. On its own, a speaker-wire vortex retains its unique topology without any vortex reconnection or …
Recent experiments show that shear-banded flows of semi-dilute worm-like micelles in Taylor-Couette geometry exhibit a flow instability in the form of Taylor-like vortices. Here we perform the non-axisymmetric linear stability analysis of the diffusive Johnson-Segalman model of shear banding and show that the nature of this instability depends on the applied shear rate. For the experimentally relevant parameters, we find that at the beginning of the stress plateau the instability is driven by the interface between the bands, while most of the stress plateau is occupied by the bulk instability …
We explore the conditions required for isolated vortices to exist in sheared zonal flows and the stability of the underlying zonal winds. This is done using the standard 2-layer quasigeostrophic model with the lower layer depth becoming infinite; however, this model differs from the usual layer model because the lower layer is not assumed to be motionless but has a steady configuration of alternating zonal flows [1]. Steady state vortices are obtained by a simulated annealing computational method introduced in [2], generalized and applied in [3] in fluid flow, and used in the context of magnet…
Recent experiments have shown that when a near-hemispherical lipid vesicle attached to a solid surface is subjected to a simple shear flow it exhibits a pattern of membrane circulation much like a dipole vortex. This is in marked contrast to the toroidal circulation that would occur in the related problem of a drop of immiscible fluid attached to a surface and subjected to shear. This profound difference in flow patterns arises from the lateral incompressibility of the membrane, which restricts the observable flows to those in which the velocity field in the membrane is two-dimensionally diver…
Precession has been proposed as an alternative power source for planetary dynamos. Previous hydrodynamic simulations suggested that precession can generate very complex flows in planetary liquid cores [Y. Lin, P. Marti, and J. Noir, "Shear-driven parametric instability in a precessing sphere," Physics of Fluids 27, 046601 (2015)]. In the present study, we numerically investigate the magnetohydrodynamics of a precessing sphere. We demonstrate precession driven dynamos in different flow regimes, from laminar to turbulent flows. In particular, we highlight the magnetic field generation by large s…
For the clarification of the routes to elasto-inertial turbulence (EIT), it is essential to understand how viscoelasticity modulates coherent flow structures including the longitudinal vortices. We focused on a rotating plane Couette flow that provides two-dimensional (2D) roll cells for the steady laminar Newtonian-fluid case, and we investigated how the steady longitudinal vortices are modulated by viscoelasticity at different Weissenberg numbers. The viscoelasticity was found to induce an unsteady flow state where the 2D roll-cell structure was periodically enhanced and damped with a consta…
Unstable shear layers in environmental and industrial flows roll up into a series of vortices, which often form complex nonlinear merging patterns like pairs and triplets. These patterns crucially determine the subsequent turbulence, mixing and scalar transport. We show that the late-time, highly nonlinear merging patterns are predictable from the linearized initial state. The initial asymmetry between consecutive wavelengths of the vertical velocity field provides an effective measure of the strength and pattern of vortex merging. The predictions of this measure are substantiated using direct…
The linearized water-wave radiation problem for an oscillating submerged line source in an inviscid shear flow with a free surface is investigated analytically at finite, constant depth in the presence of a shear flow varying linearly with depth. The surface velocity is taken to be zero relative to the oscillating source, so that Doppler effects are absent. The radiated wave out from the source is calculated based on Euler's equation of motion with the appropriate boundary and radiation conditions, and differs substantially from the solution obtained by assuming potential flow. To wit, an addi…
Aligned superhydrophobic surfaces with the same texture orientation reduce drag in the channel and generate secondary flows transverse to the direction of the applied pressure gradient. Here we show that a transverse shear can be easily generated by using superhydrophobic channels with misaligned textured surfaces. We propose a general theoretical approach to quantify this transverse flow by introducing the concept of an effective shear tensor. To illustrate its use, we present approximate theoretical solutions and Dissipative Particle Dynamics simulations for striped superhydrophobic channels…
In the present work, we study the flow of thixotropic yield stress fluids between two concentric cylinders. In order to take into account the thixotropy, the constitutive relation uses a structural parameter which is driven by a kinetic equation. Here, the Houska's model is considered. Depending on the breakdown rate of the structural parameter, localization or shear-banding are observed. We show that for fragile structures, a shear-banding flow may be observed although for stronger structures, only localisation of the flow is observed such as in Bingham fluids. Physical explanations of the sh…
The separating and reattaching turbulent flow past a rectangular cylinder is studied to describe how small and large scales contribute to the sustaining mechanism of the velocity fluctuations. The work is based on the Anisotropic Generalised Kolmogorov Equations (AGKE), exact budget equations for the second-order structure function tensor in the space of scales and in the physical space. Scale-space energy fluxes show that forward and reverse energy transfers simultaneously occur in the flow, with interesting modelling implications. Over the longitudinal cylinder side, the Kelvin-Helmholtz ins…
The Holmboe wave instability is one of the classic examples of a stratified shear instability, usually explained as the result of a resonance between a gravity wave and a vorticity wave. Historically, it has been studied by linear stability analyses at infinite Reynolds number, $Re$, and by direct numerical simulations at relatively low $Re$ in the regions known to be unstable from the inviscid linear stability results. In this paper, we perform linear stability analyses of the classical `Hazel model' of a stratified shear layer (where the background velocity and density distributions are assu…
In a plane Couette cell a thin fluid layer consisting of water is sheared between a transparent band at Reynolds numbers ranging from 300 to 1400. The length of the cells flow channel is large compared to the film separation. To extract the flow velocity in the experiments a correlation image velocimetry (CIV) method is used on pictures recorded with a high speed camera. The flow is recorded at a resolution that allows to analyze flow patterns similar in size to the film separation. The fluid flow is then studied by calculating flow velocity autocorrelation functions. The turbulent pattern tha…
An alternative step in understanding the flows of near wall drag-reducing turbulence can be examining the flow in a well-organized streamwise vortex with a laminar background. Herein, we studied the flow behaviors of the Giesekus viscoelastic fluid in a rotating plane Couette flow system, which is accompanied by steady roll cell structures. By fixing the Reynolds and rotation numbers at values that provide as steady wavy roll cell, i.e., an array of meandering streamwise vortices, the Weissenberg number was increased up to 2000 (where the relaxation time was normalized by the wall speed and th…
We investigate a mechanism to manipulate wall-bounded flows whereby wave-like undulations of the wall topography drives the creation of bespoke longitudinal vortices. A resonant interaction between the ambient vorticity of the undisturbed shear flow and the undulation of streamlines enforced by the wall topography serves to slightly rotate the spanwise vorticity of the mean flow into the streamwise direction, creating a swirling motion, in the form of regular streamwise rolls. The process is kinematic and essentially identical to the `direct drive' CL1 mechanism for Langmuir circulation (LC) p…
We investigate spatial and temporal cross-correlations between streamwise and normal velocity components in three shear flows: a low-dimensional model for vortex-streak interactions, direct numerical simulations for a nearly homogeneous shear flow and experimental data for a turbulent boundary layer. A driving of streamwise streaks by streamwise vortices gives rise to a temporal asymmetry in the short time correlation. Close to the wall or the bounding surface in the free-slip situations, this asymmetry is identified. Further away from the boundaries the asymmetry becomes weaker and changes ch…
Shear-driven flow between a rotating cylinder and a stationary elliptical enclosure is studied in this paper. Two-dimensional time-dependent Navier Stokes equations are solved using a meshless method where interpolations are done with Polyharmonic Spline Radial Basis Functions. The fluid flow is analyzed for various aspect ratios of the ellipse and eccentric placements of the inner cylinder. Contour plots of vorticity with streamlines, plots of non-dimensional torque, and the angle of eye of the primary vortex are presented in the paper for Reynolds numbers between 200 and 2000. Formation of M…
We study the distribution of spatial extrema of vorticity and the determinant of the strain rate tensor for a two-dimensional turbulent flow forced by a Kolmogorov forcing. The distribution of these quantities follow non-Gaussian behaviour and they do not fall into the Generalised Extreme value distributions. It is found that for the truncated Euler equations the spatial extrema of vorticity and strain rate tensor are well described by the Gumbel distribution. The spatial extrema for the vorticity is found to be at the core of the vortices while the velocity gradients are found near the edges …
In an electrically conducting fluid, vortices stretch out a weak, large-scale magnetic field to form strong current sheets on their edges. Associated with these current sheets are magnetic stresses, which are subsequently released through reconnection, leading to vortex disruption, and possibly even destruction. This disruption phenomenon is investigated here in the context of two-dimensional, homogeneous, incompressible magnetohydrodynamics. We derive a simple order of magnitude estimate for the magnetic stresses --- and thus the degree of disruption --- that depends on the strength of the ba…
The term "solid-state turbulence" may sound like an oxymoron, but in fact it is not. In this article we demonstrate that solid-state turbulence may emerge owing to a defining property of the solid state: the ability of a solid to retain its shape. We consider shear flow of layers of solids with different stiffness and show that the stiffer ones may spontaneously decompose into a set of blocks. This breakdown of isometry is a key to plasticity of solids and is fundamental for the occurrence of solid-state turbulence. To visualise the piecewise isometric transformations of the blocky structure i…
