Ludwig Prandtl and the growth of fluid mechanics in Germany

Ludwig Prandtl (1875–1953) has been called the father of modern aerodynamics. His name is associated most famously with the boundary layer concept, but also with several other topics in 20th-century fluid mechanics, particularly turbulence (Prandtl's mixing length). Among his disciples are pioneers of modern fluid mechanics like Heinrich Blasius, Theodore von Kármán, and Walter Tollmien. Furthermore, Prandtl founded the Aerodynamische Versuchsanstalt (AVA) and the Kaiser-Wilhelm-Institut für Strömungsforschung in Göttingen, nuclei for the growth of fluid mechanics in Germany. In this article I trace this development on the basis of my recent biography of Prandtl.     

Oscillatory instability of advective flow in a horizontal cylinder in the presence of a rotating magnetic field

The oscillatory instability of advective conducting fluid flow in a horizontal circular cylinder in the presence of a rotating magnetic field is investigated. For Prandtl numbers Pr = 0 and 0.01 calculations showed that in both cases the monotonic instability observed in the absence of a field and in weak fields transforms into oscillatory instability at sufficiently large magnetic Taylor numbers. At Pr ?? 0, oscillatory instability appears at substantially higher magnetic Taylor numbers.     

Non-linear free periodic vibrations of variable stiffness composite laminated plates

Steady-state free vibrations, with large amplitude displacements, of variable stiffness composite laminated plates (VSCL) are analysed. The intentions of this research are: (1)?to find out how the natural frequencies and (mode) shapes evolve with the displacement amplitude in this new type of laminated composite material; (2)?to describe modal interactions in VSCL due to energy interchanges under the coupling induced by non-linearity; (3)?to compare the VSCL with traditional, constant stiffness, laminated plates. The VSCL of interest here have curvilinear fibres and the numerical analysis carried out is based on a recently developed p-version finite element with hierarchic basis functions. The element follows first-order shear deformation theory and considers Von Kármán??s non-linear terms. The time domain equations of motion are first reduced using the linear modes of vibration and then transformed to the frequency domain via the harmonic balance method. These frequency domain equations are solved by an arc-length continuation method.     

Numerical study of the natural convective cooling of a vertical plate

We study numerically in this paper the natural convective cooling of a vertical plate. The full transient heat conduction equation for the plate, coupled with the natural convection boundary layer equations are solved numerically for a wide range of the parametric space. Assuming a large Rayleigh number for the natural convection flow, the balance equations are reduced to a system of three differential equations with three parameters: the Prandtl number of the fluid, Pr, a non-dimensional plate thermal conductivity α and the aspect ratio of the plate ?. The nondimensional cooling time depends mainly on α/?², obtaining a minimum of this time for values of 1?α??².     

Nonlinear Weakly Curved Rod by Γ-Convergence

We present a nonlinear model of weakly curved rod, namely the type of curved rod where the curvature is of the order of the diameter of the cross-section. We use an approach analogous to the one for rods and curved rods and start from the strain energy functional of three dimensional nonlinear elasticity. We do not impose any constitutional behavior of the material and work in a general framework. To derive the model, by means of ??-convergence, we need to set the order of strain energy (i.e., its relation to the thickness of the body h). We analyze the situation when the strain energy (divided by the order of volume) is of the order h ⁴. This is the same approach as the one used in F?ppl-von Kármán model for plates and the analogous model for rods. The obtained model is analogous to Marguerre-von Kármán for shallow shells and its linearization is the linear shallow arch model which can be found in the literature.     

DNS of turbulent heat transfer in a channel flow with a high spatial resolution

Direct numerical simulations of turbulent heat transfer in a channel flow are performed to investigate the effects of Reynolds and Prandtl numbers on higher-order turbulence statistics such as a turbulent Prandtl number and the budget for the dissipation rate of the temperature variance. The Reynolds numbers based on the friction velocity and the channel half width are 180 and 395, and the molecular Prandtl numbers Pr’s 0.71–10.0. Careful attention is paid to ensure accuracy of the higher-order statistics through the use of a high spatial resolution comparable to Batchelor length scale. The wall-asymptotic value of the turbulent Prandtl number is mostly independent of Reynolds number for the current range of Pr’s. The budget for the dissipation rate of the temperature variance has been computed, and the negligible effect of a Reynolds number on the sum of all source and sink terms in near-wall region in the current computational range is found. This result is quite similar to the one in the budget for the dissipation rate of turbulent energy. In addition, a priori test for existing models is also performed to assess the Pr dependence on the individual terms and their summations in the budget.     

Prandtl’s formulation for the Saint–Venant’s torsion of homogeneous piezoelectric beams

The Saint–Venant torsional problem for homogeneous, monoclinic piezoelectric beams is formulated in terms of Prandtl’s stress function and electric displacement potential function. The analytical approach presented in this paper generalizes the known formulation of Prandtl’s solution which refers to homogeneous elastic beams. The Prandtl’s stress function and electric displacement potential function satisfy the so called coupled Dirichlet problem (CDP) in the cross-sectional domain. A direct and a variational formulation are developed. Exact analytical solutions for solid elliptical cross-section and hollow circular cross-section and an approximate solution based on a variational formulation for thin-walled closed cross-section are presented.     

Revised Prandtl mixing length model applied to the two-dimensional turbulent classical wake

Previous applications of Prandtl׳s mixing length model to turbulent wake flows, which neglect the kinematic viscosity of the fluid, have underestimated the width of the boundary layer. In this paper, we present a revised Prandtl mixing length model by including the kinematic viscosity of the fluid. We show that this model predicts a boundary that lies outside the one predicted by Prandtl. We also prove that the results for the two models converge for very large Reynolds number wake flows.     

Large eddy simulations of a turbulent thermal plume

Large eddy simulations of a three-dimensional turbulent thermal plume in an open environment have been carried out using a self-developed parallel computational fluid dynamics code SMAFS (smoke movement and flame spread) to study the thermal plume’s dynamics including its puffing, self-preserving and air entrainment. In the simulation, the sub-grid stress was modeled using both the standard Smagorinsky and the buoyancy modified Smagorinsky models, which were compared. The sub-grid scale (SGS) scalar flux in the filtered enthalpy transport equation was modeled based on a simple gradient transport hypothesis with constant SGS Prandtl number. The effect of the Smagorinsky model constant and the SGS Prandtl number were examined. The computation results were compared with experimental measurements, thermal plume theory and empirical correlations, showing good agreement. It is found that both the buoyancy modification and the SGS turbulent Prandtl number have little influence on simulation. However, the SGS model constant C _s has a significant effect on the prediction of plume spreading, although it does not affect much the prediction of puffing.     

On the Ill-Posedness of the Prandtl Equations in Three-Dimensional Space

In this paper, we give an instability criterion for the Prandtl equations in three-dimensional space, which shows that the monotonicity condition on tangential velocity fields is not sufficient for the well-posedness of the three-dimensional Prandtl equations, in contrast to the classical well-posedness theory of the two-dimensional Prandtl equations under the Oleinik monotonicity assumption. Both linear stability and nonlinear stability are considered. This criterion shows that the monotonic shear flow is linearly stable for the three-dimensional Prandtl equations if and only if the tangential velocity field direction is invariant with respect to the normal variable, and this result is an exact complement to our recent work (A well-posedness theory for the Prandtl equations in three space variables. arXiv:1405.5308, 2014) on the well-posedness theory for the three-dimensional Prandtl equations with a special structure.     

Stress-Dependent Elastic Behaviour of a Titanium Alloy at Elevated Temperatures

In this study the influence of stress and temperature on the elastic modulus during fully-reversed low cycle fatigue of the titanium alloy Ti6242 is examined. The change of the elastic properties with stress manifests itself in a crescent-like shaped hysteresis loop of stress vs. plastic strain at very low amplitudes, i.e. below the technical yield stress. A quadratic extension of Hooke??s law with a second constant ??k?? is applied. The parameters are determined all along the unloading curve in tension and compression. The approach results in the alignment of the hysteresis loop so that they become vertical, i.e. the elastic strain is accurately described. The value and sign of ??k?? depend on whether the deformation occurs in tension or compression. Like the Young??s modulus E ₀, ??k?? also depends on temperature. At temperatures up to 550°C the values of ??k?? in tension and compression do not change during fatigue life. However, at 650°C thermally activated slip processes lead to changes of both, E ₀ and ??k??.     

Modified Young��s moduli of nano-materials taking into account the scale effects and vacancies

In this paper, the modified Young??s moduli in both directions are obtained for the two-dimensional single crystal body with a square lattice by using the continuum approach of continuum mechanics and taking into account only the interaction of neighboring atoms. Separately, an expression is obtained taking into account the linear defects such as vacancies. The values of effective Young??s moduli compared with the same values for an infinite crystal lattice. Analyses show that the influences of scale effects and vacancies on the Young??s moduli are considerable. In addition, it is shown that the effective Young??s moduli have three components: the macroscopic value; factors determining the scale effect; factors determining the vacancy. The last component is analogous to the parameter of the damage of the theory of fracture.     

HIGHER ORDER MULTIVARIABLE NRLUND EULER-BERNOULLI POLYNOMIALS

ＩｎｔｒｏｄｕｃｔｉｏｎＴｈｅｋｔｈｏｒｄｅｒＮ ｒｌｕｎｄＥｕｌｅｒｐｏｌｙｎｏｍｉａｌｓＥ(ｋ)ｖ (ｘ｜ω1,… ,ωｋ)ａｎｄＢｅｒｎｏｕｌｌｉｐｏｌｙｎｏｍｉａｌｓＢ(ｋ)ｖ (ｘ｜ω1,… ,ωｋ)ａｒｅｇｉｖｅｎｂｙｔｈｅｆｏｌｌｏｗｉｎｇｅｘｐａｎｓｉｏｎｆｏｒｍｕｌａｒｅｓｐｅｃｔｉｖｅｌｙ[1]2 ｋｅｘｔ(ｅω1 ｔ+ 1 )… (ｅωｋｔ+ 1 ) = ∞ｖ=0Ｅ(ｋ)ｖ (ｘ｜ω1,… ,ωｋ) ｔｖｖ!,( 1 )ω1…ωｋｔｋｅｘｔ(ｅω1 ｔ-1 )… (ｅωｋｔ-1 ) = ∞ｖ=0Ｂ(ｋ)ｖ (ｘ｜ω1,… ,ωｋ) ｔｖｖ!. ( 2 )Ｃｌｅａｒｌｙｔ…     

Mapping similarity between parallel and serial architecture kinematics

First the principles of mapping spatial points to surfaces is introduced in the context of the inverse kinematics of a general six revolute serial wrist partitioned robot. Then the advantage of choosing ideal frames is illustrated by showing that in the case of some architectures an image space formulation, though possible, may be an impediment to clear geometric insight and a satisfactory and much simpler solution. After showing how the general point mapping transformation is reduced to classical Blaschke-Grünwald planar mapping a novel three legged planar robot??s direct kinematics is solved in image space and then using conventional ??distance?? constraints. The purpose is to show why the latter approach yields spurious solutions and how the displacement pole rotation performed with kinematic mapping reliably avoids this problem. In conclusion certain other new and/or interesting reduced mobility parallel robots are discussed briefly to point out some advantages and insights gained with an image space approach. Particular effort is made to expose in detail how mapping simplifies and extends the solution of direct kinematics pertaining to Calvel??s ??Delta?? 3D translational robot.     

充分发展湍流场中Pr数对被动标量输运的影响

采用直接数值模拟方法,研究壁湍流中分子Pr数对湍流被动标量输运的影响.发现在槽道湍流的外层,湍流雷诺平均普朗特数PrT与分子普朗特数的倒数呈线性关系;湍流亚格子普朗特数PrT与分子普朗特数的关系较为复杂,在分子普朗特数为1附近时,湍流亚格子Prt数出现极小值.     

Numerical study of steady magneto-convection around an adiabatic body inside a square enclosure in low Prandtl numbers

In this paper, the effects of Prandtl number on the steady magneto-convection around a centrally located adiabatic body inside a square enclosure are numerically investigated. Two-dimensional nonlinear governing equations are discretized using the control volume method and hybrid scheme. The equations are solved using SIMPLER algorithm. The results are displayed in the form of streamlines and isotherms when the Rayleigh number varies between 10³ and 10⁶, the Hartmann number changes between 0 and 100 and the Prandtl number ranges between 0.005 and 0.1. The ratio of the buoyancy force to the Lorentz force (Ra/Ha ²) is introduced as an index to compare the contribution of natural convection and magnetic field strength on heat transfer. The results obtained from numerical modeling show that the Prandtl number has not considerable effect on heat transfer at low Rayleigh numbers. The effect of magnetic field strength on convection is increased by increasing Prandtl number. The effect of Prandtl number on the average Nusselt number in the presence of a magnetic field is less than the case without a magnetic field.     

A helicopter’s formation flying model in the low airspace with two telegraph poles and electrical wire

In this paper, we develop a helicopter??s formation flying model with telegraph poles and electrical wire to study each helicopter??s flying behavior in the low airspace. The numerical results show that the proposed model can qualitatively describe the influences of the telegraph poles and electrical wire on the helicopter??s formation flying behavior in the low airspace and that the effects will be related to each helicopter??s initial conditions.     

Pr数对湍流被动标量输运的影响

采用直接数值模拟的方法,研究分子Pг数对湍流被动标量输运的影响,并提供充分的证据证明,湍流Pг数明显依赖于分子Pг数.在算例中,湍流雷诺平均PгT数与分子Pг数的倒数呈线性关系;湍流亚格子Pгt数与分子Pг数的关系较为复杂,在分子Pг数为1附近时,湍流亚格子Pгt数出现极小值.