Global stability analysis of a 90°-bend pipe flow

The present work investigates the stability properties of the flow in a 90°-bend pipe with curvature $\delta =R/R_c=1/3$, with R being the radius of the cross-section of the pipe and $R_c$ the radius of curvature at the pipe centreline. Direct numerical simulations (DNS) for values of the bulk Reynolds number ${\mathit{Re}}_b=U_{b}D/\nu$ between 2000 and 3000 are performed. The bulk Reynolds number is based on the bulk velocity $U_b$, the pipe diameter D, and the kinematic viscosity $\nu$. The flow is found to be steady for ${\mathit{Re}}_b⩽2500$, with two main pairs of symmetric, counter-rotating vortices in the section of the pipe downstream of the bend. The presence of two recirculation regions is detected inside the bend: one on the outer wall and the other on the inner side. For ${\mathit{Re}}_b⩾2550$, the flow exhibits a periodic behaviour, oscillating with a fundamental non-dimensional frequency $\mathit{St}=\mathit{fD}/U_b=0.23$. A global stability analysis is performed in order to determine the cause of the transition from the steady to the periodic regime. The spectrum of the linearised Navier-Stokes operator reveals a pair of complex conjugate eigenvalues with positive real part, hence the transition is ascribed to a Hopf bifurcation occurring at ${\mathit{Re}}_{b,\mathit{cr}}\approx 2531$, a value much lower than the critical Reynolds number for the flow in a torus with the same curvature. The velocity components of the unstable direct and adjoint eigenmodes are investigated, and they display a large spatial separation, most likely due to the non-normality of the linearised Navier-Stokes operator. Thus, the core of the instability, also known in the literature as the wavemaker, is sought performing an analysis of the structural sensitivity of the unstable eigenmode to spatially localised feedbacks. The region located 15° downstream of the bend inlet, on the outer wall, is the most receptive to this kind of perturbations, and thus corresponds to where the instability originates. Since this region coincides with the outer-wall separation bubble, it is concluded that the instability is linked to the strong shear by the backflow phenomena. The present results are relevant for technical applications where bent pipes are frequently used, and their stability properties have hitherto not been studied.     

Resolvent-based design and experimental testing of porous materials for passive turbulence control

An extended version of the resolvent formulation is used to evaluate the use of anisotropic porous materials as passive flow control devices for turbulent channel flow. The effect of these porous substrates is introduced into the governing equations via a generalized version of Darcy’s law. Model predictions show that materials with high streamwise permeability and low wall-normal permeability (${\varphi }_{\mathit{xy}}=k_{\mathit{xx}}/k_{\mathit{yy}}\gg 1$) can suppress resolvent modes resembling the energetic near-wall cycle. Based on these predictions, two anisotropic porous substrates with ${\varphi }_{\mathit{xy}}>1$ and ${\varphi }_{\mathit{xy}}<1$ were designed and fabricated for experiments in a benchtop water channel experiment. Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements were used to compute mean turbulence statistics and to educe coherent structure via snapshot Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD). Friction velocity estimates based on the Reynolds shear stress profiles do not show evidence of discernible friction reduction (or increase) over the streamwise-preferential substrate with ${\varphi }_{\mathit{xy}}>1$ relative to a smooth wall flow at identical bulk Reynolds number. A significant increase in friction is observed over the substrate with ${\varphi }_{\mathit{xy}}<1$. This increase in friction is linked to the emergence of spanwise rollers resembling Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices. Coherent structures extracted via POD analysis show qualitative agreement with model predictions.