Invariant solutions of the Westervelt model of nonlinear hydroacoustics without dissipation

We study three-dimensional Westervelt model of a nonlinear hydroacoustics without dissipation. We received all of its invariant submodels. We studied all invariant submodels described by the invariant solutions of rank 0 and 1. All invariant solutions of rank 0 and 1 are found either explicitly, or their search is reduced to the solution of the nonlinear integral equations. With a help of these invariant solutions we researched: (1) a propagation of the intensive acoustic waves (self-similar, axisymmetric, planar and one-dimensional) for which the acoustic pressure and a speed of its change, or the acoustic pressure and its derivative in the direction of one of the axes are specified at the initial moment of the time at a fixed point , (2) a spherically symmetric ultrasonic field for which the acoustic pressure and a speed of its change, or the acoustic pressure and its radial derivative are specified at the initial moment of the time at a fixed point. Solving of the boundary value problems describing these processes is reduced to the solving of nonlinear integral equations. We are established the existence and uniqueness of solutions of these boundary value problems under some additional conditions. Mechanical relevance of the obtained solutions is as follows: (1) these solutions describe nonlinear and diffraction effects in ultrasonic fields of a special kind, (2) these solutions can be used as a test solutions in the numerical calculations performed in studies of ultrasonic fields generated by powerful emitters. We found all the conservation laws of the first order for the Westerveld equation written in dimensionless variables.     

Linear stability of channel entrance flow

The spatial stability of two dimensional, steady channel flow is investigated in the downstream entry zone for both exponentially and algebraically growing disturbances. A model based on previous work is presented for the base flow which represents a small deformation of plane Poiseuille flow. The base flow evolution towards the fully developed state comes from the experimental and theoretical study of M. Asai and J.M. Floryan [M. Asai, J.M. Floryan, Certain aspects of channel entrance flow, Phys. Fluids 16 (2004) 1160–1163]. This flow is found to be more stable than the parabolic Poiseuille flow. The most destabilizing base flow defect is then calculated using a variational method. The compromise between the destabilizing effect of the defect, which diffuses downstream, and the instability growth is found to be insufficient to provoke transition in the downstream laminar flow.     

Determination of flow sub-regimes in stratified air–water channel flow using LDV spectra

In gas–liquid stratified flows, pressure drop and transport across the interface are strongly influenced by the interfacial wave structure, making the determination of interfacial topography in this kind of flows very important. An objective way of characterizing the wave pattern present in the interface is proposed here. The method consists in analysing the spectra of the signal obtained from Laser Doppler Velocimetry (LDV) measurements of fluctuations occurring close to the air-sheared interface. Transitions are defined by the appearance and disappearance of peaks in the frequency spectra. The method was applied to study the transition regimes of a stratified air–water flow in a square-cross section channel. A flow pattern map for air–water channel flow is presented and compared with the maps available from the literature.     

Exact solutions for nonlinear transient flow model including a quadratic gradient term

The models of the nonlinear radial flow for the infinite and finite reservoirs including a quadratic gradient term were presented. The exact solution was given in real space for flow equation including quadratic gradiet term for both constant-rate and constant pressure production cases in an infinite system by using generalized Weber transform.Analytical solutions for flow equation including quadratic gradient term were also obtained by using the Hankel transform for a finite circular reservoir case. Both closed and constant pressure outer boundary conditions are considered. Moreover, both constant rate and constant pressure inner boundary conditions are considered. The difference between the nonlinear pressure solution and linear pressure solution is analyzed. The difference may be reached about 8% in the long time. The effect of the quadratic gradient term in the large time well test is considered.     

Divergent channel flow of a liquid crystalline polymer solution

 The flow of a `model' lyotropic liquid crystal polymer, (hydroxypropyl)cellulose in water, through a rectangular channel with a divergence in the channel width, is studied by in situ light microscopy. Microscopic texture observations are related to measurements of the flow velocity field, in order to characterize the shear and elongational aspects of the flow and to examine the effects of the divergence from a narrow channel to a wide channel. A strong dependence of flow-induced texture on position in the channel is observed and is related to the interplay of shear and elongational strain. The divergence generates both a perpendicular elongational strain due to the widening of the channel, and subsequently an elongational strain along the flow direction due to the change in flow pattern from quasi-radial to unidirectional down the wide channel. Additionally side wall structure is observed to be more complex than a simple strong alignment, displaying a fine birefringent texture. Finally there is a marked dependence of the macroscopic structure on the strain history of the fluid prior to entry into the channel, indicating that very different structures of, for instance, moulded parts, can result from differences in geometry and fluid treatment prior to entry into the mould itself. Received: 12 October 1999/Accepted: 29 October 1999     

A numerical method for subcritical and supercritical open channel flow calculation

A marching finite volume method is presented for the calculation of two-dimensional, subcritical and supercritical, steady open channel flow including the usually neglected terms of slope and bottom friction. The channel flow will be assumed to be homogeneous, incompressible, two-dimensional and viscous with wind and Coriolis forces neglected. A hydrostatic pressure distribution is assumed throughout the flow field. The numerical technique used is a combination of the finite element and finite difference methods. A transformation is introduced through which quadrilaterals in the physical domain are mapped into squares in the computational domain. The governing system of PDEs is thus transformed into an equivalent system applied over a square grid network. Comparisons with other numerical solutions as well as with measurements for various open channel configurations show that the proposed approach is a comparatively accurate, reliable and fast technique.     

Experiments on the linear instability of flow in a wavy channel

The effects of wall corrugation on the stability of wall-bounded shear flows have been examined experimentally in plane channel flows. One of the channel walls has been modified by introduction of the wavy wall model with the amplitude of 4% of the channel half height and the wave number of 1.02. The experiment is focused on the two-dimensional travelling wave instability and the results are compared with the theory [J.M. Floryan, Two-dimensional instability of flow in a rough channel, Phys. Fluids 17 (2005) 044101 (also: Rept. ESFD-1/2003, Dept. of Mechanical and Materials Engineering, The University of Western Ontario, London, Ontario, Canada, 2003)]. It is shown that the flow is destabilized by the wall corrugation at subcritical Reynolds numbers below 5772, as predicted by the theory. For the present corrugation geometry, the critical Reynolds number is decreased down to about 4000. The spatial growth rates, the disturbance wave numbers and the distribution of disturbance amplitude measured over such wavy wall also agree well with the theoretical results.     

Flutter of an elastic plate in a channel flow: Confinement and finite-size effects

When a cantilevered plate lies in an axial flow, it is known to exhibit self-sustained oscillations once a critical flow velocity is reached. This flutter instability has been investigated theoretically, numerically and experimentally by different authors, showing that the critical velocity is always underestimated by two-dimensional models. However, it is generally admitted that, if the plate is confined in the spanwise direction by walls, three-dimensionality of the flow is reduced and the two-dimensional models can apply. The aim of this article is to quantify this phenomenon by analysing the effect of the clearance between the plate and the side walls on the flutter instability. To do so, the pressure distribution around an infinite-length plate is first solved in the Fourier space, which allows to develop an analytical model for the pressure jump. This model is then used in real space to compute instability thresholds as a function of the channel clearance, the plate aspect ratio and mass ratio. Our main result shows that, as the value of the clearance is reduced, the convergence towards the two-dimensional limit is so slow that this limit is unattainable experimentally.     

Submodels of model of nonlinear diffusion with non-stationary absorption

We study the model, describing a nonlinear diffusion process (or a heat propagation process) in an inhomogeneous medium with non-stationary absorption (or source). We found tree submodels of the original model of the nonlinear diffusion process (or the heat propagation process), having different symmetry properties. We found all invariant submodels. All essentially distinct invariant solutions describing these invariant submodels are found either explicitly, or their search is reduced to the solution of the nonlinear integral equations. For example, we obtained the invariant solution describing the nonlinear diffusion process (or the heat distribution process) with two fixed "black holes", and the invariant solution describing the nonlinear diffusion process (or the heat distribution process) with the fixed "black hole" and the moving "black hole". The presence of the arbitrary constants in the integral equations, that determine these solutions provides a new opportunities for analytical and numerical study of the boundary value problems for the received submodels, and, thus, for the original model of the nonlinear diffusion process (or the heat distribution process). For the received invariant submodels we are studied diffusion processes (or heat distribution process) for which at the initial moment of the time at a fixed point are specified or a concentration (a temperature) and its gradient, or a concentration (a temperature) and its rate of change. Solving of boundary value problems describing these processes are reduced to the solving of nonlinear integral equations. We are established the existence and uniqueness of solutions of these boundary value problems under some additional conditions. The obtained results can be used to study the diffusion of substances, diffusion of conduction electrons and other particles, diffusion of physical fields, propagation of heat in inhomogeneous medium.     

Large-eddy simulation of turbulent channel flow at transcritical states

We present well-resolved large-eddy simulations (LES) of a channel flow solving the fully compressible Navier–Stokes equations in conservative form. An adaptive look-up table method is used for thermodynamic and transport properties. A physically consistent subgrid-scale turbulence model is incorporated, that is based on the Adaptive Local Deconvolution Method (ALDM) for implicit LES. The wall temperatures are set to enclose the pseudo-boiling temperature at a supercritical pressure, leading to strong property variations within the channel geometry. The hot wall at the top and the cold wall at the bottom produce asymmetric mean velocity and temperature profiles which result in different momentum and thermal boundary layer thicknesses. Different turbulent Prandtl number formulations and their components are discussed in context of strong property variations.     

A hybrid RANS/LES simulation of high-Reynolds-number channel flow using additional filtering at the interface

A hybrid method combining large eddy simulation (LES) with the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equation is used to simulate a turbulent channel flow at high Reynolds number. It is known that the mean velocity profile has a mismatch between the RANS and LES regions in hybrid simulations of a channel flow. The velocity mismatch is reproduced and its dependence on the location of the RANS/LES interface and on the type of RANS model is examined in order to better understand its properties. To remove the mismatch and to obtain better velocity profiles, additional filtering is applied to the velocity components in the wall-parallel planes near the interface. The additional filtering was previously introduced to simulate a channel flow at low Reynolds number. It is shown that the filtering is effective in reducing the mismatch even at high Reynolds number. Profiles of the velocity fluctuations of runs with and without the additional filtering are examined to help understand the reason for the mismatch. Due to the additional filtering, the wall-normal velocity fluctuation increases at the bottom of the LES region. The resulting velocity field creates the grid-scale shear stress more efficiently, and an overestimate of the velocity gradient is removed. The dependence of the velocity profile on the grid point number is also investigated. It is found that the velocity gradient in the core region is underestimated in the case of a coarse grid. Attention should be paid not only to the velocity mismatch near the interface but also to the velocity profile in the core region in hybrid simulations of a channel flow at high Reynolds number. PACS47.27.Eq; 47.27.Nz; 47.60.+i     

The nature of near-wall convection velocity in turbulent channel flow

A novel notion of turbulent structure the local cascade structure-is introduced to study the convection phenomenon in a turbulent channel flow. A space-time cross-correlation method is used to calculate the convection velocity. It is found that there are two characteristic convection speeds near the wall, one associated with small-scale streaks of a lower speed and another with streamwise vortices and hairpin vortices of a higher speed. The new concept of turbulent structure is powerful to illustrate the dominant role of coherent structures in the near-wall convection, and to reveal also the nature of the convection-the propagation of patterns of velocity fluctuations-which is scale-dependent.     

Large eddy simulation of turbulent channel flow using an algebraic model

In this paper an algebraic model from the constitutive equations of the subgrid stresses has been developed. This model has an additional term in comparison with the mixed model, which represents the backscatter of energy explicitly. The proposed model thus provides independent modelling of the different energy transfer mechanisms, thereby capturing the effect of subgrid scales more accurately. The model is also found to depict the flow anisotropy better than the linear and mixed models. The energy transfer capability of the model is analysed for the isotropic decay and the forced isotropic turbulence. The turbulent plane channel flow simulation is performed over three Reynolds numbers, Re_τ=180, 395 and 590, and the results are compared with that of the dynamic model, Smagorinsky model, and the DNS data. Both the algebraic and dynamic models are in good agreement with the DNS data for the mean flow quantities. However, the algebraic model is found to be more accurate for the turbulence intensities and the higher‐order statistics. The capability of the algebraic model to represent backscatter is also demonstrated. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Examination of wall damping for the k-ε turbulence model using direct simulations of turbulent channel flow

Handler, Hendricks and Leighton have recently reported results for the direct numerical simulation (DNS) of a turbulent channel flow at moderate Reynolds number. These data are used to evaluate the terms in the exact and modelled transport equations for the turbulence kinetic energy k and the isotropic dissipation function ε. Both modelled transport equations show significant imbalances in the high-shear region near the channel walls. The model for the eddy viscosity is found to yield distributions for the production terms which do not agree well with the distributions calculated from the DNS data. The source of the imbalance is attributed to the wall-damping function required in eddy viscosity models for turbulent flows near walls. Several models for the damping function are examined, and it is found that the models do not vary across the channel as does the damping when evaluated from the DNS data. The Lam-Bremhorst model and the standard van Driest model are found to give reasonable agreement with the DNS data. Modification of the van Driest model to include an effective origin yields very good agreement between the modelled production and the production calculated from the DNS data, and the imbalance in the modelled transport equations is significantly reduced.     

Numerical investigation of a water flow in a rib-roughened channel by using Reynolds stress model

In this paper, water flow in a rib-roughened channel is investigated numerically by using Reynolds stress turbulence models (RSM) on a three-dimensional (3-D) domain. Computational results for mean streamwise velocity component and turbulent kinetic energy show good agreements with available experimental data. Five rib pitch-to-height ratios (p/h) of 1, 5, 10, 15 and 20 are analysed for six different Reynolds numbers (Re) of 3000, 7000, 12,000, 20,000, 40,000 and 65,000. Velocity vectors, streamlines and Reynolds stresses are showed for these ratios and Re numbers. Streamlines revealed that Reynolds numbers do not affect flowfield but play an important role in the Reynolds stresses.     

Velocity measurement of start-up flow of polymeric solutions in a planar contraction channel

The start-up flow of polymeric solutions in an abrupt contraction channel with a rectangular cross-section was experimentally studied. Aqueous solutions with 0.2 wt% and 1.0 wt% of polyacrylamide were used as test fluids. Temporal changes in velocity were measured with a laser Doppler velocimeter. The velocity overshot just after the onset of the flow. The changes in velocity caused by the rearrangement of the velocity distribution were observed. A three-dimensional flow structure and the development of a vortex region were found near the entrance to the contraction. A decrease in the axial velocity just upstream from the contraction was observed. The velocity profile is related to the three-dimensional nature of the flow and the elongational rheological properties of the test fluid. The experimental results indicate that three-dimensional analysis of viscoelastic flows is required especially for the flow in rectangular channels. Received: 6 July 1998 Accepted: 1 December 1998     

Effects of blowing through a porous strip in a turbulent channel flow

An experimental investigation is performed on a fully developed turbulent channel flow with local injection through a porous strip. The Reynolds number based on the channel half-width was set to 5000. In addition to the no blowing case, measurements are made for three different blowing rates σ = 0.22, 0.36 and 0.58 (where σ is the ratio of momentum flux gain due to the blowing and momentum flux of the incoming channel flow). Measurements carried out with hot-wire anemometry reveal that injection strongly affects both the velocity profiles and the turbulence characteristics. The injection decreases the skin friction coefficient and increases all the Reynolds stresses downstream the blowing strip. The turbulence structure and the bursting phenomena were examined using space-time correlations measurements and conditional analysis. It is found that the injection increases the frequency of occurrence of the bursts.     

Analysis of the structural properties of the solutions to speed gradient traffic flow model

In this paper, we carry out an analysis of the structural properties of the solutions to the speed gradient (SG) traffic flow model. Under the condition that the relaxation effect can be neglected, it is shown that a 1-shock or a 1-rarefaction is associated with the first characteristic, but on the other hand, a contact discontinuity rather than a 2-shock or a 2-rarefaction is associated with the second characteristic. Since the existence of a 2-shock or 2-rarefaction violates the physical mechanism of the traffic flow, the SG model is more reasonable. If the relaxation effect cannot be neglected, it is somewhat difficult to carry out the analytical analysis and the numerical simulation results should be obtained. The project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (10272101)     

The effect of a transition layer between a fluid and a porous medium: shear flow in a channel

Flow in a three-layer channel is modeled analytically. The channel consists of a transition layer sandwiched between a porous medium and a fluid clear of solid material. Within the transition layer, the reciprocal of the permeability varies linearly across the channel. The Brinkman model is used for the momentum equations for the porous medium layer and the transition layer. The velocity profile is obtained in closed form in terms of Airy, exponential, and polynomial functions. The overall volume flux and boundary friction factors are calculated and compared with values obtained with a two-layer model employing the Beavers–Joseph condition at the interface between a Darcy porous medium and a clear fluid.     

Dynamical eigenfunction decomposition of turbulent channel flow

The results of an analysis of low-Reynolds-number turbulent channel flow based on the Karhunen-Loéve(K-L) expansion are presented. The turbulent flow field is generated by a direct numerical simulation of the Navier-Stokes equations at a Reynolds number Re,= 80 (based on the wall shear velocity and channel half-width). The K-L procedure is then applied to determine the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions for this flow. The random coefficients of the K-L expansion are subsequently found by projecting the numerical flow field onto these eigenfunctions. The resulting expansion captures 90% of the turbulent energy with significantly fewer modes than the original trigonometric expansion. The eigenfunctions, which appear either as rolls or shearing motions, posses viscous boundary layers at the walls and are much richer in harmonics than the original basis functions. Chaotic temporal behaviour is observed in all modes and increases for higher-order eigenfunctions. The structure and dynamical behaviour of the eigenmodes are discussed as well as their use in the representation of the turbulent flow.