Stability and nonlinear wavy regimes in downward film flows on a corrugated surface

The linear and nonlinear stability of downward viscous film flows on a corrugated surface to freesurface perturbations is analyzed theoretically. The study is performed with the use of an integral approach in ranges of parameters where the calculated results and the corresponding solutions of Navier-Stokes equations (downward wavy flow on a smooth wall and waveless flow along a corrugated surface) are in good agreement. It is demonstrated that, for moderate Reynolds numbers, there is a range of corrugation parameters (amplitude and period) where all linear perturbations of the free surface decay. For high Reynolds numbers, the waveless downward flow is unstable. Various nonlinear wavy regimes induced by varying the corrugation amplitude are determined. __________ Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 48, No. 1, pp. 110–120, January–February, 2007.     

Instability in gravity-driven flow over uneven permeable surfaces

We develop a theoretical model for inclined free-surface flow over a porous surface exhibiting periodic undulations. The effect of bottom permeability is incorporated by imposing a slip condition that accounts for the nonplanar geometry of the fluid–porous medium interface. Under the assumption of shallow flow, equations of motion accounting for inertial effects are obtained by retaining in the Navier-Stokes equations terms that are up to second-order with respect to a small shallowness parameter. The explicit dependence on the cross-stream coordinate is eliminated from these equations by means of a weighted residual procedure. A linear stability analysis of the steady flow is performed in connection with Floquet–Bloch theory. The results predict that bottom permeability has a destabilizing influence on the flow. A physical explanation has been proposed which involves examining how permeability affects the steady-state flow. Conclusions are drawn regarding the combined effect of the surface tension of the fluid and the parameters describing the bottom surface including permeability, inclination and the amplitude and wavelength of the undulations that generate the bottom topography. A numerical scheme for solving the fully nonlinear governing equations is also outlined. The instability of particular steady flows is determined by conducting nonlinear simulations of the temporal evolution of the flow and comparisons are made with the predictions from the linear analysis. Comparisons with existing experimental data are also included.     

Nonlinear resonance in viscous films on inclined wavy planes

We study nonlinear resonance in viscous gravity-driven films flowing over undulated substrates. Numerical solution of the full, steady Navier–Stokes equations is used to follow the emergence of the first few free-surface harmonics with increasing wall amplitude, and to study their parametric dependence on film thickness, inertia and capillarity. Bistable resonance is computed for steep enough bottom undulations. As an analytic approach, we apply the integral boundary-layer method and derive an asymptotic equation valid for rather thin films. The analysis recovers the key numerical findings and provides qualitative understanding. It shows that higher harmonics are generated by a nonlinear coupling of the wall with lower-order harmonics of the free surface. It also accounts for bistable resonance, and produces a minimum model whose solution is similar to that of the Duffing oscillator.     

Drag reduction and improvement of material transport in creeping films

It is widely accepted that for bodies in turbulent flows a reduction of skin friction can be reached if the surface of the body is provided with small ridges aligned in the local flow direction. This surprising and counterintuitive phenomenon is called the shark-skin effect, motivated from the dermal surface morphology of sharks. In the present article we examine the possibility of resistance reduction due to a rippled surface topography in Stokes flow. We especially analyse the influence of wall riblets perpendicular to the flow direction on the mean transport velocity in gravity-driven creeping film flows following the idea that eddies generated in the valleys of the riblets act like fluid roller bearings and hence may reduce drag. Using a theoretical treatment of the Stokes equations with complex function theory, parameter studies with varying flow rate, bottom amplitude and bottom shape are presented. For the given bottom shapes the maximum enhancement of transport velocity is found by optimising the film thickness.     

Weakly nonlinear stability analysis of a falling film with countercurrent gas flow

Weakly nonlinear stability analysis of a falling film with countercurrent gas–liquid flow has been investigated. A normal mode approach and the method of multiple scales are employed to carry out the linear and nonlinear stability solutions for the film flow system. The results show that both supercritical stability and subcritical instability are possible for a film flow system when the gas flows in the countercurrent direction. The stability characteristics of the film flow system are strongly influenced by the effects of interfacial shear stress when the gas flows in the countercurrent direction. The effect of countercurrent gas flow in a falling film is to stabilize the film flow system.     

Numerical investigations on vortical structures of viscous film flows along periodic rectangular corrugations

Two-dimensional gravity-driven film flows along a substrate with rectangular corrugations are studied numerically by using Finite Volume Method. The volume of fluid (VOF) method is utilized to capture the evolution of free surfaces. The film flows down an inclined plate are simulated to validate the numerical implementation of the present study. Results obtained indicate that the phase shift between the surface wave and the wall corrugation increases as the Reynolds number. The parametric studies on the interesting resonant phenomenon indicate that the peak Reynolds numbers increase as the raise of the wall depth or the decline of the inclination angle. The dependence of the flow fields is analyzed on the Reynolds numbers and wall depth in details. It is found that the vortical structures in the steady flows, either produced by the interaction between capillary wrinkling and inertia, or by the rectangular geometry, are closely related to the remarkable deformation of the free surfaces. This conclusion is also confirmed by the transient flow development of two typical simulations, i.e., flows in capillary–inertial regime and in inertial regime.     

An inverse boundary value problem for Maxwell's equations

We consider steady, two-dimensional motions of an incompressible, Newtonian fluid flowing under gravity down an inclined channel. If the bottom of the channel is flat, the flow is the classical Poiseuille-Nusselt flow and the free surface is then a plane parallel to the bottom. Motivated by the recent experimental and numerical studies of Pritchard, Scott & Tavener, we look at bottom configurations which possess some localized, non-uniform structure. We present an existence theory for steady, highly viscous flow over such configurations. An important consequence of our theory is that the steady flows whose existence is established decay exponentially rapidly to the unperturbed Poiseuille-Nusselt flow away from the local variation in the channel bottom profile.     

The effect of surfactants on the instability of a rotating liquid jet

It has long been known that the presence of surfactants on the free surface of a liquid jet can create surface tension gradients along the interface. The resulting formation of tangential stresses along the surface lead to Marangoni type flows and greatly affect the resulting dynamics of rupture. In this way surfactants can be used to manipulate the breakup of a liquid jet and control the size of droplets produced. In this paper we investigate the effects of insoluble surfactants on the breakup of rotating liquid jets with applications to industrial prilling. Using a long wavelength approximation we reduce the governing equations into a set of one-dimensional equations. We use an asymptotic theory to find steady solutions and then carry out a linear instability analysis on these solutions. We show that steady state centreline solutions are independent of viscosity to leading order and that the most unstable wavenumber and growth rate of disturbances decrease as the effectiveness of surfactants is increased. We also numerically solve these equations using a finite difference scheme to investigate the effects of changing the initial surfactant concentration and other fluid parameters. Our results show that differences in breakup lengths between rotating surfactant-laden jets and surfactant-free jets increase with the rate of rotation. Moreover, we find that satellite droplet sizes decrease as the rate of rotation is decreased with the effect of surfactants amplifying the reduction in sizes. Furthermore, the presence of surfactants at fixed rotation rates is shown to produce larger main droplets at low disturbance wavenumbers whilst satellite droplets are smaller for moderate disturbance wavenumbers κ≈0.7.     

On the flow of a viscous fluid driven along a channel by suction at porous walls

This paper is a theoretical treatment of the flow of a viscous incompressible fluid driven along a channel by steady uniform suction through porous parallel rigid walls. Many authors have found such flows when they are symmetric, steady and two-dimensional, by assuming a similarity form of solution due to Berman in order to reduce the Navier-Stokes equations to a nonlinear ordinary differential equation. We generalise their work by considering asymmetric flows, unsteady flows and three-dimensional perturbations. By use of numerical calculations, matched asymptotic expansions for large values of the Reynolds number, and the theory of dynamical systems, we find many more exact solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations, examine their stability, and interpret them. In particular, we show that most previously found steady solutions are unstable to antisymmetric two-dimensional disturbances. This leads to a pitchfork bifurcation, stable asymmetric steady solutions, a Hopf bifurcation, stable time-periodic solutions, stable quasi-periodic solutions, phase locking and chaos in succession as the Reynolds number increases.     

Analysis of Linear Viscous Flow with a Free Surface in a Circular Cylinder Subjected to Small-Amplitude Circular Oscillations

A fluid flow with a free surface inside a circular cylinder subjected to horizontal, circular oscillation was analyzed theoretically and numerically under the assumption of small-amplitude oscillation and high Reynolds number. It was shown that the nature of the oscillatory flow is of a standing-wave type when projected onto the axial plane and of a progressive-wave type when projected onto the azimuthal plane. The Stokes drift motion in the azimuthal direction and the steady streaming velocity at the edge of the bottom- and side-wall boundary layers are then used in the numerical computation for the steady axisymmetric recirculatory flow outside the boundary layers. We have found that the solutions can be well predicted by asymptotic analysis for the full Navier–Stokes equations in the low streaming-Reynolds-number limit. A simple experiment on flow visualization revealed a good agreement in the surface flow pattern on the bottom wall. It also provided steady recirculatory flows that were not much different from the numerical results on the whole. Received 16 August 1999 and accepted 14 January 2000     

The influence of a sloping bottom endwall on the linear stability in the thermally driven baroclinic annulus with a free surface

We present results of a linear stability analysis of non-axisymmetric thermally driven flows in the classical model of the rotating cylindrical gap of fluid with a horizontal temperature gradient [inner (outer) sidewall cool (warm)] and a sloping bottom endwall configuration where fluid depth increases with radius. For comparison, results of a flat-bottomed endwall case study are also discussed. In both cases, the model setup has a free top surface. The analysis is carried out numerically using a Fourier–Legendre spectral element method (in azimuth and in the meridional plane, respectively) well suited to handle the axisymmetry of the fluid container. We find significant differences between the neutral stability curve for the sloping and the flat-bottomed endwall configuration. In case of a sloping bottom endwall, the wave flow regime is extended to lower rotation rates, that is, the transition curve is shifted systematically to lower Taylor numbers. Moreover, in the sloping bottom endwall case, a sharp reversal of the instability curve is found in its upper part, that is, at large temperature differences, whereas the instability line becomes almost horizontal in the flat-bottomed endwall case. The linear onset of instability is then almost independent of the rotation rate.     

An efficient quasi-Newton method for two-dimensional steady free surface flow

Steady free surface flows are of interest in the fields of marine and hydraulic engineering. Fitting methods are generally used to represent the free surface position with a deforming grid. Existing fitting methods tend to use time-stepping schemes, which is inefficient for steady flows. There also exists a steady iterative method, but that one needs to be implemented with a dedicated solver. Therefore a new method is proposed to efficiently simulate two-dimensional (2D) steady free surface flows, suitable for use in conjunction with black-box flow solvers. The free surface position is calculated with a quasi-Newton method, where the approximate Jacobian is constructed in a novel way by combining data from past iterations with an analytical model based on a perturbation analysis of a potential flow. The method is tested on two 2D cases: the flow over a bottom topography and the flow over a hydrofoil. For all simulations the new method converges exponentially and in few iterations. Furthermore, convergence is independent of the free surface mesh size for all tests.     

Efficient computation of two‐dimensional steady free‐surface flows

We consider a family of steady free‐surface flow problems in two dimensions, concentrating on the effect of nonlinearity on the train of gravity waves that appear downstream of a disturbance. By exploiting standard complex variable techniques, these problems are formulated in terms of a coupled system of Bernoulli equation and an integral equation. When applying a numerical collocation scheme, the Jacobian for the system is dense, as the integral equation forces each of the algebraic equations to depend on each of the unknowns. We present here a strategy for overcoming this challenge, which leads to a numerical scheme that is much more efficient than what is normally used for these types of problems, allowing for many more grid points over the free surface. In particular, we provide a simple recipe for constructing a sparse approximation to the Jacobian that is used as a preconditioner in a Jacobian‐free Newton‐Krylov method for solving the nonlinear system. We use this approach to compute numerical results for a variety of prototype problems including flows past pressure distributions, a surface‐piercing object and bottom topographies.     

Existence and uniqueness of a solution to a problem of steady composite waves on the surface of a liquid flowing over a wavy bottom

Composite waves on the surface of the stationary flow of a heavy ideal incompressible liquid are steady forced waves of finite amplitude which do not disappear when the pressure on the free surface becomes constant but rather are transformed into free nonlinear waves [1]. It will be shown that such waves correspond to the case of nonlinear resonance, and mathematically to the bifurcation of the solution of the fundamental integral equation describing these waves. In [2], a study is made of the problem of composite waves in a flow of finite depth generated by a variable pressure with periodic distribution along the surface of the flow. In [3], such waves are considered for a flow with a wavy bottom. In this case, composite waves are defined as steady forced waves of finite amplitude that, when the pressure becomes constant and the bottom is straightened, do not disappear but are transformed into free nonlinear waves over a flat horizontal bottom. However, an existence and uniqueness theorem was not proved for this case. The aim of the present paper is to fill this gap and investigate the conditions under which such waves can arise.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 4, pp. 88–98, July–August, 1980.     

Viscous flowing film instability down an inclined plane in the presence of constant electromagnetic field

The present work deals with temporal stability properties of a falling liquid film down an inclined plane in the presence of constant electromagnetic field. Using the Kármán approximation, the problem is reduced to the study of the evolution equation for the free surface of the liquid film derived through a long-wave approximation. A linear stability analysis of the base flow is performed. Also, the solutions of stationary waves and Shkadov waves are introduced and discussed analytically by analyzing the linearized instability of the fixed points and Hopf bifurcation.     

Wave flows in a thin layer of a viscous liquid. Influence of a constant electric field

The influence of a constant transverse electric field on the dynamics of longwave, weakly nonlinear flow of a viscous dielectric liquid film down a vertical wall is studied. An amplitude integrodifferential equation in partial derivatives of the Kuramoto-Sivashinskii equation type, which describes the behavior of the free surface of the layer, is derived using the method of multiscale stretching. In the case considered, the potential energy of the electric field is a source of longwave perturbations, but, on the whole, secondary regimes are apparently nonlinearly steady. Probably, the electric polarization effects studied can be used as a factor that governs the dynamics of film flow. Computer Center, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Krasnoyarsk 660036. Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 39, No. 1, pp. 90–97, January–February, 1998.     

Method of narrow strips for nonlinear problems of a stratified fluid

Plane steady flow is considered for an ideal incompressible stratified fluid in a gravitational field of force. It is a characteristic feature of these flows that the density is constant and Bernoulli's constant remains the same along a streamline. Internal waves arise because of ponderability in the stratified fluid; they are not due to the presence of a free surface. These wave motions are studied in detail in the linear formulation, but flows of the solitary wave type can be described only by nonlinear equations.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 174–178, March–April, 1986.     

Stability of flow of a thin layer of viscous magnetic liquid

The laminar flow of a thin layer of heavy viscous magnetic liquid down an inclined wall is examined. The stability and control of the flow of an ordinary liquid are affected only by alteration of the angle of inclination of the solid wall and the velocity of the adjacent gas flow. When magnetic liquids are used [1, 2], an effective method of flow control may be control of the magnetic field. By using magnetic fields of various configurations it is possible to control the flow of a thin film of viscous liquid, modify the stability of laminar film flow, and change the shape of the free surface of the laminarly flowing thin film, a factor which plays a role in mass transfer, whose rate depends on the phase contact surface area. The magnetic field significantly affects the shape of the free surface of a magnetic liquid [3, 4]. In this paper the velocity profile of a layer of viscous magnetic liquid adjoining a gas flow and flowing down an inclined solid wall in a uniform magnetic field is found. It is shown that the flow can be controlled by the magnetic field. The problem of stability of the flow is solved in a linear formulation in which perturbations of the magnetic field are taken into account. The stability condition is found. The flow stability is affected by the nonuniform nature of the field and also by its direction.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 5, pp. 59–65, September–October, 1977.     

Effect of bottom topography on the flow of a non-Newtonian liquid film down an inclined plane

The problem of flow of a nonlinear viscous liquid film down an inclined surface with local microtopography is considered. Numerical and approximate analytic solutions are obtained for steady flows of power-law liquid films down inclined surfaces with topography. Steps, hills, and periodic structures are considered as local topography. Basic properties of flows are found.