Linear and nonlinear stability of combined plane-parallel flow of a film of liquid and gas

The problem of the linear stability of a layer of liquid entrained by a gas has been investigated for some special cases in [1–7]. In [8], the linear problem was solved numerically and the solution compared with some analytic solutions for special cases of the flow. In the present paper, the results of linear analysis are presented more comprehensively; the problem of finite-amplitude stability of the film is posed and solved numerically; the results of the linear and nonlinear analysis are compared with data of an experiment performed by the authors and by other experimentalists.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 36–42, January–February, 1979.We are grateful to V. Ya. Shkadov for supervising the work, to all the participants of G. I. Petrov's seminar for helpful discussion, and also to E. L. Kokon for assistance in evaluating the experimental data.     

Wave flow of a liquid film together with a flow of gas

The wave flow of a thin layer of viscous liquid in conjunction with a flow of gas was considered in a linear formulation earlier [1, 2]. In this paper the problem of the wave flow of a liquid film together with a gas flow is solved in a nonlinear setting. On this basis relationships are derived for calculating the parameters of the film and the hydrodynamic quantities.Ivanovo. Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 1, pp. 12–18, January–February, 1972.     

Wavy flow of a liquid film in the presence of a cocurrent turbulent gas flow

Wavy downflow of viscous liquid films in the presence of a cocurrent turbulent gas flow is analyzed theoretically. The parameters of two-dimensional steady-state traveling waves are calculated for wide ranges of liquid Reynolds number and gas flow velocity. The hydrodynamic characteristics of the liquid flow are computed using the full Navier-Stokes equations. The wavy interface is regarded as a small perturbation, and the equations for the gas are linearized in the vicinity of the main turbulent flow. Various optimal film flow regimes are obtained for the calculated nonlinear waves branching from the plane-parallel flow. It is shown that for high velocities of the cocurrent gas flow, the calculated wave characteristics correspond to those of ripple waves observed in experiments.     

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.     

Dynamics of a finite-width liquid film in a co-current microchannel gas flow

The velocity fields and the parameters of a finite-width liquid film moving along the bottom of a mini- and a microchannel under the action of a gas flow are calculated. The investigations are performed for different levels of gravity. It is found that the thin liquid film distorts the velocity field in the gaseous phase. In contrast to the minichannel flow, in the microchannel the film surface is not leveled with increase in the gravity force.     

Longitudinal flow characteristics of vertically falling liquid films without concurrent gas flow

Flow characteristics of liquid films vertically falling along the outer wall of a circular tube without concurrent gas flow are experimentally studied, and attention is given to the longitudinally developing liquid film flow in the flow direction. Flow measurements are carried out by the methods of needle contact and electric capacity, and the obtained data are statistically processed.There exists a definite difference in flow characteristics such as wave motion patterns, film thicknesses, critical Reynolds number, and so on, depending strongly on the longitudinal distance in the flow direction as well as the liquid film Reynolds number. Measured probability distributions of interfacial waves can be well expressed by the functions of probability distribution statistically well-known as normal, logarithmic normal and gamma distributions. In terms of these functions, interfacial wave patterns are definitely classified over the whole experimental flow regime. As a rule, interfacial wave motion proceeds vigorously with increases of the longitudinal distance and Reynolds number; however, there exists a flow condition that wave fluctuation never grows up but declines regardless of an increase of Reynolds number.     

Mass transfer with gas desorption from the surface of a liquid film in the presence of a cocurrent flow

Results of a thcoretical and experimental study of dynamics and mass transfer during desorption of a gas from a liquid film in the presence of a cocurrent air flow are presented. The calculation model is based on solving integral momentum and diffusion relations for the gaseous and liquid phascs. Both laminar and turbulent regimes of the film flow are analyzed. The experimental study of mass transfer was conducted for carbon dioxide desorption from a water film. Criterial relations for mass transfer in the gaseous and liquid phases are obtained. The experiments showed that the heat-transfer coefficients for the case under study are one order of magnitude grcater than those for the flow of a smooth film. Possible mechanisms of such an appreciable intensification of the liquid-film mass transfer in a cocurrent gas flow are discussed. Kutateladze Institute of Thermal Physics, Siberian Division, Russian Academy of Sciences, Novosibirsk 630090. Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 41, No. 4, pp. 131–138, July–August, 2000.     

Advective flow in a rotating liquid film

This paper presents a new exact solution of the Navier–Stokes equations in the Boussinesq approximation that describes thermocapillary advective flow in a slowly rotating horizontal layer of incompressible fluid with free boundaries. Such flow occurs in the case of linear temperature distribution over horizontal coordinates or in the case of heat flux distribution at the layer boundaries. The influence of the Taylor, Marangoni, Grashof, and Biot numbers on the flow and temperature velocity profiles is studied.     

Instability of a film of viscous liquid under the influence of an adjacent gas flow

A study is made of the instability of a film of viscous liquid adjacent to a gas flow. Despite a number of investigations, there is no unified theory of this problem capable of explaining the experimental results of different authors. The present paper gives a solution of the problem that is valid for a large class of flows of liquid films in the case of laminar and turbulent flow of the gas.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 28–36, March–April, 1979.     

Interaction of a turbulent stream of gas with a liquid film

We consider the turbulent motion of a gas in contact with a liquid film next to a wall. We assume that the stream of gas excites in the liquid a complex system of motions which are analogous in principle to the motions in the near-wall zone of a homogeneous turbulent stream with transverse shear. As a result of these motions, the gas stream has considerable turbulence even at the gas-film boundary. On this assumption, we calculate the relation between the pressure drop and the average gas velocity and find that it is in satisfactory qualitative and quantitative agreement with experimental results. As our scale of turbulence at the boundary, we took a linear variation as a function of the film thickness, which enabled us to describe the available experimental results satisfactorily, making use of two empirical constants.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 67–74, March–April, 1976.In conclusion, the authors take this opportunity to express their grateful recollection of conversations with the late Professor P. A. Semenov, who drew their attention to this problem, and also to thank G. G. Chernyi and G. A. Lyubimov for their comments and their interest in the work.     

Primary instabilities of liquid film flow sheared by turbulent gas stream

Evolution of excited waves on a viscous liquid film has been investigated experimentally for the annular gas–liquid flow in a vertical tube. For the first time the dispersion relations are obtained experimentally for linear waves on liquid film surface in the presence of turbulent gas flow. Both cocurrent and countercurrent flow regimes are investigated. As an example of comparison with theory, the experimental data are compared to the results of calculations based on the Benjamin quasi-laminar model for turbulent gas flow. The calculation results are found to be in good agreement with experiments for moderate values of film Reynolds number.     

Linear stability of the Couette flow of a vibrationally excited gas. 1. Inviscid problem

Stability of the Couette flow of a vibrationally excited diatomic gas with a parabolic profile of static temperature is studied within the framework of the linear theory. A set of explicit asymptotic estimates are obtained for inviscid disturbances described by a system of linearized equations of two-temperature gas dynamics. It is shown that the first Rayleigh condition (theorem) is satisfied for unstable modes, and the classification of inviscid modes into even and odd modes is valid. A generalized condition of the presence of an inflection point on the velocity profile, which is necessary for disturbances to evolve, is obtained. The sufficient condition in Howard’s semi-circle theorem is refined. Complex phase velocities of two-dimensional even and odd inviscid modes are numerically calculated as functions of the Mach number, degree of excitation of vibrational levels of energy, and characteristic relaxation time. In the Couette flow problem, in contrast to the case of a free shear layer, the growth rate of the most unstable second mode increases with increasing Mach number and tends to a certain limit for which an asymptotic expression in the form of an ordinary differential equation is obtained. The calculated results show that the effect of reduction of the growth rate on the background of the relaxation process is clearly expressed in the range of flow parameters considered.     

Linear stability of the Couette flow of a vibrationally excited gas. 2. viscous problem

Based on the linear theory, stability of viscous disturbances in a supersonic plane Couette flow of a vibrationally excited gas described by a system of linearized equations of two-temperature gas dynamics including shear and bulk viscosity is studied. It is demonstrated that two sets are identified in the spectrum of the problem of stability of plane waves, similar to the case of a perfect gas. One set consists of viscous acoustic modes, which asymptotically converge to even and odd inviscid acoustic modes at high Reynolds numbers. The eigenvalues from the other set have no asymptotic relationship with the inviscid problem and are characterized by large damping decrements. Two most unstable viscous acoustic modes (I and II) are identified; the limits of these modes were considered previously in the inviscid approximation. It is shown that there are domains in the space of parameters for both modes, where the presence of viscosity induces appreciable destabilization of the flow. Moreover, the growth rates of disturbances are appreciably greater than the corresponding values for the inviscid flow, while thermal excitation in the entire considered range of parameters increases the stability of the viscous flow. For a vibrationally excited gas, the critical Reynolds number as a function of the thermal nonequilibrium degree is found to be greater by 12% than for a perfect gas.     

Effect of tangential and normal forces on the wave formation in the flow of a liquid film and a gas

The effect of surface forces on nonlinear waves induced by the hydrodynamic instability in the flow of a viscous liquid film along the inner surface of a tube blown with a gas.     

Characteristics of solitary waves on a falling liquid film sheared by a turbulent counter-current gas flow

We report an experimental investigation of a falling water film sheared by a turbulent counter-current air flow in an inclined rectangular channel. Film thickness and wave velocity measurements associated with visual observation are conducted to study the influence of the air flow on controlled traveling waves consisting of a large wave hump preceded by capillary ripples. First, we focus on the variation of the shape, amplitude and velocity of the waves as the gas velocity is gradually increased. We demonstrate that the amplitude of the main hump grows substantially even for moderate gas velocities, whereas modification of the wave celerity becomes significant above a specific gas velocity around 4 m/s, associated with an alteration of the capillary region. The influence of the gas flow on 3D secondary instabilities of the solitary waves detected in a previous study Kofman et al. (2014), namely rugged or scallop waves, is also investigated. We show that the capillary mode is damped while the inertial mode is enhanced by the interfacial shear. Next, the gas velocity is increased until the onset of upstream-moving patterns referred to as flooding in our experiments. At moderate inclination angles (typically < 7 ^○), flooding occurs for a gas velocity around 8 m/s and is initiated at the scallop wave crests by a backward wave-breaking phenomenon preceded by the onset of ripples on the flat residual film separating two waves. At high inclination angle, a rapid development of solitons is observed as the air velocity is increased preventing the waves to turn back. Finally, at high liquid Reynolds number, sudden and intermittent events are triggered consisting of very large amplitude waves that go back upwards very fast. These “slugs” either extend over the whole width of the channel or are very localized and can thus potentially evolve towards atomization.     

Wave flow of a liquid film in a horizontal separator

The calculation of the motion of separated moisture in a linear horizontal separator is made on the basis of the analysis of the development of the waves in a flow of a thin layer of liquid along a vertical surface without allowance for the transverse flow of mass [1].Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 2, pp. 174–176, March–April, 1985.     

Thermal stability of a reactive liquid flow

Stability analysis of the solution of the system of differential partial equations describing the thermal state of a reactive liquid flow is based on reducing the infinite-dimensional problem to a finite-dimensional space containing the part of the solution that determines its stability. Within the framework of the projection method, the zero space of the corresponding generating operator is used as the finite-dimensional space. Generally, the zero space of the generating operator of the problem considered consists of its eigenfunctions. Analysis is performed for a combination of liquid-flow parameters such that the generating operator degenerates and to construct its zero space, it is necessary to use vectors generated by the Jordan chain. Calculation results are presented. Technological Institute, Altai State Technical University, Biisk 659305. Translated from Prikladnaya Mekhanika i Tekhnicheskaya Fizika, Vol. 41, No. 2, pp. 130–137, March–April, 2000.