Remapping-free ALE-type kinetic method for flow computations

Based on the integral form of the fluid dynamic equations, a finite volume kinetic scheme with arbitrary control volume and mesh velocity is developed. Different from the earlier unified moving mesh gas-kinetic method [C.Q. Jin, K. Xu, An unified moving grid gas-kinetic method in Eulerian space for viscous flow computation, J. Comput. Phys. 222 (2007) 155–175], the coupling of the fluid equations and geometrical conservation laws has been removed in order to make the scheme applicable for any quadrilateral or unstructured mesh rather than parallelogram in 2D case. Since a purely Lagrangian method is always associated with mesh entangling, in order to avoid computational collapsing in multidimensional flow simulation, the mesh velocity is constructed by considering both fluid velocity (Lagrangian methodology) and diffusive velocity (Regenerating Eulerian mesh function). Therefore, we obtain a generalized Arbitrary-Lagrangian–Eulerian (ALE) method by properly designing a mesh velocity instead of re-generating a new mesh after distortion. As a result, the remapping step to interpolate flow variables from old mesh to new mesh is avoided. The current method provides a general framework, which can be considered as a remapping-free ALE-type method. Since there is great freedom in choosing mesh velocity, in order to improve the accuracy and robustness of the method, the adaptive moving mesh method [H.Z. Tang, T. Tang, Adaptive mesh methods for one-and two-dimensional hyperbolic conservation laws, SIAM J. Numer. Anal. 41 (2003) 487–515] can be also used to construct a mesh velocity to concentrate mesh to regions with high flow gradients.     

Direction of impurity pinch and auxiliary heating in tokamak plasmas

A mechanism of particle pinch for trace impurities in tokamak plasmas, arising from the effect of parallel velocity fluctuations in the presence of a turbulent electrostatic potential, is identified analytically by means of a reduced fluid model and verified numerically with a gyrokinetic code for the first time. The direction of such a pinch reverses as a function of the direction of rotation of the turbulence in agreement with the impurity pinch reversal observed in some experiments when moving from dominant auxiliary ion heating to dominant auxiliary electron heating.     

Numerical simulation of transit-time ultrasonic flowmeters: uncertainties due to flow profile and fluid turbulence

Flowmeter measurement using the ultrasonic transit-time method is based on the apparent difference of the sound velocity in the flow direction and in the opposite direction. This method gives a flow velocity averaged along a particular acoustical path. To convert this path velocity to a velocity averaged over the entire cross-section of the flowing medium, the knowledge of the flow velocity profile is essential. However, the acoustical paths joining the two transducers are supposed to be straight and fluid turbulence phenomena are neglected. In this paper, we describe a numerical procedure to estimate the uncertainties due to these approximations in the case of fully developed turbulence. The ultrasonic propagation is modelled in 2-D moving inhomogeneous media via a ray tracing algorithm. Influence of mean profiles of temperature and velocity is studied on simple examples. Fluid temperature fluctuations and fluid velocity turbulence are considered in the stochastic framework to obtain average uncertainties on the measurements of the liquid flow rate.     

Conserved dynamics and interface roughening in spontaneous imbibition: A critical overview

Imbibition phenomena have been widely used experimentally and theoretically to study the kinetic roughening of interfaces. We critically discuss the existing experiments and some associated theoretical approaches on the scaling properties of the imbibition front, with particular attention to the conservation law associated to the fluid, to problems arising from the actual structure of the embedding medium, and to external influences such as evaporation and gravity. Our main conclusion is that the scaling of moving interfaces includes many crossover phenomena, with competition between the average capillary pressure gradient and its fluctuations setting the maximal lengthscale for roughening. We discuss the physics of both pinned and moving interfaces and the ability of the existing models to account for their properties. Received 17 February 1999 and Received in final form 24 November 1999     

Distinctive features of random local motions in critical and supercritical fluids

Equations for large-scale local fluctuations in fluids, from an ideal gas to an incompressible fluid, including the critical and supercritical state are derived for the first time based on the first principles. The modern phenomenological representation of the critical state of fluids is confirmed and essentially refined; in particular, it is demonstrated that that local density fluctuations in a compressible fluid are accompanied by nonthermodynamic fluctuations in the collective velocity and temperature of the fluid. Distinctive features of the development of these fluctuations near the critical point determine the specific behavior of fluids in the critical and supercritical states.     

On the appearance of caustics for plane sound-wave propagation in moving random media

In this paper we derive expressions for the probability densities of the appearance of the first caustic for a plane sound wave propagating in moving random media. Our approach generalizes the previous work by White et al. and Klyatskin in the case of motionless media. It allows us to calculate analytically the probability density functions for two- and three-dimensional media and to express these functions in terms of the diffusion coefficient. Explicit equations are given for Gaussian and von Karman spectra of velocity fluctuations. If the random scalar or vectorial fluctuations of the medium have the same contribution to the refractive-index fluctuations, we demonstrate that in a moving medium caustics appear at shorter distances than in a non-moving one. The two-dimensional version of the theory is tested by numerical simulations in the case of velocity fluctuations with Gaussian spectra. Numerical results are in very good agreement with the theoretical predictions.     

Density fluctuations in lattice-Boltzmann simulations of multiphase fluids in a closed system

A two-dimensional single component two-phase lattice Boltzmann model was used to simulate the Rayleigh–Taylor instability in a closed system. Spatiotemporally variable densities were generated by gravity acting on the fluid density. The density fluctuations were triggered by rapid changes in the fluid velocity induced by changes in the interface geometry and impact of the dense fluid on the rigid lower boundary of the computational domain. The ratio of the maximum density fluctuations to the maximum fluid velocity increased more rapidly at low velocities than at high velocities. The ratio of the maximum density fluctuations in the dense phase to its maximum velocity was on the order of the inverse of the sound speed. The solution became unstable when the density-based maximum local Knudsen number exceeded 0.13.     

Velocity measurement of the diffuse object based on time-differentiated speckle intensity fluctuations

This paper proposes a new velocity measuring method for a moving diffuse object on the basis of the autocorrelation of time-differentiated speckle intensity fluctuations. The theoretical background and experimental verification of this method are given. The correlation length of time-differentiated speckle intensity fluctuations is defined by the point at which the correlation becomes zero. By means of the correlation length the object velocity is found to be accurately measured.     

Multifractal PDF analysis for intermittent systems

The formula for probability density functions (PDFs) has been extended to include PDF for energy dissipation rates in addition to other PDFs such as for velocity fluctuations, velocity derivatives, fluid particle accelerations, energy transfer rates, etc., and it is shown that the formula actually explains various PDFs extracted from direct numerical simulations and experiments performed in a wind tunnel. It is also shown that the formula with appropriate zooming increment corresponding to experimental situation gives a new route to obtain the scaling exponents of velocity structure function, including intermittency exponent, out of PDFs of velocity fluctuations.     

Hydrodynamic screening and axisymmetric turbulence in the transient sedimentation of a dilute suspension at small Reynolds number

A theory of settling of a dilute suspension of identical spherical particles in a viscous incompressible fluid is developed on the basis of the equations of transient Stokesian dynamics. The equations describe hydrodynamic interactions between particles moving under the influence of a constant force, starting to act at a particular instant of time. For a dilute suspension, a monopole approximation can be used. It is argued that the growth of velocity fluctuations is bounded by a combination of two effects, destructive interference of the flow patterns of individual particles, and a rearrangement of particle positions leading to a time-dependent microstructure of the suspension. After a long time, the microstructure tends to a steady state. The corresponding structure factor is described phenomenologically. The corresponding pair correlation function and the velocity correlation functions describing axisymmetric turbulence on the length scale of the mean distance between particles are evaluated.     

Laser-fluctuation measurements in a bath of strong Gaussian noise

Remarkable intensity fluctuations were observed in the LiNdP₄O₁₂ (LNP) laser by placing a moving ground-glass plate across the ouput beam. Resonance-like behaviors were also observed by tuning the moving velocity of the ground-glass plate, with respect to relaxation oscillations. Classical rate equations including the modulation term were given to explain the observed phenomena. Similar intensity fluctuations corresponding to relaxation oscillations were observed when the LNP laser light beam was coupled to an optical fiber.     

A generalized Faxén theorem for two-dimensional Brownian motion

The induced force method developed by Mazur and Bedeaux is applied here to two-dimensional Brownian motion. We obtain a generalized Faxén theorem which reduces to the Stokes-Basset drag force on a nonuniformly moving cylinder or disk in the special case where the fluid fluctuations are neglected. The resulting modified Langevin equation is solved numerically for the velocity autocorrelation Ø(t) and the expected long time result Ø(t)～1/t is obtained. It is perhaps surprising that the short time behavior of Ø(t) deviates considerably from that predicted on the basis of a modified Langevin equation incorporating the classic Oseen-Lamb drag force on a cylinder.     

Fluctuations in fluids out of thermal equilibrium

After a brief review of dynamic correlations in equilibrium fluids, we consider the long-range correlations between the fluctuations in a fluid subjected to a large stationary temperature gradient. These long-range correlations enhance and modify the Rayleigh spectrum of the fluid. We elucidate that the modifications of the Rayleigh line are determined by the coupling of the entropy fluctuations to the transverse velocity fluctuations. Recent attempts to test the theoretical predictions with the aid of light-scattering experiments are discussed.     

Turbulentlike fluctuations in quasistatic flow of granular media

We analyze particle velocity fluctuations in a simulated granular system subjected to homogeneous quasistatic shearing. We show that these fluctuations share the following scaling characteristics of fluid turbulence in spite of their different physical origins: (i) scale-dependent probability distribution with non-Gaussian broadening at small time scales; (ii) spatial power spectrum of the velocity field showing a power-law decay, reflecting long-range correlations and the self-affine nature of the fluctuations; and (iii) superdiffusion of particles with respect to the mean background flow.     

Particle dynamics in sheared granular matter

The particle dynamics and shear forces of granular matter in a Couette geometry are determined experimentally. The normalized tangential velocity V(y) declines strongly with distance y from the moving wall, independent of the shear rate and of the shear dynamics. Local rms velocity fluctuations deltaV(y) scale with the local velocity gradient to the power 0.4+/-0.05. These results agree with a locally Newtonian, continuum model, where the granular medium is assumed to behave as a liquid with a local temperature [deltaV(y)](2) and density dependent viscosity.     

Power and heat fluctuation theorems for electric circuits

Using recent fluctuation theorems from nonequilibrium statistical mechanics, we extend the theory for voltage fluctuations in electric circuits to power and heat fluctuations. They could be of particular relevance for the functioning of small circuits. This is done for a parallel resistor and capacitor with a constant current source for which we use the analogy with a Brownian particle dragged through a fluid by a moving harmonic potential, where circuit-specific analogs are needed on top of the Brownian-Nyquist analogy. The results may also hold for other circuits as another example shows.     

A PLIC–VOF method suited for adaptive moving grids

This paper presents a new variant of the volume-of-fluid (VOF) color function C advection algorithm based on the piecewise linear interface construction (PLIC) method suitable for use on general moving grids. From several existing methods for reconstructing the linear interface we adopted the least squares volume-of-fluid interface reconstruction algorithm (LVIRA) which can be easily implemented on general grids. The distinguishing step in the advection algorithm that takes into account the grid movement is the construction of the donating region containing the fluid passing through corresponding cell-faces in a single time-step. The donating regions are constructed utilizing fluid velocity in cell corners relative to grid (corner) velocities. The method is conservative as it complies with the space conservation law (SCL) and requires a proper definition of the grid velocities and fluxes due to the grid movement. The accuracy of the presented advection algorithm is assessed with standard test cases. It is comparable with other PLIC based algorithms on fixed grids, while the applicability on adaptive moving grids enables a considerable reduction in the number of grid cells.     

On the Physical Origin of Long-Ranged Fluctuations in Fluids in Thermal Nonequilibrium States

Thermodynamic fluctuations in systems that are in nonequilibrium steady states are always spatially long ranged, in contrast to fluctuations in thermodynamic equilibrium. In the present paper we consider a fluid subjected to a stationary temperature gradient. Two different physical mechanisms have been identified by which the temperature gradient causes long-ranged fluctuations. One cause is the presence of couplings between fluctuating fields. Secondly, spatial variation of the strength of random forces, resulting from the local version of the fluctuation-dissipation theorem, has also been shown to generate long-ranged fluctuations. We evaluate the contributions to the long-ranged temperature fluctuations due to both mechanisms. While the inhomogeneously correlated Langevin noise does lead to long-ranged fluctuations, in practice, they turn out to be negligible as compared to nonequilibrium temperature fluctuations resulting from the coupling between temperature and velocity fluctuations.     

Hydrodynamic Fluctuations in Laminar Fluid Flow. I. Fluctuating Orr-Sommerfeld Equation

In recent years it has become evident that fluctuating hydrodynamics predicts that fluctuations in nonequilibrium states are always spatially long ranged. In this paper we consider the application of fluctuating hydrodynamics to laminar fluid flow, using plane Couette flow as a representative example. Specifically, fluctuating hydrodynamics yields a stochastic Orr-Sommerfeld equation for the wall-normal velocity fluctuations, where spontaneous thermal noise acts as a random source.This stochastic equation needs to be solved subject to appropriate boundary conditions. We show how an exact solution can be obtained from an expansion in terms of the eigenfunctions of the Orr-Sommerfeld hydrodynamic operator. We demonstrate the presence of a flow-induced enhancement of the wall-normal velocity fluctuations and a resulting flow-induced energy amplification and provide a quantitative analysis how these quantities depend on wave number and Reynolds number.