Flow past a cylinder: shear layer instability and drag crisis

Flow past a circular cylinder for Re=100 to 10⁷ is studied numerically by solving the unsteady incompressible two‐dimensional Navier–Stokes equations via a stabilized finite element formulation. It is well known that beyond Re ～ 200 the flow develops significant three‐dimensional features. Therefore, two‐dimensional computations are expected to fall well short of predicting the flow accurately at high Re. It is fairly well accepted that the shear layer instability is primarily a two‐dimensional phenomenon. The frequency of the shear layer vortices, from the present computations, agree quite well with the Re^0.67 variation observed by other researchers from experimental measurements. The main objective of this paper is to investigate a possible relationship between the drag crisis (sudden loss of drag at Re ～ 2 × 10⁵) and the instability of the separated shear layer. As Re is increased the transition point of shear layer, beyond which it is unstable, moves upstream. At the critical Reynolds number the transition point is located very close to the point of flow separation. As a result, the shear layer eddies cause mixing of the flow in the boundary layer. This energizes the boundary layer and leads to its reattachment. The delay in flow separation is associated with narrowing of wake, increase in Reynolds shear stress near the shoulder of the cylinder and a significant reduction in the drag and base suction coefficients. The spatial and temporal power spectra for the kinetic energy of the Re=10⁶ flow are computed. As in two‐dimensional isotropic turbulence, E(k) varies as k^?5/3 for wavenumbers higher than energy injection scale and as k^?3 for lower wavenumbers. The present computations suggest that the shear layer vortices play a major role in the transition of boundary layer from laminar to turbulent state. Copyright © 2004 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

Dynamics of spatio-temporal defects in the Taylor-Dean system

The dynamics of defects in a pattern of traveling inclined rolls has been investigated. Two regimes were identified in the neighborhood of defects: a diffusive regime, with a negative phase diffusion coefficient, and a coalescence regime in which the phase gradient diverges in time following a power law behavior. The observed periodic nucleation of defects is related to the frequency inhomogeneity induced by the disymmetry of the wave amplitude. Amplitude holes have been observed in the secondary modulated pattern. Received 23 February 1999 and Received in final form 26 May 1999     

Experimental and numerical investigations on the pure material instability of an Oldroyd's 3-constant model

Received March 25, 2001 / Published online November 15, 2001     

Fluid-elastic instability in tube arrays subjected to air-water and steam-water cross-flow

Flow induced vibrations in heat exchanger tubes have led to numerous accidents and economic losses in the past. Efforts have been made to systematically study the cause of these vibrations and develop remedial design criteria for their avoidance. In this research, experiments were systematically carried out with air-water and steam-water cross-flow over horizontal tubes. A normal square tube array of pitch-to-diameter ratio of 1.4 was used in the experiments. The tubes were suspended from piano wires and strain gauges were used to measure the vibrations. Tubes made of aluminum; stainless steel and brass were systematically tested by maintaining approximately the same stiffness in the tube-wire systems. Instability was clearly seen in single phase and two-phase flow and the critical flow velocity was found to be proportional to tube mass. The present study shows that fully flexible arrays become unstable at a lower flow velocity when compared to a single flexible tube surrounded by rigid tubes. It is also found that tubes are more stable in steam-water flow as compared to air-water flow. Nucleate boiling on the tube surface is also found to have a stabilizing effect on fluid-elastic instability.     

ORBITAL INSTABILITY OF STANDING WAVES FOR THE COUPLED NONLINEAR KLEIN-GORDON EQUATIONS

This paper deals with a type of standing waves for the coupled nonlinear Klein-Gordon equations in three space dimensions. First we construct a suitable constrained variational problem and obtain the existence of the standing waves with ground state by using variational argument. Then we prove the orbital instability of the standing waves by defining invariant sets and applying some priori estimates.     

Specific heat ratio effects of compressible Rayleigh–Taylor instability studied by discrete Boltzmann method

Rayleigh–Taylor (RT) instability widely exists in nature and engineering fields. How to better understand the physical mechanism of RT instability is of great theoretical significance and practical value. At present, abundant results of RT instability have been obtained by traditional macroscopic methods. However, research on the thermodynamic non-equilibrium (TNE) effects in the process of system evolution is relatively scarce. In this paper, the discrete Boltzmann method based on non-equilibrium statistical physics is utilized to study the effects of the specific heat ratio on compressible RT instability. The evolution process of the compressible RT system with different specific heat ratios can be analyzed by the temperature gradient and the proportion of the non-equilibrium region. Firstly, as a result of the competition between the macroscopic magnitude gradient and the non-equilibrium region, the average TNE intensity first increases and then reduces, and it increases with the specific heat ratio decreasing; the specific heat ratio has the same effect on the global strength of the viscous stress tensor. Secondly, the moment when the total temperature gradient in y direction deviates from the fixed value can be regarded as a physical criterion for judging the formation of the vortex structure. Thirdly, under the competition between the temperature gradients and the contact area of the two fluids, the average intensity of the non-equilibrium quantity related to the heat flux shows diversity, and the influence of the specific heat ratio is also quite remarkable.     

Modeling of cascaded high isolation bidirectional amplification in long-distance fiber-optic time and frequency synchronization system

We propose a physical model of estimating noise and asymmetry brought by high isolation Bi-directional erbiumdoped fiber amplifiers(Bi-EDFAs), no spontaneous lasing even with high gain, in longdistance fiber-optic time and frequency(T/F) synchronization system. It is found that the Rayleigh scattering noise can be suppressed due to the high isolation design, but the amplified spontaneous emission(ASE) noise generated by the high isolation Bi-EDFA and the bidirectional asymmetry of the transmission link caused by the high isolation Bi-EDFA will deteriorate the stability of the system.The calculated results show that under the influence of ASE noise, the frequency instability of a 1200 km system composed of 15 high isolation Bi-EDFAs is 1.773 × 10-13/1 s. And the instability caused by asymmetry is 2.6064 × 10-16/30000–35000 s if the total asymmetric length of the bidirectional link length is 30 m. The intensity noises originating from the laser and detector, the transfer delay fluctuations caused by the variation in ambient temperature and the jitter in laser output wavelength are also studied. The experiment composed of three high isolation Bi-EDFAs is done to confirm the theoretical analysis. In summary, the paper shows that the short-term instability of the T/F synchronization system composed of high isolation Bi-EDFAs is limited by the accumulation of ASE noise of amplifiers and the laser frequency drift, while the long-term instability is limited by the periodic variation in ambient temperature and the asymmetry of the amplifiers.The research results are useful for pointing out the direction to improve the stability of the fiber-optic T/F synchronization system.     

Study of Coulomb collisional effects on the propagation of electromagnetic waves in a turbulent plasma

The presence of Weibel instability in laser-irradiated fuel could be detrimental to the process of ablative implosion, which is necessary for achieving thermonuclear fusion reactions. In this paper, the effect of the Coulomb collisional within the turbulent plasma on the Weibel instability growth rate has been investigated for linear and circular polarization. The results indicate that the Weibel instability growth rate at circular polarization near the ignition centre of the fuel fusion (collisional plasma) is about 10⁵ times higher than the collisional Weibel instability growth rate at linear polarization. The Weibel instability growth rate is observed near the critical density of the fuel fusion (collisionless plasma) at linear polarization and enhancement near the foot of the heat in front of the fuel fusion. By increasing the steps of the density gradient plasma in the low-density corona, electromagnetic instability occurs at a higher stress flow. Therefore, the deposition condition of electron beam energy in circular polarization of turbulent plasma can be shifted to the fuel core for suitable ignition.     

周期调制结构平面薄膜电爆炸实验研究

在金属层表面引入微结构以实现对Z箍缩等离子体形成和发展过程中不稳定性的调控具有重要研究价值.在“强光一号”装置上(峰值电流~1.4 MA,上升时间~100 ns),开展了针对具有一维周期性凹槽调制结构的金属薄膜的电爆炸实验研究.实验负载采用外推型平面结构,基底为30μm厚铝膜,刻蚀周期为2 mm,刻蚀深度约为10μm.通过激光阴影成像、激光干涉成像和可见光自辐射成像等系统进行联合诊断.实验结果表明刻蚀结构对等离子体发展过程的不稳定性特征产生了明显调制作用,原本征波长也受到抑制,微结构周期对不稳定结构波长产生趋同效应;未刻蚀一侧边界层同样受刻蚀层结构的影响,在不稳定结构上表现出相似形貌,且内外侧不稳定性特征的耦合关联性增强;刻蚀凹槽处在爆炸过程中膨胀更为迅速,形成的表面等离子体结构与初始结构反相;在刻蚀结构的几何突变处会形成细长的等离子体喷流,在二分之一刻蚀波长处出现波谱特征峰.理论分析表明电流密度调制造成电热不稳定性分布改变是调控作用产生的重要原因.     

Mechanism of wave formation at the interface in explosive welding

Some of the main progress on the investigation of the mechanism of the wave formation in explosive welding at the Institute of Mechanics is summarized and others' previous works are reviewed. Our systematic experiments and analysis do not substantiate the theory of wave formation based on Karman vortex-street analogy or Helmholtz instability. On the contrary, they show that material strength insensitive to strain rate plays an important role. A simple hydro-plastic model is presented to explain the main features regarding the interfacial wave formation and to estimate the magnitude of wave length. The result is in broad agreement with experiment.