Latest papers in fluid mechanics

Author(s): Nahuel Andrés and Supratik Banerjee

Using a recent alternative form of the 4/3 exact relation for fully developed hydrodynamic turbulence, the incompressible energy cascade rate ε is computed. The numerical results show that ε is in clear agreement with the cascade rates computed from the classical 4/3 law.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 024603] Published Mon Feb 11, 2019

Author(s): Pawel Gniewek and Oskar Hallatschek

Fluid transport in porous materials is commonly studied in geological samples (soil, sediments, etc.) or idealized systems, but the fluid flow through compacted granular materials, consisting of substantially strained granules, remains relatively unexplored. As a step toward filling this gap, we stu...

[Phys. Rev. E 99, 023103] Published Fri Feb 08, 2019

Author(s): Jinyou Yang, Yuji Shimogonya, and Takuji Ishikawa

The interactions of bacteria with surfaces have important implications in numerous areas of research, such as bioenergy, biofilm, biofouling, and infection. Recently, several experimental studies have reported that the adhesion of bacteria can be reduced considerably by microscale wall features. To ...

[Phys. Rev. E 99, 023104] Published Fri Feb 08, 2019

Author(s): Thomas Dombrowski, Shannon K. Jones, Georgios Katsikis, Amneet Pal Singh Bhalla, Boyce E. Griffith, and Daphne Klotsa

An inertial swimmer comprised of two unequal spheres oscillating in antiphase generates a steady streaming, which propels the swimmer in opposite directions depending on the Reynolds number.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 021101(R)] Published Fri Feb 08, 2019

Author(s): Katherine E. Witt, S. Farzad Ahmadi, and Jonathan B. Boreyko

We observe silicone oils wicking across dendritic sheets of frost. The capillary action is found to be dependent upon both the surface orientation and the underlying surface wettability.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 024002] Published Fri Feb 08, 2019

Author(s): Sagar Zade, Walter Fornari, Fredrik Lundell, and Luca Brandt

Many large spherical particles that sediment and resuspend from the bottom of a duct under fully developed turbulent conditions are studied. Optical experiments and direct numerical simulations are compared and used to investigate turbulence modulation and organization of particles.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 024303] Published Fri Feb 08, 2019

Author(s): Jonathan Poggie and Kevin M. Porter

High-fidelity simulations show that the confining effect of sidewalls on a shock-wave/boundary-layer interaction can have a very strong influence on both the mean flow and large-scale unsteadiness, and accurately capturing the sidewall flows is essential in realistic modeling of confined flows.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 024602] Published Fri Feb 08, 2019

Author(s): Jingtao Ma, Lincheng Xu, Fang-Bao Tian, John Young, and Joseph C. S. Lai

The dynamic characteristics of a two-dimensional deformable capsule in a simple shear flow are studied with an immersed boundary-lattice Boltzmann method. Simulations are conducted by varying the Reynolds number (Re) from 0.0125 to 2000 and the dimensionless shear rate (G) from 0.001 to 0.5. The G-R...

[Phys. Rev. E 99, 023101] Published Thu Feb 07, 2019

Author(s): X. M. Zhai, K. R. Sreenivasan, and P. K. Yeung

Small-scale characteristics of turbulence such as velocity gradients and vorticity fluctuate rapidly in magnitude and oscillate in sign. Much work exists on the characterization of magnitude variations, but far less on sign oscillations. While in homogeneous turbulence averages performed on large sc...

[Phys. Rev. E 99, 023102] Published Thu Feb 07, 2019

Author(s): Brian Mastracci and Wei Guo

The utility of particle tracking velocimetry for characterizing the quantized vortex tangle in He II thermal counterflow is shown by demonstrating measurements of vortex line spacing, the parameter c2, and vortex reconnection.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 023301] Published Thu Feb 07, 2019

Author(s): Zhao Wu, Jin Lee, Charles Meneveau, and Tamer Zaki

We use the self-organizing map, an unsupervised machine learning method, to find the turbulent/nonturbulent interface in a transitional boundary layer with the help of Johns Hopkins Turbulence Databases. This method separates turbulent regions from vortical streaks and free-stream turbulence.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 023902] Published Thu Feb 07, 2019

Author(s): Patrick M. Seiler, Mark Gloerfeld, Ilia V. Roisman, and Cameron Tropea

The motion of wall-bounded drops moving on solid substrates driven by a fully turbulent channel flow is experimentally investigated. A scaling is found to describe the dimensionless drop velocity in terms of a dimensionless flow attack velocity, taking into account the surface wetting properties.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 024001] Published Thu Feb 07, 2019

Author(s): P. McGavin and D. I. Pontin

Reconnection of vortex tubes containing twisted vortex lines is studied by numerical simulation, showing that both the sense and strength of the twist affect the topological and geometrical properties of the resulting vortex structures, as well as the timing and rate of the reconnection process.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 024701] Published Thu Feb 07, 2019

Author(s): Francesco Romanò, Parvathy Kunchi Kannan, and Hendrik C. Kuhlmann

Finite-size Lagrangian coherent structures can arise in dilute suspensions solely because of the size of the particles. When moving near boundaries, a lubrication-induced drag transfers the particles from the chaotic sea of the unperturbed fluid flow to particular Kolmogorov-Arnold-Moser tori.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 024302] Published Wed Feb 06, 2019

Author(s): Christiane Lechner, Werner Lauterborn, Max Koch, and Robert Mettin

Numerical solutions of the compressible Navier-Stokes equation for a bubble collapsing close to a solid boundary find a very thin jet with velocities of 1000m/s.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 021601(R)] Published Tue Feb 05, 2019

Author(s): John M. Lawson, Eberhard Bodenschatz, Anna N. Knutsen, James R. Dawson, and Nicholas A. Worth

Using 3D averages of energy dissipation rather than a surrogate quantity, high-resolution volumetric measurements and numerical simulations show that velocity increments scale with the local dissipation rate as per Kolmogorov’s 1962 refined similarity hypothesis, supporting small-scale universality.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 022601(R)] Published Tue Feb 05, 2019

Author(s): Itzhak Fouxon and Yizhar Or

We study inertial spherical squirmers prescribing tangential surface deformations. Breaking axial symmetry induces rotation-translation coupling that overcomes the “scallop theorem”, giving net motion for time-reversible strokes. This swimming mechanism may be relevant for large Volvox colonies.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 023101] Published Tue Feb 05, 2019

Author(s): Shan-Shan Ding, Hui-Min Li, Wen-Dan Yan, and Jin-Qiang Zhong

Experiments in turbulent rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection find various statistical properties of the fluctuations of the temperature which can be fit with a model.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 023501] Published Mon Feb 04, 2019

Author(s): S. Bharathraj and V. Kumaran

A simulation study of a dense granular inclined plane flow reveals a sharp transition between a Bagnold flow and a layered flow at critical angle, which is a fraction of a degree above the cessation angle. The layered flow exhibits intriguing features, such as oscillations of the flow velocity.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 024301] Published Mon Feb 04, 2019

Author(s): Wei Ran, Armin Zare, M. J. Philipp Hack, and Mihailo R. Jovanović

Multimodal stability analysis and parabolization are combined to account for dominant mode interactions in pretransitional flow. A sequence of linear progressions of the resulting parabolized Floquet equations captures disturbance growth and provides excellent agreement with direct numerical simulation results.

[Phys. Rev. Fluids 4, 023901] Published Fri Feb 01, 2019