P\'eclet-number dependence of optimal mixing strategies identified using multiscale norms

The optimization of the mixing of a passive scalar at finite P\'eclet number $Pe=Uh/\kappa$ (where $U,h$ are characteristic velocity and length scales and $\kappa$ is the scalar diffusivity) is relevant to many significant flow challenges across science and engineering. While much work has focused on identifying flow structures conducive to mixing for flows with various values of $Pe$, there has been relatively little attention paid to how the underlying structure of initial scalar distribution affects the mixing achieved. In this study we focus on two problems of interest investigating this issue. Our methods employ a nonlinear direct-adjoint looping (DAL) method to compute fluid velocity fields which optimize a multiscale norm (representing the `mixedness' of our scalar) at a finite target time. First, we investigate how the structure of optimal initial velocity perturbations and the subsequent mixing changes between initially rectilinear `stripes' of scalar and disc-like `drops'. We find that the ensuing stirring of the initial velocity perturbations varies considerably depending on the geometry of the initial scalar distribution. Secondly, we examine the case of lattices of multiple initial `drops' of scalar and investigate how the structure of optimal perturbations varies with appropriately scaled P\'eclet number defined in terms of the drop scale rather than the domain scale. We find that the characteristic structure of the optimal initial velocity perturbation we observe for a single drop is upheld as the number of drops and $Pe$ increase. However, the characteristic vortex structure {\color{red} and associated mixing exhibits some nonlocal variability,} suggesting that rescaling to a local $Pe$ {\color{red} will} not capture all the significant flow dynamics

Disruption of SSP/VWI states by a stable stratification

We identify ‘minimal seeds’ for turbulence, i.e. initial conditions of the smallest possible total perturbation energy density Ec that trigger turbulence from the laminar state, in stratified plane Couette flow, the flow between two horizontal plates of separation 2H, moving with relative velocity 2ΔU, across which a constant density difference 2Δρ from a reference density ρr is maintained. To find minimal seeds, we use the ‘direct-adjoint-looping’ (DAL) method for finding nonlinear optimal perturbations that optimise the time-averaged total dissipation of energy in the flow. These minimal seeds are located adjacent to the edge manifold, the manifold in state space that separates trajectories which transition to turbulence from those which eventually decay to the laminar state. The edge manifold is also the stable manifold of the system’s ‘edge state’. Therefore, the trajectories from the minimal seed initial conditions spend a large amount of time in the vicinity of some states: the edge state; another state contained within the edge manifold; or even in dynamically slowly varying regions of the edge manifold, allowing us to investigate the effects of a stable stratification on any coherent structures associated with such states. In unstratified plane Couette flow, these coherent structures are manifestations of the self-sustaining process (SSP) deduced on physical grounds by Waleffe (Phys. Fluids, vol. 9, 1997, pp. 883–900), or equivalently finite Reynolds number solutions of the vortex–wave interaction (VWI) asymptotic equations initially derived mathematically by Hall & Smith (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 227, 1991, pp. 641–666). The stratified coherent states we identify at moderate Reynolds number display an altered form from their unstratified counterparts for bulk Richardson numbers RiB = gΔρH/(ρrΔU2) = O(Re-1), and exhibit chaotic motion for larger RiB. We demonstrate that at hith Reynolds number the suppression of vertical motions by stratification strongly disrupts input from the waves to the roll velocity structures, thus preventing the waves from reinforcing the viscously decaying roll structures adequately, when RiB = O(Re-2)

The coupled dynamics of internal waves and hairpin vortices in stratified plane Poiseuille flow

A simulation of stably stratified plane Poiseuille flow at a moderate Reynolds number (Formula Presented) and Richardson number (Formula Presented) is presented. For the first time, the dynamics in the channel core are shown to be described as a series of internal waves that approximately obey a linear wave dispersion relationship. For a given streamwise wavenumber Formula Presented there are two internal wave solutions, a dominant low frequency mode and a weaker-amplitude high-frequency mode, respectively corresponding to ‘backward’ and ‘forward’ propagating internal waves relative to the mean flow. Analysis of linearised equations shows that the dominant low-frequency mode appears to arise due to a particularly sensitive response of the mean flow profiles to incoherent forcing. Instantaneous visualisations reveal that hairpin vortices dominate the outer region of the channel flow, neighbouring the buoyancy dominated channel core. These hairpins are fundamentally different from those observed in canonical unstratified boundary layer flows, as they arise via quasi-linear local processes far from the wall, governed by background shear. Outer region ejection events are common and can be induced by high amplitude waves. Ejected hairpins are transported into the channel core, in turn ‘ringing’ the prevailing strong buoyancy gradient and thus generating high-amplitude internal waves, high dissipation and wave breaking, induced by spanwise vortex stretching and baroclinic vorticity generation. Such spontaneous and sustained generation of quasi-linear internal waves by wall-bounded sheared turbulence may provide novel idealised solutions for, and insight into, large-scale turbulent mixing in a wide range of environmental and industrial flows

2012 program of study : coherent structures

The 2012 GFD Program theme was Coherent structures with Professors Jeffrey Weiss of the University of Colorado at Boulder and Edgar Knobloch of the University of California at Berkeley serving as principal lecturers. Together they introduced the audience in the cottage and on the porch to a fascinating mixture of models, mathematics and applications. Deep insights snaked through the whole summer, as the principal lecturers stayed on to participate in the traditional debates and contributed stoutly to the supervision of the fellows. The first ten chapters of this volume document these lectures, each prepared by pairs of the summer's GFD fellows. Following the principal lecture notes are the written reports of the fellows' own research projects. In 2012, the Sears Public Lecture was delivered by Professor Howard Bluestein, of the University of Oklahoma on the topic of "Probing tornadoes with mobile doppler radars". The topic was particularly suitable for the summer's theme: a tornado is a special examples of a vortex, perhaps the mother of all coherent structures in fluid dynamics. Howie "Cb" showed how modern and innovative measurement techniques can yield valuable information about the formation and evolution of tornadoes, as well as truly amazing images.Funding was provided by the Office of Naval Research under Grant No. N00014-09-10844 and the National Science Foundation under Contract No. OCE-0824636

Structured input-output analysis of stably stratified plane Couette flow

We employ a recently introduced structured input-output analysis (SIOA) approach to analyze streamwise and spanwise wavelengths of flow structures in stably stratified plane Couette flow. In the low-Reynolds number ($Re$) low-bulk Richardson number ($Ri_b$) spatially intermittent regime, we demonstrate that SIOA predicts high amplification associated with wavelengths corresponding to the characteristic oblique turbulent bands in this regime. SIOA also identifies quasi-horizontal flow structures resembling the turbulent-laminar layers commonly observed in the high-$Re$ high-$Ri_b$ intermittent regime. An SIOA across a range of $Ri_b$ and $Re$ values suggests that the classical Miles-Howard stability criterion ($Ri_b\leq 1/4$) is associated with a change in the most amplified flow structures when Prandtl number is close to one ($Pr\approx 1$). However, for $Pr\ll 1$, the most amplified flow structures are determined by the product $PrRi_b$. For $Pr\gg 1$, SIOA identifies another quasi-horizontal flow structure that we show is principally associated with density perturbations. We further demonstrate the dominance of this density-associated flow structure in the high $Pr$ limit by constructing analytical scaling arguments for the amplification in terms of $Re$ and $Pr$ under the assumptions of unstratified flow (with $Ri_b=0$) and streamwise invariance.Comment: 27 pages, 12 figure

Detrainment of plumes from vertically distributed sources

We present experimental results demonstrating that, for the turbulent plume from a buoyancy source that is vertically distributed over the full area of a wall, detrainment qualitatively changes the shape of the ambient buoyancy profile that develops in a sealed space. Theoretical models with one-way-entrainment predict stratifications that are qualitatively different from the stratifications measured in experiments. A peeling plume model, where density and vertical velocity vary linearly across the width of the plume, so that plume fluid “peels” off into the ambient at intermediate heights, more accurately captures the shape of the ambient buoyancy profiles measured in experiments than a conventional one-way-entrainment model does.This work was supported by an EPSRC industrial CASE award (Grant No. RG69418) with Laing O’Rourke

Growth and instability of a laminar plume in a strongly stratified environment

Experimental studies of laminar plumes descending under gravity into stably stratified environments have shown the existence of a critical injection velocity beyond which the plume exhibits a bifurcation to a coiling instability in three dimensions or a sinuous instability in a Hele-Shaw flow. In addition, flow visualization has shown that, prior to the onset of the instability, a stable base flow is established in which the plume penetrates to a depth significantly smaller than the neutral buoyancy depth. Moreover, the fresh water that is viscously entrained by the plume recirculates within a ‘conduit’ whose boundary with the background stratification appears sharp. Beyond the bifurcation, the buckling plume takes the form of a travelling wave of varying amplitude, confined within the conduit, which disappears at the penetration depth. To determine the mechanisms underlying these complex phenomena, which take place at a strikingly low Reynolds number but a high Schmidt number, we study here a two-dimensional arrangement, as it is perhaps the simplest system which possesses all the key experimental features. Through a combination of numerical and analytical approaches, a scaling law is found for the plume’s penetration depth within the base flow (i.e. the flow where the instability is either absent or artificially suppressed), and the horizontal cross-stream velocity and concentration profile outside the plume are determined from an asymptotic analysis of a simplified model. Direct numerical simulations show that, with increasing flow rate, a sinuous global mode is destabilized giving rise to the self-sustained oscillations as in the experiment. The sinuous instability is shown to be a consequence of the baroclinic generation of vorticity, due to the strong horizontal gradients at the edge of the conduit, a mechanism that is relevant even at very low Reynolds numbers. Despite the strength of this instability, the penetration depth is not significantly affected by it, instead being determined by the properties of the plume in the vicinity of the source. This scenario is confirmed by a local stability analysis. A finite region of local absolute instability is found near the source for sinuous modes prior to the onset of the global instability. Sufficiently far from the source the flow is locally stable. Near the onset of the global instability, varicose modes are also found to be locally, but only convectively, unstable

Regimes of stratified turbulence at low Prandtl number

Quantifying transport by strongly stratified turbulence in low Prandtl number ($Pr$) fluids is critically important for the development of better models for the structure and evolution of stellar interiors. Motivated by recent numerical simulations showing strongly anisotropic flows suggestive of scale-separated dynamics, we perform a multiscale asymptotic analysis of the governing equations. We find that, in all cases, the resulting slow-fast system naturally takes a quasilinear form. Our analysis also reveals the existence of several distinct dynamical regimes depending on the emergent buoyancy Reynolds and P\'eclet numbers, $Re_b = \alpha^2 Re$ and $Pe_b = Pr Re_b$, respectively, where $\alpha$ is the aspect ratio of the large-scale turbulent flow structures, and $Re$ is the outer scale Reynolds number. Scaling relationships relating the aspect ratio, the characteristic vertical velocity, and the strength of the stratification (measured by the Froude number $Fr$) naturally emerge from the analysis. When $Pe_b \ll \alpha$, the dynamics at all scales is dominated by buoyancy diffusion, and our results recover the scaling laws empirically obtained from direct numerical simulations by Cope et al. (2020). For $Pe_b \ge O(1)$, diffusion is negligible (or at least subdominant) at all scales and our results are consistent with those of Chini et al. (2022) for strongly stratified geophysical turbulence at $Pr = O(1)$.Finally, we have identified a new regime for $\alpha \ll Pe_b \ll 1$, in which slow, large scales are diffusive while fast, small scales are not. We conclude by presenting a map of parameter space that clearly indicates the transitions between isotropic turbulence, non-diffusive stratified turbulence, diffusive stratified turbulence and viscously-dominated flows.Comment: 25 pages, 1 figur

Wake Induced Long Range Repulsion of Aqueous Dunes.

Sand dunes rarely occur in isolation, but usually form vast dune fields. The large scale dynamics of these fields is hitherto poorly understood, not least due to the lack of longtime observations. Theoretical models usually abstract dunes in a field as self-propelled autonomous agents, exchanging mass, either remotely or as a consequence of collisions. In contrast to the spirit of these models, here we present experimental evidence that aqueous dunes interact over large distances without the necessity of exchanging mass. Interactions are mediated by turbulent structures forming in the wake of a dune, and lead to dune-dune repulsion, which can prevent collisions. We conjecture that a similar mechanism may be present in wind driven dunes, potentially explaining the observed robust stability of dune fields in different environments