Subcritical transition to turbulence in plane Couette flow

International audienceThe transition to turbulence in plane Couette flow was studied experimentally. The subcritical aspect of this transition is revealed by the stable coexistence of laminar and turbulent domains. By perturbing the flow, a critical Reynolds number has been determined, above which an artificially triggered turbulent spot can persist. The study of the spatiotemporal evolution of these spots shows, among other things, the existence of waves traveling away from the turbulent regions

Growth of a dry spot under a vapor bubble at high heat flux and high pressure

International audienceWe report a 2D modeling of the thermal diffusion-controlled growth of a vapor bubble attached to a heating surface during saturated boiling. The heat conduction problem is solved in a liquid that surrounds a bubble with a free boundary and in a semi-infinite solid heater by the boundary element method. At high system pressure the bubble is assumed to grow slowly, its shape being defined by the surface tension and the vapor recoil force, a force coming from the liquid evaporating into the bubble. It is shown that at some typical time the dry spot under the bubble begins to grow rapidly under the action of the vapor recoil. Such a bubble can eventually spread into a vapor film that can separate the liquid from the heater thus triggering the boiling crisis (critical heat flux)

Evolution of turbulent spots in a parallel shear flow

The evolution of turbulent spots in a parallel shear flow is studied by means of full three-dimensional numerical simulations. The flow is bounded by free surfaces and driven by a volume force. Three regions in the spanwise spot cross-section can be identified: a turbulent interior, an interface layer with prominent streamwise streaks and vortices and a laminar exterior region with a large scale flow induced by the presence of the spot. The lift-up of streamwise streaks which is caused by non-normal amplification is clearly detected in the region adjacent to the spot interface. The spot can be characterized by an exponentially decaying front that moves with a speed different from that of the cross-stream outflow or the spanwise phase velocity of the streamwise roll pattern. Growth of the spots seems to be intimately connected to the large scale outside flow, for a turbulent ribbon extending across the box in downstream direction does not show the large scale flow and does not grow. Quantitatively, the large scale flow induces a linear instability in the neighborhood of the spot, but the associated front velocity is too small to explain the spot spreading.Comment: 10 pages, 10 Postscript figure

Temporal Modulation of Traveling Waves in the Flow Between Rotating Cylinders With Broken Azimuthal Symmetry

The effect of temporal modulation on traveling waves in the flows in two distinct systems of rotating cylinders, both with broken azimuthal symmetry, has been investigated. It is shown that by modulating the control parameter at twice the critical frequency one can excite phase-locked standing waves and standing-wave-like states which are not allowed when the system is rotationally symmetric. We also show how previous theoretical results can be extended to handle patterns such as these, that are periodic in two spatial direction.Comment: 17 pages in LaTeX, 22 figures available as postscript files from http://www.esam.nwu.edu/riecke/lit/lit.htm

Parametric Forcing of Waves with Non-Monotonic Dispersion Relation: Domain Structures in Ferrofluids?

Surface waves on ferrofluids exposed to a dc-magnetic field exhibit a non-monotonic dispersion relation. The effect of a parametric driving on such waves is studied within suitable coupled Ginzburg-Landau equations. Due to the non-monotonicity the neutral curve for the excitation of standing waves can have up to three minima. The stability of the waves with respect to long-wave perturbations is determined $via$ a phase-diffusion equation. It shows that the band of stable wave numbers can split up into two or three sub-bands. The resulting competition between the wave numbers corresponding to the respective sub-bands leads quite naturally to patterns consisting of multiple domains of standing waves which differ in their wave number. The coarsening dynamics of such domain structures is addressed.Comment: 23 pages, 6 postscript figures, composed using RevTeX. Submitted to PR

On the driven Frenkel-Kontorova model: I. Uniform sliding states and dynamical domains of different particle densities

The dynamical behavior of a harmonic chain in a spatially periodic potential (Frenkel-Kontorova model, discrete sine-Gordon equation) under the influence of an external force and a velocity proportional damping is investigated. We do this at zero temperature for long chains in a regime where inertia and damping as well as the nearest-neighbor interaction and the potential are of the same order. There are two types of regular sliding states: Uniform sliding states, which are periodic solutions where all particles perform the same motion shifted in time, and nonuniform sliding states, which are quasi-periodic solutions where the system forms patterns of domains of different uniform sliding states. We discuss the properties of this kind of pattern formation and derive equations of motion for the slowly varying average particle density and velocity. To observe these dynamical domains we suggest experiments with a discrete ring of at least fifty Josephson junctions.Comment: Written in RevTeX, 9 figures in PostScrip

Air temperature variations and gradients along the coast and fjords of western Spitsbergen

Daily temperature measurements from six meteorological stations along the coast and fjords of western Spitsbergen have been digitized and quality controlled in a Norwegian, Russian and Polish collaboration. Complete daily data series have been reconstructed back to 1948 for all of the stations. One of the station’s monthly temperature series has previously been extended back to 1898 and is included in this study. The long-term series show large temperature variability on western Spitsbergen with colder periods in the 1910s and 1960s and warmer periods in the 1930s, 1950s and in the 21st century. The most recent years are the warmest ones in the instrumental records. There is a positive and statistically significant trend in the annual times series for all of the stations; however, the strongest warming is seen in winter and spring. For the period 1979-2015, the linear trends range from 1.0 to 1.38°C/decade for the annual series and from 2.0 to 2.38°C/decade in winter. Threshold statistics demonstrate a decrease in the number of cold days per year and an increase in the number of warm days. A decreasing inter-annual variability is observed. In winter, spring and autumn, the stations in the northernmost areas of west Spitsbergen and in the innermost parts of Isfjorden are the coldest ones. In summer, however, the southernmost station is the coldest one

Group 2i Isochrysidales produce characteristic alkenones reflecting sea ice distribution

AbstractAlkenones are biomarkers produced solely by algae in the order Isochrysidales that have been used to reconstruct sea surface temperature (SST) since the 1980s. However, alkenone-based SST reconstructions in the northern high latitude oceans show significant bias towards warmer temperatures in core-tops, diverge from other SST proxies in down core records, and are often accompanied by anomalously high relative abundance of the C37 tetra-unsaturated methyl alkenone (%C37:4). Elevated %C37:4 is widely interpreted as an indicator of low sea surface salinity from polar water masses, but its biological source has thus far remained elusive. Here we identify a lineage of Isochrysidales that is responsible for elevated C37:4 methyl alkenone in the northern high latitude oceans through next-generation sequencing and lab-culture experiments. This Isochrysidales lineage co-occurs widely with sea ice in marine environments and is distinct from other known marine alkenone-producers, namely Emiliania huxleyi and Gephyrocapsa oceanica. More importantly, the %C37:4 in seawater filtered particulate organic matter and surface sediments is significantly correlated with annual mean sea ice concentrations. In sediment cores from the Svalbard region, the %C37:4 concentration aligns with the Greenland temperature record and other qualitative regional sea ice records spanning the past 14 kyrs, reflecting sea ice concentrations quantitatively. Our findings imply that %C37:4 is a powerful proxy for reconstructing sea ice conditions in the high latitude oceans on thousand- and, potentially, on million-year timescales.</jats:p