Spectra of turbulence in dilute polymer solutions

We investigate turbulence in dilute polymer solutions when polymers are strongly stretched by the flow. We establish power-law spectrum of velocity, which is not associated with a flux of a conserved quantity, in two cases. The first case is the elastic waves range of high Reynolds number turbulence of polymer solutions above the coil-stretch transition. The second case is the elastic turbulence, where chaotic flow is excited due to elastic instabilities at small Reynolds numbers.Comment: 14 pages, RevTe

Stochastic Structural Stability Theory applied to roll/streak formation in boundary layer shear flow

Stochastic Structural Stability Theory (SSST) provides an autonomous, deterministic, nonlinear dynamical system for evolving the statistical mean state of a turbulent system. In this work SSST is applied to the problem of understanding the formation of the roll/streak structures that arise from free-stream turbulence (FST) and are associated with bypass transition in boundary layers. Roll structures in the cross-stream/spanwise plane and associated streamwise streaks are shown to arise as a linear instability of interaction between the FST and the mean flow. In this interaction incoherent Reynolds stresses arising from FST are organized by perturbation streamwise streaks to coherently force perturbation rolls giving rise to an amplification of the streamwise streak perturbation and through this feedback to an instability of the combined roll/streak/turbulence complex. The dominant turbulent perturbation structures involved in supporting the roll/streak/turbulence complex instability are non-normal optimal perturbations with the form of oblique waves. The cooperative linear instability giving rise to the roll/streak structure arises at a bifurcation in the parameter of STM excitation parameter. This structural instability eventually equilibrates nonlinearly at finite amplitude and although the resulting statistical equilibrium streamwise streaks are inflectional the associated flows are stable. Formation and equilibration of the roll/streak structure by this mechanism can be traced to the non-normality which underlies interaction between perturbations and mean flows in modally stable systems.Comment: 16 pages, 24 figures, has been submitted for publication to Physics of Fluid

Manifestations of Drag Reduction by Polymer Additives in Decaying, Homogeneous, Isotropic Turbulence

The existence of drag reduction by polymer additives, well established for wall-bounded turbulent flows, is controversial in homogeneous, isotropic turbulence. To settle this controversy we carry out a high-resolution direct numerical simulation (DNS) of decaying, homogeneous, isotropic turbulence with polymer additives. Our study reveals clear manifestations of drag-reduction-type phenomena: On the addition of polymers to the turbulent fluid we obtain a reduction in the energy dissipation rate, a significant modification of the fluid energy spectrum especially in the deep-dissipation range, a suppression of small-scale intermittency, and a decrease in small-scale vorticity filaments.Comment: 4 pages, 3 figure

Birth then and now

Halfway through the 20th century, views on pain in labour encompassed almost everything from women's self-blame to blaming nurses, midwives, doctors or partners for 'bad experiences'. Soon after that, giving birth came to be seen – in some settings and by some caregivers – as a 'natural' and thus benign event which women could 'master'. In their recent systematic review of women's expectations and experiences of pain relief in labour, Joanne Lally, Madeleine Murtagh, Sheila Macphail, and Richard Thomson show that there is wide variation in women's expectations and knowledge about the first birth. This systematic review provides us with a strong basis for reflection and action

Single polymer dynamics: coil-stretch transition in a random flow

By quantitative studies of statistics of polymer stretching in a random flow and of a flow field we demonstrate that the stretching of polymer molecules in a 3D random flow occurs rather sharply via the coil-stretch transition at the value of the criterion close to theoretically predicted.Comment: 4 pages, 5 figure

Post-copulatory opportunities for sperm competition and cryptic female choice provide no offspring fitness benefits in externally fertilizing salmon

There is increasing evidence that females can somehow improve their offspring fitness by mating with multiple males, but we understand little about the exact stage(s) at which such benefits are gained. Here, we measure whether offspring fitness is influenced by mechanisms operating solely between sperm and egg. Using externally-fertilising and polyandrous Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), we employed split-clutch and split-ejaculate in vitro fertilisation experiments to generate offspring using designs that either denied or applied opportunities for sperm competition and cryptic female choice. Following fertilisations, we measured 140 days of offspring fitness after hatch, through growth and survival in hatchery and near-natural conditions. Despite an average composite mortality of 61%, offspring fitness at every life stage was near-identical between groups fertilised under the absence versus presence of opportunities for sperm competition and cryptic female choice. Of the 21,551 and 21,771 eggs from 24 females fertilised under monandrous versus polyandrous conditions, 68% versus 67.8% survived to the 100-day juvenile stage; sub-samples showed similar hatching success (73.1% versus 74.3%), had similar survival over 40 days in near-natural streams (57.3% versus 56.2%), and grew at similar rates throughout. We therefore found no evidence that gamete-specific interactions allow offspring fitness benefits when polyandrous fertilisation conditions provide opportunities for sperm competition and cryptic female choice

Toward a structural understanding of turbulent drag reduction: nonlinear coherent states in viscoelastic shear flows

Nontrivial steady flows have recently been found that capture the main structures of the turbulent buffer layer. We study the effects of polymer addition on these "exact coherent states" (ECS) in plane Couette flow. Despite the simplicity of the ECS flows, these effects closely mirror those observed experimentally: Structures shift to larger length scales, wall-normal fluctuations are suppressed while streamwise ones are enhanced, and drag is reduced. The mechanism underlying these effects is elucidated. These results suggest that the ECS are closely related to buffer layer turbulence.Comment: 5 pages, 3 figures, published version, Phys. Rev. Lett. 89, 208301 (2002

Evaluating Invariances in Document Layout Functions

With the development of variable-data-driven digital presses - where each document printed is potentially unique - there is a need for pre-press optimization to identify material that is invariant from document to document. In this way rasterisation can be confined solely to those areas which change between successive documents thereby alleviating a potential performance bottleneck. Given a template document specified in terms of layout functions, where actual data is bound at the last possible moment before printing, we look at deriving and exploiting the invariant properties of layout functions from their formal specifications. We propose future work on generic extraction of invariance from such properties for certain classes of layout functions