The effect of small-amplitude time-dependent changes to the surface morphology of a sphere

Typical approaches to manipulation of flow separation employ passive means or active techniques such as blowing and suction or plasma acceleration. Here it is demonstrated that the flow can be significantly altered by making small changes to the shape of the surface. A proof of concept experiment is performed using a very simple time-dependent perturbation to the surface of a sphere: a roughness element of 1% of the sphere diameter is moved azimuthally around a sphere surface upstream of the uncontrolled laminar separation point, with a rotational frequency as large as the vortex shedding frequency. A key finding is that the non-dimensional time to observe a large effect on the lateral force due to the perturbation produced in the sphere boundary layers as the roughness moves along the surface is ˆt =tU_(∞)/D ≈4. This slow development allows the moving element to produce a tripped boundary layer over an extended region. It is shown that a lateral force can be produced that is as large as the drag. In addition, simultaneous particle image velocimetry and force measurements reveal that a pair of counter-rotating helical vortices are produced in the wake, which have a significant effect on the forces and greatly increase the Reynolds stresses in the wake. The relatively large perturbation to the flow-field produced by the small surface disturbance permits the construction of a phase-averaged, three-dimensional (two-velocity component) wake structure from measurements in the streamwise/radial plane. The vortical structure arising due to the roughness element has implications for flow over a sphere with a nominally smooth surface or distributed roughness. In addition, it is shown that oscillating the roughness element, or shaping its trajectory, can produce a mean lateral force

Forces on a Sphere in the Presence of Static and Dynamic Roughness Elements

Though the effect of distributed roughness on flow over a sphere has been examined in detail, there have been few observations as to the effect of an isolated roughness element on the forces induced on a sphere that is in uniform flow. In this experimental study, we examine how the forces are altered due to both a stationary and dynamic three-dimensional roughness element in the Reynolds number range of 5 x 104 to 5 x 105. It is found that even a small change to the geometry of the sphere, by adding a cylindrical roughness element with a width and height of 1% the sphere diameter, dramatically alters the drag and lateral forces over a wide range of Reynolds numbers. Of particular interest is that the mean of the lateral force magnitude can be increased by a factor of about seven, compared with a stationary stud, by moving the isolated roughness at a constant angular velocity about the sphere. These results can be applied to tripping a laminar boundary layer, steering a bluff body, and increasing the mixing of two fluids, using a minimal amount of energy input. This research is a first step towards understanding the interaction between time dependent surface motion and the subsequent alteration of the location of the boundary layer separation line and wake development

Spinors in Weyl Geometry

We consider the wave equation for spinors in ${\cal D}$-dimensional Weyl geometry. By appropriately coupling the Weyl vector $\phi _{\mu}$ as well as the spin connection $\omega _{\mu a b }$ to the spinor field, conformal invariance can be maintained. The one loop effective action generated by the coupling of the spinor field to an external gravitational field is computed in two dimensions. It is found to be identical to the effective action for the case of a scalar field propagating in two dimensions.Comment: 13 pages, REVTEX, no figure

Wall-bounded turbulent flows at high Reynolds numbers: Recent advances and key issues

Wall-bounded turbulent flows at high Reynolds numbers have become an increasingly active area of research in recent years. Many challenges remain in theory, scaling, physical understanding, experimental techniques, and numerical simulations. In this paper we distill the salient advances of recent origin, particularly those that challenge textbook orthodoxy. Some of the outstanding questions, such as the extent of the logarithmic overlap layer, the universality or otherwise of the principal model parameters such as the von Kármán “constant,” the parametrization of roughness effects, and the scaling of mean flow and Reynolds stresses, are highlighted. Research avenues that may provide answers to these questions, notably the improvement of measuring techniques and the construction of new facilities, are identified. We also highlight aspects where differences of opinion persist, with the expectation that this discussion might mark the beginning of their resolution

Peculiarities of the Canonical Analysis of the First Order Form of the Einstein-Hilbert Action in Two Dimensions in Terms of the Metric Tensor or the Metric Density

The peculiarities of doing a canonical analysis of the first order formulation of the Einstein-Hilbert action in terms of either the metric tensor $g^{\alpha \beta}$ or the metric density $h^{\alpha \beta}= \sqrt{-g}g^{\alpha \beta}$ along with the affine connection are discussed. It is shown that the difference between using $g^{\alpha \beta}$ as opposed to $h^{\alpha \beta}$ appears only in two spacetime dimensions. Despite there being a different number of constraints in these two approaches, both formulations result in there being a local Poisson brackets algebra of constraints with field independent structure constants, closed off shell generators of gauge transformations and off shell invariance of the action. The formulation in terms of the metric tensor is analyzed in detail and compared with earlier results obtained using the metric density. The gauge transformations, obtained from the full set of first class constraints, are different from a diffeomorphism transformation in both cases.Comment: 13 page

Lamb Wave Tomography for Corrosion Mapping

As the world-wide civil aviation fleet continues to age, methods for accurately predicting the presence of structural flaws-such as hidden corrosion-that compromise airworthiness become increasingly necessary. Ultrasonic guided waves, Lamb waves, allow large sections of aircraft structures to be rapidly inspected. However, extracting quantitative information from Lamb wave data has always involved highly trained personnel with a detailed knowledge of mechanical-waveguide physics. Our work focuses on using a variety of different tomographic reconstruction techniques to graphically represent the Lamb wave data in images that can be easily interpreted by technicians. Because the velocity of Lamb waves depends on thickness, we can convert the travel times of the fundamental Lamb modes into a thickness map of the inspection region. In this paper we show results for the identification of single or multiple back-surface corrosion areas in typical aluminum aircraft skin structures

Nonlinear Dirac and diffusion equations in 1 + 1 dimensions from stochastic considerations

We generalize the method of obtaining the fundamental linear partial differential equations such as the diffusion and Schrodinger equation, Dirac and telegrapher's equation from a simple stochastic consideration to arrive at certain nonlinear form of these equations. The group classification through one parameter group of transformation for two of these equations is also carried out.Comment: 18 pages, Latex file, some equations corrected and group analysis in one more case adde

Exact One Loop Running Couplings in the Standard Model

Taking the dominant couplings in the standard model to be the quartic scalar coupling, the Yukawa coupling of the top quark, and the SU(3) gauge coupling, we consider their associated running couplings to one loop order. Despite the non-linear nature of the differential equations governing these functions, we show that they can be solved exactly. The nature of these solutions is discussed and their singularity structure is examined. It is shown that for a sufficiently small Higgs mass, the quartic scalar coupling decreases with increasing energy scale and becomes negative, indicative of vacuum instability. This behavior changes for a Higgs mass greater than 168 GeV, beyond which this couplant increases with increasing energy scales and becomes singular prior to the ultraviolet (UV) pole of the Yukawa coupling. Upper and lower bounds on the Higgs mass corresponding to new physics at the TeV scale are obtained and compare favourably with the numerical results of the one-loop and two-loop analyses with inclusion of electroweak couplings.Comment: 5 pages, LaTeX, additional references and further discussion in this version. Accepted for publication in Canadian Journal of Physic

Invariant measure in hot gauge theories

We investigate properties of the invariant measure for the $A_0$ gauge field in finite temperature gauge theories both on the lattice and in the continuum theory. We have found the cancellation of the naive measure in both cases. The result is quite general and holds at any finite temperature. We demonstrate, however, that there is no cancellation at any temperature for the invariant measure contribution understood as Z(N) symmetrical distribution of gauge field configurations. The spontaneous breakdown of Z(N) global symmetry is entirely due to the potential energy term of the gluonic interaction in the effective potential. The effects of this measure on the effective action, mechanism of confinement and $A_0$ condensation are discussed.Comment: Latex file, 65.5kB, no figure