Shear-thinning fluids flowing through pipes are crucial in many practical applications, yet many unresolved problems remain regarding their turbulent transition. Using highly robust numerical tools for the Carreau–Yasuda model, we discovered that linear instability can arise when the power-law index falls below 0.35. This inelastic non-axisymmetric instability can universally arise in generalised Newtonian fluids that extend the power-law model. The viscosity ratio from infinite to zero shear rate can significantly impact instability, even if it is small. Two branches of finite-amplitude travelling-wave solutions bifurcate subcritically from the linear critical point. The solutions exhibit sublaminar drag reduction, a phenomenon not possible in the Newtonian case.

The recent discovery of polymer diffusive instability (PDI) by Beneitez et al. (2023 Phys. Rev. Fluids 8, L101901), poses challenges in implementing artificial conformation diffusion (ACD) in transition simulations of viscoelastic wall-shear flows. In this paper, we demonstrate that the unstable PDI is primarily induced by the conformation boundary conditions additionally introduced in the ACD equation system, which could be eliminated if a new set of conformation conditions is adopted. To address this issue, we begin with an asymptotic analysis of the PDI within the near-wall thin diffusive layer, which simplifies the complexity of the instability system by reducing the number of the controlling parameters from five to zero. Then, based on this simplified model, we construct a stable asymptotic solution that minimises the perturbations in the wall sublayer. From the near-wall behaviour of this solution, we derive a new set of conformation boundary conditions, prescribing a Neumann-type condition for its streamwise stretching component, $c_{11}$, and Dirichlet-type conditions for all the other conformation components. These boundary conditions are subsequently validated within the original ACD instability system, incorporating both the Oldroyd-B and the finitely extensible nonlinear elastic Peterlin constitutive models. Finally, we perform direct numerical simulations based on the traditional and the new conformation conditions, demonstrating the effectiveness of the latter in eliminating the unstable PDI. Importantly, this improvement does not affect the calculations of other types of instabilities. Therefore, this work offers a promising approach for achieving reliable polymer-flow simulations with ACD, ensuring both numerical stability and accuracy.

This study examines the reflection of a rightward-moving shock (RMS) over expansion waves, dividing the reflection structure into three components. The first component analyses the pre- and post-interaction parts of the expansion waves, categorising primary flow patterns into four types with defined transition criteria, visualised through Mach contours. The second component investigates the curved perturbed shock. Through numerical simulations, the influence of increasing shock strength on the flow structures is displayed. A triple point forms for an RMS of the first family, and the Mach stem height increases with the increase of shock strength. When the RMS is strong enough, a vortex forms in the near-wall region, which acts like a wedge to distort the near-foot part of the RMS. The third component, the near-foot region, is analysed using a one-dimensional Riemann problem approach. The calculated wave speeds are used to mark waves in Mach contours for eight cases. The position of the waves indicates that the left-going shock for an RMS of the first family or the right-going shock for an RMS of the second family corresponds to the foot of the RMS. This can explain the finding that the right-hand side of an RMS of the first family or the left-hand side of an RMS of the second family is disturbed. The regions to have different wave patterns solved from the one-dimensional Riemann problem are displayed in the original Mach number–shock speed Mach number plane.

In this study, we experimentally investigate the stress field around a gradually contaminated bubble as it moves straight ahead in a dilute surfactant solution with an intermediate Reynolds number ($20 \lt {{\textit{Re}}} \lt 220$) and high Péclet number. Additionally, we investigate the stress field around a falling sphere unaffected by surface contamination. A newly developed polarisation measurement technique, highly sensitive to the stress field in the vicinity of the bubble or the sphere, was employed in these experiments. We first validated this method by measuring the flow around a solid sphere sedimenting in a quiescent liquid at a terminal velocity. The measured stress field was compared with established numerical results for ${{\textit{Re}}} = 120$. A quantitative agreement with the numerical results validated this technique for our purpose. The results demonstrated the ability to determine the boundary layer. Subsequently we measured a bubble rising in a quiescent surfactant solution. The drag force on the bubble, calculated from its rise velocity, was set to transiently vary from that of a clean bubble to a solid sphere within the measurement area. With the intermediate drag force between clean bubble and solid sphere, the stress field in the vicinity of the bubble front was observed to be similar to that of a clean bubble, and the structure near the rear was similar to that of a solid sphere. Between the front and rear of the bubble, the phase retardation exhibited a discontinuity around the cap angle at which the boundary conditions transitioned from no slip to slip, indicating an abrupt change in the flow structure. A reconstruction of the axisymmetric stress field from the phase retardation and azimuth obtained from polarisation measurements experimentally revealed that stress spikes occur around the cap angle. The cap angle (stress jump position) shifted as the drag on the bubble increased owing to surfactant accumulation on its surface. Remarkably, the measured cap angle as a function of the normalised drag coefficient quantitatively agreed with the numerical results at intermediate ${{\textit{Re}}} = 100$ of Cuenot et al. (1997 J. Fluid Mech. 339, 25–53), exhibiting only a slight deviation from the curve predicted by the stagnant cap model at low ${\textit{Re}}$ (creeping flow) proposed by Sadhal & Johnson (1983 J. Fluid Mech. 126, 237–250).

This numerical investigation focuses on the mechanisms, flow topology and onset of Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities (KHIs), that drive the leading-edge shear-layer destabilisation in the wake of wall-mounted long prisms. Large-eddy simulations are performed at ${\textit{Re}} = 2.5\times 10^3, 5\times 10^3$ and $1\times 10^4$ for prisms with a range of aspect ratio (AR, height-to-width) between $0.25$ and $1.5$, and depth ratios (DR, length-to-width) of $1{-}4$. Results show that shear-layer instabilities enhance flow irregularity and modulate spanwise vortex structures. The onset of KHI is strongly influenced by depth ratio, such that long prisms (${\textit{DR}}= 4$) experience earlier initiation compared with shorter ones (${\textit{DR}}= 1$). At higher Reynolds numbers, the onset of KHI shifts upstream towards the leading-edge, intensifying turbulence kinetic energy and increasing flow irregularity, especially for long prisms. The results further show that in this configuration, energy transfer from the secondary recirculation region contributes to the destabilisation of the leading-edge shear layer by reinforcing low-frequency modes. A feedback mechanism is identified wherein energetic flow structures propagate upstream through reverse boundary-layer flow, re-energising the leading-edge shear layer. Quantification using probability density functions reveals rare, intense upstream energy convection events, driven by this feedback mechanism. These facilitate the destabilisation process regardless of Reynolds number. This study provides a comprehensive understanding of the destabilisation mechanisms for leading-edge shear layers in the wake of wall-mounted long prisms.

Elastic turbulence can lead to increased flow resistance, mixing and heat transfer. Its control – either suppression or promotion – has significant potential, and there is a concerted ongoing effort by the community to improve our understanding. Here we explore the dynamics of uncertainty in elastic turbulence, inspired by an approach recently applied to inertial turbulence in Ge et al. (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 977, 2023, A17). We derive equations for the evolution of uncertainty measures, yielding insight on uncertainty growth mechanisms. Through numerical experiments, we identify four regimes of uncertainty evolution, characterised by (i) rapid transfer to large scales, with large-scale growth rates of $\tau ^{6}$ (where $\tau$ represents time), (ii) a dissipative reduction of uncertainty, (iii) exponential growth at all scales and (iv) saturation. These regimes are governed by the interplay between advective and polymeric contributions (which tend to increase uncertainty), viscous, relaxation and dissipation effects (which reduce uncertainty) and inertial contributions. In elastic turbulence, reducing Reynolds number increases uncertainty at short times, but does not significantly influence the growth of uncertainty at later times. At late times, the growth of uncertainty increases with Weissenberg number, with decreasing polymeric diffusivity and with the logarithm of the maximum length scale, as large flow features adjust the balance of advective and relaxation effects. These findings provide insight into the dynamics of elastic turbulence, offering a new approach for the analysis of viscoelastic flow instabilities.

Thermal forcing in natural environments, such as Earth’s surface, exhibits complex spatiotemporal variations due to daily and seasonal cycles. This motivates our study of Rayleigh–Bénard convection with hybrid spatiotemporal modulation at the thermal boundary, achieved by applying a travelling thermal wave to a bottom plate with modulated wavenumber $k$ and frequency $f$. At low frequencies, spatial modulation dominates, organising coherent thermal plumes. At high frequencies, the rapid propagation of the thermal wave smooths out the plumes, thereby reducing convective efficiency. We find that the emergence of the ‘smoothing’ effect is governed by the ratio between the wave speed ($c = f/k$) and the pseudo-speed of thermal diffusion, $c_{\textit{diff}} = 4\pi k/\sqrt {\textit{RaPr}}$, a scale-dependent measure of thermal damping. By comparing these speeds, we identify distinct regimes: (i) a spatially modulated-dominated regime ($c\lt c_{\textit{diff}}$), in which the slow movement of the boundary thermal wave allows coherent thermal plumes to follow the wave, maintaining coherence in both time and space; and (ii) a travelling-wave-dominated regime ($c\gt c_{\textit{diff}}$), where the fast-moving thermal wave disrupts the spatial coherence of thermal structures near the boundary layer. These findings establish a new framework for understanding the interplay of spatial and temporal modulation, advancing our knowledge of heat transfer in systems with complex boundary conditions.

Undulatory slender objects have been a central theme in the hydrodynamics of swimming at low Reynolds number, where the slender body is usually assumed to be inextensible, although some microorganisms and artificial microrobots largely deform with compression and extension. Here, we theoretically study the coupling between the bending and compression/extension shape modes, using a geometrical formulation of kinematic microswimmer hydrodynamics to deal with the non-commutative effects between translation and rotation. By means of a coarse-grained minimal model and systematic perturbation expansions for small bending and compression/extension, we analytically derive the swimming velocities and report three main findings. First, we revisit the role of anisotropy in the drag ratio of the resistive force theory, and generally demonstrate that no motion is possible for uniform compression with isotropic drag. We then find that the bending–compression/extension coupling generates lateral and rotational motion, which enhances the swimmer’s manoeuvrability, as well as changes in progressive velocity at a higher order of expansion, while the coupling effects depend on the phase difference between the two modes. Finally, we demonstrate the importance of often-overlooked Lie bracket contributions in computing net locomotion from a deformation gait. Our study sheds light on compression as a forgotten degree of freedom in swimmer locomotion, with important implications for microswimmer hydrodynamics, including understanding of biological locomotion mechanisms and design of microrobots.

A model for galloping detonations is conceived as a sequence of very fast re-ignitions followed by long periods of evolution with quenched reactions. Numerical simulations of the one-dimensional Euler equations are conducted in this limit. While the mean speed and structure is found in reasonable agreement with Chapman–Jouguet theory, very strong pulsations of the lead shock appear, along with a train of rear-facing N-waves. These dynamics are analysed using characteristics. A closed-form solution for the lead shock dynamics is formulated, which is found in excellent agreement with numerics. The model relies on the presence of a single time scale of the process, the pulsation period, which controls the shock dynamics via the shock change equations and establishes a shock decay with a single time constant. These long periods of shock decay with known dynamics are punctuated by energy release events, with ‘kicks’ in the shocked speed controlled by the pressure increase and resulting lead shock amplification. Model predictions are found in excellent agreement with previous numerical results of pulsating detonations far from the stability limit.

We study the dynamics of salt fingers in the regime of slow salinity diffusion (small inverse Lewis number) and strong stratification (large density ratio), focusing on regimes relevant to Earth’s oceans. Using three-dimensional direct numerical simulations in periodic domains, we show that salt fingers exhibit rich, multiscale dynamics in this regime, with vertically elongated fingers that are twisted into helical shapes at large scales by mean flows and disrupted at small scales by isotropic eddies. We use a multiscale asymptotic analysis to motivate a reduced set of partial differential equations that filters internal gravity waves and removes inertia from all parts of the momentum equation except for the Reynolds stress that drives the helical mean flow. When simulated numerically, the reduced equations capture the same dynamics and fluxes as the full equations in the appropriate regime. The reduced equations enforce zero helicity in all fluctuations about the mean flow, implying that the symmetry-breaking helical flow is generated spontaneously by strictly non-helical fluctuations.

A Lagrangian description of bubble swarms has largely eluded both experimental and numerical efforts. Now, in a tour de force of deep-learning-enabled optical tracking measurements, Huang et al. (2025 J. Fluid. Mech. 1014, R1) have managed to follow the three-dimensional trajectories of $10^5$ deforming and overlapping bubbles within a swarm, perhaps for long enough to witness their approach to the diffusive limit. Their results reveal that bubble swarms exhibit a dispersion law strikingly reminiscent of classical Taylor dispersion in isotropic turbulence, but with an earlier, undulatory transition from the ballistic-to-diffusive regime. Huang et al. (2025 J. Fluid Mech. 1014, R1), have helped close the loop on our understanding of Lagrangian bubble dispersion – from self-stirring swarms to bubbles in isotropic turbulence.