In this paper we investigate the relationship between the large- and small-scale energy-containing motions in wall turbulence. Recent studies in a high-Reynolds-number turbulent boundary layer (Hutchins & Marusic, Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. A, vol. 365, 2007a, pp. 647–664) have revealed a possible influence of the large-scale boundary-layer motions on the small-scale near-wall cycle, akin to a pure amplitude modulation. In the present study we build upon these observations, using the Hilbert transformation applied to the spectrally filtered small-scale component of fluctuating velocity signals, in order to quantify the interaction. In addition to the large-scale log-region structures superimposing a footprint (or mean shift) on the near-wall fluctuations (Townsend, The Structure of Turbulent Shear Flow, 2nd edn., 1976, Cambridge University Press; Metzger & Klewicki, Phys. Fluids, vol. 13, 2001, pp. 692–701.), we find strong supporting evidence that the small-scale structures are subject to a high degree of amplitude modulation seemingly originating from the much larger scales that inhabit the log region. An analysis of the Reynolds number dependence reveals that the amplitude modulation effect becomes progressively stronger as the Reynolds number increases. This is demonstrated through three orders of magnitude in Reynolds number, from laboratory experiments at Reτ ~ 103–104 to atmospheric surface layer measurements at Reτ ~ 106.

Meso-scale structures that take the form of clusters and streamers are commonly observed in dilute gas–particle flows, such as those encountered in risers. Continuum equations for gas–particle flows, coupled with constitutive equations for particle-phase stress deduced from kinetic theory of granular materials, can capture the formation of such meso-scale structures. These structures arise as a result of an inertial instability associated with the relative motion between the gas and particle phases, and an instability due to damping of the fluctuating motion of particles by the interstitial fluid and inelastic collisions between particles. It is demonstrated that the meso-scale structures are too small, and hence too expensive, to be resolved completely in simulation of gas–particle flows in large process vessels. At the same time, failure to resolve completely the meso-scale structures in a simulation leads to grossly inaccurate estimates of inter-phase drag, production/dissipation of pseudo-thermal energy associated with particle fluctuations, the effective particle-phase pressure and the effective viscosities. It is established that coarse-grid simulation of gas–particle flows must include sub-grid models, to account for the effects of the unresolved meso-scale structures. An approach to developing a plausible sub-grid model is proposed.

This paper surveys the current state of analytical attempts at a theory of turbulence. The formulation of the problem in terms of moments is discussed. The difficulty posed by the closure problem is examined in detail using the quasinormal approximation as an example. The notion of dynamical relaxation by non-linear scrambling leads to the introduction of eddy relaxation times and the direct-interaction approximation. The properties of the direct-interaction approximation are indicated. Finally, a comparison is made between numerical solution of the equations of turbulence their and direct numerical simulation of the Navier–Stokes equations.

We present a linear stability analysis of density-driven miscible flow in porous media in the context of carbon dioxide sequestration in saline aquifers. Carbon dioxide dissolution into the underlying brine leads to a local density increase that results in a gravitational instability. The physical phenomenon is analogous to the thermal convective instability in a semi-infinite domain, owing to a step change in temperature at the boundary. The critical time for the onset of convection in such problems has not been determined accurately by previous studies. We present a solution, based on the dominant mode of the self-similar diffusion operator, which can accurately predict the critical time and the associated unstable wavenumber. This approach is used to explain the instability mechanisms of the critical time and the long-wave cutoff in a semi-infinite domain. The dominant mode solution, however, is valid only for a small parameter range. We extend the analysis by employing the quasi-steady-state approximation (QSSA) which provides accurate solutions in the self-similar coordinate system. For large times, both the maximum growth rate and the most dangerous mode decay as $t^{1/4}$. The long-wave and the short-wave cutoff modes scale as $t^{1/5}$ and $t^{4/5}$, respectively. The instability problem is also analysed in the nonlinear regime by high-accuracy direct numerical simulations. The nonlinear simulations at short times show good agreement with the linear stability predictions. At later times, macroscopic fingers display intense nonlinear interactions that significantly influence both the front propagation speed and the overall mixing rate. A dimensional analysis for typical aquifers shows that for a permeability variation of 1—3000 mD, the critical time can vary from 2000 yrs to about 10 days while the critical wavelength can be between 200 m and 0.3 m.

The equations describing the motion of a gas carrying small dust particles are given and the equations satisfied by small disturbances of a steady laminar flow are derived. The effect of the dust is described by two parameters; the concentration of dust and a relaxation time τ which measures the rate at which the velocity of a dust particle adjusts to changes in the gas velocity and depends upon the size of the individual particles. It is shown that if the dust is fine enough for τ to be small compared with a characteristic time scale associated with the flow, then the addition of dust destabilizes a gas flow; whereas if the dust is coarse so that τ is relatively large, then the dust has a stabilizing action.

For plane parallel flow, it is shown that the stability characteristics for a dusty gas are still determined by solutions of the Orr-Sommerfeld equation, but with the basic velocity profile replaced by a modified profile which is in general complex. A simple, although unrealistic, example is used to illustrate some features of the action of dust. It is intended to describe the solution of the modified Orr-Sommerfeld equation for plane Poiseuille flow in a later paper.

The principal aim of this paper is to show that the variation of viscosity in a fluid can cause instability. Plane Couette-Poiseuille flow of two superposed layers of fluids of different viscosities between two horizontal plates is considered, and it is found that both plane Poiseuille flow and plane Couette flow can be unstable, however small the Reynolds number is. The unstable modes are in the neighbourhood of a hidden neutral mode for the case of a single fluid, which is entirely ignored in the usual theory of hydrodynamic stability, and are brought out by the viscosity stratification.

The entrainment assumption, relating the inflow velocity to the local mean velocity of a turbulent flow, has been used successfully to describe natural phenomena over a wide range of scales. Its first application was to plumes rising in stably stratified surroundings, and it has been extended to inclined plumes (gravity currents) and related problems by adding the effect of buoyancy forces, which inhibit mixing across a density interface. More recently, the influence of viscosity differences between a turbulent flow and its surroundings has been studied. This paper surveys the background theory and the laboratory experiments that have been used to understand and quantify each of these phenomena, and discusses their applications in the atmosphere, the ocean and various geological contexts.

Dynamic simulations of the pressure-driven flow in a channel of a non-Brownian suspension at zero Reynolds number were conducted using Stokesian Dynamics. The simulations are for a monolayer of identical particles as a function of the dimensionless channel width and the bulk particle concentration. Starting from a homogeneous dispersion, the particles gradually migrate towards the centre of the channel, resulting in an homogeneous concentration profile and a blunting of the particle velocity profile. The time for achieving steady state scales as (H/a)3a/〈u〉, where H is the channel width, a the radii of the particles, and 〈u〉 the average suspension velocity in the channel. The concentration and velocity profiles determined from the simulations are in qualitative agreement with experiment.

A model for suspension flow has been proposed in which macroscopic mass, momentum and energy balances are constructed and solved simultaneously. It is shown that the requirement that the suspension pressure be constant in directions perpendicular to the mean motion leads to particle migration and concentration variations in inhomogeneous flow. The concept of the suspension ‘temperature’ – a measure of the particle velocity fluctuations – is introduced in order to provide a nonlocal description of suspension behaviour. The results of this model for channel flow are in good agreement with the simulations.

This paper considers the nature of a non-linear, two-dimensional solution of the Navier-Stokes equations when the rate of amplification of the disturbance, at a given wave-number and Reynolds number, is sufficiently small. Two types of problem arise: (i) to follow the growth of an unstable, infinitesimal disturbance (supercritical problem), possibly to a state of stable equilibrium; (ii) for values of the wave-number and Reynolds number for which no unstable infinitesimal disturbance exists, to follow the decay of a finite disturbance from a possible state of unstable equilibrium down to zero amplitude (subcritical problem). In case (ii) the existence of a state of unstable equilibrium implies the existence of unstable disturbances. Numerical calculations, which are not yet completed, are required to determine which of the two possible behaviours arises in plane Poiseuille flow, in a given range of wave-number and Reynolds number.

It is suggested that the method of this paper (and of the generalization described by Part 2 by J. Watson) is valid for a wide range of Reynolds numbers and wave-numbers inside and outside the curve of neutral stability.

In the present study, it is shown that the spreading rate of a mixing layer can be greatly manipulated at very low forcing level if the mixing layer is perturbed near a subharmonic of the most-amplified frequency. The subharmonic forcing technique is able to make several vortices merge simultaneously and hence increases the spreading rate dramatically. A new mechanism, ‘collective interaction’, was found which can bypass the sequential stages of vortex merging and make a large number of vortices (ten or more) coalesce.

A deeper physical insight into the evolution of the coherent structures is revealed through the investigation of a forced mixing layer. The stability and the forcing function play important roles in determining the initial formation of the vortices. The subharmonic starts to amplify at the location where the phase speed of the subharmonic matches that of the fundamental. The position where vortices are seen to align vertically coincides with the position where the measured subharmonic reaches its peak. This location is defined as the merging location, and it can be determined from the feedback equation (Ho & Nosseir 1981).

The spreading rate and the velocity profiles of the forced mixing layer are distinctly different from the unforced case. The data show that the initial condition has a longlasting effect on the development of the mixing layer.

Internal gravity waves of small amplitude propagate in a Boussinesq inviscid, adiabatic liquid in which the mean horizontal velocity U(z) depends on height z only. If the Richardson number R is everywhere larger than 1/4, the waves are attenuated by a factor $\exp\{-2\pi(R - \frac{1}{4})^{\frac{1}{2}}\}$ as they pass through a critical level at which U is equal to the horizontal phase speed, and momentum is transferred to the mean flow there. This effect is considered in relation to lee waves in the airflow over a mountain, and in relation to transient localized disturbances. It is significant in considering the propagation of gravity waves from the troposphere to the ionosphere, and possibly in transferring horizontal momentum into the deep ocean without substantial mixing.

The absolute or convective character of inviscid instabilities in parallel shear flows can be determined by examining the branch-point singularities of the dispersion relation for complex frequencies and wavenumbers. According to a criterion developed in the study of plasma instabilities, a flow is convectively unstable when the branch-point singularities are in the lower half complex-frequency plane. These concepts are applied to a family of free shear layers with varying velocity ratio $R = \Delta U/2\overline{U}$, where ΔU is the velocity difference between the two streams and $\overline{U}$ their average velocity. It is demonstrated that spatially growing waves can only be observed if the mixing layer is convectively unstable, i.e. when the velocity ratio is smaller than Rt = 1.315. When the velocity ratio is larger than Rt, the instability develops temporally. Finally, the implications of these concepts are discussed also for wakes and hot jets.

Experimental investigations of shear layer instability have shown that some obviously essential features of the instability properties cannot be described by the inviscid linearized stability theory of temporally growing disturbances. Therefore an attempt is made to obtain better agreement with experimental results by means of the inviscid linearized stability theory of spatially growing disturbances. Thus using the hyperbolic-tangent velocity profile the eigenvalues and eigenfunctions were computed numerically for complex wave-numbers and real frequencies. The results so obtained showed the tendency expected from the experiments. The physical properties of the disturbed flow are discussed by means of the computed vorticity distribution and the computed streaklines. It is found that the disturbed shear layer rolls up in a complicated manner. Furthermore, the validity of the linearized theory is estimated. The result is that the error due to the linearization of the disturbance equation should be larger for the vorticity distribution than for the velocity distribution, and larger for higher disturbance frequencies than for lower ones. Finally, it can be concluded from the comparison between the results of experiments and of both the spatial and temporal theory by Freymuth that the theory of spatially-growing disturbances describes the instability properties of a disturbed shear layer more precisely, at least for small frequencies.

A simple dynamical argument suggests that the k−3 enstrophy-transfer range in two-dimensional turbulence should be corrected to the form \[ E(k) = C^{\prime} \beta^{\frac{21}{3}}k^{-3}[\ln (k/k_1)]^{-\frac{1}{3}}\quad (k \gg k_1), \] where E(k) is the usual energy-spectrum function, β is the rate of enstrophy transfer per unit mass, C′ is a dimensionless constant, and k1 marks the bottom of the range, where enstrophy is pumped in. Transfer in the energy and enstrophy inertial ranges is computed according to an almost-Markovian Galilean-in variant turbulence model. Transfer in the two-dimensional energy inertial range, \[ E(k) = C\epsilon^{\frac{2}{3}}k^{-\frac{5}{3}}, \] is found to be much less local than in three dimensions, with 60 % of the transfer coming from wave-number triads where the smallest wave-number is less than one-fifth the middle wave-number. The turbulence model yields the estimates C′ = 2·626, C = 6·69 (two dimensions), C = 1·40 (three dimensions).

We present a new mechanism for generation of near-wall streamwise vortices – which dominate turbulence phenomena in boundary layers – using linear perturbation analysis and direct numerical simulations of turbulent channel flow. The base flow, consisting of the mean velocity profile and low-speed streaks (free from any initial vortices), is shown to be linearly unstable to sinuous normal modes only for relatively strong streaks, i.e. for wall inclination angles of streak vortex lines exceeding 50°. Analysis of streaks extracted from fully developed near-wall turbulence indicates that about 20% of streak regions in the buffer layer exceed the strength threshold for instability. More importantly, these unstable streaks exhibit only moderate (twofold) normal-mode amplification, the growth being arrested by self-annihilation of streak-flank normal vorticity due to viscous cross-diffusion. We present here an alternative, streak transient growth (STG) mechanism, capable of producing much larger (tenfold) linear ampliflcation of x-dependent disturbances. Note the distinction of STG – responsible for perturbation growth on a streak velocity distribution U(y, z) – from prior transient growth analyses of the (streakless) mean velocity U(y). We reveal that streamwise vortices are generated from the more numerous normal-mode-stable streaks, via a new STG-based scenario: (i) transient growth of perturbations leading to formation of a sheet of streamwise vorticity ωx (by a ‘shearing’ mechanism of vorticity generation), (ii) growth of sinuous streak waviness and hence ∂u/∂x as STG reaches nonlinear amplitude, and (iii) the ωx sheet’s collapse via stretching by ∂u/∂x (rather than rollup) into streamwise vortices. Significantly, the three-dimensional features of the (instantaneous) streamwise vortices of x-alternating sign generated by STG agree well with the (ensemble-averaged) coherent structures educed from fully turbulent flow. The STG-induced formation of internal shear layers, along with quadrant Reynolds stresses and other turbulence measures, also agree well with fully developed turbulence. Results indicate the prominent – possibly dominant – role of this new, transient-growth-based vortex generation scenario, and suggest interesting possibilities for robust control of drag and heat transfer.

Some new developments of explicit algebraic Reynolds stress turbulence models (EARSM) are presented. The new developments include a new near-wall treatment ensuring realizability for the individual stress components, a formulation for compressible flows, and a suggestion for a possible approximation of diffusion terms in the anisotropy transport equation. Recent developments in this area are assessed and collected into a model for both incompressible and compressible three-dimensional wall-bounded turbulent flows. This model represents a solution of the implicit ARSM equations, where the production to dissipation ratio is obtained as a solution to a nonlinear algebraic relation. Three-dimensionality is fully accounted for in the mean flow description of the stress anisotropy. The resulting EARSM has been found to be well suited to integration to the wall and all individual Reynolds stresses can be well predicted by introducing wall damping functions derived from the van Driest damping function. The platform for the model consists of the transport equations for the kinetic energy and an auxiliary quantity. The proposed model can be used with any such platform, and examples are shown for two different choices of the auxiliary quantity.

It was only a matter of time before deep neural networks (DNNs) – deep learning – made their mark in turbulence modelling, or more broadly, in the general area of high-dimensional, complex dynamical systems. In the last decade, DNNs have become a dominant data mining tool for big data applications. Although neural networks have been applied previously to complex fluid flows, the article featured here (Ling et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 807, 2016, pp. 155–166) is the first to apply a true DNN architecture, specifically to Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes turbulence models. As one often expects with modern DNNs, performance gains are achieved over competing state-of-the-art methods, suggesting that DNNs may play a critically enabling role in the future of modelling complex flows.

The objective of this study is to explore concepts for active control of turbulent boundary layers leading to skin-friction reduction using the direct numerical simulation technique. Significant drag reduction is achieved when the surface boundary condition is modified to suppress the dynamically significant coherent structures present in the wall region. The drag reduction is accompanied by significant reduction in the intensity of the wall-layer structures and reductions in the magnitude of Reynolds shear stress throughout the flow. The apparent outward shift of turbulence statistics in the controlled flows indicates a displaced virtual origin of the boundary layer and a thickened sublayer. Time sequences of the flow fields show that there are essentially two drag-reduction mechanisms. Firstly, within a short time after the control is applied, drag is reduced mainly by deterring the sweep motion without modifying the primary streamwise vortices above the wall. Consequently, the high-shear-rate regions on the wall are moved to the interior of the channel by the control schemes. Secondly, the active control changes the evolution of the wall vorticity layer by stabilizing and preventing lifting of the spanwise vorticity near the wall, which may suppress a source of new streamwise vortices above the wall.

The Budgets For The Reynolds Stresses And For The Dissipation Rate Of The Turbulence Kinetic Energy Are Computed Using Direct Simulation Data Of A Turbulent Channel Flow. The Budget Data Reveal That All The Terms In The Budget Become Important Close To The Wall. For Inhomogeneous Pressure Boundary Conditions, The Pressure—Strain Term Is Split Into A Return Term, A Rapid Term And A Stokes Term. The Stokes Term Is Important Close To The Wall. The Rapid And Return Terms Play Different Roles Depending On The Component Of The Term. A Split Of The Velocity Pressure-Gradient Term Into A Redistributive Term And A Diffusion Term Is Proposed, Which Should Be Simpler To Model. The Budget Data Are Used To Test Existing Closure Models For The Pressure—Strain Term, The Dissipation Rate, And The Transport Rate. In General, Further Work Is Needed To Improve the models.

The properties of turbulence subgrid-scale stresses are studied using experimental data in the far field of a round jet, at a Reynolds number of Rλ ≈ 310. Measurements are performed using two-dimensional particle displacement velocimetry. Three elements of the subgrid-scale stress tensor are calculated using planar filtering of the data. Using a priori testing, eddy-viscosity closures are shown to display very little correlation with the real stresses, in accord with earlier findings based on direct numerical simulations at lower Reynolds numbers. Detailed analysis of subgrid energy fluxes and of the velocity field decomposed into logarithmic bands leads to a new similarity subgrid-scale model. It is based on the ‘resolved stress’ tensor Lij, which is obtained by filtering products of resolved velocities at a scale equal to twice the grid scale. The correlation coefficient of this model with the real stress is shown to be substantially higher than that of the eddy-viscosity closures. It is shown that mixed models display similar levels of correlation. During the a priori test, care is taken to only employ resolved data in a fashion that is consistent with the information that would be available during large-eddy simulation. The influence of the filter shape on the correlation is documented in detail, and the model is compared to the original similarity model of Bardina et al. (1980). A relationship between Lij and a nonlinear subgrid-scale model is established. In order to control the amount of kinetic energy backscatter, which could potentially lead to numerical instability, an ad hoc weighting function that depends on the alignment between Lij and the strain-rate tensor, is introduced. A ‘dynamic’ version of the model is shown, based on the data, to allow a self-consistent determination of the coefficient. In addition, all tensor elements of the model are shown to display the correct scaling with normal distance near a solid boundary.