Intense vortices have been observed within large-scale bushfires, and have been likened to “fire tornadoes”. This paper presents a simple mathematical model of such an event, and is based on a Boussinesq approximation relating temperature and density in the air. A linearized model is derived under the assumption that the temperature varies only slightly from ambient, and a solution to that model is presented in closed form. The nonlinear equations are solved in axisymmetric geometry, using a semi-numerical approach based on Fourier–Bessel series. The nonlinear and linearized results are in good agreement for small temperature excursions above ambient, but when larger deviations occur, nonlinear effects cause a type of flow reversion within the fire vortex. The cause of this effect is discussed in the paper.

We consider the problem of estimating fractional processes based on noisy high-frequency data. Generalizing the idea of pre-averaging to a fractional setting, we exhibit a sequence of consistent estimators for the unknown parameters of interest by proving a law of large numbers for associated variation functionals. In contrast to the semimartingale setting, the optimal window size for pre-averaging depends on the unknown roughness parameter of the underlying process. We evaluate the performance of our estimators in a simulation study and use them to empirically verify Kolmogorov’s $2/3$-law in turbulence data contaminated by instrument noise.

We present a novel multiscale mathematical model of espresso brewing. The model captures liquid infiltration and flow through a packed bed of ground coffee, as well as coffee solubles transport (both in the grains and in the liquid) and solubles dissolution. During infiltration, a sharp interface separates the dry and wet regions of the bed. A matched asymptotic analysis (based on fast dissolution rates) reveals that the bed can be described by four asymptotic regions: a dry region yet to be infiltrated by the liquid, a region in which the liquid is saturated with solubles and very little dissolution occurs, a slender region in which solubles are rapidly extracted from the smallest grains, and region in which slower extraction occurs from larger grains. The position and extent of each of these regions move with time (one being an intrinsic moving internal boundary layer) making the asymptotic analysis intriguing in its own right. The analysis yields a reduced model that elucidates the rate-limiting physical processes. Numerical solutions of the reduced model are compared to those to the full model, demonstrating that the reduced model is both accurate and significantly cheaper to solve.

A wake model is pursued for potential flow past a submerged, finite-length plate that is perpendicular to a uniform, horizontal stream bounded above by a free surface. The effects of gravity are included along the free surface. The approach is to adopt an open-wake model such that the wake boundaries become parallel to the undisturbed stream at some (unknown) point downstream. Boundary integral equations are formed and then discretised along the wake boundaries and free surface in order to obtain a solution numerically. In terms of the dependency of the solution on various parameters, the problem will be formulated in two ways. First, for a given Froude number and ratio of the length of the vertical plate to the draft (the depth of the bottom of the vertical plate relative to the undisturbed free surface), the effect of the wake underpressure coefficient on the size of the wake will be considered. Then, the problem will be discussed where we instead (more naturally) fix the Froude number, draft and length of the vertical, submerged plate. The dependencies of the solution on these parameters will be analysed regarding the effects on several factors, including the size of the wake, the relative lengths of the upper and lower wake boundaries, and the resulting wake underpressure coefficient.

In this paper, we derive the effective model describing a thin-domain flow with permeable boundary through which the fluid is injected into the domain. We start with incompressible Stokes system and perform the rigorous asymptotic analysis. Choosing the appropriate scaling for the injection leads to a compressible effective model. In this paper, we derive the effective model describing a thin-domain flow with permeable boundary through which the fluid is injected into the domain. We start with incompressible Stokes system and perform the rigorous asymptotic analysis. Choosing the appropriate scaling for the injection leads to a compressible effective model.

We consider heat or mass transport from a circular cylinder under a uniform crossflow at small Reynolds numbers, $\mathrm{Re}\ll 1$. This problem has been thwarted in the past by limitations inherent in the classical analyses of the singular flow problem, which have used asymptotic expansions in inverse powers of $\log \mathrm{Re}$. We here make use of the hybrid approximation of Kropinski, Ward & Keller [(1995) SIAM J. Appl. Math. 55, 1484], based upon a robust asymptotic expansion in powers of $\mathrm{Re}$. In that approximation, the “inner” streamfunction is provided by the product of a pre-factor $S$, a slowly varying function of $\mathrm{Re}$, with a $\mathrm{Re}$-independent “canonical” solution of a simple mathematical form. The pre-factor, in turn, is determined as an implicit function of $\log \mathrm{Re}$ via asymptotic matching with a numerical solution of the nonlinear single-scaled “outer” problem, where the cylinder appears as a point singularity. We exploit the hybrid approximation to analyse the transport problem in the limit of large Péclet number, $\mathrm{Pe}\gg 1$. In that limit, transport is restricted to a narrow boundary layer about the cylinder surface – a province contained within the inner region of the flow problem. With $S$ appearing as a parameter, a similarity solution is readily constructed for the boundary-layer problem. It provides the Nusselt number as $0.5799(S\,\mathrm{Pe})^{1/3}$. This asymptotic prediction is in remarkably close agreement with that of the numerical solution of the exact problem [Dennis, Hudson & Smith (1968) Phys. Fluids 11, 933] even for moderate $\mathrm{Re}$-values.

Mathematical models of polyelectrolyte gels are often simplified by assuming the gel is electrically neutral. The rationale behind this assumption is that the thickness of the electric double layer (EDL) at the free surface of the gel is small compared to the size of the gel. Hence, the thin-EDL limit is taken, in which the thickness of the EDL is set to zero. Despite the widespread use of the thin-EDL limit, the solutions in the EDL are rarely computed and shown to match to the solutions for the electrically neutral bulk. The aims of this paper are to study the structure of the EDL and establish the validity of the thin-EDL limit. The model for the gel accounts for phase separation, which gives rise to diffuse interfaces with a thickness described by the Kuhn length. We show that the solutions in the EDL can only be asymptotically matched to the solutions for an electrically neutral bulk, in general, when the Debye length is much smaller than the Kuhn length. If the Debye length is similar to or larger than the Kuhn length, then phase separation can be initiated in the EDL. This phase separation spreads into the bulk of the gel and gives rise to electrically charged layers with different degrees of swelling. Thus, the thin-EDL limit and the assumption of electroneutrality only generally apply when the Debye length is much smaller than the Kuhn length.

A viscous fluid is confined between two smooth horizontal walls, in a vertical channel. The upper wall may move with constant speed, but the lower wall is stationary and a portion of it is heated. A plume of heated fluid develops, and may also be swept downstream by the motion of the upper wall. When the heating effect is small and the upper plate does not move, a closed-form solution for the temperature profile is presented. A numerical spectral method is then presented, and allows highly accurate nonlinear solutions to be obtained, for the temperature and the fluid motion. These are compared against the closed-form solution in the linearized case, and the effects of nonlinearity on temperature and velocity are revealed. The results also show that periodic plume shedding from the heated region can occur in the nonlinear case.

The one-dimensional transient solidification of a binary alloy undergoing shrinkage is well-known as an invaluable benchmark for the testing of numerical codes that model macrosegregation. Here, recent work that considered the small-time behaviour of this problem is extended until complete solidification, thereby determining the solute profile across the entire solidified domain. The small-time solution is used as the initial condition for the numerical integration of a problem having three moving boundaries. Of particular significance is the so-called inverse segregation that is observed at the start of solidification, and the extreme segregation that is observed at the end; in the case of the example presented, which is for the often-cited Al–Cu system, the macrosegregation is found to be positive or negative, depending on whether Scheil’s equation or the lever rule is assumed at the microscale, respectively. The relevance of these results for the modelling of steady-state continuous casting processes – in particular, the phenomenon of centreline segregation – is also discussed.

Evaporation within porous media is both a multiscale and interface-driven process, since the phase change at the evaporating interfaces within the pores generates a vapour flow and depends on the transport of vapour through the porous medium. While homogenised models of flow and chemical transport in porous media allow multiscale processes to be modelled efficiently, it is not clear how the multiscale effects impact the interface conditions required for these homogenised models. In this paper, we derive a homogenised model, including effective interface conditions, for the motion of an evaporation front through a porous medium, using a combined homogenisation and boundary layer analysis. This analysis extends previous work for a purely diffusive problem to include both gas flow and the advective–diffusive transport of material. We investigate the effect that different microscale models describing the chemistry of the evaporation have on the homogenised interface conditions. In particular, we identify a new effective parameter, $\mathcal{L}$, the average microscale interface length, which modifies the effective evaporation rate in the homogenised model. Like the effective diffusivity and permeability of a porous medium, $\mathcal{L}$ may be found by solving a periodic cell problem on the microscale. We also show that the different microscale models of the interface chemistry result in fundamentally different fine-scale behaviour at, and near, the interface.

We present a mathematical model built to describe the fluid dynamics for the heat transfer fluid in a parabolic trough power plant. Such a power plant consists of a network of tubes for the heat transport fluid. In view of optimisation tasks in the planning and in the operational phase, it is crucial to find a compromise between a very detailed description of many possible physical phenomena and a necessary simplicity needed for a fast and robust computational approach. We present the model, a numerical approach, simulation for single tubes and also for realistic network settings. In addition, we optimise the power output with respect to the operational parameters.

We compute the Lie symmetries of characteristic function (CF) hierarchy of compressible turbulence, ignoring the effects of viscosity and heat conductivity. In the probability density function (PDF) hierarchy, a typical non-local nature is observed, which is naturally eliminated in the CF hierarchy. We observe that the CF hierarchy retains all the symmetries satisfied by compressible Euler equations. Broadly speaking, four types of symmetries can be discerned in the CF hierarchy: (i) symmetries corresponding to coordinate system invariance, (ii) scaling/dilation groups, (iii) projective groups and (iv) statistical symmetries, where the latter define measures of intermittency and non-gaussianity. As the multi-point CFs need to satisfy additional constraints such as the reduction condition, the projective symmetries are only valid for monatomic gases, that is, the specific heat ratio, $\gamma = 5/3$. The linearity of the CF hierarchy results in the statistical symmetries due to the superposition principle. For all of the symmetries, the global transformations of the CF and various key compressible statistics are also presented.

We consider a spherical particle levitating above a liquid bath owing to the Leidenfrost effect, where the vapour of either the bath or sphere forms an insulating film whose pressure supports the sphere’s weight. Starting from a reduced formulation based on a lubrication-type approximation, we use matched asymptotics to describe the morphology of the vapour film assuming that the sphere is small relative to the capillary length (small Bond number) and that the densities of the bath and sphere are comparable. We find that this regime is comprised of two formally infinite sequences of distinguished limits which meet at an accumulation point, the limits being defined by the smallness of an intrinsic evaporation number relative to the Bond number. These sequences of limits reveal a surprisingly intricate evolution of the film morphology with increasing sphere size. Initially, the vapour film transitions from a featureless morphology, where the thickness profile is parabolic, to a neck–bubble morphology, which consists of a uniform pressure bubble bounded by a narrow and much thinner annular neck. Gravity effects then become important in the bubble leading to sequential formation of increasingly smaller neck–bubble pairs near the symmetry axis. This process terminates when the pairs closest to the symmetry axis become indistinguishable and merge. Subsequently, the inner section of that merger transitions into a uniform-thickness film that expands radially, gradually squishing increasingly larger neck–bubble pairs into a region of localised oscillations sandwiched between the uniform film and what remains of the bubble whose radial extent is presently comparable to the uniform film; the neck–bubble pairs farther from the axis remain essentially intact. Ultimately, the uniform film gobbles up the largest outermost bubble, whereby the morphology simplifies to a uniform film bounded by localised oscillations. Overall, the asymptotic analysis describes the continuous evolution of the vapour film from a neck–bubble morphology typical of a Leidenfrost drop levitating above a flat solid substrate to a uniform-film morphology which resembles that in the case of a large liquid drop levitating above a liquid bath.

Taking the consideration of two-dimensional stochastic Navier–Stokes equations with multiplicative Lévy noises, where the noises intensities are related to the viscosity, a large deviation principle is established by using the weak convergence method skillfully, when the viscosity converges to 0. Due to the appearance of the jumps, it is difficult to close the energy estimates and obtain the desired convergence. Hence, one cannot simply use the weak convergence approach. To overcome the difficulty, one introduces special norms for new arguments and more careful analysis.

A spectral method is developed to study the steady and unsteady flow of fluid into a line sink from a horizontally confined aquifer, and the results are compared to solutions obtained implementing the finite element package COMSOLTM. The aquifer or drain is considered to be confined below so that the solutions are fundamentally unsteady. Comparison is made between the two methods in determining the drawdown of the surface.

A classical problem in free-surface hydrodynamics concerns flow in a channel, when an obstacle is placed on the bottom. Steady-state flows exist and may adopt one of three possible configurations, depending on the fluid speed and the obstacle height; perhaps the best known has an apparently uniform flow upstream of the obstacle, followed by a semiinfinite train of downstream gravity waves. When time-dependent behaviour is taken into account, it is found that conditions upstream of the obstacle are more complicated, however, and can include a train of upstream-advancing solitons. This paper gives a critical overview of these concepts, and also presents a new semianalytical spectral method for the numerical description of unsteady behaviour.

In the one-dimensional solidification of a binary alloy undergoing shrinkage, there is a relative motion between solid and liquid phases in the mushy zone, leading to the possibility of macrosegregation; thus, the problem constitutes an invaluable benchmark for the testing of numerical codes that model these phenomena. Here, we revisit an earlier obtained solution for this problem, that was posed on a semi-infinite spatial domain and valid for the case of low superheat, with a view to extending it to the more general situation of a finite spatial domain, arbitrarily large superheat and both eutectic and non-eutectic solidification. We find that a similarity solution is available for short times which contains a boundary layer on the liquid side of the mush–liquid interface; this solution is believed to constitute the correct initial condition for the subsequent numerical solution of the full non-similar problem, which is deferred to future work.

The numerical entropy production (NEP) for shallow water equations (SWE) is discussed and implemented as a smoothness indicator. We consider SWE in three different dimensions, namely, one-dimensional, one-and-a-half-dimensional, and two-dimensional SWE. An existing numerical entropy scheme is reviewed and an alternative scheme is provided. We prove the properties of these two numerical entropy schemes relating to the entropy steady state and consistency with the entropy equality on smooth regions. Simulation results show that both schemes produce NEP with the same behaviour for detecting discontinuities of solutions and perform similarly as smoothness indicators. An implementation of the NEP for an adaptive numerical method is also demonstrated.

Rayleigh–Taylor instability occurs when a heavier fluid overlies a lighter fluid, and the two seek to exchange positions under the effect of gravity. We present a linearized theory for arbitrary three-dimensional (3D) initial disturbances that grow in time, and calculate the evolution of the interface for early times. A new spectral method is introduced for the fully 3D nonlinear problem in a Boussinesq fluid, where the interface between the light and heavy fluids is approximated with a smooth but rapid density change in the fluid. The results of large-scale numerical calculation are presented in fully 3D geometry, and compared and contrasted with the early-time linearized theory.