An efficient compression scheme for modal flow analysis is proposed and validated on data sequences of compressible flow through a linear turbomachinery blade row. The key feature of the compression scheme is a minimal, user-defined distortion of the mutual distance of any snapshot pair in phase space. Through this imposed feature, the model reduction process preserves the temporal dynamics contained in the data sequence, while still decreasing the spatial complexity. The mathematical foundation of the scheme is the fast Johnson–Lindenstrauss transformation (FJLT) which uses randomized projections and a tree-based spectral transform to accomplish the embedding of a high-dimensional data sequence into a lower-dimensional latent space. The compression scheme is coupled to a proper orthogonal decomposition and dynamic mode decomposition analysis of flow through a linear blade row. The application to a complex flow-field sequence demonstrates the efficacy of the scheme, where compression rates of two orders of magnitude are achieved, while incurring very small relative errors in the dominant temporal dynamics. This FJLT technique should be attractive to a wide range of modal analyses of large-scale and multi-physics fluid motion.

We study the effect of acceleration and deceleration on the stability of channel flows. To do so, we derive an exact solution for laminar profiles of channel flows with an arbitrary, time-varying wall motion and pressure gradient. This solution then allows us to investigate the stability of any unsteady channel flow. In particular, we restrict our investigation to the non-normal growth of perturbations about time-varying base flows with exponentially decaying acceleration and deceleration, with comparisons to growth about a constant base flow (i.e. the time-invariant simple shear or parabolic profile). We apply this acceleration and deceleration through the velocity of the walls and through the flow rate. For accelerating base flows, perturbations never grow larger than perturbations about a constant base flow, while decelerating flows show massive amplification of perturbations – at a Reynolds number of $500$, properly timed perturbations about the decelerating base flow grow $ {O}(10^5)$ times larger than perturbations grow about a constant base flow. This amplification increases as we raise the rate of deceleration and the Reynolds number. We find that this amplification arises due to a transition from spanwise perturbations leading to the largest amplification to streamwise perturbations leading to the largest amplification that only occurs in the decelerating base flow. By evolving the optimal perturbations through the linearized equations of motion, we reveal that the decelerating base flow achieves this massive amplification through the Orr mechanism, or the down-gradient Reynolds stress mechanism, which accelerating and constant base flows cannot maintain.

Subcritical pipe flow transition has received a great deal of attention over the past decades, as it constitutes a quintessential bifurcation process between two metastable fluid states: the laminar and turbulent solutions. Coherent lower-branch structures, forming flow states that facilitate between these two attracting equilibria, have been proposed that together form an edge manifold in phase space separating relaminarizing from transitioning perturbations. Typically, direct numerical simulations or low-dimensional model equations have been used to study this edge manifold with bisection methods. In the article by Kaszás & Haller (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 979, 2024, A48), an effective nonlinear invariant-manifold technique has been applied to extract a low-dimensional, global representation of the phase-space dynamics directly from simulation data. It allows the computation of the intersection of the edge manifold with a low-dimensional surface that is strikingly accurate in predicting the long-term dynamics of perturbations about the lower-branch solution and thus provides an accessible parameterization of the edge manifold for subcritical pipe flow transition.

We consider the use of sparsity-promoting norms in obtaining localised forcing structures from resolvent analysis. By formulating the optimal forcing problem as a Riemannian optimisation, we are able to maximise cost functionals whilst maintaining a unit-energy forcing. Taking the cost functional to be the energy norm of the driven response results in a traditional resolvent analysis and is solvable by a singular value decomposition (SVD). By modifying this cost functional with the $L_1$-norm, we target spatially localised structures that provide an efficient amplification in the energy of the response. We showcase this optimisation procedure on two flows: plane Poiseuille flow at Reynolds number $Re=4000$, and turbulent flow past a NACA 0012 aerofoil at $Re=23\,000$. In both cases, the optimisation yields sparse forcing modes that maintain important features of the structures arising from an SVD in order to provide a gain in energy. These results showcase the benefits of utilising a sparsity-promoting resolvent formulation to uncover sparse forcings, specifically with a view to using them as actuation locations for flow control.

Bileaflet mechanical heart valves (BMHV) create unphysiological turbulent flow. Such turbulent flow involves multiple instability mechanisms interacting with one another in a confined geometry. For instance, an impinging leading-edge vortex (ILEV) instability creates disturbances at the leading edge of the valve leaflets, while potentially promoting turbulence downstream of the BMHV (Zolfaghari and Obrist, Phys. Rev. Fluids, vol. 4, 2019). In this article, we use adjoint-based methods to study the structural sensitivity of the ILEV instability in the BMHV, and to quantify the role of this instability in the maximum disturbance energy growth in the wake of the BMHV. We first present a direct numerical simulation to show the effect of the ILEV instability on the turbulent flow in the wake of the valve. Second, we perform a modal linear stability analysis on a two-dimensional subdomain attached to the leading edge of one leaflet. We investigate the sensitivity of the global modes associated with this flow using their adjoints, and then show a passive control scenario using a local feedback source. This results in a partial improvement in the flow oscillations downstream of the leaflets. We finally present a non-modal approach to identify the optimal initial conditions for achieving maximum energy growth at arbitrary locations. We show that, for sufficiently large times, the optimal initial condition for highest energy growth in the wake points at the leading edge, which includes the ILEV instability. Our study illustrates that an improved leading-edge shape can effectively reduce turbulence in the wake of the BMHV.

Pulsatile channel and pipe flows constitute a fundamental flow configuration with significant bearing on many applications in the engineering and medical sciences. Rotating machinery, hydraulic pumps or cardiovascular systems are dominated by time-periodic flows, and their stability characteristics play an important role in their efficient and proper operation. While previous work has mainly concentrated on the modal, harmonic response to an oscillatory or pulsatile base flow, this study employs a direct–adjoint optimisation technique to assess short-term instabilities, identify transient energy-amplification mechanisms and determine their prevalence within a wide parameter space. At low pulsation amplitudes, the transient dynamics is found to be similar to that resulting from the equivalent steady parabolic flow profile, and the oscillating flow component appears to have only a weak effect. After a critical pulsation amplitude is surpassed, linear transient growth is shown to increase exponentially with the pulsation amplitude and to occur mainly during the slow part of the pulsation cycle. In this latter regime, a detailed analysis of the energy transfer mechanisms demonstrates that the huge linear transient growth factors are the result of an optimal combination of Orr mechanism and intracyclic normal-mode growth during half a pulsation cycle. Two-dimensional sinuous perturbations are favoured in channel flow, while pipe flow is dominated by helical perturbations. An extensive parameter study is presented that tracks these flow features across variations in the pulsation amplitude, Reynolds and Womersley numbers, perturbation wavenumbers and imposed time horizon.

Jets in crossflow are a recurring flow configuration in many engineering applications and have been the subject of many computational and experimental investigations. While these studies have identified the jet-to-crossflow velocity ratio $R$ as a critical parameter for the global stability and mixing behaviour which ultimately leads to breakdown into turbulence, a far less studied, but equally determining, factor is the presence of chemical reactions. Understanding and quantifying the nature of intrinsic instabilities in reacting and non-reacting flows and their dependence on the governing flow parameters are paramount to devising optimal designs or effective control strategies. In this study, we concentrate on the effect of reactions on the flow behaviour and extract optimal forcing and response functions for a range of driving frequencies, juxtaposing the reactive and non-reactive configurations. Simulations are performed using a compressible framework with a free-stream Mach number of $0.2$, and a constant jet-to-crossflow ratio of three. The flow configuration is kept identical for the reactive and non-reactive cases in order to isolate the effect of combustion on the resulting optimal forcing and response solutions. The frequency response is extracted using an adjoint-based optimization formalism. The presence of reactions markedly impacts the dominant frequencies of the flow. The inert case shows forcing and response modes, whose support aligns with the shear layer – as would be expected from a globally unstable jet. However, the analogous forcing functions for the reactive case concentrate around the flame, in accordance with combustion instabilities.

Mixing of binary fluids by moving stirrers is a commonplace process in many industrial applications, where even modest improvements in mixing efficiency could translate into considerable power savings or enhanced product quality. We propose a gradient-based nonlinear optimisation scheme to minimise the mix-norm of a passive scalar. The velocities of two cylindrical stirrers, moving on concentric circular paths inside a circular container, represent the control variables, and an iterative direct–adjoint algorithm is employed to arrive at enhanced mixing results. The associated stirring protocol is characterised by a complex interplay of vortical structures, generated and promoted by the stirrers’ action. Full convergence of the optimisation process requires constraints that penalise the acceleration of the moving bodies. Under these conditions, considerable mixing enhancement can be accomplished, even though an optimum cannot be guaranteed due to the non-convex nature of the optimisation problem. Various challenges and extensions of our approach are discussed.

The conclusion of Zaffiro et al. (2019; Constraints on the Equations of State of stiff anisotropic minerals: rutile, and the implications for rutile elastic barometry. Mineralogical Magazine, 83, 339–347) that the Mie–Grüneisen–Debye (MGD) Equation of State (EoS) cannot fit the available data for rutile is shown to be incorrect, even though rutile exhibits significant anisotropic thermal pressure which invalidates the quasi-harmonic approximation used as the basis for the MGD EoS. The refined parameters for the MGD EoS of rutile are: KTR0= 205.05(25) GPa, $K_{TR0}^{\prime} $ = 7.2(5), θD = 399(20) K, γ0= 1.40(2) and q = 1.5(7). This EoS predicts volumes, bulk moduli and volume thermal expansion coefficients for rutile at metamorphic conditions that are statistically indistinguishable from those predicted by the ‘isothermal’ type of EoS reported previously.

A simplified model is introduced to study finite-amplitude thermo-acoustic oscillations in $N$-periodic annular combustion devices. Such oscillations yield undesirable effects and can be triggered by a positive feedback between heat-release and pressure fluctuations. The proposed model, comprising the governing equations linearized in the acoustic limit, and with each burner modelled as a one-dimensional system with acoustic damping and a compact heat source, is used to study the instability caused by cross-sector coupling. The coupling between the sectors is included by solving the one-dimensional acoustic jump conditions at the locations where the burners are coupled to the annular chambers of the combustion device. The analysis takes advantage of the block-circulant structure of the underlying stability equations to develop an efficient methodology to describe the onset of azimuthally synchronized motion. A modal analysis reveals the dominance of global instabilities (encompassing the large-scale dynamics of the entire system), while a non-modal analysis reveals a strong response to harmonic excitation at forcing frequencies far from the eigenfrequencies, when the overall system is linearly stable. In all presented cases, large-scale, azimuthally synchronized (coupled) motion is observed. The relevance of the non-modal response is further emphasized by demonstrating the subcritical nature of the system’s Hopf point via an asymptotic expansion of a nonlinear model representing the compact heat source within each burner.

This study analyses the interplay between classical acoustic modes and intrinsic thermoacoustic (ITA) modes in a simple thermoacoustic system. The analysis is performed using a frequency-domain low-order network model as well as a time-domain spatially discretised model. Anti-correlated modal sensitivities are found to arise due to a pairwise interplay between acoustic and ITA modes. The magnitude of the sensitivities increases as the interplay between the modes grows stronger. The results show a global behaviour of the modes linked to the presence of exceptional points in the spectrum. The time-domain analysis results in a delay-differential equation and allows the investigation of non-normal behaviour and its consequences. Pseudospectral analysis reveals that energy amplification is crucially linked to an interplay between acoustic and ITA modes. While higher non-orthogonality between two modes is correlated with peaks in modal sensitivity, transient energy growth does not necessarily involve the most sensitive modes. In particular, growth estimates based on the Kreiss constant demonstrate that transient amplification relies critically on the proximity of the non-normal modes to the imaginary axis. The time scale for transient amplification is identified as the flame time delay, which is further corroborated by determining the optimal initial conditions responsible for the bulk of the non-modal energy growth. The flame is identified as an active and dominant contributor to energy gain. The frequency of the optimal perturbation matches the acoustic time scale, once more confirming an interplay between acoustic and ITA structures. Flame-based amplification factors of two to five are found, which are significant when feeding into the acoustic dynamics and eventually triggering nonlinear limit-cycle behaviour.

We present a conditional space–time proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) formulation that is tailored to the eduction of the average, rare or intermittent events from an ensemble of realizations of a fluid process. By construction, the resulting spatio-temporal modes are coherent in space and over a predefined finite time horizon, and optimally capture the variance, or energy of the ensemble. For the example of intermittent acoustic radiation from a turbulent jet, we introduce a conditional expectation operator that focuses on the loudest events, as measured by a pressure probe in the far field and contained in the tail of the pressure signal’s probability distribution. Applied to high-fidelity simulation data, the method identifies a statistically significant ‘prototype’, or average acoustic burst event that is tracked over time. Most notably, the burst event can be traced back to its precursor, which opens up the possibility of prediction of an imminent burst. We furthermore investigate the mechanism underlying the prototypical burst event using linear stability theory and find that its structure and evolution are accurately predicted by optimal transient growth theory. The jet-noise problem demonstrates that the conditional space–time POD formulation applies even for systems with probability distributions that are not heavy-tailed, i.e. for systems in which events overlap and occur in rapid succession.

A linear numerical study is conducted to quantify the effect of swirl on the response behaviour of premixed lean flames to general harmonic excitation in the inlet, upstream of combustion. This study considers axisymmetric M-flames and is based on the linearised compressible Navier–Stokes equations augmented by a simple one-step irreversible chemical reaction. Optimal frequency response gains for both axisymmetric and non-axisymmetric perturbations are computed via a direct–adjoint methodology and singular value decompositions. The high-dimensional parameter space, containing perturbation and base-flow parameters, is explored by taking advantage of generic sensitivity information gained from the adjoint solutions. This information is then tailored to specific parametric sensitivities by first-order perturbation expansions of the singular triplets about the respective parameters. Valuable flow information, at a negligible computational cost, is gained by simple weighted scalar products between direct and adjoint solutions. We find that for non-swirling flows, a mode with azimuthal wavenumber $m=2$ is the most efficiently driven structure. The structural mechanism underlying the optimal gains is shown to be the Orr mechanism for $m=0$ and a blend of Orr and other mechanisms, such as lift-up, for other azimuthal wavenumbers. Further to this, velocity and pressure perturbations are shown to make up the optimal input and output showing that the thermoacoustic mechanism is crucial in large energy amplifications. For $m=0$ these velocity perturbations are mainly longitudinal, but for higher wavenumbers azimuthal velocity fluctuations become prominent, especially in the non-swirling case. Sensitivity analyses are carried out with respect to the Mach number, Reynolds number and swirl number, and the accuracy of parametric gradients of the frequency response curve is assessed. The sensitivity analysis reveals that increases in Reynolds and Mach numbers yield higher gains, through a decrease in temperature diffusion. A rise in mean-flow swirl is shown to diminish the gain, with increased damping for higher azimuthal wavenumbers. This leads to a reordering of the most effectively amplified mode, with the axisymmetric ($m=0$) mode becoming the dominant structure at moderate swirl numbers.

Designing effective control for complex three-dimensional flow fields proves to be non-trivial. Often, intuitive control strategies lead to suboptimal control. To navigate the control space, we use a linear parabolized stability analysis to guide the design of a control scheme for a trailing vortex flow field aft of a NACA0012 half-wing at an angle of attack $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6FC}=5^{\circ }$ and a chord-based Reynolds number $Re=1000$. The stability results show that the unstable mode with the smallest growth rate (fifth wake mode) provides a pathway to excite a vortex instability, whereas the principal unstable mode does not. Inspired by this finding, we perform direct numerical simulations that excite each mode with body forces matching the shape function from the stability analysis. Relative to the uncontrolled case, the controlled flows show increased attenuation of circulation and peak streamwise vorticity, with the fifth-mode-based control set-up outperforming the principal-mode-based set-up. From these results, we conclude that a rudimentary linear stability analysis can provide key insights into the underlying physics and help engineers design effective physics-based flow control strategies.

Trailing vortices are generated in aeronautical and maritime applications and produce a variety of adverse effects that remain difficult to control. A stability analysis can direct flow control designers towards pertinent frequencies, wavelengths and locations that may lead to the excitation of instabilities, resulting in the eventual breakup of the vortex. Most models for trailing vortices, however, are far-field models, making implementation of the findings from stability analyses challenging. As such, we perform a stability analysis in the formative region where the numerically computed base flow contains both a two-dimensional wake and a tip vortex generated from a NACA0012 at a $5^{\circ }$ angle of attack and a chord-based Reynolds number of $Re_{c}=1000$. The parallel temporal and spatial analyses show that at three chord lengths downstream of the trailing edge, seven unstable modes are present: three stemming from the temporal analysis and four arising in the spatial analysis. The three temporal instabilities are analogues to three unstable modes in the spatial analysis, with the wake instability dominating in both analyses. The helical mode localized to the vortex co-rotates with the base flow, which is converse with the counter-rotating $m=-1$ instabilities of a Batchelor vortex model, which may be a result of the formative nature of the base-flow vortex. The fourth spatial mode is localized to the tip vortex region. The continuous part of the spectrum contains oscillatory and wavepacket solutions prompting the utilization of a wavepacket analysis to analyse the flow field and group velocity. The structure and details of the full bi-global spectrum will help navigate the design space of effective control strategies to hasten decay of persistent wingtip vortices.

Rotating Rayleigh–Bénard convection is typified by a variety of regimes with very distinct flow morphologies that originate from several instability mechanisms. Here we present results from direct numerical simulations of three representative set-ups: first, a fluid with Prandtl number $Pr=6.4$, corresponding to water, in a cylinder with a diameter-to-height aspect ratio of $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}=2$; second, a fluid with $Pr=0.8$, corresponding to $\text{SF}_{6}$ or air, confined in a slender cylinder with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}=0.5$; and third, the main focus of this paper, a fluid with $Pr=0.025$, corresponding to a liquid metal, in a cylinder with $\unicode[STIX]{x1D6E4}=1.87$. The obtained flow fields are analysed using the sparsity-promoting variant of the dynamic mode decomposition (DMD). By means of this technique, we extract the coherent structures that govern the dynamics of the flow, as well as their associated frequencies. In addition, we follow the temporal evolution of single modes and present a criterion to identify their direction of travel, i.e. whether they are precessing prograde or retrograde. We show that for moderate $Pr$ a few dynamic modes suffice to accurately describe the flow. For large aspect ratios, these are wall-localised waves that travel retrograde along the periphery of the cylinder. Their DMD frequencies agree with the predictions of linear stability theory. With increasing Rayleigh number $Ra$, the interior gradually fills with columnar vortices, and eventually a regular pattern of convective Taylor columns prevails. For small aspect ratios and close enough to onset, the dominant flow structures are body modes that can precess either prograde or retrograde. For $Pr=0.8$, DMD additionally unveiled the existence of so far unobserved low-amplitude oscillatory modes. Furthermore, we elucidate the multi-modal character of oscillatory convection in low-$Pr$ fluids. Generally, more dynamic modes must be retained to accurately approximate the flow. Close to onset, the flow is purely oscillatory and the DMD reveals that these high-frequency modes are a superposition of oscillatory columns and cylinder-scale inertial waves. We find that there are coexisting prograde and retrograde modes, as well as quasi-axisymmetric torsional modes. For higher $Ra$, the flow also becomes unstable to wall modes. These low-frequency modes can both coexist with the oscillatory modes, and also couple to them. However, the typical flow feature of rotating convection at moderate $Pr$, the quasi-steady Taylor vortices, is entirely absent in low-$Pr$ flows.

The dynamics of small-amplitude perturbations, as well as the regime of fully developed nonlinear propagating waves, is investigated for pulsatile channel flows. The time-periodic base flows are known analytically and completely determined by the Reynolds number $Re$ (based on the mean flow rate), the Womersley number $Wo$ (a dimensionless expression of the frequency) and the flow-rate waveform. This paper considers pulsatile flows with a single oscillating component and hence only three non-dimensional control parameters are present. Linear stability characteristics are obtained both by Floquet analyses and by linearized direct numerical simulations. In particular, the long-term growth or decay rates and the intracyclic modulation amplitudes are systematically computed. At large frequencies (mainly $Wo\geqslant 14$), increasing the amplitude of the oscillating component is found to have a stabilizing effect, while it is destabilizing at lower frequencies; strongest destabilization is found for $Wo\simeq 7$. Whether stable or unstable, perturbations may undergo large-amplitude intracyclic modulations; these intracyclic modulation amplitudes reach huge values at low pulsation frequencies. For linearly unstable configurations, the resulting saturated fully developed finite-amplitude solutions are computed by direct numerical simulations of the complete Navier–Stokes equations. Essentially two types of nonlinear dynamics have been identified: ‘cruising’ regimes for which nonlinearities are sustained throughout the entire pulsation cycle and which may be interpreted as modulated Tollmien–Schlichting waves, and ‘ballistic’ regimes that are propelled into a nonlinear phase before subsiding again to small amplitudes within every pulsation cycle. Cruising regimes are found to prevail for weak base-flow pulsation amplitudes, while ballistic regimes are selected at larger pulsation amplitudes; at larger pulsation frequencies, however, the ballistic regime may be bypassed due to the stabilizing effect of the base-flow pulsating component. By investigating extended regions of a multi-dimensional parameter space and considering both two-dimensional and three-dimensional perturbations, the linear and nonlinear dynamics are systematically explored and characterized.

For moderate-to-high Reynolds numbers, aerofoils are known to produce substantial levels of acoustic radiation, known as tonal noise, which arises from a complex interplay between laminar boundary-layer instabilities, trailing-edge acoustic scattering and upstream receptivity of the boundary layers on both aerofoil surfaces. The resulting acoustic spectrum is commonly characterised by distinct equally spaced peaks encompassing the frequency range of convectively amplified instability waves in the pressure-surface boundary layer. In this work, we assess the receptivity and sensitivity of the flow by means of global stability theory and adjoint methods which are discussed in light of the spatial structure of the adjoint global modes, as well as the wavemaker region. It is found that for the frequency range corresponding to acoustic tones the direct global modes capture the growth of instability waves on the suction surface and the near wake together with acoustic radiation into the far field. Conversely, it is shown that the corresponding adjoint global modes, which capture the most receptive region in the flow to external perturbations, have compact spatial support in the pressure surface boundary layer, upstream of the separated flow region. Furthermore, we find that the relative spatial amplitude of the adjoint modes is higher for those modes whose real frequencies correspond to the acoustic peaks. Finally, analysis of the wavemaker region points at the pressure surface near 30 % of the chord as the preferred zone for the placement of actuators for flow control of tonal noise.

A novel data-driven modal decomposition of fluid flow is proposed, comprising key features of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and dynamic mode decomposition (DMD). The first mode is the normalized real or imaginary part of the DMD mode that minimizes the time-averaged residual. The $N$th mode is defined recursively in an analogous manner based on the residual of an expansion using the first $N-1$ modes. The resulting recursive DMD (RDMD) modes are orthogonal by construction, retain pure frequency content and aim at low residual. Recursive DMD is applied to transient cylinder wake data and is benchmarked against POD and optimized DMD (Chen et al., J. Nonlinear Sci., vol. 22, 2012, pp. 887–915) for the same snapshot sequence. Unlike POD modes, RDMD structures are shown to have purer frequency content while retaining a residual of comparable order to POD. In contrast to DMD, with exponentially growing or decaying oscillatory amplitudes, RDMD clearly identifies initial, maximum and final fluctuation levels. Intriguingly, RDMD outperforms both POD and DMD in the limit-cycle resolution from the same snapshots. Robustness of these observations is demonstrated for other parameters of the cylinder wake and for a more complex wake behind three rotating cylinders. Recursive DMD is proposed as an attractive alternative to POD and DMD for empirical Galerkin models, in particular for nonlinear transient dynamics.