Triggering is the process by which a linearly stable thermoacoustic system can reach self-sustained oscillations. This nonlinear phenomenon is activated only for sufficiently large amplitudes of ...perturbations to the equilibrium state. In this work, using a nonlinear variational optimisation method coupled with energy bisection, we compute the minimal thresholds for triggering in the Rijke tube. In particular, extending previous works, we take into account the effect of the time delay by optimising not only the perturbations at initial time, but also the velocity at the hot-wire position in the time-delay interval. We found that, for sufficiently large time delays, the nonlinearity linked to the delayed flow velocity bears a strong potential for energy growth, leading to transient amplifications of the energy reaching ${O}(10^{2})$, two orders of magnitude larger than those reported in previous studies. Notably, the gain increases with the time delay, but decreases with the initial energy of the perturbation, thus reaching very high values close to the triggering threshold of the system. The minimal energy for triggering self-sustained oscillations achieves energy values as low as ${O}(10^{-4})$, two orders of magnitude smaller than previous estimates. This indicates that, for thermoacoustic systems characterised by a non-negligible time delay, taking into account the effect of the time-delayed variables, as well as the system nonlinearity, is crucial for correctly evaluating the triggering energy thresholds.
Superhydrophobic surfaces dramatically reduce the skin friction of overlying liquid flows, providing a lubricating layer of gas bubbles trapped within their surface nano-sculptures. Under ...wetting-stable conditions, different models can be used to numerically simulate their effect on the overlying flow, ranging from spatially homogeneous slip conditions at the wall, to spatially heterogeneous slip–no-slip conditions taking into account or not the displacement of the gas–water interfaces. These models provide similar results in both laminar and turbulent regimes, but their effect on transitional flows has not been investigated yet. In this work we study, by means of numerical simulations and global stability analyses, the influence of the modelling of superhydrophobic surfaces on laminar–turbulent transition in a channel flow. For the K-type scenario, a strong transition delay is found using spatially homogeneous or heterogeneous slippery boundaries with flat, rigid liquid–gas interfaces. Whereas, when the interface dynamics is taken into account, the time to transition is reduced, approaching that of a no-slip channel flow. It is found that the interface deformation promotes ejection events creating hairpin heads that are prone to breakdown, reducing the transition delay effect with respect to flat slippery surfaces. Thus, in the case of modal transition, the interface dynamics must be taken into account for accurately estimating transition delay. Contrariwise, non-modal transition triggered by a broadband forcing is unaffected by the presence of these surfaces, no matter the surface modelling. Thus, superhydrophobic surfaces may or not influence transition to turbulence depending on the interface dynamics and on the considered transition process.
Superhydrophobic surfaces are capable of trapping gas pockets within the micro-roughnesses on their surfaces when submerged in a liquid, with the overall effect of lubricating the flow on top of ...them. These bio-inspired surfaces have proven to be capable of dramatically reducing skin friction of the overlying flow in both laminar and turbulent regimes. However, their effect in transitional conditions, in which the flow evolution strongly depends on the initial conditions, has still not been deeply investigated. In this work the influence of superhydrophobic surfaces on several scenarios of laminar–turbulent transition in channel flow is studied by means of direct numerical simulations. A single phase incompressible flow has been considered and the effect of the micro-structured superhydrophobic surfaces has been modelled imposing a slip condition with given slip length at both walls. The evolution from laminar, to transitional, to fully developed turbulent flow has been followed starting from several different initial conditions. When modal disturbances issued from linear stability analyses are used for perturbing the laminar flow, as in supercritical conditions or in the classical K-type transition scenario, superhydrophobic surfaces are able to delay or even avoid the onset of turbulence, leading to a considerable drag reduction. Whereas, when transition is triggered by non-modal mechanisms, as in the optimal or uncontrolled transition scenarios, which are currently observed in noisy environments, these surfaces are totally ineffective for controlling transition. Superhydrophobic surfaces can thus be considered effective for delaying transition only in low-noise environments, where transition is triggered mostly by modal mechanisms.
Recently, many authors have investigated the origin and growth of turbulent bands in shear flows, highlighting the role of streaks and their inflectional instability in the process of band generation ...and sustainment. Recalling that streaks are created by an optimal transient growth mechanism, and motivated by the observation of a strong increase of the disturbance kinetic energy corresponding to the creation of turbulent bands, we use linear and nonlinear energy optimisations in a tilted domain to unveil the main mechanisms allowing the creation of a turbulent band in a channel flow. Linear transient growth analysis shows an optimal growth for wavenumbers having an angle of approximately $35^\circ$, close to the peak values of the premultiplied energy spectra of direct numerical simulations. This linear optimal perturbation generates oblique streaks, which, for a sufficiently large initial energy, induce turbulence in the whole domain, due to the lack of spatial localisation. However, spatially localised perturbations obtained by adding nonlinear effects to the optimisation or by artificially confining the linear optimal to a localised region in the transverse direction are characterised by a large-scale flow and lead to the generation of a localised turbulent band. These results suggest that two main elements are needed for inducing turbulent bands in a tilted domain: (i) a linear energy growth mechanism, such as the lift-up, for generating large-amplitude flow structures, which produce inflection points; (ii) spatial localisation, linked to the presence or generation of large-scale vortices. We show that these elements alone generate isolated turbulent bands also in large non-tilted domains.
The dynamics of neutrinos in hot and dense magnetized matter, corresponding to a magneto-rotational explosion of supernovae, is considered. It is shown that the effective collisions of neutrinos in a ...magnetized nucleon gas, due to the Gamow–Teller component of the neutral current, change from exo- to endo-energetic scattering, when the neutrino energy becomes approximately four times higher than the temperature of the substance. Correspondingly, the energy transfer cross section in the neutrino kinetics changes from positive to negative values under these conditions. For realistic parameters of supernovae, the considered effects lead to an increase in the hardness of the neutrino spectra. The possibilities of detecting supernova neutrinos by large-volume observatories KM3NeT and Baikal-GVD are discussed.
The onset of unsteadiness in a boundary-layer flow past a cylindrical roughness element is investigated for three flow configurations at subcritical Reynolds numbers, both experimentally and ...numerically. On the one hand, a quasi-periodic shedding of hairpin vortices is observed for all configurations in the experiment. On the other hand, global stability analyses have revealed the existence of a varicose isolated mode, as well as of a sinuous one, both being linearly stable. Nonetheless, the isolated stable varicose modes are highly sensitive, as ascertained by pseudospectrum analysis. To investigate how these modes might influence the dynamics of the flow, an optimal forcing analysis is performed. The optimal response consists of a varicose perturbation closely related to the least stable varicose isolated eigenmode and induces dynamics similar to that observed experimentally. The quasi-resonance of such a global mode to external forcing might thus be responsible for the onset of unsteadiness at subcritical Reynolds numbers, hence providing a simple explanation for the experimental observations.
This work aims at studying the mechanisms behind the occurrence of extreme dissipation events in a channel flow, identifying nonlinear optimal perturbations as potential precursors of these events. ...Nonlinear optimal perturbations with respect to a generic turbulent instantaneous snapshot are computed for the first time using a direct-adjoint algorithm in the channel flow at \(Re_{\tau }\approx 180\). The resulting initial perturbation displays the upstream tilting characteristic of Orr's mechanism and is positioned along the interfaces between two opposite-sign velocity streaks of the pre-existing turbulent field. Such a perturbation induces a sudden breakdown of the pre-existing structures and a heavier tail in the dissipation probability density function distribution. Different mechanisms are at play during this process: the high shear present at the interface between coherent low- and high-momentum regions is exploited to break down the larger structures and drive energy to small scales. This energy cascade is fed by an enhanced lift-up effect that produces intense streaks near the wall. It is found that the optimal perturbation grows exponentially during the first phase of its evolution reflecting the existence of a secondary modal instability of the streaks. To corroborate the results, the conditional spatiotemporal proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) analysis of Hack & Schimdt (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 907, 2021, A9) is performed both in the perturbed and in the unperturbed flow, showing a clear agreement between the two cases and with the reference study. Thus, the optimal perturbation at initial time can be considered as a precursor of extreme events.
In this work, nonlinear variational optimization is used for obtaining minimal seeds for the formation of turbulent bands in channel flow. Using nonlinear optimization together with energy bisection, ...we have found that the minimal energy threshold for obtaining spatially patterned turbulence scales with $Re^{-8.5}$ for $Re>1000$. The minimal seed, which is different to that found in a much smaller domain, is characterized by a spot-like structure surrounded by a low-amplitude large-scale quadrupolar flow filling the whole domain. This minimal-energy perturbation of the laminar flow has dominant wavelengths close to $4$ in the streamwise direction and $1$ in the spanwise direction, and is characterized by a spatial localization increasing with the Reynolds number. At $Re \lesssim 1200$, the minimal seed evolves in time, creating an isolated oblique band, whereas for $Re\gtrsim 1200$, a quasi-spanwise-symmetric evolution is observed, giving rise to two distinct bands. A similar evolution is found also at low $Re$ for non-minimal optimal perturbations. This highlights two different mechanisms of formation of turbulent bands in channel flow, depending on the Reynolds number and initial energy of the perturbation. The selection of one of these two mechanisms appears to be dependent on the probability of decay of the newly created stripe, which increases with time, but decreases with the Reynolds number.
ABSTRACT
With the aim of improving our knowledge about their nature, we conduct a comparative study on a sample of long-rising Type II supernovae (SNe) resembling SN 1987A. To do so, we deduce ...various scaling relations from different analytic models of H-rich SNe, discussing their robustness and feasibility. Then, we use the best relations in terms of accuracy to infer the SN progenitor’s physical properties at the explosion for the selected sample of SN 1987A-like objects, deriving energies of ∼0.5–15 foe, radii of ∼0.2–100 × 1012 cm, and ejected masses of ∼15–55 M⊙. Although the sample may be too small to draw any final conclusion, these results suggest that (i) SN 1987A-like objects have parameters at explosion covering a wide range of values; (ii) the main parameter determining their distribution is the explosion energy; and (iii) a high-mass (≳ 30 M⊙) and high-energy (≳ 10 foe) tail of events, linked to extended progenitors with radii at explosion ∼1013–1014 cm, challenge standard theories of neutrino-driven core-collapse and stellar evolution. We also find a correlation between the amount of 56Ni in the ejecta of the SN 1987A-like objects and the spectrophotometric features of the SN at maximum, which may represent a tool for estimating the amount of 56Ni in the SN ejecta without having information on the tail luminosity.
This paper provides the analysis of bursting and transition to turbulence in a Couette flow, based on the growth of nonlinear optimal disturbances. We use a global variational procedure to identify ...such optimal disturbances, defined as those initial perturbations yielding the largest energy growth at a given target time, for given Reynolds number and initial energy. The nonlinear optimal disturbances are found to be characterized by a basic structure, composed of inclined streamwise vortices along localized regions of low and high momentum. This basic structure closely recalls that found in boundary-layer flow (Cherubini et al., J. Fluid Mech., vol. 689, 2011, pp. 221–253), indicating that this structure may be considered the most ‘energetic’ one at short target times. However, small differences in the shape of these optimal perturbations, due to different levels of the initial energy or target time assigned in the optimization process, may produce remarkable differences in their evolution towards turbulence. In particular, direct numerical simulations have shown that optimal disturbances obtained for large initial energies and target times induce bursting events, whereas for lower values of these parameters the flow is directly attracted towards the turbulent state. For this reason, the optimal disturbances have been classified into two classes, the highly dissipative and the short-path perturbations. Both classes lead the flow to turbulence, skipping the phases of streak formation and secondary instability which are typical of the classical transition scenario for shear flows. The dynamics of this transition scenario exploits three main features of the nonlinear optimal disturbances: (i) the large initial value of the streamwise velocity component; (ii) the streamwise dependence of the disturbance; (iii) the presence of initial inclined streamwise vortices. The short-path perturbations are found to spend a considerable amount of time in the vicinity of the edge state (Schneider et al., Phys. Rev. E, vol. 78, 2008, 037301), whereas the highly dissipative optimal disturbances pass closer to the edge, but they are rapidly repelled away from it, leading the flow to high values of the dissipation rate. After this dissipation peak, the trajectories do not lead towards the turbulent attractor, but they spend some time in the vicinity of an unstable periodic orbit (UPO). This behaviour led us to conjecture that bursting events can be obtained not only as homoclinic orbits approaching the UPO, as recently found by van Veen & Kawahara (Phys. Rev. Lett., vol. 107, 2011, p. 114501), but also as heteroclinic orbits between the equilibrium solution on the edge and the UPO.
PDF
