scholarly journals The baroclinic secondary instability of the two-dimensional shear layer

2000 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 2489 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jean Reinaud ◽  
Laurent Joly ◽  
Patrick Chassaing
Keyword(s):  
Shear Layer ◽  
Secondary Instability ◽  
Two Dimensional

Three-dimensionalization of barotropic vortices on the f-plane

1994 ◽  
Vol 265 ◽  
pp. 25-64 ◽  
Author(s):  
W. D. Smyth ◽  
W. R. Peltier
Keyword(s):  
Time Dependence ◽  
Shear Layer ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Secondary Instability ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Longitudinal Modes ◽  
Dimensional Flow ◽  
Two Dimensional Flow ◽  
The Stability

We examine the stability characteristics of a two-dimensional flow which consists initially of an inflexionally unstable shear layer on an f-plane. Under the action of the primary instability, the vorticity in the shear-layer initially coalesces into two Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices which subsequently merge to form a single coherent vortex. At a sequence of times during this process, we test the stability of the two-dimensional flow to fully three-dimensional perturbations. A somewhat novel approach is developed which removes inconsistencies in the secondary stability analyses which might otherwise arise owing to the time-dependence of the two-dimensional flow.In the non-rotating case, and before the onset of pairing, we obtain a spectrum of unstable longitudinal modes which is similar to that obtained previously by Pierrehumbert & Widnall (1982) for the Stuart vortex, and by Klaassen & Peltier (1985, 1989, 1991) for more realistic flows. In addition, we demonstrate the existence of a new sequence of three-dimensional subharmonic (and therefore ‘helical’) instabilities. After pairing is complete, the secondary instability spectrum is essentially unaltered except for a doubling of length- and timescales that is consistent with the notion of spatial and temporal self-similarity. Once pairing begins, the spectrum quickly becomes dominated by the unstable modes of the emerging subharmonic Kelvin–Helmholtz vortex, and is therefore similar to that which is characteristic of the post-pairing regime. Also in the context of non-rotating flow, we demonstrate that the direct transfer of energy into the dissipative subrange via secondary instability is possible only if the background flow is stationary, since even slow time-dependence acts to decorrelate small-scale modes and thereby to impose a short-wave cutoff on the spectrum.The stability of the merged vortex state is assessed for various values of the planetary vorticity f. Slow rotation may either stabilize or destabilize the columnar vortices, depending upon the sign of f, while fast rotation of either sign tends to be stabilizing. When f has opposite sign to the relative vorticity of the two-dimensional basic state, the flow becomes unstable to new mode of instability that has not been previously identified. Modes whose energy is concentrated in the vortex cores are shown to be associated, even at non-zero f, with Pierrehumbert's (1986) elliptical instability. Through detailed consideration of the vortex interaction mechanisms which drive instability, we are able to provide physical explanations for many aspects of the three-dimensionalization process.

Two-dimensional secondary instabilities in a strongly stratified shear layer

1995 ◽  
Vol 296 ◽  
pp. 73-126 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chantal Staquet
Keyword(s):  
Reynolds Number ◽  
Equilibrium State ◽  
Numerical Simulations ◽  
Shear Layer ◽  
Stagnation Point ◽  
Numerical Study ◽  
Secondary Instability ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Helmholtz Instability ◽  
The Stability

In a stably stratified shear layer, thin vorticity layers (‘baroclinic layers’) are produced by buoyancy effects and strain in between the Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices. A two-dimensional numerical study is conducted, in order to investigate the stability of these layers. Besides the secondary Kelvin–Helmholtz instability, expected but never observed previously in two-dimensional numerical simulations, a new instability is also found.The influence of the Reynolds number (Re) upon the dynamics of the baroclinic layers is first studied. The layers reach an equilibrium state, whose features have been described theoretically by Corcos & Sherman (1976). An excellent agreement between those predictions and the results of the numerical simulations is obtained. The baroclinic layers are found to remain stable almost up to the time the equilibrium state is reached, though the local Richardson number can reach values as low as 0.05 at the stagnation point. On the basis of the work of Dritschel et al. (1991), we show that the stability of the layer at this location is controlled by the outer strain field induced by the large-scale Kelvin–Helmholtz vortices. Numerical values of the strain rate as small as 3% of the maximum vorticity of the layer are shown to stabilize the stagnation point region.When non-pairing flows are considered, we find that only for Re ≤ 2000 does a secondary instability eventually amplify in the layer. (Re is based upon half the initial vorticity thickness and half the velocity difference at the horizontally oriented boundaries.) This secondary instability is not of the Kelvin–Helmholtz type. It develops in the neighbourhood of convectively unstable regions of the primary Kelvin–Helmholtz vortex, apparently once a strong jet has formed there, and moves along the baroclinic layer while amplifying. It next perturbs the layer around the stagnation point and a secondary instability, now of the Kelvin–Helmholtz type, is found to develop there.We next examine the influence of a pairing upon the flow behaviour. We show that this event promotes the occurrence of a secondary Kelvin–Helmholtz instability, which occurs for Re ≥ 400. Moreover, at high Reynolds number (≥ 2000), secondary Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities develop successively in the baroclinic layer, at smaller and smaller scales, thereby transferring energy towards dissipative scales through a mechanism eventually leading to turbulence. Because the vorticity of such a two-dimensional stratified flow is no longer conserved following a fluid particle, an analogy with three-dimensional turbulence can be drawn.

Large-scale modes of turbulent channel flow: transport and structure

2001 ◽  
Vol 448 ◽  
pp. 53-80 ◽  
Author(s):  
Z. LIU ◽  
R. J. ADRIAN ◽  
T. J. HANRATTY
Keyword(s):  
Shear Stress ◽  
Kinetic Energy ◽  
Shear Layer ◽  
Turbulent Kinetic Energy ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Reynolds Shear Stress ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Upstream Region ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Normal Plane

Turbulent flow in a rectangular channel is investigated to determine the scale and pattern of the eddies that contribute most to the total turbulent kinetic energy and the Reynolds shear stress. Instantaneous, two-dimensional particle image velocimeter measurements in the streamwise-wall-normal plane at Reynolds numbers Reh = 5378 and 29 935 are used to form two-point spatial correlation functions, from which the proper orthogonal modes are determined. Large-scale motions – having length scales of the order of the channel width and represented by a small set of low-order eigenmodes – contain a large fraction of the kinetic energy of the streamwise velocity component and a small fraction of the kinetic energy of the wall-normal velocities. Surprisingly, the set of large-scale modes that contains half of the total turbulent kinetic energy in the channel, also contains two-thirds to three-quarters of the total Reynolds shear stress in the outer region. Thus, it is the large-scale motions, rather than the main turbulent motions, that dominate turbulent transport in all parts of the channel except the buffer layer. Samples of the large-scale structures associated with the dominant eigenfunctions are found by projecting individual realizations onto the dominant modes. In the streamwise wall-normal plane their patterns often consist of an inclined region of second quadrant vectors separated from an upstream region of fourth quadrant vectors by a stagnation point/shear layer. The inclined Q4/shear layer/Q2 region of the largest motions extends beyond the centreline of the channel and lies under a region of fluid that rotates about the spanwise direction. This pattern is very similar to the signature of a hairpin vortex. Reynolds number similarity of the large structures is demonstrated, approximately, by comparing the two-dimensional correlation coefficients and the eigenvalues of the different modes at the two Reynolds numbers.

scholarly journals Analysis on secondary instability of shear layer based on the concept of phase synchronization

2014 ◽  
Vol 4 (6) ◽  
pp. 062001
Author(s):  
Wubing Yang ◽  
Qing Shen ◽  
Qiang Wang ◽  
Xiangjiang Yuan
Keyword(s):  
Shear Layer ◽  
Phase Synchronization ◽  
Secondary Instability

Characterization and Aero-Optic Correction of a Forced Two-Dimensional Weakly Compressible Shear Layer

AIAA Journal ◽  
2008 ◽  
Vol 46 (11) ◽  
pp. 2787-2795 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Mark Rennie ◽  
Daniel A. Duffin ◽  
Eric J. Jumper
Keyword(s):  
Shear Layer ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Weakly Compressible

The anatomy of the mixing transition in homogeneous and stratified free shear layers

2000 ◽  
Vol 413 ◽  
pp. 1-47 ◽  
Author(s):  
C. P. CAULFIELD ◽  
W. R. PELTIER
Keyword(s):  
Shear Layer ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Streamwise Vortex ◽  
Shear Layers ◽  
Finite Amplitude ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Streamwise Vortices ◽  
Free Shear Layers ◽  
Nonlinear Amplification

We investigate the detailed nature of the ‘mixing transition’ through which turbulence may develop in both homogeneous and stratified free shear layers. Our focus is upon the fundamental role in transition, and in particular the associated ‘mixing’ (i.e. small-scale motions which lead to an irreversible increase in the total potential energy of the flow) that is played by streamwise vortex streaks, which develop once the primary and typically two-dimensional Kelvin–Helmholtz (KH) billow saturates at finite amplitude.Saturated KH billows are susceptible to a family of three-dimensional secondary instabilities. In homogeneous fluid, secondary stability analyses predict that the stream-wise vortex streaks originate through a ‘hyperbolic’ instability that is localized in the vorticity braids that develop between billow cores. In sufficiently strongly stratified fluid, the secondary instability mechanism is fundamentally different, and is associated with convective destabilization of the statically unstable sublayers that are created as the KH billows roll up.We test the validity of these theoretical predictions by performing a sequence of three-dimensional direct numerical simulations of shear layer evolution, with the flow Reynolds number (defined on the basis of shear layer half-depth and half the velocity difference) Re = 750, the Prandtl number of the fluid Pr = 1, and the minimum gradient Richardson number Ri(0) varying between 0 and 0.1. These simulations quantitatively verify the predictions of our stability analysis, both as to the spanwise wavelength and the spatial localization of the streamwise vortex streaks. We track the nonlinear amplification of these secondary coherent structures, and investigate the nature of the process which actually triggers mixing. Both in stratified and unstratified shear layers, the subsequent nonlinear amplification of the initially localized streamwise vortex streaks is driven by the vertical shear in the evolving mean flow. The two-dimensional flow associated with the primary KH billow plays an essentially catalytic role. Vortex stretching causes the streamwise vortices to extend beyond their initially localized regions, and leads eventually to a streamwise-aligned collision between the streamwise vortices that are initially associated with adjacent cores.It is through this collision of neighbouring streamwise vortex streaks that a final and violent finite-amplitude subcritical transition occurs in both stratified and unstratified shear layers, which drives the mixing process. In a stratified flow with appropriate initial characteristics, the irreversible small-scale mixing of the density which is triggered by this transition leads to the development of a third layer within the flow of relatively well-mixed fluid that is of an intermediate density, bounded by narrow regions of strong density gradient.

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