The mechanism of vortex connection at a free surface

1999 ◽  
Vol 384 ◽  
pp. 207-241 ◽  
Author(s):  
CHIONG ZHANG ◽  
LIAN SHEN ◽  
DICK K. P. YUE

Vortex connections at the surface are fundamental and prominent features in free-surface vortical flows. To understand the detailed mechanism of such connection, we consider, as a canonical problem, the laminar vortex connections at a free surface when an oblique vortex ring impinges upon that surface. We perform numerical simulations of the Navier–Stokes equations with viscous free-surface boundary conditions. It is found that the key to understanding the mechanism of vortex connection at a free surface is the surface layers: a viscous layer resulting from the dynamic zero-stress boundary conditions at the free surface, and a thicker blockage layer which is due to the kinematic boundary condition at the surface. In the blockage layer, the vertical vorticity component increases due to vortex stretching and vortex turning (from the transverse vorticity component). The vertical vorticity is then transported to the free surface through viscous diffusion and vortex stretching in the viscous layer leading to increased surface-normal vorticity. These mechanisms take place at the aft-shoulder regions of the vortex ring. Connection at the free surface is different from that at a free-slip wall owing to the generation of surface secondary vorticity. We study the components of this surface vorticity in detail and find that the presence of a free surface accelerates the connection process. We investigate the connection time scale and its dependence on initial incidence angle, Froude and Reynolds numbers. It is found that a criterion based on the streamline topology provides a precise definition for connection time, and may be preferred over existing definitions, e.g. those based on free-surface elevation or net circulation.

Author(s):  
Gerasimos A. Kolokythas ◽  
Athanassios A. Dimas

In the present study, numerical simulations of the free-surface flow, developing by the propagation of nonlinear water waves over a rippled bottom, are performed assuming that the corresponding flow is two-dimensional, incompressible and viscous. The simulations are based on the numerical solution of the Navier-Stokes equations subject to the fully-nonlinear free-surface boundary conditions and the suitable bottom, inflow and outflow boundary conditions. The equations are properly transformed so that the computational domain becomes time-independent. For the spatial discretization, a hybrid scheme with finite-differences and Chebyshev polynomials is applied, while a fractional time-step scheme is used for the temporal discretization. A wave absorption zone is placed at the outflow region in order to efficiently minimize reflection of waves by the outflow boundary. The numerical model is validated by comparison to the analytical solution for the laminar, oscillatory, current flow which develops a uniform boundary layer over a horizontal bottom. For the propagation of finite-amplitude waves over a rigid rippled bed, the case with wavelength to water depth ratio λ/d0 = 6 and wave height to wavelength ratio H0/λ = 0.05 is considered. The ripples have parabolic shape, while their dimensions — length and height — are chosen accordingly to fit laboratory and field data. Results indicate that the wall shear stress over the ripples and the form drag forces on the ripples increase with increasing ripple height, while the corresponding friction force is insensitive to this increase. Therefore, the percentage of friction in the total drag force decreases with increasing ripple height.


2012 ◽  
Vol 1 (33) ◽  
pp. 65
Author(s):  
Gerasimos Kolokythas ◽  
Aggelos Dimakopoulos ◽  
Athanassios Dimas

In the present study, the three-dimensional, incompressible, turbulent, free-surface flow, developing by the propagation of nonlinear breaking waves over a rigid bed of constant slope, is numerically simulated. The main objective is to investigate the process of spilling wave breaking and the characteristics of the developing undertow current employing the large-wave simulation (LWS) method. According to LWS methodology, large velocity and free-surface scales are fully resolved, and subgrid scales are treated by an eddy viscosity model, similar to large-eddy simulation (LES) methodology. The simulations are based on the numerical solution of the unsteady, three-dimensional, Navier-Stokes equations subject to the fully-nonlinear free-surface boundary conditions and the appropriate bottom, inflow and outflow boundary conditions. The case of incoming second-order Stokes waves, normal to the shore, with wavelength to inflow depth ratio λ/dΙ = 6.6, wave steepness H/λ = 0.025, bed slope tanβ = 1/35 and Reynolds number (based on inflow water depth) Red = 250,000 is investigated. The predictions of the LWS model for the incipient wave breaking parameters - breaking depth and height - are in very good agreement with published experimental measurements. Profiles of the time-averaged horizontal velocity in the surf zone are also in good agreement with the corresponding measured ones, verifying the ability of the model to capture adequately the undertow current.


Mathematics ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 461
Author(s):  
Kenta Oishi ◽  
Yoshihiro Shibata

In this paper, we consider the motion of incompressible magnetohydrodynamics (MHD) with resistivity in a domain bounded by a free surface. An electromagnetic field generated by some currents in an external domain keeps an MHD flow in a bounded domain. On the free surface, free boundary conditions for MHD flow and transmission conditions for electromagnetic fields are imposed. We proved the local well-posedness in the general setting of domains from a mathematical point of view. The solutions are obtained in an anisotropic space Hp1((0,T),Hq1)∩Lp((0,T),Hq3) for the velocity field and in an anisotropic space Hp1((0,T),Lq)∩Lp((0,T),Hq2) for the magnetic fields with 2<p<∞, N<q<∞ and 2/p+N/q<1. To prove our main result, we used the Lp-Lq maximal regularity theorem for the Stokes equations with free boundary conditions and for the magnetic field equations with transmission conditions, which have been obtained by Frolova and the second author.


2020 ◽  
Vol 159 ◽  
pp. 103717
Author(s):  
Nikta Iravani ◽  
Peyman Badiei ◽  
Maurizio Brocchini

Author(s):  
Aichun Feng ◽  
Zhi-Min Chen ◽  
W. G. Price

A Rankine source method with a continuous desingularized free surface source panel distribution is developed to solve numerically a wave–body interaction problem with nonlinear boundary conditions. A body undergoes forced oscillatory motion in a free water surface and the variation of wetted body surface is captured by a regridding process. Free surface sources are placed in continuous panels, rather than points in isolation, over the calm water surface, with free surface collocation points placed on the calm water surface. Nonlinear kinematic and dynamic free surface boundary conditions along the collocation points on the calm water surface are solved in a time domain simulation based on a Lagrange time dependent formulation. Compared with isolated desingularized source points distribution methods, a significantly reduced number of free surface collocation points with sparse distribution are utilized in the present numerical computation. The numerical scheme of study is shown to be computationally efficient and the accuracy of numerical solutions is compared with traditional numerical methods as well as measurements.


1999 ◽  
Vol 396 ◽  
pp. 37-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
LEONID BREVDO ◽  
PATRICE LAURE ◽  
FREDERIC DIAS ◽  
THOMAS J. BRIDGES

The film flow down an inclined plane has several features that make it an interesting prototype for studying transition in a shear flow: the basic parallel state is an exact explicit solution of the Navier–Stokes equations; the experimentally observed transition of this flow shows many properties in common with boundary-layer transition; and it has a free surface, leading to more than one class of modes. In this paper, unstable wavepackets – associated with the full Navier–Stokes equations with viscous free-surface boundary conditions – are analysed by using the formalism of absolute and convective instabilities based on the exact Briggs collision criterion for multiple k-roots of D(k, ω) = 0; where k is a wavenumber, ω is a frequency and D(k, ω) is the dispersion relation function.The main results of this paper are threefold. First, we work with the full Navier–Stokes equations with viscous free-surface boundary conditions, rather than a model partial differential equation, and, guided by experiments, explore a large region of the parameter space to see if absolute instability – as predicted by some model equations – is possible. Secondly, our numerical results find only convective instability, in complete agreement with experiments. Thirdly, we find a curious saddle-point bifurcation which affects dramatically the interpretation of the convective instability. This is the first finding of this type of bifurcation in a fluids problem and it may have implications for the analysis of wavepackets in other flows, in particular for three-dimensional instabilities. The numerical results of the wavepacket analysis compare well with the available experimental data, confirming the importance of convective instability for this problem.The numerical results on the position of a dominant saddle point obtained by using the exact collision criterion are also compared to the results based on a steepest-descent method coupled with a continuation procedure for tracking convective instability that until now was considered as reliable. While for two-dimensional instabilities a numerical implementation of the collision criterion is readily available, the only existing numerical procedure for studying three-dimensional wavepackets is based on the tracking technique. For the present flow, the comparison shows a failure of the tracking treatment to recover a subinterval of the interval of unstable ray velocities V whose length constitutes 29% of the length of the entire unstable interval of V. The failure occurs due to a bifurcation of the saddle point, where V is a bifurcation parameter. We argue that this bifurcation of unstable ray velocities should be observable in experiments because of the abrupt increase by a factor of about 5.3 of the wavelength across the wavepacket associated with the appearance of the bifurcating branch. Further implications for experiments including the effect on spatial amplification rate are also discussed.


2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hans Bihs ◽  
Weizhi Wang ◽  
Tobias Martin ◽  
Arun Kamath

Abstract In situations where the calculation of ocean wave propagation and impact on offshore structures is required, fast numerical solvers are desired in order to find relevant wave events in a first step. After the identification of the relevant events, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) based Numerical Wave Tanks (NWT) with an interface capturing two-phase flow approach can be used to resolve the complex wave structure interaction, including breaking wave kinematics. CFD models emphasize detail of the hydrodynamic physics, which makes them not the ideal candidate for the event identification due to the large computational resources involved. In the current paper a new numerical wave model is represented that solves the Laplace equation for the flow potential and the nonlinear kinematic and dynamics free surface boundary conditions. This approach requires reduced computational resources compared to CFD based NWTs. In contrast to existing approaches, the resulting fully nonlinear potential flow solver REEF3D::FNPF uses a σ-coordinate grid for the computations. Solid boundaries are incorporated through a ghost cell immersed boundary method. The free surface boundary conditions are discretized using fifth-order WENO finite difference methods and the third-order TVD Runge-Kutta scheme for time stepping. The Laplace equation for the potential is solved with Hypres stabilized bi-conjugated gradient solver preconditioned with geometric multi-grid. REEF3D::FNPF is fully parallelized following the domain decomposition strategy and the MPI communication protocol. The model is successfully tested for wave propagation benchmark cases for shallow water conditions with variable bottom as well as deep water.


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