scholarly journals Sir George Gabriel Stokes, Bart (1819–1903): his impact on science and scientists

2020 ◽  
Vol 378 (2174) ◽  
pp. 20190524
Author(s):  
Paul Ranford
Keyword(s):  
Royal Society ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Navier Stokes Equations ◽  
Victorian Era ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
History Of ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
Lord Kelvin

Lucasian Professor Sir George Gabriel Stokes was appointed joint-Secretary of the Royal Society in 1854, a post he held for the unprecedented period of 31 years, relinquishing the role when he succeeded T.H. Huxley as President in 1885. An eminent scientist of the Victorian era, Stokes explained fluorescence (he also coined the word) and his hydrodynamical formulae (the ‘Navier–Stokes equations’) remain ubiquitous today in the physics of any phenomenon involving fluid flows, from pipelines to glaciers to large-scale atmospheric perturbations. He also made seminal advances in optics and mathematics, and formulae that bear his name remain widely used today. The historiography however appears to understate Stokes's significant impact on science as unacknowledged collaborator on a wide range of scientific developments. His scientific peers regarded him as a mentor, advisor, designer of crucial experiments and, as editor of the Royal Society's scientific journals, arbiter of the standards of excellence in scientific communication to be attained before publication would be considered. Three brief case studies on Stokes's correspondence with Lord Kelvin, Sir William Crookes and the chemist Arthur Smithells exemplify how his impact was conveyed through the work of other scientists. This paper also begins consideration of why the character and worldview of Stokes led him to eschew personal reputation and profit for the sake of science and the Royal Society, and of how the development of the discipline of history of science has impacted on historiography relating to Stokes and others. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Stokes at 200 (Part 1)’.

scholarly journals Gyrotactic swimmers in turbulence: shape effects and role of the large-scale flow

2018 ◽  
Vol 856 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. Borgnino ◽  
G. Boffetta ◽  
F. De Lillo ◽  
M. Cencini
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Navier Stokes Equations ◽  
Preferential Sampling ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Shape Effects ◽  
Dilute Suspensions ◽  
Large Scale Flow

We study the dynamics and the statistics of dilute suspensions of gyrotactic swimmers, a model for many aquatic motile microorganisms. By means of extensive numerical simulations of the Navier–Stokes equations at different Reynolds numbers, we investigate preferential sampling and small-scale clustering as a function of the swimming (stability and speed) and shape parameters, considering in particular the limits of spherical and rod-like particles. While spherical swimmers preferentially sample local downwelling flow, for elongated swimmers we observe a transition from downwelling to upwelling regions at sufficiently high swimming speed. The spatial distribution of both spherical and elongated swimmers is found to be fractal at small scales in a wide range of swimming parameters. The direct comparison between the different shapes shows that spherical swimmers are more clusterized at small stability and speed numbers, while for large values of the parameters elongated cells concentrate more. The relevance of our results for phytoplankton swimming in the ocean is briefly discussed.

scholarly journals Turbulent 2.5-dimensional dynamos

2016 ◽  
Vol 799 ◽  
pp. 246-264 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Seshasayanan ◽  
A. Alexakis
Keyword(s):  
Turbulent Flows ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Three Dimensional ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Two Dimensional ◽  
Navier Stokes Equations ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Two Dimensional Flow

We study the linear stage of the dynamo instability of a turbulent two-dimensional flow with three components $(u(x,y,t),v(x,y,t),w(x,y,t))$ that is sometimes referred to as a 2.5-dimensional (2.5-D) flow. The flow evolves based on the two-dimensional Navier–Stokes equations in the presence of a large-scale drag force that leads to the steady state of a turbulent inverse cascade. These flows provide an approximation to very fast rotating flows often observed in nature. The low dimensionality of the system allows for the realization of a large number of numerical simulations and thus the investigation of a wide range of fluid Reynolds numbers $Re$, magnetic Reynolds numbers $Rm$ and forcing length scales. This allows for the examination of dynamo properties at different limits that cannot be achieved with three-dimensional simulations. We examine dynamos for both large and small magnetic Prandtl-number turbulent flows $Pm=Rm/Re$, close to and away from the dynamo onset, as well as dynamos in the presence of scale separation. In particular, we determine the properties of the dynamo onset as a function of $Re$ and the asymptotic behaviour in the large $Rm$ limit. We are thus able to give a complete description of the dynamo properties of these turbulent 2.5-D flows.

scholarly journals Coherent large-scale structures from the linearized Navier–Stokes equations

2019 ◽  
Vol 873 ◽  
pp. 89-109 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anagha Madhusudanan ◽  
Simon. J. Illingworth ◽  
Ivan Marusic
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Eddy Viscosity ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Turbulent Channel Flow ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Navier Stokes Equations ◽  
Large Scale Structures ◽  
Viscosity Profile ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Scale Structures

The wall-normal extent of the large-scale structures modelled by the linearized Navier–Stokes equations subject to stochastic forcing is directly compared to direct numerical simulation (DNS) data. A turbulent channel flow at a friction Reynolds number of $Re_{\unicode[STIX]{x1D70F}}=2000$ is considered. We use the two-dimensional (2-D) linear coherence spectrum (LCS) to perform the comparison over a wide range of energy-carrying streamwise and spanwise length scales. The study of the 2-D LCS from DNS indicates the presence of large-scale structures that are coherent over large wall-normal distances and that are self-similar. We find that, with the addition of an eddy viscosity profile, these features of the large-scale structures are captured by the linearized equations, except in the region close to the wall. To further study this coherence, a coherence-based estimation technique, spectral linear stochastic estimation, is used to build linear estimators from the linearized Navier–Stokes equations. The estimator uses the instantaneous streamwise velocity field or the 2-D streamwise energy spectrum at one wall-normal location (obtained from DNS) to predict the same quantity at a different wall-normal location. We find that the addition of an eddy viscosity profile significantly improves the estimation.

scholarly journals On the shape of resolvent modes in wall-bounded turbulence

2019 ◽  
Vol 877 ◽  
pp. 682-716 ◽  
Author(s):  
Scott T. M. Dawson ◽  
Beverley J. McKeon
Keyword(s):  
Differential Operator ◽  
Royal Society ◽  
Resolvent Operator ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Mode Shapes ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Mathematical Framework ◽  
Engineering Sciences ◽  
Wide Range

This work develops a methodology for approximating the shape of leading resolvent modes for incompressible, quasi-parallel, shear-driven turbulent flows using prescribed analytic functions. We demonstrate that these functions, which arise from the consideration of wavepacket pseudoeigenmodes of simplified linear operators (Trefethen, Proceedings of the Royal Society of London A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences, vol. 461, 2005, pp. 3099–3122. The Royal Society), give an accurate approximation for the energetically dominant wall-normal vorticity component of a class of nominally wall-detached modes that are centred about the critical layer. We validate our method on a model operator related to the Squire equation, and show for this simplified case how wavepacket pseudomodes relate to truncated asymptotic expansions of Airy functions. Following the framework developed in McKeon & Sharma (J. Fluid Mech., vol. 658, 2010, pp. 336–382), we next apply a sequence of simplifications to the resolvent formulation of the Navier–Stokes equations to arrive at a scalar differential operator that is amenable to such analysis. The first simplification decomposes the resolvent operator into Orr–Sommerfeld and Squire suboperators, following Rosenberg & McKeon (Fluid Dyn. Res., vol. 51, 2019, 011401). The second simplification relates the leading resolvent response modes of the Orr–Sommerfeld suboperator to those of a simplified scalar differential operator – which is the Squire operator equipped with a non-standard inner product. This characterisation provides a mathematical framework for understanding the origin of leading resolvent mode shapes for the incompressible Navier–Stokes resolvent operator, and allows for rapid estimation of dominant resolvent mode characteristics without the need for operator discretisation or large numerical computations. We explore regions of validity for this method, and show that it can predict resolvent response mode shape (though not necessary the corresponding resolvent gain) over a wide range of spatial wavenumbers and temporal frequencies. In particular, we find that our method remains relatively accurate even when the modes have some amount of ‘attachment’ to the wall, and that that the region of validity contains the regions in parameter space where large-scale and very-large-scale motions typically reside. We relate these findings to classical lift-up and Orr amplification mechanisms in shear-driven flows.

The Onset of Turbulence: Insights Into the Navier-Stokes Equations

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carl E. Rathmann
Keyword(s):  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Direct Consequence ◽  
Reynolds Numbers ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Navier Stokes Equation ◽  
Navier Stokes Equations ◽  
Fluid Behavior ◽  
Onset Of Turbulence ◽  
And Mathematics ◽  
High Reynolds

For well over 150 years now, theoreticians and practitioners have been developing and teaching students easily visualized models of fluid behavior that distinguish between the laminar and turbulent fluid regimes. Because of an emphasis on applications, perhaps insufficient attention has been paid to actually understanding the mechanisms by which fluids transition between these regimes. Summarized in this paper is the product of four decades of research into the sources of these mechanisms, at least one of which is a direct consequence of the non-linear terms of the Navier-Stokes equation. A scheme utilizing chaotic dynamic effects that become dominant only for sufficiently high Reynolds numbers is explored. This paper is designed to be of interest to faculty in the engineering, chemistry, physics, biology and mathematics disciplines as well as to practitioners in these and related applications.

Rayleigh number scaling in numerical convection

1996 ◽  
Vol 310 ◽  
pp. 139-179 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert M. Kerr
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Rayleigh Number ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Good Evidence ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Fixed Temperature ◽  
Navier Stokes Equations ◽  
Local Boundary ◽  
Velocity Boundary Layer

Using direct simulations of the incompressible Navier-Stokes equations with rigid upper and lower boundaries at fixed temperature and periodic sidewalls, scaling with respect to Rayleigh number is determined. At large aspect ratio (6:6:1) on meshes up to 288 × 288 × 96, a single scaling regime consistent with the properties of ‘hard’ convective turbulence is found for Pr = 0.7 between Ra = 5 × 104 and Ra = 2 × 107. The properties of this regime include Nu ∼ RaβT with βT = 0.28 ≈ 2/7, exponential temperature distributions in the centre of the cell, and velocity and temperature scales consistent with experimental measurements. Two velocity boundary-layer thicknesses are identified, one outside the thermal boundary layer that scales as Ra−1/7 and the other within it that scales as Ra−3/7. Large-scale shears are not observed; instead, strong local boundary-layer shears are observed in regions between incoming plumes and an outgoing network of buoyant sheets. At the highest Rayleigh number, there is a decade where the energy spectra are close to k−5/3 and temperature variance spectra are noticeably less steep. It is argued that taken together this is good evidence for ‘hard’ turbulence, even if individually each of these properties might have alternative explanations.

Complex dynamics in a stratified lid-driven square cavity flow

2018 ◽  
Vol 855 ◽  
pp. 43-66 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ke Wu ◽  
Bruno D. Welfert ◽  
Juan M. Lopez
Keyword(s):  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Complex Dynamics ◽  
Boussinesq Approximation ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Square Cavity ◽  
Navier Stokes Equations ◽  
Stable Temperature ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Side Walls ◽  
Steady State Solutions

The dynamic response to shear of a fluid-filled square cavity with stable temperature stratification is investigated numerically. The shear is imposed by the constant translation of the top lid, and is quantified by the associated Reynolds number. The stratification, quantified by a Richardson number, is imposed by maintaining the temperature of the top lid at a higher constant temperature than that of the bottom, and the side walls are insulating. The Navier–Stokes equations under the Boussinesq approximation are solved, using a pseudospectral approximation, over a wide range of Reynolds and Richardson numbers. Particular attention is paid to the dynamical mechanisms associated with the onset of instability of steady state solutions, and to the complex and rich dynamics occurring beyond.

Heat Pollution by Large Buildings and the Effects upon Astrometric Observations

1991 ◽  
Vol 112 ◽  
pp. 326-326
Author(s):  
James A. Hughes ◽  
Calvin A. Kodres
Keyword(s):  
Real Estate ◽  
Boundary Conditions ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Stokes Equations ◽  
Navier Stokes ◽  
Real Estate Development ◽  
Atmospheric Effects ◽  
Navier Stokes Equations ◽  
Naval Observatory ◽  
The U.S

ABSTRACTRecent, large scale, real estate development near the U.S. Naval Observatory has led to an investigation of the systematic atmospheric effects which heat from large buildings can cause. Results show that non-negligible slopes of the atmospheric layers can be induced which cause a surprisingly large anomalous refraction. The Navier-Stokes equations were numerically integrated using the appropriate boundary conditions and the resulting isopycnic tilts using the appropriate boundary conditions and the resulting isopycnic tilts charted. Rays were then essentially traced through the perturbed atmosphere to determine the magnitude of the anomalous refraction.

Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document