Recent Articles

Mechanisms of vortex-induced vibrations of a D-section prism at subcritical Reynolds number

Weilin Chen, Huan Ping, Chunning Ji, Md. Mahbub Alam, and Yan Bao

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 054102 (2025) - Published 5 May, 2025

This paper presents a systematic investigation of vortex-induced vibration (VIV) of a D-section prism at subcritical Re. It is found that the response is persistently VIV typed, which can be excited and sustained by the viscous and/or pressure lift coefficient. Galloping is found to be absent because it requires an unstable structural mode with a frequency close to the prism natural frequency and flow mode with the natural vortex shedding frequency.

Effect of capillary number and viscosity ratio on multiphase displacement in microscale pores

Samantha A. McBride, Fernando Temprano-Coleto, Paul R. Kaneelil, Reese Knopp, Aubrey J. Taylor, Mariko A. Storey-Matsutani, Jessica L. Wilson, Mohammad Sadeq Saleh, Andrew R. Konicek, Arben Jusufi, Mohsen S. Yeganeh, and Howard A. Stone

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 054201 (2025) - Published 5 May, 2025

Multiphase displacement is important in oil recovery, microfluidics, and CO2 capture. We study viscous oil trapping in microfluidic devices with sinusoidal pockets during water invasion. Varying capillary number (Ca), viscosity ratios, and pore geometries reveals that higher oil viscosity and water velocities increase oil trapping due to transition from meniscus displacement to viscous fingering. We find that trapping dynamics at high Ca are geometry independent. Our three-dimensional model based on the long-wave approximation predicts some experimental observations, such as increased oil retention at higher Ca and viscosity ratios, and the characteristic interfacial shape of trapped oil.

Probing quasigeostrophic turbulence via complex networks

V. R. Krishna Priya, Snehal Sunil Patil, Somnath Roy, Konduri Aditya, and Rajaram Lakkaraju

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 054402 (2025) - Published 5 May, 2025

Oceanic eddies are dynamic swirling formations that vary in size from about a few kilometers at mid-latitudes to hundreds of kilometers near the tropics. These eddies can persist for days to months and play a crucial role in regulating the climate by transporting heat, salt, and marine life over long distances. Through complex networks, we have discovered both local and nonlocal interactions between these eddies. We have also examined their connectivity and resilience to evaluate the ecosystem’s capacity to withstand disturbances.

High-order statistics and extreme fluctuations in stationary turbulence via one-dimensional turbulence

Pranav Nath and Jean-Pierre Hickey

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 054602 (2025) - Published 5 May, 2025

High-Reynolds number turbulence presents an enormous computational challenge due to its large scale separation. We explore a reduced dimensional approach to compute forced Homogeneous Isotropic Turbulence (HIT) up to a Taylor-scale Reynold’s number of 5428. The developed formulation based on one-dimensional turbulence captures many quantitative characteristics of HIT including energy spectra, normalized dissipation rate, skewness, energy flux, high-order structure functions and intermittency, along with an insight into occurrence of extreme events.

Data-driven prediction of reversal of large-scale circulation in turbulent convection

Daigaku Katsumi, Masanobu Inubushi, and Naoto Yokoyama

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 053501 (2025) - Published 2 May, 2025

Quasi-stable large-scale circulation in turbulent thermal convection intermittently reverses its rotational direction. A fusion of physical insight into turbulent convection and a data-driven method known as reservoir computing enables accurate prediction of these chaotic reversals using only non-intrusive sensing via measurements of shear stresses and temperatures on the sidewalls. The successful prediction using such non-intrusive and sparse sensing opens up possibilities for closed-loop control of turbulent flows and feasibility in industrial applications.

Leaf oscillation and upward ejection of droplets in response to drop impact

Tristan Gilet and Loïc Tadrist

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 053601 (2025) - Published 2 May, 2025

During heavy rainstorms, how can pathogenic spores at the surface of plant leaves travel upward and contaminate other leaves above? The spores are released in the sessile drops left on the leaves by previous raindrops. In this manuscript, we show that upon impact of a large raindrop, a leaf may strongly vibrate. The subsequent inertial forces may be sufficient to expel water from its surface. We describe this droplet ejection mechanism as a function of both leaf and raindrop properties. The droplets inherit from the leaf velocity, so some of them can be shot upward. This ejection mechanism likely induces a significant upward flux of biological material during rainstorms.

Coating of bilayer thin liquid films on rotating cylinders

Prateek Gupta and Satish Kumar

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 054001 (2025) - Published 2 May, 2025

Motivated by the need to improve fundamental understanding of multilayer coating on discrete objects, we consider a model problem involving the flow of bilayer thin liquid films on rotating cylinders. A parametric study reveals that the critical rotation rate required to cause motion of liquid lobes that form due to gravitational drainage is lowered for a more viscous and thicker inner film due to an increase in viscous forces. These properties of the inner layer also lead to a reduction in the amplitude of temporal oscillations in the film thickness. In addition to advancing fundamental understanding, we suggest strategies for improving the uniformity of coatings on discrete objects.

Effect of anisotropic mobility on the diffusive instability in viscoelastic shear flows

Shruti Pandey and V. Shankar

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 053301 (2025) - Published 1 May, 2025

The recently discovered polymer diffusive instability (PDI) in rectilinear flows of an Oldroyd-B fluid has wavelengths of the order of the size of the polymer for realistic polymer diffusivities, raising a question on the applicability of continuum constitutive equations. We show, using the Giesekus model (augmented with stress diffusion), that the PDI is rapidly suppressed as the anisotropy parameter is increased, suggesting that anisotropic diffusion needs to be incorporated in order to obtain physically consistent results, either in stability calculations or in direct numerical simulations.

Shear-driven swimming in laminar flow inspired by tank treading

Qiang Zhu and Qing Xiao

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 054101 (2025) - Published 1 May, 2025

Most existing propulsion systems rely on pressure for thrust generation, with shear stress being a major source of drag associated with skin friction. In this study, we propose a novel thrust-generation system using shear stress for thrust production. It features a barrel-shaped body whose outer membrane circulates in a tank-treading manner. Through numerical simulations, the feasibility of this design has been confirmed. The underlying physics and the potential performance have also been explored.

Emergent oscillations and chaos in noncompliant microfluidic networks

Yanxuan Shao, Jean-Regis Angilella, and Adilson E. Motter

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 054401 (2025) - Published 1 May, 2025

Microfluidic systems have traditionally relied on external hardware or compliant structures to generate flow rate oscillations. Here, we demonstrate that persistent oscillations and even chaotic behavior can spontaneously emerge without external modulation, deformable structures, or fluid compressibility. Through a combination of numerical simulations and a reduced model, we uncover a mechanism governed by fluid inertia that drives this behavior at moderate Reynolds numbers. These findings expand the design space for on-chip flow control and reveal new opportunities for microfluidic timing, precision control, and chaos-based applications.

Toy model of turbulent shear flow using vortons

Wandrille Ruffenach, Lucas Fery, and Bérengère Dubrulle

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 054601 (2025) - Published 1 May, 2025

This study presents a simplified model for shear flows developed to capture essential features of turbulence using a sparse representation based on intense structures called vortons. These dynamically regularized quasi-singularities interact with large-scale shear and give rise to two distinct flow regimes: a laminar regime governed by large-scale dissipation and a turbulent regime driven by vorton activity. Remarkably, the model reproduces power-law scaling behaviors consistent with classical turbulence, offering a compact yet insightful tool for investigating energy transfer and dissipation in complex flows.

Characterization of local energy transfer in large-scale intermittent stratified turbulent flows via coarse-graining

Raffaello Foldes, Raffaele Marino, Silvio Sergio Cerri, and Enrico Camporeale

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 043803 (2025) - Published 30 April, 2025

We studied the feedback of extreme vertical velocity drafts on the dynamics of stratified turbulent flows using a coarse-graining approach. This approach allowed for a local-in-scale analysis while preserving spatial detail, which is critical for assessing energy transfer and conversion in large-scale intermittent flows of geophysical interest. We found that vertical drafts may act as a local energy injection mechanism throughout the flow domain, affecting the exchange between kinetic and potential energy.

Concentration polarization induced electro-osmosis around a charged dielectric microchannel corner

Hui Zhao, Xiangchun Xuan, and Ning Wu

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 044203 (2025) - Published 30 April, 2025

Theory and simulation are used to demonstrate that the concentration polarization induced electro-osmotic (CPEO) flow is the origin of the experimentally observed nonlinear electrokinetic flow near a charged dielectric corner. The CPEO explains many experimentally observed electrokinetic phenomena that cannot be captured by existing electrokinetic theories. The CPEO can become a versatile technique in the microfluidic toolbox and open many new possibilities to use dielectric structures for fluidic flow control.

Travel time and energy dissipation minima for potential flows in heterogeneous geologic media

Scott K. Hansen and Daniel O'Malley

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 043802 (2025) - Published 28 April, 2025

We consider conditions for minimum energy dissipation and advective travel time along path lines for potential flows in heterogeneous porous and fractured media. The work employs some concepts and techniques not often seen in the literature on Darcy (and cubic law) flows, including M. King Hubbert’s energy-based conception and variational methods. We explain a seemingly surprising result concerning how travel time through a series of fracture segments responds to small, local aperture perturbations.

Enstrophy transport rates determine the Kolmogorov-Hinze scale in turbulent fragmentation of droplets

Mahdi Saeedipour and Simon Schneiderbauer

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 044301 (2025) - Published 28 April, 2025

This study investigates the systematic connection between the statistics of non-decaying homogeneous isotropic turbulence and droplet fragmentation outcomes, based on the concept of the enstrophy transport equation. Analysis of the interface-resolved direct numerical simulations (DNS) underlines the role of different vorticity generation mechanisms, such as vortex stretching and surface tension, in determining the size of the largest stable droplet during turbulent fragmentation known as the Kolmogorov-Hinze scale. The findings serve as the basis for future theory development under more complex turbulent fragmentation conditions.

Wall-modeled large eddy simulations using the volume-filtering framework

M. Hausmann and B. van Wachem

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 044604 (2025) - Published 28 April, 2025

Being able to accurately predict the flow near walls with preferably coarse resolutions is a key challenge in most practical flow applications. However, the wall-modeled large eddy simulations (WMLES) commonly applied typically rely on ad hoc interventions, such as assuming a mean velocity profile near the wall instead of the instantaneous filtered velocity profile. In the present paper, classical filtering is extended to domains confined by walls using volume-filtering. By rigorous application of volume-filtering, we derive a consistent wall-modeling framework that we refer to as volume-filtered WMLES.

Universality of extreme events in turbulent flows

Dhawal Buaria and Alain Pumir

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, L042601 (2025) - Published 28 April, 2025

Are extreme events in turbulence universal? While small-scale universality has long been accepted for some low-order statistics like the energy spectra, its validity for intense, intermittent fluctuations remains unclear. Using state-of-the-art direct numerical simulations and laboratory experiments, we analyze extreme velocity gradients across several different turbulent flows, and uncover striking universal behavior not only in scaling laws, but also in their detailed tensorial structure. Our findings support a deeper level of universality than previously thought, with profound implications for theory and modeling.

Fish schools in a vertical diamond formation: Effect of vertical spacing on hydrodynamic interactions

Alec Menzer, Yu Pan, George V. Lauder, and Haibo Dong

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 043104 (2025) - Published 24 April, 2025

Fish schooling is believed to provide benefits by allowing individuals to leverage vortices generated by nearby fish, thereby improving their performance. While prior works have characterized horizontal planar formations of fish, our comprehensive analysis of the hydrodynamics in the vertical diamond formation reveals significant interactions among vertically arranged fish. In the densest vertical diamond formation, fin-fin, body-body, wake-body, and wake-fin interactions enhance force generation and propulsive efficiency for each individual in the school. The findings of this study could guide school configurations that enhance the performance of fish-inspired bio-robotic swarms.

Effect of streaks on hypersonic boundary layer linear instability

Clément Caillaud, Guillaume Lehnasch, Eduardo Martini, and Peter Jordan

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 043902 (2025) - Published 22 April, 2025

This numerical study delves into the complex dynamics of transitional hypersonic boundary layers, examining how streaks—elongated flow structures—affect linear instability mechanisms. By exploring the interplay between streak amplitude and boundary layer instabilities, the research uncovers intricate growth mechanisms of the first and second Mack modes, which differ significantly from idealized conditions without streaks. The study proposes a clear classification of growing instabilities and analyses modified growth trends. These insights provide valuable perspectives on potential pathways to turbulence in distorted boundary layers, contributing to advancements in transition prediction.

Lewis number effect in lean premixed H2-air and CH4-air flames during thermoacoustic instability in a low-swirl combustor

Judai Masugi, Takeshi Shoji, Yoshihiro Nakazumi, Ryota Fujii, Takuya Tomidokoro, Shigeru Tachibana, and Takeshi Yokomori

Phys. Rev. Fluids 10, 043201 (2025) - Published 21 April, 2025

Lean premixed hydrogen combustion is a promising technology for reducing NOₓ and CO₂ emissions in gas turbines, but suffers from thermoacoustic instabilities. This study experimentally investigates the influence of the Lewis number on hydrogen and methane premixed flames under thermoacoustic instability in a low-swirl combustor. Simultaneous measurements of pressure fluctuations, OH* chemiluminescence, and PIV reveal that the pressure fluctuation in hydrogen flame is three times larger than that in methane flame, highlighting the significant role of the Lewis number in flame–flow interactions.

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