ALBERT

Description: Consideration of near-wall turbulence in the functional space that emphasizes the level of anisotropy of the velocity fluctuations not only provides an understanding of th causative physics behind remarkable effects of turbulent drag reduction, but also lead to the logical design of a surface topology which is shown experimentally to be capable of producing a significant reduction of viscous drag which far exceeds what has been achieved so far. © 2007 Cambridge University Press.

Description: The development of incompressible turbulent flow through a pipe of wavy cross-section was studied numerically by direct integration of the Navier-Stokes equations. Simulations were performed at Reynolds numbers of 4.5 × 103 and 104 based on the hydraulic diameter and the bulk velocity. Results for the pressure resistance coefficient λ were found to be in excellent agreement with experimental data of Schiller (Z. Angew. Math. Mech., vol. 3, 1922, pp. 2-13). Of particular interest is the decrease in λ below the level predicted from the Blasius correlation, which fits almost all experimental results for pipes and ducts of complex cross-sectional geometries. Simulation databases were used to evaluate turbulence anisotropy and provide insights into structural changes of turbulence leading to flow relaminarization. Anisotropy-invariant mapping of turbulence confirmed that suppression of turbulence is due to statistical axisymmetry in the turbulent stresses. © 2014 Cambridge University Press.

Description: The flow development in a groove-modified channel consisting of flat and grooved walls was investigated by direct numerical simulations based on the Navier-Stokes equations at a Reynolds number of based on the full channel height and the bulk velocity. Simulations were performed for highly disturbed initial flow conditions leading to the almost instantaneous appearance of turbulence in channels with flat walls. The surface morphology was designed in the form of profiled grooves aligned with the flow direction and embedded in the wall. Such grooves are presumed to allow development of only the statistically axisymmetric disturbances. In contrast to the rapid production of turbulence along a flat wall, it was found that such development was suppressed over a grooved wall for a remarkably long period of time. Owing to the difference in the flow structure, friction drag over the grooved wall was more than 60 % lower than that over the flat wall. Anisotropy-invariant mapping supports the conclusion, emerging from analytic considerations, that persistence of the laminar regime is due to statistical axisymmetry in the velocity fluctuations. Complementary investigations of turbulent drag reduction in grooved channels demonstrated that promotion of such a state across the entire wetted surface is required to stabilize flow and prevent transition and breakdown to turbulence. To support the results of numerical investigations, measurements in groove-modified channel flow were performed. Comparisons of the pressure differentials measured along flat and groove-modified channels reveal a skin-friction reduction as large as owing to the extended persistence of the laminar flow compared with flow development in a flat channel. These experiments demonstrate that early stabilization of the laminar boundary layer development with a grooved surface promotes drag reduction in a fully turbulent flow with a preserving magnitude as the Reynolds number increases. © 2018 Cambridge University Press This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Description: We study the incipient motion of single spheres in steady shear flow on regular substrates at low particle Reynolds numbers. The substrate consists of a monolayer of regularly arranged fixed beads, in which the spacing between beads is varied resulting in different angles of repose and exposures of the particle to the main flow. The flow-induced forces and the level of flow penetration into the substrate are determined numerically. Since experiments in this range had shown that the critical Shields number is independent of inertia but strongly dependent on the substrate geometry, the particle Reynolds number was fixed to 0.01 in the numerical study. Numerics indicates that rolling motion is always preferred to sliding and that the flow penetration is linearly dependent on the spacing between the substrate particles. Besides, we propose an analytical model for the incipient motion. The model is an extension of Goldman's classical result for a single sphere near a plain surface taking into account the angle of repose, flow orientation with respect to substrate topography and shielding of the sphere to the linear shear flow. The effective level of flow penetration is the only external parameter. The model, applied to triangular and quadratic arrangements with different spacings, is able to predict the dependence of the critical Shields number on the geometry and on the orientation of the substrate. The model is in very good agreement with numerical results. For well-exposed particles, we observed that the minimum critical Shields number for a certain angle of repose does not depend sensitively on the considered arrangement. At large angles of repose, as expected in fully armoured beds, the model is consistent with experimental results for erodible beds at saturated conditions. © 2017 Cambridge University Press.

Description: Unusual mineralized and silicified carbonate-rich geodes were found hosted in Lower Triassic red mudstones in Central Spain. From their borders to their centres, the geodes display (a) a millimetric carbonate crust, (b) a quartz rim, (c) massive dolomite, (d) gold-bearing iron-rich infills (hematite laths and goethite with up to 7000 ppm of gold) and (e) calcite cements that sometimes seal the central hollow. Textural evidence indicates that the geodes were originally anhydrite, which was subsequently replaced by quartz and dolomite. The resultant porosity from this replacement, or by later dissolution, has been filled by epithermal gold-bearing iron-oxide hydroxides, romanechite and calcite.δ13C values indicate the participation of meteoric waters in an environment which was characterized by both a sub-desert climate and a temperate–tropical climate. Oxygen signatures reflect very variable temperatures for all minerals, with the exception of calcite, which appears to have precipitated at