More Like this

1. Simulating Paraffin Wax Droplets Using Mixed Finite Element Method

   Nathawani, Darsh K. ; Knepley, Matthew G. ( September 2022 , ICCFD 11 PROCEEDINGS)

   Brehm, Christop ; Pandya, Shishir (Ed.)

   Paraffin wax is a prominent solid fuel for hybrid rockets. The atomization process of the paraffin wax fuel into he hybrid rocket combustion involves the droplets pinching off from the fuel surface. Therefore, droplet formation and pinch-off dynam- ics is analyzed using a one-dimensional axisymmetric approximation to understand droplet size distribution and pinch-off time. A mixed finite element formulation is used to solve the numerical problem. The computational algorithm uses adaptive mesh refinement to capture singularity and runs self-consistently to calculate droplet elongation. The code is verified using the Method of Manufactured Solution (MMS) and validated against laboratory experiments. Moreover, paraffin wax simulations are explored for varying inlet radius and it is found that the droplet size increases very slightly with the increasing inlet radius. Also, the pinch-off time increases up to a point where it starts to decrease as we increase the inlet radius. This behavior leads to a conjecture for the theoretical maximum radius that the droplet approaches as the inlet radius increases, which is a motivation for the future work. 

   more » « less
2. Uniqueness in a Navier–Stokes-nonlinear-Schrödinger model of superfluidity*

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6544/ac72e5  

   Jayanti, Pranava Chaitanya ; Trivisa, Konstantina ( June 2022 , Nonlinearity)

   Abstract In Jayanti and Trivisa (2022 J. Math. Fluid Mech. 24 46), the authors proved the existence of local-in-time weak solutions to a model of superfluidity. The system of governing equations was derived in Pitaevskii (1959 Sov. Phys. JETP 8 282–287) and couples the nonlinear Schrödinger equation and the Navier–Stokes equations. In this article, we prove a weak–strong type uniqueness theorem for these weak solutions. Only some of their regularity properties are used, allowing room for improved existence theorems in the future, with compatible uniqueness results. 

   more » « less
3. Potentially Singular Behavior of the 3D Navier–Stokes Equations

   https://doi.org/10.1007/s10208-022-09578-4  

   Hou, Thomas Y. ( September 2022 , Foundations of Computational Mathematics)

   Whether the 3D incompressible Navier–Stokes equations can develop a finite time sin- gularity from smooth initial data is one of the most challenging problems in nonlinear PDEs. In this paper, we present some new numerical evidence that the incompress- ible axisymmetric Navier–Stokes equations with smooth initial data of finite energy seem to develop potentially singular behavior at the origin. This potentially singular behavior is induced by a potential finite time singularity of the 3D Euler equations that we reported in a companion paper published in the same issue, see also Hou (Poten- tial singularity of the 3D Euler equations in the interior domain. arXiv:2107.05870 [math.AP], 2021). We present numerical evidence that the 3D Navier–Stokes equa- tions develop nearly self-similar singular scaling properties with maximum vorticity increased by a factor of 107. We have applied several blow-up criteria to study the potentially singular behavior of the Navier–Stokes equations. The Beale–Kato–Majda blow-up criterion and the blow-up criteria based on the growth of enstrophy and neg- ative pressure seem to imply that the Navier–Stokes equations using our initial data develop a potential finite time singularity. We have also examined the Ladyzhenskaya– Prodi–Serrin regularity criteria (Kiselev and Ladyzhenskaya in Izv Akad Nauk SSSR Ser Mat 21(5):655–690, 1957; Prodi in Ann Math Pura Appl 4(48):173–182, 1959; Serrin in Arch Ration Mech Anal 9:187–191, 1962) that are based on the growth rate of Lqt Lxp norm of the velocity with 3/p + 2/q ≤ 1. Our numerical results for the cases of (p,q) = (4,8), (6,4), (9,3) and (p,q) = (∞,2) provide strong evidence for the potentially singular behavior of the Navier–Stokes equations. The critical case of (p,q) = (3,∞) is more difficult to verify numerically due to the extremely slow growth rate in the L3 norm of the velocity field and the significant contribution from the far field where we have a relatively coarse grid. Our numerical study shows that while the global L3 norm of the velocity grows very slowly, the localized version of the L 3 norm of the velocity experiences rapid dynamic growth relative to the localized L 3 norm of the initial velocity. This provides further evidence for the potentially singular behavior of the Navier–Stokes equations. 

   more » « less
4. Blowup analysis for a quasi-exact 1D model of 3D Euler and Navier–Stokes

   https://doi.org/10.1088/1361-6544/ad1c2f  

   Hou, Thomas Y ; Wang, Yixuan ( January 2024 , Nonlinearity)

   We study the singularity formation of a quasi-exact 1D model proposed by Hou and Li (2008Commun. Pure Appl. Math.61661–97). This model is based on an approximation of the axisymmetric Navier–Stokes equations in therdirection. The solution of the 1D model can be used to construct an exact solution of the original 3D Euler and Navier–Stokes equations if the initial angular velocity, angular vorticity, and angular stream function are linear inr. This model shares many intrinsic properties similar to those of the 3D Euler and Navier–Stokes equations. It captures the competition between advection and vortex stretching as in the 1D De Gregorio (De Gregorio 1990J. Stat. Phys.591251–63; De Gregorio 1996Math. Methods Appl. Sci.191233–55) model. We show that the inviscid model with weakened advection and smooth initial data or the original 1D model with Hölder continuous data develops a self-similar blowup. We also show that the viscous model with weakened advection and smooth initial data develops a finite time blowup. To obtain sharp estimates for the nonlocal terms, we perform an exact computation for the low-frequency Fourier modes and extract damping in leading order estimates for the high-frequency modes using singularly weighted norms in the energy estimates. The analysis for the viscous case is more subtle since the viscous terms produce some instability if we just use singular weights. We establish the blowup analysis for the viscous model by carefully designing an energy norm that combines a singularly weighted energy norm and a sum of high-order Sobolev norms.

    

   more » « less
5. Particle paths in nonlinear Schrödinger models in the presence of linear shear currents

   https://doi.org/10.1017/jfm.2018.623  

   Curtis, C. W. ; Carter, J. D. ; Kalisch, H. ( November 2018 , Journal of Fluid Mechanics)

   We investigate the effect of constant-vorticity background shear on the properties of wavetrains in deep water. Using the methodology of Fokas ( A Unified Approach to Boundary Value Problems , 2008, SIAM), we derive a higher-order nonlinear Schrödinger equation in the presence of shear and surface tension. We show that the presence of shear induces a strong coupling between the carrier wave and the mean-surface displacement. The effects of the background shear on the modulational instability of plane waves is also studied, where it is shown that shear can suppress instability, although not for all carrier wavelengths in the presence of surface tension. These results expand upon the findings of Thomas et al.  ( Phys. Fluids , vol. 24 (12), 2012, 127102). Using a modification of the generalized Lagrangian mean theory in Andrews & McIntyre ( J. Fluid Mech. , vol. 89, 1978, pp. 609–646) and approximate formulas for the velocity field in the fluid column, explicit, asymptotic approximations for the Lagrangian and Stokes drift velocities are obtained for plane-wave and Jacobi elliptic function solutions of the nonlinear Schrödinger equation. Numerical approximations to particle trajectories for these solutions are found and the Lagrangian and Stokes drift velocities corresponding to these numerical solutions corroborate the theoretical results. We show that background currents have significant effects on the mean transport properties of waves. In particular, certain combinations of background shear and carrier wave frequency lead to the disappearance of mean-surface mass transport. These results provide a possible explanation for the measurements reported in Smith ( J. Phys. Oceanogr. , vol. 36, 2006, pp. 1381–1402). Our results also provide further evidence of the viability of the modification of the Stokes drift velocity beyond the standard monochromatic approximation, such as recently proposed in Breivik et al.  ( J. Phys. Oceanogr. , vol. 44, 2014, pp. 2433–2445) in order to obtain a closer match to a range of complex ocean wave spectra. 

   more » « less