arXiv subjects

S. Ravichandran

Publications and source records attributed to S. Ravichandran.

At least 19 recordsLinked to original sources

arXiv2026

Particle trapping in vortex crystals

We study the motion of inertial particles in two-dimensional inviscid and viscous vortex crystals, where vortices are placed at the tips of a regular polygon, and determine the conditions under which long-term trapping of particles can occur. In crystals with a central vortex, we find that trapping points in addition to those found in a previous analysis may exist finding, furthermore, that particle trajectories may approach a limit-cycle which can be described by means of asymptotic methods. We show that these newly discovered fixed points persist temporarily in the presence of viscosity, and study the different transitions following viscous vortex mergers. We find that for moderate Reynolds numbers, the annular merger of the vortex crystal form an annular vortex layer that can keep particles trapped within a disk centered at the origin. For larger Reynolds numbers, pairwise vortex merger leads to crystals with a smaller number of vortices, with particles clustering at the fixed points of the newly formed vortex crystal.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2026

Nonlocal flow sampling enables vortex trapping of heavy particles

Most analyses of inertial particle motion in vortical flows rely on the point-particle approximation, in which the fluid velocity is assumed to be linear at the scale of the particle, and for heavy particles inertia typically leads to centrifugal expulsion from vortex cores. Here, we show that a spatially extended particle, modeled as a rigid symmetric dumbbell of two identical inertial point particles connected by a massless rod that samples the flow at two points, can converge to a vortex-centered spinning state. We study the dynamics of this inertial dumbbell in a steady two-dimensional Lamb-Oseen vortex and identify three qualitatively distinct long-time behaviors controlled by the Stokes number. In the weak-inertia limit, the motion remains bounded and traces spirographic-like trajectories around the vortex center, while at sufficiently large inertia centrifugal effects dominate and trajectories spiral outward, approaching inertial point-particle behavior. Between these limits, the dumbbell can reach a trapped spinning state in which the center-of-mass converges to the vortex center and spins steadily, with accessibility determined by the initial conditions. Basin-of-attraction maps and ensemble statistics reveal a non-monotonic dependence of the accessibility of the spinning state on inertia, with basins of finite measure occurring only over an intermediate range of Stokes numbers. Linear stability is governed by the logarithmic slope of the vortex angular-velocity profile, and for the Lamb-Oseen vortex the spinning state is stable for all Stokes numbers. These results highlight how nonlocal flow sampling by spatially extended inertial particles can fundamentally alter transport and long-time behavior in vortical flows.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2025

Waves in a shear flow: transition between the KH, Holmboe and Miles instability

We investigate shear driven wave generation at the interface between two immiscible fluids, using an exponential velocity profile with a sharp density interface representing stable stratification. At low Froude and high Bond numbers, conditions relevant to geophysical and astrophysical flows, we identify a novel transition in the fastest growing mode: from Kelvin Helmholtz (KH) instability at high density ratio (delta = 0.9), to Holmboe (H) instability as delta approaches 0.5, and ultimately to the Miles (1957) critical layer instability as delta approaches 0.001, representative of the air water system. Remarkably, the Miles mode, characterized by a sharp jump in inviscid Reynolds stress (tau) at the critical layer, persists up to delta = 0.01, i.e., ten times the air water value. As delta increases, the vertical variation of tau undergoes a qualitative change, from a sharp jump at the critical layer for delta much less than 1 to a smooth transition through it for delta greater than or equal to 0.5. A theoretical explanation is provided. In the moderate to high density ratio regime, comparison with a piecewise-linear (PL) velocity profile confirms the presence of both H and KH instabilities in the exponential profile. Nonlinear simulations of the incompressible Euler equations with gravity and surface tension show excellent agreement with linear theory for delta = 0.01 up to five wave periods. At delta = 0.1, waves saturate into finite-amplitude structures with capillary ripples, while at delta = 0.5, the waves develop sheared cusps and emit spume, resembling asymmetric Holmboe waves observed experimentally. At delta = 0.9, the waves rapidly evolve into classic KH spirals. Comparisons with the PL profile highlight the role of background curvature and the critical layer. This work presents, for the first time, all three canonical instabilities within a single background state.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Prograde and meandering wall modes in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection with conducting walls

We use direct numerical simulations to study convection in rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection in horizontally confined geometries of a given aspect ratio, with the walls held at fixed temperatures. We show that this arrangement is unconditionally unstable to flow that takes the form of wall-adjacent convection rolls. For wall temperatures close to the temperatures of the upper or lower boundaries, we show that the base state undergoes a Hopf bifurcation to a state comprised of spatio-temporal oscillations--`wall modes'--precessing in a retrograde direction. We study the saturated nonlinear state of these modes, and show that the velocity boundary conditions at the upper and lower boundaries are crucial to the formation and propagation of the wall modes: asymmetric velocity boundary conditions at the upper and lower boundaries can lead to prograde wall modes, while stress-free boundary conditions at both walls can lead to wall modes that have no preferred direction of propagation.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2024

Benchmarking Turbulence Models to Represent Cloud-Edge Mixing

Considering turbulence is crucial to understanding clouds. However, covering all scales involved in the turbulent mixing of clouds with their environment is computationally challenging, urging the development of simpler models to represent some of the processes involved. By using full direct numerical simulations as a reference, this study compares several statistical approaches for representing small-scale turbulent mixing. All models use a comparable Lagrangian representation of cloud microphysics, and simulate the same cases of cloud-edge mixing, covering different ambient humidities and turbulence intensities. It is demonstrated that all statistical models represent the evolution of thermodynamics successfully, but not all models capture the changes in cloud microphysics (cloud droplet number concentration, droplet mean radius, and spectral width). Implications of these results for using the presented models as subgrid-scale schemes are discussed.

physics.ao-ph↗

arXiv2023

Towards direct spatial and intensity characterization of ultra-high intensity laser pulses using ponderomotive scattering of free electrons

Spatial distributions of electrons ionized and scattered from ultra-low pressure gases are proposed and experimentally demonstrated as a method to directly measure the intensity of an ultra-high intensity laser pulse. Analytic models relating the peak scattered electron energy to the peak laser intensity are derived and compared to paraxial Runge-Kutta simulations highlighting two models suitable for describing electrons scattered from weakly paraxial beams ($f_{\#}>5$) for intensities in the range of $10^{18}-10^{21}$Wcm$^{-2}$. Scattering energies are shown to be dependant on gas species emphasizing the need for specific gases for given intensity ranges. Direct measurements of the laser intensity at full power of two laser systems is demonstrated both showing a good agreement between indirect methods of intensity measurement and the proposed method. One experiment exhibited the role of spatial aberrations in the scattered electron distribution motivating a qualitative study on the effect. We propose the use of convolutional neural networks as a method for extracting quantitative information of the spatial structure of the laser at full power. We believe the presented technique to be a powerful tool that can be immediately implemented in many high-power laser facilities worldwide.

physics.plasm-ph↗

arXiv2023

Irregular dependence on Stokes number and non-ergodic transport of heavy inertial particles in steady laminar flows

Small heavy particles in a fluid flow respond to the flow on a time-scale proportional to their inertia, or Stokes number St. Their behaviour is thought to be gradually modified as St increases. We show, in the steady spatially-periodic laminar Taylor-Green flow, that particle dynamics, and their effective diffusivity, actually change in an irregular, non-monotonic and sometimes discontinuous manner, with increasing St. At Stokes of order one, we show chaotic particle motion, contrasting earlier conclusions for heavy particles in the same flow (Wang et al. 1992). Particles may display trapped orbits, or unbounded diffusive or ballistic dispersion, with the vortices behaving like scatterers in a soft Lorentz gas (Klages et al. 2019). The dynamics is non-ergodic. We discuss the possible consequences of our findings for particulate turbulent flows.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2023

Orientation dynamics of two-dimensional concavo-convex bodies

We study the orientation dynamics of two-dimensional concavo-convex solid bodies more dense than the fluid through which they fall under gravity. We show that the orientation dynamics of the body, quantified in terms of the angle $ϕ$ relative to the horizontal, undergoes a transcritical bifurcation at a Reynolds number $Re_{c}^{(1)}$, and a subcritical pitchfork bifurcation at a Reynolds number $Re_{c}^{(2)}$. For $Re Re_{c}^{(2)}$, the concave-downwards orientation of $ϕ=0$ is again unstable, and bodies that start concave-downwards exhibit overstable oscillations about the unstable fixed point, eventually tumbling into the stable $ϕ=π$ orientation. The $Re_{c}^{(2)}\approx15$ at which the subcritical pitchfork bifurcation occurs is distinct from the $Re$ for the onset of vortex shedding, which causes the $ϕ=π$ equilibrium to also become unstable, with bodies fluttering about $ϕ=π$. The complex orientation dynamics of irregularly shaped bodies evidenced here are relevant in a wide range of settings, from the tumbling of hydrometeors to settling of mollusk shells.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

The waltz of tiny droplets and the flow they live in

This article describes the dynamics of small inertial particles centrifuging out of a single vortex. It shows the importance of caustics formation in the vicinity of a single vortex: both for particle collisions and void formation. From these single-vortex studies we provide estimates of the role of caustics in high Reynolds number turbulence, and in the case of clouds, estimate how they may help in rain initiation by bridging the droplet-growth bottleneck. We briefly describe how the Basset- Boussinesq history force may be calculated by a method which does not involve huge memory costs, and provide arguments for its possible importance for droplets in turbulence. We discuss how phase change could render cloud turbulence fundamentally different from turbulence in other situations.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

Entrainment in dry and moist thermals

We study entrainment in dry thermals in neutrally and unstably stratified ambients, and moist thermals in dry-neutrally stratified ambients using direct numerical simulations (DNS). We find, in agreement with results of Lecoanet and Jeevanjee \tb{[J. Atmos. Sci. 76(12), 3785-3801, (2019)]} that turbulence plays a minor role in entrainment in dry thermals in a neutral ambient for Reynolds numbers $Re \lesssim 10^4$. We then show that the net entrainment rate increases when the buoyancy of the thermals increases, either by condensation heating or because of an unstably stratified ambient. This is in contrast with the findings of Morrison et al. [J. Atmos. Sci. 78(3), 797-816, (2021)]. We also show that the role of turbulence is greater in these cases than in dry thermals and, significantly, that the combined action of condensation heating and turbulence creates intense small scale vorticity, destroying the {coherent} vortex ring that is seen in dry and moist laminar thermals. These findings suggest that fully resolved simulations at Reynolds numbers significantly larger than the mixing transition Reynolds number $Re=10^4$ are necessary to understand the role of turbulence in the entrainment in growing cumulus clouds, which consist of a series of thermals rising and decaying in succession.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2022

The combined effects of buoyancy, rotation, and shear on phase boundary evolution

We use well-resolved numerical simulations to study the combined effects of buoyancy, pressure-driven shear and rotation on the melt rate and morphology of a layer of pure solid overlying its liquid phase in three dimensions at a Rayleigh number $Ra = 1.25 \times 10^5$. During thermal convection we find that the rate of melting of the solid phase varies non-monotonically with the strength of the imposed shear flow. In the absence of rotation, depending on whether buoyancy or shear dominates the flow, we observe either domes or ridges aligned in the direction of the shear flow respectively. Furthermore, we show that the geometry of the phase boundary has important effects on the magnitude and evolution of the heat flux in the liquid layer. In the presence of rotation, the strength of which is characterized by the Rossby number, Ro, we observe that for Ro = O(1) the mean flow in the interior is perpendicular to the direction of the constant horizontal applied pressure gradient. As the magnitude of this pressure gradient increases, the geometry of solid-liquid interface evolves from the voids characteristic of melting by rotating convection, to grooves oriented perpendicular or obliquely to the direction of the pressure gradient.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Instability driven by settling and evaporation in a shear flow: a model for asperitas clouds

We study, by direct numerical simulations in two and three dimensions, the instability caused by the settling and evaporation of water droplets out of a cloudy layer saturated with vapour into a dry sub-cloud ambient, under conditions where mammatus clouds were shown to form by [1], but with the addition of background shear. We show that shear changes the type of cloud formation qualitatively, from mammatus-like to a newly identified cloud type called asperitas. Intermediate levels of shear are shown to be needed. Shear suppresses the growth of small-scale perturbations, giving rise to smooth, long-lasting structures, and smaller rates of mixing. Three-dimensionality is shown to make a qualitative difference, unlike in mammatus clouds. We also show that under non-cloud-like conditions, the instability can be very different.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Transport of condensing droplets in Taylor-Green vortex flow in the presence of thermal noise

We study the role of phase change and thermal noise in particle transport in turbulent flows. We employ a toy model to extract the main physics: condensing droplets are modelled as heavy particles which grow in size, the ambient flow is modelled as a two-dimensional Taylor-Green (TG) flow consisting of an array of vortices delineated by separatrices, and thermal noise are modelled as uncorrelated Gaussian white noise. In general, heavy inertial particles are centrifuged out of regions of high vorticity and into regions of high strain. In cellular flows, we find, in agreement with earlier results, that droplets with Stokes numbers smaller than a critical value, $St < St_{\rm{cr}}$, remain trapped in the vortices in which they are initialised, while larger droplets move ballistically away from their initial positions by crossing separatrices. We independently vary the Péclet number $Pe$ characterising the amplitude of thermal noise and the condensation rate $Π$ to study their effects on the critical Stokes number for droplet trapping, as well as on the final states of motion of the droplets. We find that the imposition of thermal noise, or of a finite condensation rate, allows droplets of $St < St_{\rm{cr}}$ to leave their initial vortices. We find that the effects of thermal noise become negligible for growing droplets, and that growing droplets achieve ballistic motion when their Stokes numbers become $\mathcal{O}(1)$. We also find an intermediate regime prior to attaining the ballistic state, in which droplets move diffusively away from their initial vortices in the presence of thermal noise.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Direct numerical simulation of a moist cough flow using Eulerian approximation for liquid droplets

The COVID-19 pandemic has inspired several studies on the fluid dynamics of respiratory events. Here, we propose a computational approach in which respiratory droplets are coarse-grained into an Eulerian liquid field advected by the fluid streamlines. A direct numerical simulation is carried out for a moist cough using a closure model for space-time dependence of the evaporation time scale. Estimates of the Stokes number are provided, for the initial droplet size of $10 μ$m, which are found to be <<1 thereby justifying the neglect of droplet inertia. Several of the important features of the moist-cough flow reported in the literature using Lagrangian tracking methods have been accurately captured using our scheme. Some new results are presented, including the evaporation time for a "mild" cough, a saturation-temperature diagram and a favourable correlation between the vorticity and liquid fields. The present approach is particularly useful for studying the long-range transmission of virus-laden droplets.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Virus transmission by aerosol transport during short conversations

Pathogens like the SARS-CoV-2 are transmitted not only through violent expiratory events like coughing, but also through routine activities like breathing/speaking/singing. We perform direct numerical simulations of the turbulent transport of potentially infectious aerosols in short conversations. It is shown that a two-way conversation significantly reduces the aerosol exposure compared to a relative monologue by one person and relative silence of the other. This is because the interaction of the jets ejected from the mouth of each speaker produce a "canceling" effect. Unequal conversation is shown to significantly increase the risk of infection to the person who talks less. Interestingly, a small height difference is worse for infection spread, due to reduced interference between the two speech jets, than two faces at the same level! For small axial separation, speech jets show large oscillations and reach the other person intermittently. We suggest a range of lateral separations between two people to minimize transmission risk. A realistic estimate of the infection probability is provided by including exposure through eyes and mouth, in addition to the more common method of using inhaled virions alone. We expect that our results will provide useful inputs to epidemiological models and to disease management.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Melting driven by rotating Rayleigh-Bénard convection

We study numerically the melting of a horizontal layer of a pure solid above a convecting layer of its fluid rotating about the vertical axis. In the rotating regime studied here, with Rayleigh numbers of order $10^7$, convection takes the form of columnar vortices, the number and size of which depend upon the Ekman and Prandtl numbers, as well as the geometry -- periodic or confined. As the Ekman and Rayleigh numbers vary, the number and average area of vortices vary in inverse proportion, becoming thinner and more numerous with decreasing Ekman number. The vortices transport heat to the phase boundary thereby controlling its morphology, characterized by the number and size of the voids formed in the solid, and the overall melt rate, which increases when the lower boundary is governed by a no-slip rather than a stress-free velocity boundary condition. Moreover, the number and size of voids formed are relatively insensitive to the Stefan number, here inversely proportional to the latent heat of fusion. For small values of the Stefan number, the convection in the fluid reaches a slowly evolving geostrophic state wherein columnar vortices transport nearly all the heat from the lower boundary to melt the solid at an approximately constant rate. In this quasi-steady state, we find that the Nusselt number, characterizing the heat flux, co-varies with the interfacial roughness, for all the flow parameters and Stefan numbers considered here. This confluence of processes should influence the treatment of moving boundary problems, particularly those in astrophysical and geophysical problems where rotational effects are important.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2021

Fluid dynamics in clouds: The sum of its parts

This entry is aimed at describing cloud physics with an emphasis on fluid dynamics. As is inevitable for a review of an enormously complicated problem, it is highly selective and reflects of the authors' focus. The range of scales involved, and the relevant physics at each scale is described. Particular attention is given to droplet dynamics and growth, and turbulence with and without thermodynamics.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2020

Transient Convective Spin-up Dynamics

We study the formation, longevity and breakdown of convective rings during impulsive spin-up in square and cylindrical containers using direct numerical simulations. The rings, which are axisymmetric alternating regions of up- and down-welling flow that can last for O (100) rotation times, were first demonstrated experimentally and arise due to a balance between Coriolis and viscous effects. We study the formation of these rings in the context of the Greenspan-Howard spin-up process, the disruption of which modifies ring formation and evolution. We show that, unless imprinted by boundary geometry, convective rings can only form when the surface providing buoyancy forcing is a free-slip surface, thereby explaining an apparent disagreement between experimental results in the literature. For Prandtl numbers from 1--5 we find that the longest-lived rings occur for intermediate Prandtl numbers, with a Rossby number dependence. Finally, we find that the constant evaporative heat-flux conditions imposed in the experiments are essential in sustaining the rings and in maintaining the vortices that form in consequence of the ring breakdown.

physics.flu-dyn↗