arXiv subjects

Themistoklis Sapsis

Publications and source records attributed to Themistoklis Sapsis.

21 records · Page 2Linked to original sources

arXiv2019

Surface waves enhance particle dispersion

We study the horizontal dispersion of passive tracer particles on the free surface of gravity waves in deep water. For random linear waves with the JONSWAP spectrum, the Lagrangian particle trajectories are computed using an exact nonlinear model known as the John--Sclavounos equation. We show that the single-particle dispersion exhibits an unusual super-diffusive behavior. In particular, for large times $t$, the variance of the tracer $\langle |X(t)|^2\rangle$ increases as a quadratic function of time, i.e., $\langle |X(t)|^2\rangle\sim t^2$. This dispersion is markedly faster than Taylor's single-particle dispersion theory which predicts that the variance of passive tracers grows linearly with time for large $t$. Our results imply that the wave motion significantly enhances the dispersion of fluid particles. We show that this super-diffusive behavior is a result of the long-term correlation of the Lagrangian velocities of fluid parcels on the free surface.

physics.flu-dyn↗

arXiv2016

Dynamical indicators for the prediction of bursting phenomena in high-dimensional systems

Drawing upon the bursting mechanism in slow-fast systems, we propose indicators for the prediction of such rare extreme events which do not require a priori known slow and fast coordinates. The indicators are associated with functionals defined in terms of Optimally Time Dependent (OTD) modes. One such functional has the form of the largest eigenvalue of the symmetric part of the linearized dynamics reduced to these modes. In contrast to other choices of subspaces, the proposed modes are flow invariant and therefore a projection onto them is dynamically meaningful. We illustrate the application of these indicators on three examples: a prototype low-dimensional model, a body forced turbulent fluid flow, and a unidirectional model of nonlinear water waves. We use Bayesian statistics to quantify the predictive power of the proposed indicators.

math.DS↗

arXiv2015

A minimization principle for the description of time-dependent modes associated with transient instabilities

We introduce a minimization formulation for the determination of a finite-dimensional, time-dependent, orthonormal basis that captures directions of the phase space associated with transient instabilities. While these instabilities have finite lifetime they can play a crucial role by either altering the system dynamics through the activation of other instabilities, or by creating sudden nonlinear energy transfers that lead to extreme responses. However, their essentially transient character makes their description a particularly challenging task. We develop a minimization framework that focuses on the optimal approximation of the system dynamics in the neighborhood of the system state. This minimization formulation results in differential equations that evolve a time-dependent basis so that it optimally approximates the most unstable directions. We demonstrate the capability of the method for two families of problems: i) linear systems including the advection-diffusion operator in a strongly non-normal regime as well as the Orr-Sommerfeld/Squire operator, and ii) nonlinear problems including a low-dimensional system with transient instabilities and the vertical jet in crossflow. We demonstrate that the time-dependent subspace captures the strongly transient non-normal energy growth (in the short time regime), while for longer times the modes capture the expected asymptotic behavior.

physics.comp-ph↗