NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF NONLINEAR WAVES IN FREE SHEAR LAYERS (MIXING, COMPUTATIONAL, FLUID DYNAMICS, HYDRODYNAMIC STABILITY, SPATIAL, FLUID FLOW MODEL).

Abstract

A numerical model has been developed which simulates the three-dimensional stability and transition of a periodically forced free shear layer in an incompressible fluid. Unlike previous simulations of temporally evolving shear layers, the current simulations examine spatial stability. The spatial model accommodates features of free shear flow, observed in experiments, which in the temporal model are precluded by the assumption of streamwise periodicity; e.g., divergence of the mean flow and wave dispersion. The Navier-Stokes equations in vorticity-velocity form are integrated using a combination of numerical methods tailored to the physical problem. A spectral method is adopted in the spanwise dimension in which the flow variables, assumed to be periodic, are approximated by finite Fourier series. In complex Fourier space, the governing equations are spatially two-dimensional. Standard central finite differences are exploited in the remaining two spatial dimensions. For computational efficiency, time evolution is accomplished by a combination of implicit and explicit methods. Linear diffusion terms are advanced by an Alternating Direction Implicit/Crank-Nicolson scheme whereas the Adams-Bashforth method is applied to convection terms. Nonlinear terms are evaluated at each new time level by the pseudospectral (collocation) method. Solutions to the velocity equations, which are elliptic, are obtained iteratively by approximate factorization. The spatial model requires that inflow-outflow boundary conditions be prescribed. Inflow conditions are derived from a similarity solution for the mean inflow profile onto which periodic forcing is superimposed. Forcing functions are derived from inviscid linear stability theory. A numerical test case is selected which closely parallels a well-known physical experiment. Many of the aspects of forced shear layer behavior observed in the physical experiment are captured by the spatial simulation. These include initial linear growth of the fundamental, vorticity roll-up, fundamental saturation, eventual domination of the subharmonic, vortex pairing, emergence of streamwise vorticity, and temporary stabilization of the secondary instability. Moreover, the spatial simulation predicts the experimentally observed superlinear growth of harmonics at rates 1.5 times that of the fundamental. Superlinear growth rates suggest nonlinear resonances between fundamental and harmonic modes which are not captured by temporal simulations.