A framework for the input-output analysis, model reduction and control design of spatially developing shear flows is presented using the Blasius boundary-layer flow as an example. An input-output formulation of the governing equations yields a flexible formulation for treating stability problems and for developing control strategies that optimize given objectives. Model reduction plays an important role in this process since the dynamical systems that describe most flows are discretized partial differential equations with a very large number of degrees of freedom. Moreover, as system theoretical tools, such as controllability, observability and balancing has become computationally tractable for large-scale systems, a systematic approach to model reduction is presented.

A new method, enabling the computation of steady solutions of the Navier-Stokes equations in globally unstable configurations, is presented. We show that it is possible to reach a steady state by damping the unstable (temporal) frequencies. This is achieved by adding a dissipative relaxation term proportional to the high-frequency content of the velocity fluctuations. Results are presented for cavity-driven boundary-layer separation and a separation bubble induced by an external pressure gradient. © 2006 American Institute of Physics

This article investigates the appearance of instabilities in two planar coflowing fluid sheets with different densities and viscosities via experiments, numerical simulation and linear stability analysis. At low dynamic pressure ratios a convective instability is shown to appear for which the frequency of the waves in the primary atomization region is influenced by both liquid and gas velocities. For large dynamic pressure ratios an asymptotic regime is obtained in which frequency is solely controlled by gas velocity and the instability becomes absolute. The transition from convective to absolute is shown to be influenced by the velocity defect induced by the presence of the separator plate. We show that in this regime the splitter plate thickness can also affect the nature of the instability if it is larger than the gas vorticity thickness. Computational and experimental results are in agreement with the predictions of a spatio-temporal stability analysis.