Streamwise streaks are ubiquitous in transitional boundary layers, particularly when subjected to high levels of free-stream turbulence. Using the steady boundary-layer approximation, the upstream disturbances experiencing maximum spatial energy growth are numerically calculated. The calculations use techniques commonly employed when solving optimal-control problems for distributed parameter systems. The calculated optimal disturbances consist of streamwise vortices developing into streamwise streaks. The maximum spatial energy growth was found to scale linearly with the distance from the leading edge. Based on these results, a simple model for prediction of transition location is proposed. Available experiments have been used to correlate the single constant appearing in the model.

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Problems with tin and copper antifouling compounds have highlighted the need to develop new environmentally friendly antifouling coatings. Bacteria isolated from living surfaces in the marine environment are a promising source of natural antifouling compounds. Four isolates were used to produce extracts that were formulated into ten water-based paints. All but one of the paints showed activity against a test panel of fouling bacteria. Five of the paints were further tested for their ability to inhibit the settlement of barnacle larvae, Balanus amphitrite, and algal spores of Ulva lactuca, and for their ability to inhibit the growth of U. lactuca. Two paints caused a significant decrease in the number of settled barnacles. One paint containing extract of Pseudomonas sp. strain NUDMB50-11, showed excellent activity in all assays. The antifouling chemicals responsible for the activity of the extract were isolated, using bioassay guided fractionation, and their chemical structures determined.

Shape optimization of an acoustic horn is performed with the goal to minimize the portion of the wave that is reflected. The analysis of the acoustical properties of the horn is performed using a finite element method for the Helmholtz equation.The optimization is performed employing a BFGS Quasi-Newton algorithm, where the gradients are provided by solving the associated adjoint equations. To avoid local solutions to the optimization problem corresponding to irregular shapes of the horn, a filtering technique is used that applies smoothing to the design updates and the gradient. This smoothing technique can be combined with Tikhonov regularization. However, experiments indicate that regularization is redundant for the optimization problems we consider here. However, the use of smoothing is crucial to obtain sensible solutions. The smoothing technique we use is equivalent to choosing a representation of the gradient of the objective function in an inner product involving second derivatives along the design boundary.Optimization is performed for a number of single frequencies as well as for a band of frequencies. For single frequency optimization, the method shows particularly fast convergence with indications of super-linear convergence close to optimum. For optimization on a range of frequencies, a design was achieved providing a low and even reflection throughout the entire frequency band of interest.