Session: 10-04-01: Young Engineer Paper (YEP) Contest Fluids Engineering Division

Paper Number: 145455

145455 - Frequency Content and Related Flow Physics of Kelvin-Helmholtz and Rayleigh-Taylor Instabilities 

This study is to investigate the driving physics in two elementary flow instabilities, Kelvin-Helmholtz (KHI) and Rayleigh-Taylor instability (RTI). Both KHI and RTI are frequently encountered flow instabilities in nature. Using CFD simulation, each instability is simulated individually and then combined to generate flow structures for analysis. The simulation results are then used for reduced order analyses to study the flow structures and their related frequency contents. Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (POD) and Spectral Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (SPOD) are used to extract the spatiotemporal modes. The results show KHI frequencies are related to inlet velocity perturbation and shear properties. RTI analyses reveal no apparent dominant frequencies. Combined KHRTI analyses exhibit apparent dominant frequency peaks which appear to be induced by interactions between KHI and RTI.

 

Presenting Author: Hayden Baird Utah State University

Presenting Author Biography: Hayden Baird is a current undergraduate student at Utah State University. His research focuses on Fluid Mechanics.

Authors:

Hayden Baird Utah State University
Hao Zhou Utah State University
Zhongquan Charlie Zheng Utah State University