This volume contributes to one of the most important topics of Fluid Mechanics in future and presents recent research results on control theory and applied control methods. Understanding and handling of control methods of nonlinear systems, typical of Fluid Mechanics, is the key to reduce losses and to improve the efficiency and safety of technical processes.

Developing clean, sustainable energy systems is a pre-eminent issue of our time. Most projections indicate that combustion-based energy conversion systems will continue to be the predominant approach for the majority of our energy usage. Unsteady combustor issues present the key challenge associated with the development of clean, high-efficiency combustion systems such as those used for power generation, heating or propulsion applications. This comprehensive study is unique, treating the subject in a systematic manner. Although this book focuses on unsteady combusting flows, it places particular emphasis on the system dynamics that occur at the intersection of the combustion, fluid mechanics and acoustic disciplines. Individuals with a background in fluid mechanics and combustion will find this book to be an incomparable study that synthesises these fields into a coherent understanding of the intrinsically unsteady processes in combustors.

Addressing classical material as well as new perspectives, Instabilities of Flows and Transition to Turbulence presents a concise, up-to-date treatment of theory and applications of viscous flow instability. It covers materials from classical instability to contemporary research areas including bluff body flow instability, mixed convection flows, and application areas of aerospace and other branches of engineering. Transforms and perturbation techniques are used to link linear instability with receptivity of flows, as developed by the author. The book: Provides complete coverage of transition concepts, including receptivity and flow instability Introduces linear receptivity using bi-lateral Fourier-Laplace transform techniques Presents natural laminar flow (NLF) airfoil analysis and design as a practical application of classical and bypass transition Distinguishes strictly between instability and receptivity, which leads to identification of wall- and free stream-modes Describes energy-based receptivity theory for the description of bypass transitions Instabilities of Flows and Transition to Turbulence has evolved into an account of the personal research interests of the author over the years. A conscious effort has been made to keep the treatment at an elementary level requiring rudimentary knowledge of calculus, the Fourier-Laplace transform, and complex analysis. The book is equally amenable to undergraduate students, as well as researchers in the field.

Master the theory, applications and control mechanisms of flow control techniques.

A detailed look at some of the more modern issues of hydrodynamic stability, including transient growth, eigenvalue spectra, secondary instability. It presents analytical results and numerical simulations, linear and selected nonlinear stability methods. By including classical results as well as recent developments in the field of hydrodynamic stability and transition, the book can be used as a textbook for an introductory, graduate-level course in stability theory or for a special-topics fluids course. It is equally of value as a reference for researchers in the field of hydrodynamic stability theory or with an interest in recent developments in fluid dynamics. Stability theory has seen a rapid development over the past decade, this book includes such new developments as direct numerical simulations of transition to turbulence and linear analysis based on the initial-value problem.

This book presents the new discovery of the origin of turbulence from Navier–Stokes equations. The fully developed turbulence is found to be composed of singularities of flow field. The mechanisms of flow stability and turbulent transition are described using the energy gradient theory, which states all the flow instability and breakdown resulted from the gradient of the total mechanical energy normal to the flow direction. This approach is universal for flow instability in Newtonian flow and non-Newtonian flow. The theory has been used to solve several problems, such as plane and pipe Poiseuille flows, plane Couette flow, Taylor–Couette flow, flows in straight coaxial annulus, flows in curved pipes and ducts, thermal convection flow, viscoelastic flow, and magnet fluid flow, etc. The theory is in agreement with results from numerical simulations and experiments. The analytical method used in this book is novel and is different from the traditional approaches. This book includes the fundamental basics of flow stability and turbulent transition, the essentials of the energy gradient theory, and the applications of the theory to several practical problems. This book is suitable for researchers and graduate students.

This single-volume work gives an introduction to the fields of transition, turbulence, and combustion modeling of compressible flows and provides the physical background for today’s modeling approaches in these fields. It presents basic equations and discusses fundamental aspects of hydrodynamical instability.