Network-Theoretic Modeling of Fluid Flow
Abstract
A network-theoretic framework has been developed to model unsteady flows. Network analysis has been utilized to examine a wide variety of large-scale problems, including control of disease transmission, robust operation of power grids/internet, and uncovering brain functionality. The present investigation extends the network-theoretic approaches to describe the complex nonlinear behavior of unsteady fluid flows with particular focus on vortex interaction and modal energy transfer. Three canonical unsteady fluid flow problems are examined with network analysis: (1) discrete vortex dynamics, (2) modal interaction during wake formation in cylinder flow, and (3) two-dimensional isotropic homogeneous turbulence. Graph theory is utilized to extract important fluid flow interactions, which enabled the development of a sparsified vortex dynamics model. The network-based approach to examine the energy transfer between modal fluid flow structures has allowed for intuitive understanding of how perturbation or control input can alter the dynamics of the global fluid flow. At last, it was revealed that two-dimensional turbulence has an underlying scale-free network structure. The findings from the present study lay out a foundation to perform further network-based characterization and control to modify the collective behavior of unsteady fluid flows.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 29, 2015
- Accession Number
- AD1001358
Entities
People
- Kunihiko Taira
Organizations
- Florida State University