No 1 (2023)

Gas dynamic models of the interaction between the solar wind and cometary atmospheres
are considered. Interest in the development of such models arose sharply after the beginning of the investigations of comets with the use of spacecraft launched at distances close to their surfaces. The instruments on this spacecraft gave the possibility to investigate experimentally the parameters of gas flow out from the cometary surfaces when the comets approach the Sun and its interaction with the solar wind plasma flow, which could not be made using only the spectral photometry. The beginning of such studies was started by almost instantaneous approaching of several space probes to Halley’s Comet on March 1986. Only after 28 years, the Rosetta spacecraft launched by the European Space Agency (ESA) along a complex trajectory have approached comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko and, maneuvering in the neighborhood of this comet during more than two years, it, in particular, have investigated the interaction of the cometary atmosphere and the solar wind

The efficiency of two types of wave propulsors (WPs) (a swinging spring-loaded wing WP
and a direct-flow WP) is experimentally studied on a model of a small-waterplane-area-twin-hull
(SWATH) boat. The NACA0015 airfoil was used as an operating element of both the swinging and the
direct-flow WPs. In the case of a direct-flow WP, the flat airfoil was rigidly fixed relative to the boat
hull with a chord inclination of 30. The operating efficiency of the wave propulsors is studied for
waves of various lengths depending on the draft of the SWATH boat hulls, and in the case of a swinging
spring-loaded wing WP, also on the submergence depth of the propulsor. Using the results of towing
tests, the thrust force of a direct-flow WP is estimated under various operating conditions. It is found
that with increase in the submergence depth of the boat hulls, the efficiency of the direct-flow WP
increases, while the efficiency of the swinging WP decreases, however, it largely retains its operability,
provided that the WP operating element remains at the optimal depth close to the water surface.

The effect of positive thermodiffusion of colloidal particles under convection of magnetic
fluids in connected vertical channels of 3.2 × 3.2 mm2 square cross-section and height 50 mm heated from below is analyzed. Below the critical Rayleigh number, particle thermophoresis in vertical generates unstable density stratification in fluid at rest. This leads to rapid bursts (~1 min) of concentration convection arising periodically (~4 h). Under developed convection, above the critical Rayleigh number particle thermophoresis in horizontal direction generates concentration inhomogeneities in the neighborhood of the channel walls and provokes convective flow instability that leads to the periodic
change (~1 h) in the direction of convective stream. The reasons of the oscillatory instability of mechanical equilibrium observed experimentally at positive sign of the Soret coefficient are discussed. 

The effect of confinement of flow over the transversal coordinate on cross flow past a circular cylinder at the Reynolds numbers from 40 to 255 (based on the cylinder diameter and the undisturbed flow velocity) is studied numerically and experimentally. In the experiments, the cylinder was located in a rectangular channel and, in the case of numerical simulation, three types of the boundary conditions, namely, the periodic boundary conditions and the slip and no-slip conditions were imposed on the side walls confining the flow. Particular attention is concentrated on the vertical flow structure in the cylinder wake. It is shown that spiral vortices that travel in the plane of symmetry of the channel are formed only in the case of no-slip boundary conditions in the region of junction of the cylinder and the side walls. Under their interaction, vortex clusters are formed in the center of channel and some indications to flow turbulization can be observed in the wake. Under the periodic boundary conditions and the slip conditions on the side walls, there are no spiral vortices and, in the Re range from 200 to 250, the A and B modes of three-dimensional instability and turbulence transition are implemented in the cylinder wake. The effect of the channel width and the type of boundary conditions on the side walls on the vortex wake structure behind the cylinder and integral flow parameters is estimated.

The lift airfoils close to the airfoils optimal with respect to the critical Mach numbers М* of two-dimensional bodies optimal with respect to М* are constructed using the direct method. Their almost zero wave drag coefficients сх remain the same not only at the free-stream Mach numbers М0 which are lower than М* but also at М0 perceptibly higher than М*. These new lift airfoils differ from the supercritical lift airfoils whose сх grow extremely rapidly when М0 becomes higher than the designed values. At identical thicknesses and М0 = М* the supercritical lift airfoils implement the greater lift coefficients су. However, due to the difference in the behavior of сх at М0 which are higher than the designed ones, the lift-drag ratio of the supercritical airfoils can become lower for the ratio of су not to сх, but even to the coefficient of total drag.

The results of studies of the effect of volume and surface pulse discharges on high-speed gas flow in a rectangular shock-tube channel with a change in the profile (obstacle on the lower wall) are given. A single nanosecond surface discharge or a discharge with preionization induced by the plasma electrodes (combined discharge) was initiated in flow downstream of the shock wave with the Mach numbers Ms = 3.2–3.4. The obstacle determines the distribution of the parameters of flow past the obstacle and the pulse discharge plasma redistribution. The density fields of gas dynamic flow under the experimental conditions are obtained and compared with the discharge plasma distribution. It is shown that the shock-wave effect of the discharge on flow behind the obstacle continued from 25 to 70 μs.