We provide an overview of current techniques and typical applications of numerical bifurcation analysis in fluid dynamical problems. Many of these problems are characterized by high-dimensional dynamical systems which undergo transitions as parameters are changed. The computation of the critical conditions associated with these transitions, popularly referred to as 'tipping points', is important for understanding the transition mechanisms. We describe the two basic classes of methods of numerical bifurcation analysis, which differ in the explicit or implicit use of the Jacobian matrix of the dynamical system. The numerical challenges involved in both methods are mentioned and possible solutions to current bottlenecks are given. To demonstrate that numerical bifurcation techniques are not restricted to relatively low-dimensional dynamical systems, we provide several examples of the application of the modern techniques to a diverse set of fluid mechanical problems

SUMMARYSeveral problems on three-dimensional instability of axisymmetric steady flows driven by convection or rotation or both are studied by a second-order finite volume method combined with the Fourier decomposition in the periodic azimuthal direction. The study is focused on the convergence of the critical parameters with mesh refinement. The calculations are done on the uniform and stretched grids with variation of the stretching. Converged results are reported for all the problems considered and are compared with the previously published data. Some of the calculated critical parameters are reported for the first time. The convergence studies show that the three-dimensional instability of axisymmetric flows can be computed with a good accuracy only on fine enough grids having about 100 nodes in the shortest spatial direction. It is argued that a combination of fine uniform grids with the Richardson extrapolation can be a good replacement for a grid stretching. It is shown once more that the sparseness of the Jacobian matrices produced by the finite volume method allows one to enhance performance of the Newton and Arnoldi iteration procedures by combining them with a direct sparse linear solver instead of using the Krylov-subspace-based iteration methods.

A numerical investigation of steady states, their stability, onset of oscillatory instability, and slightly supercritical unsteady regimes of an axisymmetric swirling flow of a Newtonian incompressible fluid in a closed circular cylinder with a rotating lid is presented for aspect ratio (height/radius) 1 [les ] γ [les ] 3.5. Various criteria for the appearance of vortex breakdown are discussed. It is shown that vortex breakdown takes place in this system not as a result of instability but as a continuous evolution of the stationary meridional flow with increasing Reynolds number. The dependence of the critical Reynolds number Recr and frequency of oscillations ωcr on the aspect ratio of the cylinder γ is obtained. It is found that the neutral curve Recr(γ) and the curve ωcr(γ) consist of three successive continuous segments corresponding to different modes of the dominant perturbation. The calculated critical parameters are in good agreement with the available experimental and numerical data for γ < 3. It is shown that the onset of the oscillatory instability does not depend on the existence of a separation bubble in the subcritical steady state. By means of a weakly nonlinear analysis it is shown that the axisymmetric oscillatory instability sets in as a result of a supercritical Hopf bifurcation for each segment of the neutral curve. A weakly nonlinear asymptotic approximation of slightly supercritical flows is carried out. The results of the weakly nonlinear analysis are verified by direct numerical solution of the unsteady Navier-Stokes equation using the finite volume method. The analysis of the supercritical flow field for aspect ratio less than 1.75, for which no steady vortex breakdown is found, shows the existence of an oscillatory vortex breakdown which develops as a result of the oscillatory instability.

A series of time-dependent three-dimensional ͑3D͒ computations of a lid-driven flow in a cube with no-slip boundaries is performed to find the critical Reynolds number corresponding to the steady-oscillatory transition. The computations are done in a fully coupled pressure-velocity formulation on 104 3 , 152 3 , and 200 3 stretched grids. Grid-independence of the results is established. It is found that the oscillatory instability of the flow sets in via a subcritical symmetry-breaking Hopf bifurcation at Re cr Ϸ 1914 with the nondimensional frequency = 0.575. Three-dimensional patterns in the steady and oscillatory flow regimes are compared with the previously studied two-dimensional configuration and a three-dimensional model with periodic boundary conditions imposed in the spanwise direction.

A parametric study of multiple steady states, their stability, onset of oscillatory instability, and some supercritical unsteady regimes of convective flow of a Boussinesq fluid in laterally heated rectangular cavities is presented. Cavities with four no-slip boundaries, isothermal vertical and perfectly insulated horizontal boundaries are considered. Four distinct branches of steady-state flows are found for this configuration. A complete study of stability of each branch is performed for the aspect ratio A (length/height) of the cavity varying continuously from 1 to 11 and for two fixed values of the Prandtl number: P r = 0 and P r = 0.015. The results are represented as stability diagrams showing the critical parameters (critical Grashof number and the frequency at the onset of the oscillatory instability) corresponding to transitions from steady to oscillatory states, appearance of multi-roll states, merging of multiple states and backwards transitions from multi-roll to single-roll states. For better comparison with the existing experimental data, an additional stability study for varying Prandtl number (0.015 6 P r 6 0.03) and fixed value of the aspect ratio A = 4 was carried out. It was shown that the dependence of the critical Grashof number on the aspect ratio and the Prandtl number is very complicated and a very detailed parametric study is required to reproduce it correctly. Comparison with the available experimental data for A = 4 shows that the results of a two-dimensional stability analysis are in good agreement with the experimental results if the width ratio (width/height) of the experimental container is sufficiently large. The study is carried out numerically with the use of two independent numerical approaches based on the global Galerkin and finite-volume methods.