Feedback control and modal structures in transitional shear flows

Sammanfattning:  Two types of shear flows are investigated in this thesis; numerical simulations are performed for the analysis and control of the perturbation arising in a boundary layer over a flat plate, whereas PIV measurements are analysed for the investigation of a confined turbulent jet. Modal structures of the flows are identified: the aim is to understand the flow phenomena and to identify reduced-order models for the feedback control design. The attenuation of three-dimensional wavepackets of streaks and Tollmien-Schlichting (TS) waves in the boundary layer is obtained using feedback control based on arrays of spatially localized sensors and actuators distributed near the rigid wall. In order to tackle the difficulties arising due to the dimension of the discretized Navier-Stokes operator, a reduced-order model is identified, preserving the dynamics between the inputs and the outputs; to this end, approximate balanced truncation is used. Thus, control theory tools can be easily handled using the low-order model. We demonstrate that the energy growth of both TS wavepackets and streak-packets is substantially and efficiently mitigated, using relatively few sensors and actuators. The robustness of the controller is investigated by varying the number of actuators and ensors, the Reynolds number and the pressure gradient. The configuration can be possibly reproduced in experiments, due to the localization of sensing and actuation devices. A complete analysis of a confined turbulent jet is carried out using timeresolved PIV measurements. Proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) modes and Koopman modes are computed and analysed for understanding the main features of the flow. The frequencies related to the dominating mechanisms are identified; the most energetic structures show temporal periodicity.