Robust and efficient identification of optimal mixing perturbations using proxy multiscale measures.

Understanding and optimizing passive scalar mixing in a diffusive fluid flow at finite Péclet number [Formula: see text] (where [Formula: see text] and [Formula: see text] are characteristic velocity and length scales, and [Formula: see text] is the molecular diffusivisity of the scalar) is a fundamental problem of interest in many environmental and industrial flows. Particularly when [Formula: see text], identifying initial perturbations of given energy that optimally and thoroughly mix fluids of initially different properties can be computationally challenging. To address this challenge, we consider the identification of initial perturbations in an idealized two-dimensional flow on a torus that extremize various measures over finite time horizons.

Stability of the Interaction between Two Sand Dunes in an Idealized Laboratory Experiment.

Sand dunes, which arise spontaneously due to the dynamical interplay between a sedimentary interface and a fluid flow, are one of the most famous examples of emergence in a geological system. The large scale organization of a dune field is believed to be controlled by pairwise (either remote or direct) dune-dune interactions. Recent studies have shown that remote long-range feedback is closely related to the turbulent wake structure forming downstream of a dune.

Wake Induced Long Range Repulsion of Aqueous Dunes.

Sand dunes rarely occur in isolation, but usually form vast dune fields. The large scale dynamics of these fields is hitherto poorly understood, not least due to the lack of longtime observations. Theoretical models usually abstract dunes in a field as self-propelled autonomous agents, exchanging mass, either remotely or as a consequence of collisions.