Sunetra Sarkar

Bio: Sunetra Sarkar is an academic researcher from Indian Institute of Technology Madras. The author has contributed to research in topics: Airfoil & Polynomial chaos. The author has an hindex of 16, co-authored 95 publications receiving 819 citations. Previous affiliations of Sunetra Sarkar include Delft University of Technology & Indian Institute of Science.

Intermittency in pitch-plunge aeroelastic systems explained through stochastic bifurcations

Abstract: Aeroelastic systems with hardening nonlinearity exhibit supercritical Hopf bifurcation when the flow velocity exceeds a critical velocity leading to self-sustaining large amplitude limit cycle oscillations known as flutter. This study investigates the effects of irregular fluctuations in the flow on the dynamical stability characteristics of a two-degree-of-freedom pitch-plunge aeroelastic system with hardening nonlinearity. Dynamical or D-bifurcations are investigated through the computation of the largest Lyapunov exponent, while phenomenological or P-bifurcation analysis is carried out by examining the structure of the joint probability density function of the response quantities and their instantaneous time derivatives. The qualitative nature of P-bifurcation analysis makes it difficult to pinpoint the regimes of different response dynamics. In the light of this difficulty, a quantitative analysis using the Shannon entropy measure has been undertaken to quantify the P-bifurcation regime. This regime is shown to be coincident with the intermittency regime observed in the response time histories prior to flutter oscillations in fluctuating flows.

Investigations on a vortex induced vibration based energy harvester

Abstract: This study investigates energy harvesting from vortex induced vibrations of a flexible cantilevered flapper placed in the wake of a rigid circular cylinder. The effect of the gap between the cylinder and the flapper on the energy harvested is investigated through wind tunnel experiments and numerical simulations. As the flow speed is varied, a transition in the flapper dynamics is observed, which in turn affects the power extracted by the harvester. Numerical investigations reveal that the flapper dynamics is different depending on whether the vortices are shed ahead or behind the flapper. This study concludes that the choice of the gap influences the energy harvesting potential of such harvesters.

Calculation of Gauss quadrature rules.

Abstract: Most numerical integration techniques consist of approximating the integrand by a polynomial in a region or regions and then integrating the polynomial exactly. Often a complicated integrand can be factored into a non-negative ''weight'' function and another function better approximated by a polynomial, thus $\int_{a}^{b} g(t)dt = \int_{a}^{b} \omega (t)f(t)dt \approx \sum_{i=1}^{N} w_i f(t_i)$. Hopefully, the quadrature rule ${\{w_j, t_j\}}_{j=1}^{N}$ corresponding to the weight function $\omega$(t) is available in tabulated form, but more likely it is not. We present here two algorithms for generating the Gaussian quadrature rule defined by the weight function when: a) the three term recurrence relation is known for the orthogonal polynomials generated by $\omega$(t), and b) the moments of the weight function are known or can be calculated.

Journal of Fluid Mechanics创刊50周年

Abstract: 流体力学杂志“Journal of Fluid Mechanics”由剑桥大学教授George Batchelor在1956年5月创办，在国际流体力学界享有很高的学术声望，被公认为是流体力学最著名的学术刊物之一，2005年的影响因子为2．061，雄居同类期刊之首．在它创刊50周年之际，2006年5月JFM出版了第554卷的纪念特刊，其中刊登了现任主编（美国西北大学S．H．Davis教授和英国剑桥大学T．J．Pedley教授）合写的述评：“Editorial：JFM at50”，以JFM为背景，从独特的视角对近50年来流体力学的发展进行了简明的回顾和展望，并归纳了一系列非常有启发性的有趣统计数字．2006年7月21日在剑桥大学应用数学和理论物理研究所（DAMTP）举行了创刊50周年的庆祝会．下午2点，JFM的新老编辑和来宾会聚一堂，Pedley教授致开幕词，其后是5个精彩的报告：The mysterious rattleback and its fluid counterpart（Keith Moffatt），Developments in shear instabilities（Patrick Huerre），Falling clouds（Elisabeth Guazzelli），Ecotectural fluid mechanics（Paul Linden），The success of JFM（Herbert Huppert），最后由Davis教授致闭幕词．

Effects of the computational time step on numerical solutions for turbulent flow

Abstract: Effects of large computational time steps on the computed turbulence were investigated using a fully implicit method. In turbulent channel flow computations the largest computational time step in wall units which led to accurate prediction of turbulence statistics was determined. Turbulence fluctuations could not be sustained if the computational time step was near or larger than the Kolmogorov time scale.