Experimental analysis of coaxial jets: instability, flow and mixing characterization

The velocity and mixing field of two turbulent jets configurations have been experimentally characterized by means of cold- and hot-wire anemometry in order to investigate the effects of the initial conditions on the flow development. In particular, experiments have been focused on the effect of the separation wall between the two streams on the flow field. The results of the experiments have pointed out that the wake behind a thick wall separating wall has a strong influence on the flow field evolution. For instance, for nearly unitary velocity ratios, a clear vortex shedding from the wall is observable. This phenomenon enhances the mixing between the inner and outer shear layer. This enhancement in the fluctuating activity is a consequence of a local absolute instability of the flow which, for a small range of velocity ratios, behaves as an hydrodynamic oscillator with no sensibility to external perturbations. It has been suggested indeed that this absolute instability can be used as a passive method to control the flow evolution. Finally, acoustic excitation has been applied to the near field in order to verify whether or not the observed vortex shedding behind the separating wall is due to a global oscillating mode as predicted by the theory. A new scaling relationship has been also proposed to determine the preferred frequency for nearly unitary velocity ratios. The proposed law takes into account both the Reynolds number and the velocity ratio dependence of this frequency and, therefore, improves all the previously proposed relationships.

Chemical and kinematical properties of Blue Straggler stars in Galactic globular clusters

Blue straggler stars (BSSs) are brighter and bluer (hotter) than the main-sequence (MS) turnoff and they are known to be more massive than MS stars.Two main scenarios for their formation have been proposed:collision-induced stellar mergers (COL-BSSs),or mass-transfer in binary systems (MT-BSSs).Depleted surface abundances of C and O are expected for MT-BSSs,whereas no chemical anomalies are predicted for COL-BSSs.Both MT- and COL-BSSs should rotate fast, but braking mechanisms may intervene with efficiencies and time-scales not well known yet,thus preventing a clear prediction of the expected rotational velocities.Within this context,an extensive survey is ongoing by using the multi-object spectrograph FLAMES@VLT,with the aim to obtain abundance patterns and rotational velocities for representative samples of BSSs in several Galactic GCs.A sub-population of CO-depleted BSSs has been identified in 47 Tuc,with only one fast rotating star detected.For this PhD Thesis work I analyzed FLAMES spectra of more than 130 BSSs in four GCs:M4,NGC 6397,M30 and ω Centauri.This is the largest sample of BSSs spectroscopically investigated so far.Hints of CO depletion have been observed in only 4-5 cases (in M30 and ω Centauri),suggesting either that the majority of BSSs have a collisional origin,or that the CO-depletion is a transient phenomenon.Unfortunately,no conclusions in terms of formation mechanism could be drawn in a large number of cases,because of the effects of radiative levitation. Remarkably,however,this is the first time that evidence of radiative levitation is found in BSSs hotter than 8200 K.Finally, we also discovered the largest fractions of fast rotating BSSs ever observed in any GCs:40% in M4 and 30% in ω Centauri.While not solving the problem of BSS formation,these results provide invaluable information about the BSS physical properties,which is crucial to build realistic models of their evolution.