We investigate, by numerical simulation, the shear layer instability associated with the outer layer of a spiral vortex formed behind an impulsively started thin ellipse. The unstable free shear layer undergoes a secondary instability. We connect this instability with the dynamics of corner vortices adjacent to the tip of the ellipse by observing that the typical turnover time of the corner vortex matches the period of the unstable mode in the shear layer. We suggest that the corner vortex acts as a signal generator, and produces periodic perturbation which triggers the instability.

We establish the variational principle of Kolmogorov-Petrovsky-Piskunov (KPP) front speeds in temporally random shear flows with sufficiently decaying correlations. A key quantity in the variational principle is the almost sure Lyapunov exponent of a heat operator with random potential. To prove the variational principle, we use the comparison principle of solutions, the path integral representation of solutions, and large deviation estimates of the associated stochastic flows. The variational principle then allows us to analytically bound the front speeds. The speed bounds imply the linear growth law in the regime of large root mean square shear amplitude at any fixed temporal correlation length, and the sublinear growth law if the temporal decorrelation is also large enough, the so-called bending phenomenon.

In this paper, we prove that the celebrated Arnold--Beltrami--Childress (ABC) flow with parameters A=B=C=1, given by $ \dot x =\sin z+\cos y,\ \dot y = \sin x+\cos z,\ \dot z =\sin y + \cos x $, has periodic orbits on (2\pi\mathbb T)^3 with rotation vectors parallel to (1,0,0), (0,1,0), and (0,0,1). Despite ABC flows being studied since the 1960s, this seems to be the first time that existence of nonperturbative periodic orbits has been established for them. The main difficulty here is the lack of a variational structure for these flows, and our proof instead relies on their symmetry properties. As an application of our result, we show that the well-known G-equation model of turbulent combustion with this ABC flow on (2\pi\mathbb T)^3 has a linear (i.e., maximal possible) flame speed enhancement rate as the flow amplitude grows to infinity. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first time an asymptotic flame speed growth law has been established for a

In this paper, we consider the Cauchy problem to the planar non-resistive magnetohydrodynamic equations without heat conductivity, and establish the global well-posedness of strong solutions with large initial data. The key ingredient of the proof is to establish the a priori estimates on the effective viscous flux and a newly introduced ``transverse effective viscous flux" vector field inducted by the transverse magnetic field. The initial density is assumed only to be uniformly bounded and of finite mass and, in particular, the vacuum and discontinuities of the density are allowed.

We prove that classical solution of the spatially inhomogeneous and angular non-cutoff Boltzmann equation is C with respect to all variables, locally in the space and time variables. The proof relies on a generalized uncertainty principle, some improved upper bound and coercivity estimates on the nonlinear collision operator, and some subtle analysis on the commutators between the collision operators and some appropriately chosen pseudo-differential operators. To cite this article: R. Alexandre et al., CR Acad. Sci. Paris, Ser. I 347 (2009).