Fluctuating Pressure Gradients Research Articles

Fluctuating pressure gradients and corrugated surfaces effects on wind turbines power output

This paper investigates the effect of corrugated surfaces on the wind turbines power output for both laminar and turbulent flows. Conservation principles including continuity and momentum equations, wind turbine power equations, and the corrugated surface equation have been implemented to build up a theoretical model then which has been solved using MATLAB. This model simulates wind turbines power output and analyzes several case studies implementing different parameters such as air pressure wave amplitude (Po), air wave fluctuation frequency (n), and wind layer turbulence (b). Also, different complex terrains in two main scenarios representing two different positions (X) of the wind turbine are analyzed. This analysis indicates the importance of wind turbines micro siting. In addition, it is found that increasing the pressure ratio increased wind turbine power output, while increasing the frequency decreased the power ratio of the wind turbines for both laminar and turbulent flow conditions. Increasing turbulence for the turbulent model increased the power ratio.

Design of convertible patient care unit for both non-pandemic and pandemic times: Prototype, building spatial layout, and ventilation design

Convertible patient care units can accommodate non-respiratory infectious disease patients in non-pandemic times and provide isolated treatment for respiratory infectious disease patients during pandemic times. A prototype convertible patient care unit covering a floor area of 1518 m2, featuring 16 wards, and accommodating 40 beds was developed to examine the impact of building spatial layout and ventilation design on the inter-zonal airborne transmission and energy use intensity (EUI) during both non-pandemic and pandemic times. Building spatial layout referred to the presence of patient corridors and anterooms, while ventilation design referred to the location of air terminals and the calculation method of residual air volume (namely, difference between supply and exhaust airflow rates). Adding anterooms provided an 18 % reduction in pressure gradient fluctuations during door-opening events. The absence of exhaust in the medical corridor, anterooms, and wards increased contamination leakages to the patient corridors. Using the differential pressure method to calculate residual air volume was more effective in controlling the inter-zonal pressure gradient than the fixed residual air volume method. Various conversion methods resulted in an 84%–134 % increase of EUI compared to non-pandemic times, without, however, corresponding reduction in inter-zonal airborne transmission risk. The condition of adding both patient corridors and anterooms, exhaust-only patient corridors, anterooms with balanced supply-exhaust airflow rates, and differential pressure method to calculate residual air volume were effective conversion strategies to simultaneously address both the inter-zonal airborne transmission and EUI. These findings provide fundamental information for designing convertible patient care units and revising related guidelines in China.

Multi-spatial scale and multi-frequency resolution Proper Orthogonal Decomposition for patterns of wall-streamwise pressure gradient fluctuation of impinging jets

In the coating industry, seemingly ordered millimeter-scale W or X-like patterns inevitably appear on the coating wiped by jets. Considering the dynamic control of coating thickness by the maximum wall-streamwise pressure gradient on the impinging wall, exploring its fluctuation characteristics may provide insights into W or X-like patterns formation and suppression. Large Eddy Simulation is conducted to simulate jets impinging on a dry wall. The computed pressure gradient is processed by a two-dimensional Discrete Wavelet Transform using Coif2 wavelet, helping determine the spatial scale dominated by its fluctuation energy and providing snapshots on specific spatial scales. Afterward, snapshots on selected spatial scales undergo processing using either multi-scale Proper Orthogonal Decomposition (mPOD) or spectral POD, depending on the presence of some distinguishable peaks in its spectrum. This process can extract modes with spectral purity on the corresponding spatial scale, providing an advantage in addressing problems strongly linked to spatial scales. Applying this methodology, the study unveiled the evolution of the pressure gradient modes with frequency on the energy-dominant spatial scale, ranging from 0.625 mm × 0.785 mm to 1.25 mm × 1.57 mm. This evolution may be the cause of W or X-like patterns and suggests introducing a guiding jet to mitigate them.

Examining the interfacial behavior of non-Newtonian gas-liquid two-phase flow in horizontal square microchannels

This study investigates the flow dynamics of a non-Newtonian two-phase flow within a horizontal square microchannel. The experimental apparatus employed an acrylic channel with a side length of 8 × 10−4 m. Nitrogen served as the test gas, and the test liquids consisted of water and CMC (Carboxymethylcellulose) aqueous solutions at concentrations of 0.2 and 0.4 %wt. The superficial velocity of working gas and liquids spanned ranges of 0.26–20 m/s and 0.05–1.0 m/s, respectively. A differential pressure transducer was used to measure pressure gradients, while a high-speed video camera captured the flow behavior for analysis with a custom image processing technique. Nonlinear regression statistical analysis was applied to establish the criteria for flow pattern transition. Furthermore, signal processing techniques such as PSD (Power Spectral Density), DWT (Discrete Wavelet Transform), ANN (Artificial Neural Network), and Kolmogorov entropy were employed to analyze the flow behavior based on the pressure gradient signals from the differential pressure transducers. Our findings reveal the occurrence of bubbly, slug, slug-annular, and churn flow patterns. The nonlinear regression statistical analysis offered ambiguous results for determining flow pattern transitions. However, an empirical coefficient was obtained for the nondimensional liquid height. Moreover, the empirical nondimensional liquid height aligned well with the experimental values. The PSD and DWT analysis corroborated each other in clearly characterizing the flow pattern based on pressure gradient fluctuation and wavelet energy. The Kolmogorov entropy effectively captured the chaotic flow pattern. Furthermore, the ANN analysis demonstrated a solid agreement between the predicted and actual flow patterns.

Hydrodynamic characteristics of central pulse gas-liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed: Effect of gas and solid parameters

As an important multiphase reactor, gas-liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed is widely used in petroleum, chemistry, metallurgy, pharmacy and environment fields. In this work, a gas-liquid-solid circulating fluidized bed with central pulsating liquid flow was proposed and investigated to further improve the reaction rate of the reactor. The Eulerian-Eulerian- Eulerian method coupled with kinetic theory of granular flow is used to simulate the flow characteristics in the fluidized bed riser. At the same time, experiments under some operating conditions are carried out to verify the simulation results. The result shows that the relative motion of solids and liquid phase in the novel reactor is significantly increased compared with the conventional circulating fluidized bed. The continuous variation of the central pulse flow improved the pressure gradient fluctuation and mass transfer intensity. The radial/axial liquid-solid relative velocity regression formulas were obtained based on the numerical calculation results.

Entropy: An Inspiring Tool for Characterizing Turbulence-Combustion Interaction in Swirling Flames via Direct Numerical Simulations of Non-Premixed and Premixed Flames.

This article focuses on entropy generation in the combustion field, which serves as a useful indicator to quantify the interaction between turbulence and combustion. The study is performed on the direct numerical simulations (DNS) of high pressure non-premixed and premixed swirling flames. By analyzing the entropy generation in thermal transport, mass transport, and chemical reactions, it is found that the thermal transport, driven by the temperature gradient, plays a dominant role. The enstrophy transport analysis reveals that the responses of individual terms to combustion can be measured by the entropy: the vortex stretching and the dissipation terms increase monotonically with the increasing entropy. In high entropy regions, the turbulence behaves as the "cigar shaped" state in the non-premixed flame, while as the axisymmetric state in the premixed flame. A substantial increase in the normal Reynolds stress with the entropy is observed. This is due to the competition between two terms promoted by the entropy, i.e., the velocity-pressure gradient correlation term and the shear production term. As a result, the velocity-pressure gradient correlation tends to isotropize turbulence by transferring energy increasingly from the largest streamwise component to the other smaller normal components of Reynolds stress and is dominated by the fluctuating pressure gradient that increases along the entropy. The shear production term increases with the entropy due to the upgrading alignment of the eigenvectors of strain rate and Reynolds stress tensors.

Effects of Stochastic Noises on Limit-Cycle Oscillations and Power Losses in Fusion Plasmas and Information Geometry

We investigate the effects of different stochastic noises on the dynamics of the edge-localised modes (ELMs) in magnetically confined fusion plasmas by using a time-dependent PDF method, path-dependent information geometry (information rate, information length), and entropy-related measures (entropy production, mutual information). The oscillation quenching occurs due to either stochastic particle or magnetic perturbations, although particle perturbation is more effective in this amplitude diminishment compared with magnetic perturbations. On the other hand, magnetic perturbations are more effective at altering the oscillation period; the stochastic noise acts to increase the frequency of explosive oscillations (large ELMs) while decreasing the frequency of more regular oscillations (small ELMs). These stochastic noises significantly reduce power and energy losses caused by ELMs and play a key role in reproducing the observed experimental scaling relation of the ELM power loss with the input power. Furthermore, the maximum power loss is closely linked to the maximum entropy production rate, involving irreversible energy dissipation in non-equilibrium. Notably, over one ELM cycle, the information rate appears to keep almost a constant value, indicative of a geodesic. The information rate is also shown to be useful for characterising the statistical properties of ELMs, such as distinguishing between explosive and regular oscillations and the regulation between the pressure gradient and magnetic fluctuations.

Experimental Investigation of a Cavitating Water Flow With the Addition of Drag- Reducing Agents

Local reduction of the pressure in a flow field to levels lower than the saturation pressure triggers the production of tiny vaporous bubbles and causes the cavitation phenomenon. Higher pressure reductions significantly increase the cavitation bubbles’ population, which can coalesce and generate large-scale cavitation structures such as cloud cavitation that shed downstream of the flow channel. The chaotic collapse of cavities produces strong shockwaves in regions with a recovered pressure which causes serious erosion on solid surfaces and high levels of noise. Hence, there is a growing interest in cavitation control methods. In this study, drag-reducing polymer additives are utilized as cavitation reducing (CR) agents in a converging-diverging mesoscale nozzle to verify the applicability of these agents in the control of the cavitation process. Analysis of high-speed images of the cavitating flow fields reveals that the viscoelastic flow of a 400 ppm polymer solution reduced the cavitation intensity by nearly 60 % relative to the pure water flow at a similar Reynolds number. Ultra-high-speed imaging of single cavitating bubbles at the inception showed that in a viscoelastic flow, the collapse period of cavities is longer, and their sizes are shrunk at a lower rate relative to their counterparts in the puer water. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to study the near-wall turbulent flow fields at the flow conditions close to the cavitation inception, at different flow locations with non-zero pressure gradients present on the curved surfaces. Preliminary analysis of the results reveals that viscoelasticity alters the near-wall turbulence and distribution of the pressure gradient fluctuations, which might link to the significant reduction of cavitation intensity in polymeric flows.

Analysis of turbulence generation and dissipation in shear layers of methane–oxygen diffusion flames using direct numerical simulations

A turbulent methane–oxygen diffusion flame is studied using a direct numerical simulation setup. The operating regime and turbulence characteristics are chosen to resemble those of a modern methane rocket combustor. Local flame characteristics and dimensionless numbers are defined and evaluated, and their relationship with the turbulent kinetic energy transport budget is studied. Positive net turbulence generation is observed in the reaction shear layer. It is found that the underlying mechanisms for these results are similar to those encountered in premixed flames, with pressure terms acting as the primary turbulent kinetic energy sources. Models for predicting turbulent transport through mean pressure gradients, fluctuating pressure gradients, and turbulent flux of turbulent kinetic energy are adapted. The accuracy of the proposed formulations is assessed, and the involved challenges are discussed.

Statistical characterization of the interfacial behavior of the sub-regimes in gas-liquid stratified two-phase flow in a horizontal pipe

The aim of the present study was to identify the interfacial behavior of the sub-regime of gas-liquid stratified two phase flow by using the pressure differential signal data. Here, the probability distribution function (PDF), power spectral density (PSD), kolmogorov entropy and discrete wavelet transform (DWT) were used to analyze the differential pressure signals. The indicators of each flow sub regime were analyzed on the basis of the quantitative values of the statistical curves, which were also validated by visual observation of the video images. The results indicated that there are six identified sub-regimes of stratified flow namely stratified smooth (S), two-dimensional (2-D) wave, three-dimensional (3-D) wave, roll wave (RW), entrained droplet + disturbance wave (ED + DW) and pseudo slug (PS). Next, the increase of liquid viscosity will shift the transition line from the RW to ED + DW to a lower both of JL and JG. The increase of the liquid viscosity provides a stabilizing effect to reduce the chaos of the pressure gradient fluctuation. For the RW and the ED + DW sub-regime, the increase of the liquid viscosity shifts the wavelet energy to a larger scale and lower frequency. For the PS sub-regime, the increase of liquid viscosity shifts the wavelet energy to a smaller scale with a higher frequency. For the RW sub-regime, the increase of JG will increase the wavelet energy at the small-scale and high-frequency decomposition levels.

Effect of shaping on turbulent dynamics in reversed-field pinch simulations

We study the influence of the shape of the plasma container on the dynamics of the reversed-field pinch (RFP). The geometries we consider are periodic cylinders with elliptical and circular-shaped cross-sections. Numerical simulations of fully nonlinear viscoresistive magnetohydrodynamics are carried out to illustrate how the plasma dynamics is affected by shaping. It is shown that independent of the plasma shape, the quantity $\beta$ , comparing the hydrodynamic pressure to the magnetic pressure, decreases for increasing values of the Lundquist number, but the pressure gradient fluctuations remain roughly constant, when compared to the Lorentz force. Different elliptical shapes of the cross-section of the domain lead to the excitation of different toroidal (or axial) magnetic and dynamic modes. Furthermore, it is found that in a geometry with circular cross-section, a significant local poloidal angular momentum is observed, absent in the geometries with elliptical cross-section. Because the confinement is dominantly determined by plasma movement, and the dynamics of the velocity and magnetic field are modified by the modification of the geometry, shaping can thus affect the performance of RFP devices.

High-Order Delayed Detached Eddy Simulation of Separated Flow with Self-Adaptive Dissipation

A self-adaptive dissipation method based on a fifth-order dissipative compact scheme is proposed to reduce the numerical dissipation in separated flow. The method involves a self-adaptive operating parameter to adjust the weight of upwind part, which is a major source of numerical dissipation. Cooperated with delayed detached eddy simulation, the method can perform with less numerical dissipation in a large-eddy simulation region to resolve more small-scale structures, and return to normal dissipation in a Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes region to stabilize simulation. Firstly, the decay of isotropic turbulence is simulated to study the influence of the method over the energy spectrum and resolution of turbulent structures. Secondly, the plane channel flow is simulated to test the stability under the pressure gradient and turbulent fluctuation. Finally, the typical separated flow over NACA0021 airfoil and circular cylinder is investigated, and the results are compared with experimental data.

The effect of fluctuating pressure gradient on the coalescence of Taylor bubble

The oscillatory coalescence phenomenon of the Taylor bubble flow subjected to the action of a fluctuating pressure gradient in a pulsating heat pipe was investigated using the front tracking method (FTM). The effects of amplitude and frequency of fluctuating pressure, bubble size, Reynolds number (Re), and Weber number (We) on the bubble coalescence process were studied. The results demonstrated that the lower the pulsation frequency, the longer the period of bubble oscillation, which could provide enough time for bubbles to drain and promoted the coalescence of the bubbles. The larger Euler number (Eu) was, the more easily bubbles coalesced. On the contrary, when Eu was small, the bubbles were slow to coalesce. The size of the top bubble and the bottom bubble had different effects on coalescence. An increase of the length of the top bubble (Lt) was beneficial to bubble coalescence while increasing the length of the bottom bubble (Lb) restrained bubble coalescence. Time required for bubble coalescence increased with the increase of Re and decreased with increasing We.

Hall and ion slip effects on MHD rotating flow of elastico-viscous fluid through porous medium

Abstract We investigated the Hall and ion slip effects on the MHD convective flow of elastico-viscous fluid through porous medium between two rigidly rotating parallel plates with time fluctuating sinusoidal pressure gradient in this paper. In an initially undisturbed state both the fluid and the plates are in rigid rotation with the uniform angular velocity Ω about the normal to the plates. At t > 0 the fluid is driven by a fluctuating pressure gradient parallel to the channel walls. Analytical solutions for the velocity, temperature and concentration are evaluated and discussed computationally with the help of graphical profiles. For engineering interest, we obtained skin friction, Nusselt number, Sherwood number and volumetric flow rate and discussed numerically. Elasticity and magnetic field resist the fluid motion gets thinner boundary layer. Lesser frequency of oscillating pressure gradient frightens the reverse flow. The similar variation of skin friction should be circumvented with less significant time span and strength of the magnetic field.

Foam Generation in Flow Across a Sharp Permeability Transition: Effect of Velocity and Fractional Flow

Summary Foam reduces gas mobility and can help improve sweep efficiency in an enhanced-oil-recovery (EOR) process. For the latter, long-distance foam propagation is crucial. In porous media, strong foam generation requires that the local pressure gradient exceed a critical value (▿Pmin). Normally, this happens only in the near-well region. Away from wells, these requirements might not be met, and foam propagation is uncertain. It has been shown theoretically that foam can be generated, independent of pressure gradient, during flow across an abrupt increase in permeability (Rossen 1999). The objective of this study is to validate theoretical explanations through experimental evidence and to quantify the effect of fractional flow on this process. This article is an extension of a recent study (Shah et al. 2018) investigating the effect of permeability contrast on this process. In this study, the effects of fractional flow and total superficial velocity are described. Coreflood experiments were performed in a cylindrical sintered-glass porous medium with two homogeneous layers and a sharp permeability jump in between, representing a lamination or cross lamination. Unlike previous studies of this foam-generation mechanism, in this study, gas and surfactant solution were coinjected at field-like velocities into a medium that was first flooded to steady state with gas/brine coinjection. The pressure gradient is measured across several sections of the core. X-ray computed tomography (CT) is used to generate dynamic phase-saturation maps as foam generates and propagates through the core. We investigate the effects of velocity and injected-gas fractional flow on foam generation and mobilization by systematically changing these variables through multiple experiments. The core is thoroughly cleaned after each experiment to remove any trapped gas and to ensure no hysteresis. Local pressure measurements and CT-based saturation maps confirm that foam is generated at the permeability transition, and it then propagates downstream to the outlet of the core. A significant reduction in gas mobility is observed, even at low superficial velocities. Foam was generated in all cases, at all the injected conditions tested; however, at the lowest velocity tested, strong foam did not propagate all the way to the outlet of the core. Although foam generation was triggered across the permeability boundary at this velocity, it appeared that, for our system, the limit of foam propagation, in terms of a minimum-driving-force requirement, was reached at this low rate. CT images were used to quantify the accumulation of liquid near the permeability jump, causing local capillary pressure to fall below the critical capillary pressure required for snap-off. This leads to foam generation by snap-off. At the tested fractional flows, no clear trend was observed between foam strength and fg. For a given permeability contrast, foam generation was observed at higher gas fractions than predicted by previous work (Rossen 1999). Significant fluctuations in pressure gradient accompanied the process of foam generation, indicating a degree of intermittency in the generation rate—probably reflecting cycles of foam generation, dryout, imbibition, and then generation. The intermittency of foam generation was found to increase with decreasing injection velocities and increasing fractional flow. Within the range of conditions tested, the onset of foam generation (identified by the rise in ▿P and Sg) occurs after roughly the same amount of surfactant injection, independent of fractional flow or injection rate.

Bedforms Produced on a Particle Bed by Vertical Oscillations of a Plate.

We describe a new mechanism that produces bedforms and characterize the conditions under which it operates. The mechanism is associated with pressure gradients generated in a fluid saturated particle bed by a plate oscillating in the water above it. These vertical pressure gradients cause oscillatory bed failure. This facilitates particle displacement in its interior and transport at and near its surface that contribute to the formation of a heap under the plate. Flows over erodible beds generally cause shear stresses on the bed and these induce bed failure. Failure driven by pressure gradients is different from this. We report on bedforms in a bed of glass beads associated with such fluctuating pressure gradients. We measure the development of the profiles of heaps as a function of time and determine the tangential and normal motion of areas on the beds surface and estimate the depth of penetration of the tangential transport. The measurements compare favorably with a simple model that describes the onset of failure due to oscillations in pressure.

Estimating slug liquid holdup in high viscosity oil-gas two-phase flow

Slug flow is one of the most critical and often encountered flow patterns in the oil and gas industry. It is characterised by intermittency which results in large fluctuations in liquid holdup and pressure gradient. A proper understanding of its parameters (such as slug holdup) is essential in the design of transport facilities (e.g. pipelines) and process equipment (slug catchers, separators etc.). In this paper, experimental investigation of slug liquid holdup (defined as the liquid volume fraction in the slug body of a slug unit) is performed. Mineral oil with viscosity, μ=−0.0043T3+0.0389T2−1.4174T+18.141 and air were used as test fluids. A 0.0254 m and 0.0762 m pipe internal diameters facilities with pipe lengths of 5.5 and 17 m respectively were used in the study. Electrical Capacitance Tomography was used for slug holdup measurements. Results obtained in the study shows that slug liquid holdup varied directly as the viscosity and inversely as the gas input fraction. Existing slug holdup correlations and models in literature did not sufficiently predict present experimental results. A new empirical predictive correlation for estimating slug liquid holdup was derived from present experimental databank and from data obtained in literature. The databank's liquid viscosity ranges from 0.189 to 8.0 Pa s. Statistical analysis of the new correlation vis-à-vis existing ones showed that the present correlation gave the best performance with an average percent error, E1; absolute average percent error, E2 and standard deviation, E3 of 0.001, 0.05 and 0.07 respectively, when tested on the high viscosity liquid–gas databank.

Unsteady solute dispersion in small blood vessels using a two-phase Casson model

This study explores the transport of a solute in an unsteady blood flow in small arteries with and without absorption at the wall. The Casson fluid model is suitable for blood flow in small vessels. Owing to the aggregation of red cells in the central region of the small vessels, a two-phase model is considered in this investigation. Using the generalized dispersion model (Sankarasubramanian & Gill 1973 Proc. R. Soc. Lond. A 333 , 115–132. (doi:10.1098/rspa.1973.0051)), the convection, dispersion and mean concentration of the solute are analysed at all times in small arteries of different radii. The effects of the yield stress, wall absorption, the amplitude of the fluctuating pressure gradient component, the peripheral layer thickness, the Womersley frequency parameter, the Schmidt number and the Peclet number on the dispersion process are discussed. A comparative study of solute dispersion among single- and two-phase fluid models is presented. For small vessels, a significant difference between these models is observed during the solute dispersion; however, this difference becomes insignificant for large vessels. The mean concentration of solute reduces with increasing radius of the vessels. The present investigation is more realistic for understanding the transportation process of drugs in blood flow in small arteries using the non-Newtonian fluid model.

Turbulent scalar flux transport in head-on quenching of turbulent premixed flames: a direct numerical simulations approach to assess models for Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes simulations

ABSTRACTThe statistical behaviour and the modelling of turbulent scalar flux transport have been analysed using a direct numerical simulation (DNS) database of head-on quenching of statistically planar turbulent premixed flames by an isothermal wall. A range of different values of Damköhler, Karlovitz numbers and Lewis numbers has been considered for this analysis. The magnitudes of the turbulent transport and mean velocity gradient terms in the turbulent scalar flux transport equation remain small in comparison to the pressure gradient, molecular dissipation and reaction-velocity fluctuation correlation terms in the turbulent scalar flux transport equation when the flame is away from the wall but the magnitudes of all these terms diminish and assume comparable values during flame quenching before vanishing altogether. It has been found that the existing models for the turbulent transport, pressure gradient, molecular dissipation and reaction-velocity fluctuation correlation terms in the turbulent scalar flux transport equation do not adequately address the respective behaviours extracted from DNS data in the near-wall region during flame quenching. Existing models for transport equation-based closures of turbulent scalar flux have been modified in such a manner that these models provide satisfactory prediction both near to and away from the wall.

The seasonal march of the equatorial Pacific upper-ocean and its El Niño variability

Based on two modern data sets, the climatological seasonal march of the upper-ocean is examined in the equatorial Pacific for the period 2004–2014, because of its large contribution to the total variance, its relationship to El Niño, and its unique equatorial wave phenomena. Argo provides a broadscale view of the equatorial Pacific upper-ocean based on subsurface temperature and salinity measurements for the period 2004–2015, and satellite altimetry provides synoptic observations of the sea surface height (SSH) for the period 1993–2015. Using either 11-year (1993–2003/2004–2014) time-series for averaging, the seasonal Rossby waves stands out clearly and eastward intraseasonal Kelvin wave propagation is strong enough in individual years to leave residuals in the 11-year averages, particularly but not exclusively, during El Niño onset years. The agreement of altimetric SSH minus Argo steric height (SH) residuals with GRACE ocean mass estimates confirms the scale-matching of in situ variability with that of satellite observations. Surface layer and subsurface thermohaline variations are both important in determining SH and SSH basin-wide patterns. The SH/SSH October-November maximum in the central-eastern Pacific is primarily due to a downward deflection of the thermocline (∼20m), causing a warm subsurface anomaly (>1°C), in response to the phasing of downwelling intraseasonal Kelvin and seasonal Rossby waves. Compared with the climatology, the stronger October-November maximum in the 2004–2014 El Niño composites is due to higher intraseasonal oscillations and interannual variability. Associated with these equatorial wave patterns along the thermocline, the western warm/fresh pool waters move zonally at interannual timescales through zonal wind stress and pressure gradient fluctuations, and cause substantial fresh (up to 0.6psu) and warm (∼1°C higher than the climatology) anomalies in the western-central Pacific surface-layer during the El Niño onset year, and of the opposite sign during the termination year. These El Niño-related patterns are then analyzed focusing on the case of the onset of the strong 2015/2016 episode, and are seen to be around two times larger than that in the 2004–2014 El Niño composites. The present work exploits the capabilities of Argo and altimetry to update and improve the description of the physical state of the equatorial Pacific upper-ocean, and provides a benchmark for assessing the accuracy of models in representing equatorial Pacific variability.