Search results for: nonlinear flow

Authors: Haider M. Alsaeq

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The present research is an attempt to figure out the best configuration of composite cylindrical shells of the sandwich type, i.e. the lightest design of such shells required to sustain a certain load over a certain area. The optimization is based on elastic-plastic geometrically nonlinear incremental-iterative finite element analysis. The nine-node degenerated curved shell element is used in which five degrees of freedom are specified at each nodal point, with a layered model. The formulation of the geometrical nonlinearity problem is carried out using the well-known total Lagrangian principle. For the structural optimization problem, which is dealt with as a constrained nonlinear optimization, the so-called Modified Hooke and Jeeves method is employed by considering the weight of the shell as the objective function with stress and geometrical constraints. It was concluded that the optimum design of composite sandwich cylindrical shell that have a rigid polyurethane foam core and steel facing occurs when the area covered by the shell becomes almost square with a ratio of core thickness to facing thickness lies between 45 and 49, while the optimum height to length ration varies from 0.03 to 0.08 depending on the aspect ratio of the shell and its boundary conditions.

Keywords: composite structure, cylindrical shell, optimization, non-linear analysis, finite element

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Authors: War War Min Swe, Aung Myat Thu, Khin Cho Thet, Zaw Moe Htet, Thuzar Mon

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The main parameter of the orifice hole diameter was designed according to the range of throttle diameter ratio which gave the required discharge coefficient. The discharge coefficient is determined by difference diameter ratios. The value of discharge coefficient is 0.958 occurred at throttle diameter ratio 0.5. The throttle hole diameter is 80 mm. The flow analysis is done numerically using ANSYS 17.0, computational fluid dynamics. The flow velocity was analyzed in the upstream and downstream of the orifice meter. The downstream velocity of non-standard orifice meter is 2.5% greater than that of standard orifice meter. The differential pressure is 515.379 Pa in standard orifice.

Keywords: CFD-CFX, discharge coefficients, flow characteristics, inclined

Procedia PDF Downloads 142

Authors: Samuel Fernandes, Dylan Kato, Emin Burak Onat, Patrick Keyantuo, Raja Sengupta, Amine Bouzaghrane

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The COVID-19 pandemic has spread across the United States, forcing cities to impose stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders. Building operations had to adjust as non-essential personnel worked from home. But as buildings prepare for personnel to return, they need to plan for safe operations amid new COVID-19 guidelines. In this paper we propose a methodology for capacity and flow modeling of personnel within buildings to safely operate under COVID-19 guidelines. We model personnel flow within buildings by network flows with queuing constraints. We study maximum flow, minimum cost, and minimax objectives. We compare our network flow approach with a simulation model through a case study and present the results. Our results showcase various scenarios of how buildings could be operated under new COVID-19 guidelines and provide a framework for building operators to plan and operate buildings in this new paradigm.

Keywords: network analysis, building simulation, COVID-19

Procedia PDF Downloads 158

Authors: Hassen M. Ouakad

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In this paper, the influence of van der Waals, as well as electrostatic forces on the structural behavior of MEMS and NEMS actuators, has been investigated using of a Euler-Bernoulli beam continuous model. In the proposed nonlinear model, the electrostatic fringing-fields and the mid-plane stretching (geometric nonlinearity) effects have been considered. The nonlinear integro-differential equation governing the static structural behavior of the actuator has been derived. An original Galerkin-based reduced-order model has been developed to avoid problems arising from the nonlinearities in the differential equation. The obtained reduced-order model equations have been solved numerically using the Newton-Raphson method. The basic design parameters such as the pull-in parameters (voltage and deflection at pull-in), as well as the detachment length due to the van der Waals force of some investigated micro- and nano-actuators have been calculated. The obtained numerical results have been compared with some other existing methods (finite-elements method and finite-difference method) and the comparison showed good agreement among all assumed numerical techniques.

Keywords: MEMS, NEMS, fringing-fields, mid-plane stretching, Galerkin

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Authors: S. C. Gupta

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The wind flow over several buildings lying in close vicinity in urban areas generates flow interference effects causing problems related to pedestrian comfort and ventilation within the buildings. This promoted a lot of research interest in the recent years. Airflow over a building creates a positive pressure zone on the upstream side and negative pressure zones (cavities or eddy zones) on the roof and all other sides. Large eddy simulation model is used along with sub-grid-scale model to numerically simulate turbulence for this purpose. The basis of flow outside the building is the pressure difference (between the wind and building interior). Wind Tunnel models are fabricated and tested in the subsonic wind tunnel. Theoretical results are compared with the experimental data. Newer configuration is tried for favorable effects in recovering static pressure values. Results obtained are seen very encouraging. The proposed exhaustive research investigation through numerical simulations and the experimental work are described and some interesting findings are brought out.

Keywords: wind flow, buildings, static pressure wind tunnel testing, CFD

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Authors: F. Sabri, J. Jamali

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In this article, the wrinkling failure of orthotropic composite membranes due to in-plane shear deformation is investigated using nonlinear finite element analyses. A nonlinear post-buckling analysis is performed to show the evolution of shear-induced wrinkles. The method of investigation is based on the post-buckling finite element analysis adopted from commercial FEM code; ANSYS. The resulting wrinkling patterns, their amplitude and their wavelengths under the prescribed loads and boundary conditions were confirmed by experimental results. Our study reveals that wrinkles develop when both the magnitudes and coverage of the minimum principal stresses in the laminated composite laminates are sufficiently large to trigger wrinkling.

Keywords: composite, FEM, membrane, wrinkling

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Authors: Basman Elhadidi, Islam Elqatary, Osama Mohamady, Hesham Othman

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An active slat is developed to increase the lift and delay the separation for a DU96-W180 airfoil. The active slat is a fixed slat that can be closed, fully opened or intermittently opened by a rotating vane depending on the need. Experimental results show that the active slat has reduced the mean pressure and increased the mean velocity on the suction side of the airfoil for all positive angles of attack, indicating an increase of lift. The experimental data and numerical simulations also show that the direction of actuator vane rotation can influence the mixing of the flow streams on the suction side and hence influence the aerodynamic performance.

Keywords: active slat, flow control, DU96-W180 airfoil, flow streams

Procedia PDF Downloads 375

Authors: Mohamed Abdalla, Ruixue Cheng, Jianyong Zhang

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In pneumatic conveying, the solids are mixed with air or gas. In industries such as coal fired power stations, blast furnaces for iron making, cement and flour processing, the mass flow rate of solids needs to be monitored or controlled. However the current gas-solids two-phase flow measurement techniques are not as accurate as the flow meters available for the single phase flow. One of the problems that the multi-phase flow meters to face is that the flow profiles vary with measurement locations and conditions of pipe routing, bends, elbows and other restriction devices in conveying system as well as conveying velocity and concentration. To measure solids flow rate or concentration with non-even distribution of solids in gas, a uniform spatial sensitivity is required for a multi-phase flow meter. However, there are not many meters inherently have such property. The circular electrostatic meter is a popular choice for gas-solids flow measurement with its high sensitivity to flow, robust construction, low cost for installation and non-intrusive nature. However such meters have the inherent non-uniform spatial sensitivity. This paper first analyses the spatial sensitivity of circular electrostatic meter in general and then by combining the effect of the sensitivity to a single particle and the sensing volume for a given electrode geometry, the paper reveals first time how a circular electrostatic meter responds to a roping flow stream, which is much more complex than what is believed at present. The paper will provide the recent research findings on spatial sensitivity investigation at the University of Tees side based on Finite element analysis using Ansys Fluent software, including time and frequency domain characteristics and the effect of electrode geometry. The simulation results will be compared tothe experimental results obtained on a large scale (14” diameter) rig. The purpose of this research is paving a way to achieve a uniform spatial sensitivity for the circular electrostatic sensor by mean of compensation so as to improve overall accuracy of gas-solids flow measurement.

Keywords: spatial sensitivity, electrostatic sensor, pneumatic conveying, Ansys Fluent software

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Authors: Barun Chakrabarti, Dan Nir, Vladimir Yufit, P. V. Aravind, Nigel Brandon

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Fuel cell grade gas-diffusion layer carbon paper (CP) electrodes are subjected to electrophoresis in N,N’-dimethylformamide (DMF) consisting of reduced graphene oxide (rGO). The rGO modified electrodes are compared with CP in a single asymmetric all-vanadium redox battery system (employing a double serpentine flow channel for each half-cell). Peak power densities improved by 4% when the rGO deposits were facing the ion-exchange membrane (cell performance was poorer when the rGO was facing the flow field). Cycling of the cells showed least degradation of the CP electrodes that were coated with rGO in comparison to pristine samples.

Keywords: all-vanadium redox flow batteries, carbon paper electrodes, electrophoretic deposition, reduced graphene oxide

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Authors: Andrzej Mitura, Krzysztof Kecik, Michal Augustyniak

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This paper presents a numerical and experimental research of a nonlinear two degrees of freedom system. The tested system consists of a mechanical oscillator (the primary subsystem) with the attached pendulum (the secondary subsystem). The oscillator is suspended on a linear (or nonlinear) coil spring and a nonlinear magnetorheorogical damper and it is excited kinematically. Added pendulum can be used to reduce vibration of a primary subsystem or to energy harvesting. The numerical and experimental investigations showed that the pendulum can perform several types of motion, for example: chaotic motion, constant position in lower or upper (stable inverted pendulum), rotation, symmetrical or asymmetrical swinging vibrations. The main objective of this study is to determine an influence of system parameters for increasing the zone when the pendulum rotates. As a final effect a semi-active control method to change the pendulum solution on the rotation is proposed. To the implementation of this method the magnetorheorogical damper is applied. Continuous rotation of the pendulum is desirable for recovery of energy. The work is financed by Grant no. 0234/IP2/2011/71 from the Polish Ministry of Science and Higher Education in years 2012-2014.

Keywords: autoparametric vibrations, chaos and rotation control, magnetorheological damper

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Authors: Amani Amamou, Sabra Habli, Nejla Mahjoub Saïd, Georges Le Palec

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Round jets have been widely studied due to their important application in industry. Many configurations of round jet were encountered in literature as free jet, co-flow jet, couterflowing jet and cross flow jet. In this paper, we are concerned with turbulent round jet in uniform counterflow stream which is known to enhance mixing and dispersion efficiency owing to flow reversal. This type of flow configuration is a typical application in environmental engineering such as the disposal of wastewater into seas or rivers. A computational study of a turbulent circular jet discharging into a uniform counterflow is conducted in order to investigate the characteristics of the diffusion field of the jet effluent. The investigation is carried out for three different cases of jet-to-current velocity ratios; low, medium and high velocity ratios. The Reynolds Stress Model (RSM) is used in the comparison with available experimental measurements. The decay of the center line velocity and the dynamic proprieties of the flow together with the centerline dilution of the passive scalar and the other characteristics of the concentration field are computationally analyzed in this paper.

Keywords: Counterflow stream, jet, velocity, concentration

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Authors: Mohammad Reza Shahnazari, Reza Kazemi, Ali Saberi

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Most of the engineering problems are in nonlinear forms. Nonlinear boundary layer problems defined in infinite intervals contain specific complexities, especially in boundary layer condition conformance. As an example of these nonlinear complex problems, the well-known Blasius equation can be mentioned, which itself is one of the classic boundary layer problems. No analytical solution has been proposed yet for the Blasius equation due to its complexity. In this paper, an analytical method, namely the Kourosh method, based on the singularity perturbation method and the Liao homotopy analysis is utilized to solve the Blasius problem. In this method, an inner solution is developed in the [0,1] interval to expedite the solution convergence. The magnitude of the f ˝(0), as an essential quantity for determining the physical parameters, is directly calculated from the solution of the boundary condition problem. The advantages of this solution are that it does not need any numerical solution, it has a closed form and that its validation is shown in the entire [0,∞] interval. Furthermore, all of the desirable parameters could be extracted through a series of simple analytical operations from the final solution. This solution also satisfies the continuity conditions, which is one of the main contributions of this paper in comparison with most of the other proposed analytical solutions available in the literature. Comparison with numerical solutions reveals that the proposed method is highly accurate and convenient for application.

Keywords: Blasius equation, boundary layer, Kourosh method, analytical solution

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Authors: Yu-Chen Hsu, Kuang C. Lin

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The artificial lung called extracorporeal membrane oxygenation (ECMO) is an important medical machine that supports persons whose heart and lungs dysfunction. Previously, investigation of steady deoxygenated blood flows passing through hollow fibers for oxygen transport was carried out experimentally and computationally. The present study computationally analyzes the effect of biological pulsatile flow on the oxygen transport in blood. A 2-D model with a pulsatile flow condition is employed. The power law model is used to describe the non-Newtonian flow and the Hill equation is utilized to simulate the oxygen saturation of hemoglobin. The dimensionless parameters for the physical model include Reynolds numbers (Re), Womersley parameters (α), pulsation amplitudes (A), Sherwood number (Sh) and Schmidt number (Sc). The present model with steady-state flow conditions is well validated against previous experiment and simulations. It is observed that pulsating flow amplitudes significantly influence the velocity profile, pressure of oxygen (PO2), saturation of oxygen (SO2) and the oxygen mass transfer rates (m ̇_O2). In comparison between steady-state and pulsating flows, our findings suggest that the consideration of pulsating flow in the computational model is needed when Re is raised from 2 to 10 in a typical range for flow in artificial lung.

Keywords: artificial lung, oxygen transport, non-Newtonian flows, pulsating flows

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Authors: Merrimi El Bekkaye, El Bikri Khalid, Benamar Rhali

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In the present paper, the problem of geometrically non-linear free vibration of symmetrically and asymmetrically laminated composite beams (LCB) resting on nonlinear Pasternak elastic Foundation with immovable ends is studied. A homogenization procedure has been performed to reduce the problem under consideration to that of the isotropic homogeneous beams with effective bending stiffness and axial stiffness parameters. This simple formulation is developed using the governing axial equation of the beam in which the axial inertia and damping are ignored. The theoretical model is based on Hamilton’s principle and spectral analysis. Iterative form solutions are presented to calculate the fundamental nonlinear frequency parameters which are found to be in a good agreement with the published results. On the other hand, the influence of the foundation parameters on the nonlinear frequency to the linear frequency ratio of the LCB has been studied. The non-dimensional curvatures associated to the fundamental mode are also given in the case of clamped-clamped symmetrically and asymmetrically laminated composite beams.

Keywords: large vibration amplitudes, laminated composite beam, Pasternak foundation, composite beams

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Authors: Ogan Karabas, Suleyman Yigit

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Number of blade and blade type of centrifugal fans are the most decisive factor on the field of application, noise level, suction pressure and outlet mass flow rate. Nowadays, in order to determine these effects on centrifugal fans, numerical studies are carried out in addition to experimental studies. In this study, it is aimed to numerically investigate the changes of suction pressure and outlet mass flow rate values of a centrifugal fan according to the number of blade and blade type. Centrifugal fans of the same size with forward, backward and straight blade type were analyzed by using a simulation program and compared with each other. This analysis was carried out under steady state condition by selecting k-Ɛ turbulence model and air is assumed incompressible. Then, 16, 32 and 48 blade centrifugal fans were again analyzed by using same simulation program, and the optimum number of blades was determined for the suction pressure and the outlet mass flow rate. According to the results of the analysis, it was obtained that the suction pressure in the 32 blade fan was twice the value obtained in the 16 blade fan. In addition, the outlet mass flow rate increased by 45% with the increase in the number of blade from 16 to 32. There is no significant change observed on the suction pressure and outlet mass flow rate when the number of blades increased from 32 to 48. In the light of the analysis results, the optimum blade number was determined as 32.

Keywords: blade type, centrifugal fan, cfd, outlet mass flow rate, suction pressure

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Authors: Sayed A. Elsayed, Emad Z. Ibrahim, Osama M. Mesalhy, Mohamed A. Abdelatief

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An experimental and numerical study has been conducted to clarify fluid flow characteristics and pressure drop distributions of a cross-flow heat exchanger employing staggered wing-shaped tubes at different angels of attack. The water-side Rew and the air-side Rea were at 5 x 102 and at from 1.8 x 103 to 9.7 x 103, respectively. Three cases of the tubes arrangements with various angles of attack, row angles of attack and 90° cone angles were employed at the considered Rea range. Correlation of pressure drop coefficient Pdc in terms of Rea, design parameters for the studied cases were presented. The flow pattern around the staggered wing-shaped tubes bundle were predicted by using commercial CFD FLUENT 6.3.26 software package. Results indicated that the values of Pdc were increased by increasing the angle of attack from 0° to 45°, while the opposite was true for angles of attack from 135° to 180°. Comparisons between the experimental and numerical results of the present study and those, previously, obtained for similar available studies showed good agreements.

Keywords: wing-shaped tubes, cross-flow cooling, staggered arrangement, CFD

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Authors: Kira Toxopeus, Kamran Siddiqui

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Channel flows are common in a wide range of engineering applications. In some types of channel flows, particularly the ones involving chemical or biological processes, the control of the flow temperature is crucial to maintain the optimal conditions for the chemical reaction or to control the growth of biological species. This often becomes an issue when the flow experiences temperature fluctuations due to external conditions. While active heating and cooling could regulate the channel temperature, it may not be feasible logistically or economically and is also regarded as a non-sustainable option. Thermal energy storage utilizing phase change material (PCM) could provide the required thermal regulation sustainably by storing the excess heat from the channel and releasing it back as required, thus regulating the channel temperature within a range in the proximity of the PCM melting temperature. However, in designing such systems, the configuration of the PCM storage within the channel is critical as it could influence the channel flow dynamics, which would, in turn, affect the heat exchange between the channel fluid and the PCM. The present research is focused on the investigation of the flow dynamical behavior in the channel during heat transfer from the channel flow to the PCM thermal energy storage. Offset vertical columns in a narrow channel were used that contained the PCM. Two different column shapes, square and circular, were considered. Water was used as the channel fluid that entered the channel at a temperature higher than that of the PCM melting temperature. Hence, as the water was passing through the channel, the heat was being transferred from the water to the PCM, causing the PCM to store the heat through a phase transition from solid to liquid. Particle image velocimetry (PIV) was used to measure the two-dimensional velocity field of the channel flow as it flows between the PCM columns. Thermocouples were also attached to the PCM columns to measure the PCM temperature at three different heights. Three different water flow rates (0.5, 0.75 and 1.2 liters/min) were considered. At each flow rate, experiments were conducted at three different inlet water temperatures (28ᵒC, 33ᵒC and 38ᵒC). The results show that the flow rate and the inlet temperature influenced the flow behavior inside the channel.

Keywords: channel flow, phase change material, thermal energy storage, thermal regulation

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Authors: Joshua Kim Schimpf, Kyun Doo Kim, Jaseok Heo

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In this study, the droplet behavior of under horizontal stratified flow regime for air and water flow in horizontal pipe experiments from a 0.24 m, 0.095 m, and 0.0486 m size diameter pipe are examined. The effects of gravity, pipe diameter, and turbulent diffusion on droplet deposition are considered. Models for droplet entrainment and deposition are proposed that considers developing length. Validation for experimental data dedicated from the REGARD, CEA and Williams, University of Illinois, experiment were performed using SPACE (Safety and Performance Analysis Code for Nuclear Power Plants).

Keywords: droplet, entrainment, deposition, horizontal

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Authors: Nicolò Vaiana, Filip C. Filippou, Giorgio Serino

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In order to reduce numerical computations in the nonlinear dynamic analysis of seismically base-isolated structures, a Mixed Explicit-Implicit time integration Method (MEIM) has been proposed. Adopting the explicit conditionally stable central difference method to compute the nonlinear response of the base isolation system, and the implicit unconditionally stable Newmark’s constant average acceleration method to determine the superstructure linear response, the proposed MEIM, which is conditionally stable due to the use of the central difference method, allows to avoid the iterative procedure generally required by conventional monolithic solution approaches within each time step of the analysis. The main aim of this paper is to investigate the stability and computational efficiency of the MEIM when employed to perform the nonlinear time history analysis of base-isolated structures with sliding bearings. Indeed, in this case, the critical time step could become smaller than the one used to define accurately the earthquake excitation due to the very high initial stiffness values of such devices. The numerical results obtained from nonlinear dynamic analyses of a base-isolated structure with a friction pendulum bearing system, performed by using the proposed MEIM, are compared to those obtained adopting a conventional monolithic solution approach, i.e. the implicit unconditionally stable Newmark’s constant acceleration method employed in conjunction with the iterative pseudo-force procedure. According to the numerical results, in the presented numerical application, the MEIM does not have stability problems being the critical time step larger than the ground acceleration one despite of the high initial stiffness of the friction pendulum bearings. In addition, compared to the conventional monolithic solution approach, the proposed algorithm preserves its computational efficiency even when it is adopted to perform the nonlinear dynamic analysis using a smaller time step.

Keywords: base isolation, computational efficiency, mixed explicit-implicit method, partitioned solution approach, stability

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Authors: Huilan Yao, Huaixin Zhang

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Simulations of the transition flow of model propellers are important for predicting hydrodynamic performance and studying scale effects. In this paper, the transition flow of a model propeller under different loadings are simulated using a transition model provided by STAR-CCM+, and the influence of turbulence intensity (TI) on the transition, especially friction and pressure components of propeller performance, was studied. Before that, the transition model was applied to simulate the transition flow of a flat plate and an airfoil. Predicted transitions agree well with experimental results. Then, the transition model was applied for propeller simulations in open water, and the influence of TI was studied. Under the heavy and moderate loadings, thrust and torque of the propeller predicted by the transition model (different TI) and two turbulence models are very close and agree well with measurements. However, under the light loading, only the transition model with low TI predicts the most accurate results. Above all, the friction components of propeller performance predicted by the transition model with different TI have obvious difference.

Keywords: transition flow, model propellers, hydrodynamic performance, numerical simulation

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Authors: Amar Khoukhi, Mohamed Shahab

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This paper presents the optimal control problem of mobile robot motion as a nonlinear programming problem (NLP) and solved using a direct method of numerical optimal control. The NLP is initialized with a B-Spline for which node locations are optimized using a genetic search. The system acceleration inputs and sampling periods are considered as optimization variables. Different scenarios with different objectives weights are implemented and investigated. Interesting results are found in terms of complying with the expected behavior of a mobile robot system and time-energy minimization.

Keywords: multi-objective control, non-holonomic systems, mobile robots, nonlinear programming, motion planning, B-spline, genetic algorithm

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Authors: Ivonne Tshuma, Ralf Cord-Ruwisch, Wendell Ela

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Water crisis is a world-wide problem because of population growth and climate change. Hence, desalination is a solution to water scarcity, which threatens the world. Reverse osmosis (RO) is the most used technique for desalination; unfortunately, this process, usually requires high-pressure requirement hence requires a lot of energy about 3 – 5.5 KWhr/m³ of electrical energy. The pressure requirements of RO can be alleviated by the use of PRO (pressure retarded osmosis) to drive the RO process. This paper proposes a process of utilizing the energy directly from PRO to drive an RO process. The paper mostly analyses the PRO process parameters such as cross-flow velocity, density, and buoyancy and how these have an effect on PRO hence ultimately the RO process. The experimental study of the PRO with various feed solution concentrations and cross-flow velocities at fixed applied pressure with different orientations of the PRO cell was performed. The study revealed that without cross-flow velocity, buoyancy effects were observed but not with cross-flow velocity.

Keywords: cross-flow velocity, pressure retarded osmosis, density, buoyancy

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Authors: Malorzata Kmiotek, Anna Kucaba-Pietal, Robert Smusz

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Due to the miniaturisation process, in many technical devices, microchannels are used in cooling systems. Because of the small size of microchannels, the flow inside is laminar, which caused a slow heat exchange. In order to intensify the heat exchange, the flow must be disturbed, for example, by introducing obstacles. We present results on the influence of a thin obstacle, placed on microchannel wall, on the fluid and heat flow in the aspect of their use by constructors of heat exchangers. The obstacle is called 'thin' when its geometrical parameter (o=w/h, w- width, h - height of the obstacle) satisfies inequality: o < 0.5. In this work, we report numerical results on heat and mass transfer in the microchannels of 400 micrometer height (H - height of the microchannel), where thin obstacles are immersed on the walls, to disturb the flow. The Reynolds number of the flow in microchannel varies between 20 and 200 and is typical for the flow in micro heat exchangers. The equations describing the fluid and heat flows in microchannels were solved numerically by using the finite element method with an application of CFD&FSI package of ADINA R&D, Inc. 9.4 solver. In the case of flows in the microchannels with sequences of thin rectangular obstacles placed on the bottom and the top wall of a microchannel, the influence of distances s (s is the distance between two thin obstacles) and heights of obstacles on the fluid and heat transfer was investigated. Thermal and flow conditions of the application area of microchannels in electronic cooling systems, i.e., wall temperature of 60 °C, the fluid temperature of 20°C were used to solve equations. Additionally, the distance s between the thin obstacles in microchannels as a multiple of the amount of the channel height was determined. Results show that placing thin obstacles on microchannel walls increase the length of recirculation zones of the flow and improves the heat transfer.

Keywords: Finite Element Method, heat transfer, mechanical engineering, microchannel

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Authors: Tanveer Rasool, A. K. Dhiman

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The paper reports 2-D numerical study used to investigate the effect of changing working fluids with Prandtl numbers 0.71, 10 and 50 on the flow and convective heat transfer across an equilateral triangular cylinder placed in a horizontal channel with its apex facing the flow. Numerical results have been generated for fixed blockage ratio of 50% and for three Reynolds numbers of 50, 75, and 100 for each Prandtl numbers respectively. The studies show that for above range of Reynolds numbers, the overall drag coefficient is insensitive to the Prandtl number changes while as the heat transfer characteristics change drastically with changing Prandtl number of the working fluid. The results generated are in complete agreement with the previous literature available.

Keywords: Prandtl number, Reynolds number, drag coefficient, flow and isothermal patterns

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Authors: Sanat K. Dash, Rama S. Verma, Sarit K. Das

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A logarithmic microfluidic shear device was designed and fabricated for cellular mechanotransduction studies. The device contains four cell culture chambers in which flow was modulated to achieve a logarithmic increment. Resistance values were optimized to make the device compact. The network of resistances was developed according to a unique combination of series and parallel resistances as found via optimization. Simulation results done in Ansys 16.1 matched the analytical calculations and showed the shear stress distribution at different inlet flow rates. Fabrication of the device was carried out using conventional photolithography and PDMS soft lithography. Flow profile was validated taking DI water as working fluid and measuring the volume collected at all four outlets. Volumes collected at the outlets were in accordance with the simulation results at inlet flow rates ranging from 1 ml/min to 0.1 ml/min. The device can exert fluid shear stresses ranging four orders of magnitude on the culture chamber walls which will cover shear stress values from interstitial flow to blood flow. This will allow studying cell behavior in the long physiological range of shear stress in a single run reducing number of experiments.

Keywords: microfluidics, mechanotransduction, fluid shear stress, physiological shear

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Authors: Ajai Singh

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Simulation of hydrological processes at the watershed outlet through modelling approach is essential for proper planning and implementation of appropriate soil conservation measures in Damodar Barakar catchment, Hazaribagh, India where soil erosion is a dominant problem. This study quantifies the parametric uncertainty involved in simulation of stream flow using Soil and Water Assessment Tool (SWAT), a watershed scale model and Radial Basis Neural Network (RBNN), an artificial neural network model. Both the models were calibrated and validated based on measured stream flow and quantification of the uncertainty in SWAT model output was assessed using ‘‘Sequential Uncertainty Fitting Algorithm’’ (SUFI-2). Though both the model predicted satisfactorily, but RBNN model performed better than SWAT with R2 and NSE values of 0.92 and 0.92 during training, and 0.71 and 0.70 during validation period, respectively. Comparison of the results of the two models also indicates a wider prediction interval for the results of the SWAT model. The values of P-factor related to each model shows that the percentage of observed stream flow values bracketed by the 95PPU in the RBNN model as 91% is higher than the P-factor in SWAT as 87%. In other words the RBNN model estimates the stream flow values more accurately and with less uncertainty. It could be stated that RBNN model based on simple input could be used for estimation of monthly stream flow, missing data, and testing the accuracy and performance of other models.

Keywords: SWAT, RBNN, SUFI 2, bootstrap technique, stream flow, simulation

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Authors: Yu Chen, Weiwei Ren, Xiaojing Mu, Feng Zhang, Yi Xu

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The superhydrophobic surface is widely used to reduce friction for the flow inside micro-channel and can be used to control/manipulate fluid, cells and even proteins in lab-on-chip. Fabricating micro grooves on hydrophobic surfaces is a common method to obtain such superhydrophobic surface. This study utilized the numerical method to investigate the effect of eccentric micro-grooves on the friction of flow inside micro-channel. A detailed parametric study was conducted to reveal how the eccentricity of micro-grooves affects the micro-channel flow under different grooves sizes, channel heights, Reynolds number. The results showed that the superhydrophobic surface with eccentric micro-grooves induces less friction than the counter part with aligning micro-grooves, which means requiring less power for pumps.

Keywords: eccentricity, micro-channel, micro-grooves, superhydrophobic surface

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Authors: Dzmitry Misiulia, Sergiy Antonyuk

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Small-scale cyclone separators are widely used in aerosol sampling. The flow field in a cyclone sampler is very complex, especially the vortex behavior. Most of the existing models for calculating cyclone efficiency use the same stable vortex structure while the vortex demonstrates dynamic variations rather than the steady-state picture. It can spontaneously ‘end’ at some point within the body of the separator. Natural vortex length is one of the most critical issues when designing and operating gas cyclones and is crucial to proper cyclone performance. The particle transport along the wall to the grid pot is not effective beyond this point. The flow field and vortex behavior inside the aerosol sampler have been investigated for a wide range of Reynolds numbers using Large Eddy Simulations. Two characteristics types of vortex behavior have been found with simulations. At low flow rates the vortex created in the cyclone dissipates in free space (without attaching to a surface) while at higher flow rates it attaches to the cyclone wall. The effects of the Reynolds number on the natural vortex length and the rotation frequency of the end of the vortex have been revealed.

Keywords: cyclone, flow field, natural vortex length, pressure drop

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Authors: J. P. Panda, K. Sasmal, H. V. Warrior

Abstract:

Eddy viscosity models in turbulence modeling can be mainly classified as linear and nonlinear models. Linear formulations are simple and require less computational resources but have the disadvantage that they cannot predict actual flow pattern in complex geophysical flows where streamline curvature and swirling motion are predominant. A constitutive equation of Reynolds stress anisotropy is adopted for the formulation of eddy viscosity including all the possible higher order terms quadratic in the mean velocity gradients, and a simplified model is developed for actual oceanic flows where only the vertical velocity gradients are important. The new model is incorporated into the one dimensional General Ocean Turbulence Model (GOTM). Two realistic oceanic test cases (OWS Papa and FLEX' 76) have been investigated. The new model predictions match well with the observational data and are better in comparison to the predictions of the two equation k-epsilon model. The proposed model can be easily incorporated in the three dimensional Princeton Ocean Model (POM) to simulate a wide range of oceanic processes. Practically, this model can be implemented in the coastal regions where trasverse shear induces higher vorticity, and for prediction of flow in estuaries and lakes, where depth is comparatively less. The model predictions of marine turbulence and other related data (e.g. Sea surface temperature, Surface heat flux and vertical temperature profile) can be utilized in short term ocean and climate forecasting and warning systems.

Keywords: Eddy viscosity, turbulence modeling, GOTM, CFD

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Authors: Tory Erickson

Abstract:

The "Bidirectional Spacetime with Spatial Covariance and Wave-Particle Duality in Spacetime Flow" (BST-SCWPDF) Model introduces a framework aimed at unifying general relativity (GR) and quantum mechanics (QM). By proposing a concept of bidirectional spacetime, this model suggests that time can flow in more than one direction, thus offering a perspective on temporal dynamics. Integrated with spatial covariance and wave-particle duality in spacetime flow, the BST-SCWPDF Model resolves long-standing discrepancies between GR and QM. This unified theory has profound implications for quantum gravity, potentially offering insights into quantum entanglement, the collapse of the wave function, and the fabric of spacetime itself. The Bidirectional Spacetime with Spatial Covariance and Wave-Particle Duality in Spacetime Flow" (BST-SCWPDF) Model offers researchers a framework for a better understanding of theoretical physics.

Keywords: astrophysics, quantum mechanics, general relativity, unification theory, theoretical physics

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