Acceleration statistics of tracer particles in filtered turbulent fields

2018 ◽  
Vol 847 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cristian C. Lalescu ◽  
Michael Wilczek

We present results from direct numerical simulations of tracer particles advected in filtered velocity fields to quantify the impact of the scales of turbulence on Lagrangian acceleration statistics. Systematically removing spatial scales reduces the frequency of extreme acceleration events, consistent with the notion that they are rooted in the small-scale structure of turbulence. We also find that acceleration variance and flatness as a function of filter scale closely resemble experimental results of neutrally buoyant, finite-sized particles, corroborating the picture that particle size determines the scale on which turbulent fluctuations are sampled.

2022 ◽  
Vol 63 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
C. Bauer ◽  
D. Schiepel ◽  
C. Wagner

Abstract A novel method for assimilating and extending measured turbulent Rayleigh–Bénard convection data is presented, which relies on the fractional step method also used to solve the incompressible Navier–Stokes equation in direct numerical simulations. Our approach is used to make measured tomographic particle image velocimetry (tomo PIV) fields divergence-free and to extract temperature fields. Comparing the time average of the extracted temperature fields with the temporally averaged temperature field, measured using particle image thermometry in a subdomain of the flow geometry, shows that extracted fields correlate well with measured fields with a correlation coefficient of $$C_{T\tilde{T}}=0.84$$ C T T ~ = 0.84 . Additionally, extracted temperature fields as well as divergence-free velocity fields serve as initial fields for subsequent direct numerical simulations with and without feedback which generate small-scale turbulence initially absent in the experimental data. Although the tomo PIV data set was spatially under-resolved and did not include any information on the boundary layers, the here-proposed method successfully generates velocity and temperature fields featuring small-scale turbulence and thermal as well as kinetic boundary layers, without disturbing the large-scale circulation contained in the original experimental data significantly. The latter is underpinned by high vertical and horizontal velocity correlation coefficients—computed from velocity fields averaged in time and horizontal x-direction obtained from the measurement and from the simulation without feedback—of $$C_{v\tilde{v}}=0.92$$ C v v ~ = 0.92 and $$C_{w\tilde{w}}=0.91$$ C w w ~ = 0.91 representing the large-scale structure. For simulations with feedback, the generated velocity fields resemble the experimental data increasingly well for higher feedback gain values, whereas the temperature fluctuation intensity deviates noticeably from the values obtained from a direct numerical simulation without feedback for gain values $$\alpha \ge 1$$ α ≥ 1 . Thus, a feedback gain of $$\alpha =0.1$$ α = 0.1 was found optimal with correlation coefficients of $$C_{v\tilde{v}}=0.96$$ C v v ~ = 0.96 and $$C_{w\tilde{w}}=0.95$$ C w w ~ = 0.95 as well as a realistic temperature fluctuation intensity profile. The xt-averaged temperature fields obtained from the direct numerical simulations with and without feedback correlate somewhat less with the extracted temperature field ($$C_{T\tilde{T}}\approx 0.6$$ C T T ~ ≈ 0.6 ), which is presumably caused by spatially under-resolved and temporally oscillating initial tomo PIV fields reflected by the extracted temperature field. Graphical abstract


Author(s):  
Lance R. Collins ◽  
Hui Meng ◽  
Aruj Ahluwalia ◽  
Lujie Cao ◽  
Gang Pan

Particle collisions driven by turbulent fluctuations play a key role in such diverse problems as cloud formation, aerosol powder manufacturing and inhalation drug therapy to name a few. In all of these examples (and many others) turbulent fluctuations increase the rate of collisions relative to the background collision rate driven by Brownian motion. Furthermore, turbulence can spontaneously generate very large fluctuations in the particle concentration field. This “clustering” is caused by the inertial mismatch between the heavy particles and the lighter surrounding gas; vortices in the flow “centrifuge” the heavier particles out of vortex cores and into the straining regions that lie in between the vortices. Because collision is a binary process, concentration fluctuations further enhance the turbulent coagulation rate by as much as two orders of magnitude. An effect of this size must be accounted for in a rational model of turbulent coagulation. Sundaram & Collins (J. Fluid Mech. 1997) showed that the radial distribution function (RDF) of the particle population, evaluated at contact, precisely corrects the collision kernel for clustering. Subsequent work has explored the dependence of the RDF on the system parameters (e.g., particle size, concentration, response time and Reynolds number) using direct numerical simulations. These results have improved our understanding and ability to predict the effect of the first three parameters; however, owing to the limited range of Reynolds number that can be reached in a numerical simulation, questions remain over the scaling of the RDF with Reynolds number. This is a critical issue for high-Reynolds-number applications such as cloud physics, where values of the Reynolds number can be 1–2 orders of magnitude greater than can be simulated. We will present our highest Reynolds number simulations to date and show our attempts to resolve this issue. Recently, the ability to measure three-dimensional particle positions using holography has been realized (e.g., Meng & Pu, J. Opt. Soc. Am. 2003). With holography, the optical image that is produced contains fringes that, upon inverting the laser, reproduce the original image in three dimensions. The hologram can then be scanned using a digital camera to obtain the particle positions. An important consideration with this study is the need to differentiate individual particles. We developed a search algorithm that locates particle centers, even in the presence of optical aberations and speckle noise. The algorithm has been used to obtain the first experimental RDF measurements to date. Thus far we see good agreement between the experimentally obtained RDF and the simulations. Besides validating the simulations, experiments can span a much broader range of Reynolds numbers, providing critical data that may help resolve the open questions associated with this parameter.


Author(s):  
Joshua R. Brinkerhoff ◽  
Metin I. Yaras

This paper describes numerical simulations of the instability mechanisms in a separation bubble subjected to a three-dimensional freestream pressure distribution. Two direct numerical simulations are performed of a separation bubble with laminar separation and turbulent reattachment under low freestream turbulence at flow Reynolds numbers and streamwise pressure distributions that approximate the conditions encountered on the suction side of typical low-pressure gas-turbine blades with blade sweep angles of 0° and 45°. The three-dimensional pressure field in the swept configuration produces a crossflow-velocity component in the laminar boundary layer upstream of the separation point that is unstable to a crossflow instability mode. The simulation results show that crossflow instability does not play a role in the development of the boundary layer upstream of separation. An increase in the amplification rate and most amplified disturbance frequency is observed in the separated-flow region of the swept configuration, and is attributed to boundary-layer conditions at the point of separation that are modified by the spanwise pressure gradient. This results in a slight upstream movement of the location where the shear layer breaks down to small-scale turbulence and modifies the turbulent mixing of the separated shear layer to yield a downstream shift in the time-averaged reattachment location. The results demonstrate that although crossflow instability does not appear to have a noticeable effect on the development of the transitional separation bubble, the 3D pressure field does indirectly alter the separation-bubble development by modifying the flow conditions at separation.


2011 ◽  
Vol 2011 ◽  
pp. 1-12 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gordon Fru ◽  
Gábor Janiga ◽  
Dominique Thévenin

Parametric direct numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent premixed flames burning methane in the thin reaction zone regime have been performed relying on complex physicochemical models and taking into account volume viscosity (κ). The combined effect of increasing turbulence intensities (u′) andκon the resulting flame structure is investigated. The turbulent flame structure is marred with numerous perforations and edge flame structures appearing within the burnt gas mixture at various locations, shapes and sizes. Stepping upu′from 3 to 12 m/s leads to an increase in the scaled integrated heat release rate from 2 to 16. This illustrates the interest of combustion in a highly turbulent medium in order to obtain high volumetric heat release rates in compact burners. Flame thickening is observed to be predominant at high turbulent Reynolds number. Via ensemble averaging, it is shown that both laminar and turbulent flame structures are not modified byκ. These findings are in opposition to previous observations for flames burning hydrogen, where significant modifications induced byκwere found for both the local and global properties of turbulent flames. Therefore, to save computational resources, we suggest that the volume viscosity transport term be ignored for turbulent combustion DNS at low Mach numbers when burning hydrocarbon fuels.


Author(s):  
Sedat Tardu ◽  
Rabia Nacereddine

An active micro-mixing strategy through forcing the flow by synthetic wall jets is proposed. It is based on the interaction of induced streamwise vortices in a specific way. There is a spanwise shift between two quasi-streamwise vortices in such a way that one of them compresses the wall normal vorticity layer created by the other, leading to the generation of new wall normal vortical structures. The latter are subsequently tilted by the shear to give birth to new small-scale longitudinal active structures that are efficient in mixing. The feasibility of this strategy is shown through direct numerical simulations of high spatial and temporal resolution.


Pharmaceutics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (12) ◽  
pp. 653 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cameron Webb ◽  
Swapnil Khadke ◽  
Signe Tandrup Schmidt ◽  
Carla B. Roces ◽  
Neil Forbes ◽  
...  

The aim of this work was to assess the impact of solvent selection on the microfluidic production of liposomes. To achieve this, liposomes were manufactured using small-scale and bench-scale microfluidics systems using three aqueous miscible solvents (methanol, ethanol or isopropanol, alone or in combination). Liposomes composed of different lipid compositions were manufactured using these different solvents and characterised to investigate the influence of solvents on liposome attributes. Our studies demonstrate that solvent selection is a key consideration during the microfluidics manufacturing process, not only when considering lipid solubility but also with regard to the resultant liposome critical quality attributes. In general, reducing the polarity of the solvent (from methanol to isopropanol) increased the liposome particle size without impacting liposome short-term stability or release characteristics. Furthermore, solvent combinations such as methanol/isopropanol mixtures can be used to modify solvent polarity and the resultant liposome particle size. However, the impact of solvent choice on the liposome product is also influenced by the liposome formulation; liposomes containing charged lipids tended to show more sensitivity to solvent selection and formulations containing increased concentrations of cholesterol or pegylated-lipids were less influenced by the choice of solvent. Indeed, incorporation of 14 wt% or more of pegylated-lipid was shown to negate the impact of solvent selection.


2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
pp. 17-27 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. J. Crook ◽  
B. Jefferson ◽  
O. Autin ◽  
J. MacAdam ◽  
A. Nocker

The current technological status of ultraviolet light emitting diodes (UV-LEDs) has reached a point where small-scale ultraviolet (UV) water disinfection applications, that is, for greywater reuse appear increasingly promising. This study compares the germicidal and economical aspects of UV-LEDs with traditional UV. Pure cultures and environmental greywater samples were exposed to different radiation doses from both UV sources with the germicidal effect comparative at equivalent doses. The impact of particle size on disinfection efficiency was investigated in two greywater fractions of varying mean particle size. Disinfection efficiency was found to be dependent on particle size with larger particles reducing microbial inactivation for both UV sources. Post-UV blending to detach particle-associated coliforms resulted in higher bacterial counts for both UV sources although to a lesser extent for UV-LEDs suggesting that it might be less affected by the presence of particles than traditional UV sources, possibly due to the UV radiation being emitted by multiple diodes at different angles compared to the traditional UV collimated beam setup. Nevertheless, removal of particles prior to UV disinfection is necessary to meet strict water reuse standards. Although UV-LEDs are currently prohibitively expensive, improvements in performance indicators might make this technology economically competitive within the next few years.


2021 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 127-138
Author(s):  
Nicoletta Sanvitale ◽  
Elisabeth Bowman ◽  
Miguel Angel Cabrera

ABSTRACT Debris flows involve the high-speed downslope motion of rocks, soil, and water. Their high flow velocity and high potential for impact loading make them one of the most hazardous types of gravitational mass flows. This study focused on the roles of particle size grading and degree of fluid saturation on impact behavior of fluid-saturated granular flows on a model rigid barrier in a small-scale flume. The use of a transparent debris-flow model and plane laser-induced fluorescence allowed the motion of particles and fluid within the medium to be examined and tracked using image processing. In this study, experiments were conducted on flows consisting of two uniform and one well-graded particle size gradings at three different fluid contents. The evolution of the velocity profiles, impact load, bed normal pressure, and fluid pore pressure for the different flows were measured and analyzed in order to gain a quantitative comparison of their behavior before, during, and after impact.


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