Turbulent Three-Dimensional Air Flow and Trace Gas Distribution in an Inhalation Test Chamber

2000 ◽  
Vol 122 (2) ◽  
pp. 403-411 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. W. Longest, ◽  
C. Kleinstreuer ◽  
J. S. Kinsey

Steady incompressible turbulent air flow and transient carbon monoxide transport in an empty Rochester-style human exposure chamber have been numerically simulated and compared with experimental data sets. The system consisted of an inlet duct with a continuous carbon monoxide point source, 45- and 90-degree bends, a round diffuser, a round-to-square transition, a rectangular diffuser, the test chamber, a perforated floor, and again transition pieces from the chamber to an outlet duct. Such a configuration induced highly nonuniform vortical flow patterns in the chamber test area where a pollutant concentration is required to be constant at breathing level for safe and accurate inhalation studies. Presented are validated momentum and mass transfer results for this large-scale system with the main goals of determining the development of tracer gas (CO) distributions in the chamber and analyzing the contributions to CO-mixing. Numerical simulations were conducted employing a k-ε model and the latest available RNG k-ε model for air and CO-mixing. Both models predict similar velocity fields and are in good agreement with measured steady and transient CO-concentrations. It was found that secondary flows in the inlet section and strong vortical flow in the chamber with perforated flooring contributed to effective mixing of the trace gas at breathing levels. Specifically, in the height range of 1.4 m<h<2.0 m above the chamber floor, predicted CO-concentrations rapidly reached a near constant value which agrees well with experimental results. This work can be extended to analyze trace gas mixing as well as aerosol dispersion in occupied test chambers with or without flow redirection devices installed in the upstream section. A complementary application is particle transport and deposition in clean rooms of the electronic, pharmaceutical, and health care industries. [S0098-2202(00)01702-8]

Author(s):  
Jae-Ho Jeong ◽  
Jin Yoo ◽  
Kwi-Lim Lee ◽  
Kwi-Seok Ha

The wire effect in a wire-wrapped 37-pin fuel assembly mock-up of a Japanese loop-type sodium-cooled fast reactor (SFR), Monju, has been investigated through a numerical analysis using a general-purpose commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code, CFX. Complicated and vortical flow phenomena in the wire-wrapped 37-pin fuel assembly were captured by a Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) flow simulation with a shear stress transport (SST) turbulence model. The CFD results show good agreement with Rehme’s friction factor correlation model, which can consider the number of wire-wrapped pins in the fuel assembly. Three-dimensional multi-scale vortex structures start to be formed by an interaction between secondary flows around each wire-wrapped pin. Large-scale and small-scale vortex structures are generated in the corner and edge, and interior sub-channel, respectively. The behavior of the large-scale vortex structures in the corner and edge sub-channel are closely related to the relative position between the hexagonal duct wall and the wire spacer. Regardless of the relative position between the adjacent rod and wire spacer, a small-scale vortex is axially developed in the interior sub-channels. Furthermore, a driving force on each wire spacer surface is closely related to the relative position between the hexagonal duct wall and wire spacer. It is expected that the multi-scale vortex structures in the fuel assembly play a significant role in the convective heat transfer characteristics.


2011 ◽  
Vol 75 (7) ◽  
pp. 1392-1394 ◽  
Author(s):  
Takahiro INOUE ◽  
Takashi YOSHIDA ◽  
Kei WADA ◽  
Takashi DAIFUKU ◽  
Keiichi FUKUYAMA ◽  
...  

Author(s):  
S. Friedrichs ◽  
H. P. Hodson ◽  
W. N. Dawes

The endwall film-cooling cooling configuration investigated by Friedrichs et al. (1996, 1997) had in principle sufficient cooling flow for the endwall, but in practice, the redistribution of this coolant by secondary flows left large endwall areas uncooled. This paper describes the attempt to improve upon this datum cooling configuration by redistributing the available coolant to provide a better coolant coverage on the endwall surface, whilst keeping the associated aerodynamic losses small. The design of the new, improved cooling configuration was based on the understanding of endwall film-cooling described by Friedrichs et al. (1996, 1997). Computational fluid dynamics were used to predict the basic flow and pressure field without coolant ejection. Using this as a basis, the above described understanding was used to place cooling holes so that they would provide the necessary cooling coverage at minimal aerodynamic penalty. The simple analytical modelling developed in Friedrichs et al. (1997) was then used to check that the coolant consumption and the increase in aerodynamic loss lay within the limits of the design goal. The improved cooling configuration was tested experimentally in a large scale, low speed linear cascade. An analysis of the results shows that the redesign of the cooling configuration has been successful in achieving an improved coolant coverage with lower aerodynamic losses, whilst using the same amount of coolant as in the datum cooling configuration. The improved cooling configuration has reconfirmed conclusions from Friedrichs et al. (1996, 1997); firstly, coolant ejection downstream of the three-dimensional separation lines on the endwall does not change the secondary flow structures; secondly, placement of holes in regions of high static pressure helps reduce the aerodynamic penalties of platform coolant ejection; finally, taking account of secondary flow can improve the design of endwall film-cooling configurations.


Author(s):  
Ari Kettunen ◽  
Timo Hyppa¨nen ◽  
Ari-Pekka Kirkinen ◽  
Esa Maikkola

The main objective of this study was to investigate the load change capability and effect of the individual control variables, such as fuel, primary air and secondary air flow rates, on the dynamics of large-scale CFB boilers. The dynamics of the CFB process were examined by dynamic process tests and by simulation studies. A multi-faceted set of transient process tests were performed at a commercial 235 MWe CFB unit. Fuel reactivity and interaction between gas flow rates, solid concentration profiles and heat transfer were studied by step changes of the following controllable variables: fuel feed rate, primary air flow rate, secondary air flow rate and primary to secondary air flow ratio. Load change performance was tested using two different types of tests: open and closed loop load changes. A tailored dynamic simulator for the CFB boiler was built and fine-tuned by determining the model parameters and by validating the models of each process component against measured process data of the transient test program. The know-how about the boiler dynamics obtained from the model analysis and the developed CFB simulator were utilized in designing the control systems of three new 262 MWe CFB units, which are now under construction. Further, the simulator was applied for the control system development and transient analysis of the supercritical OTU CFB boiler.


Author(s):  
M. W. Benner ◽  
S. A. Sjolander ◽  
S. H. Moustapha

This paper presents experimental results of the secondary flows from two large-scale, low-speed, linear turbine cascades for which the incidence was varied. The aerofoils for the two cascades were designed for the same inlet and outlet conditions and differed mainly in their leading-edge geometries. Detailed flow field measurements were made upstream and downstream of the cascades and static pressure distributions were measured on the blade surfaces for three different values of incidence: 0, +10 and +20 degrees. The results from this experiment indicate that the strength of the passage vortex does not continue to increase with incidence, as would be expected from inviscid flow theory. The streamwise acceleration within the aerofoil passage seems to play an important role in influencing the strength of the vortex. The most recent off-design secondary loss correlation (Moustapha et al. [1]) includes leading-edge diameter as an influential correlating parameter. The correlation predicts that the secondary losses for the aerofoil with the larger leading-edge diameter are lower at off-design incidence; however, the opposite is observed experimentally. The loss results at high positive incidence have also high-lighted some serious shortcomings with the conventional method of loss decomposition. An empirical prediction method for secondary losses has been developed and will be presented in a subsequent paper.


2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (13) ◽  
pp. 6041-6065 ◽  
Author(s):  
M. O. Andreae ◽  
P. Artaxo ◽  
V. Beck ◽  
M. Bela ◽  
S. Freitas ◽  
...  

Abstract. We present the results of airborne measurements of carbon monoxide (CO) and aerosol particle number concentration (CN) made during the Balanço Atmosférico Regional de Carbono na Amazônia (BARCA) program. The primary goal of BARCA is to address the question of basin-scale sources and sinks of CO2 and other atmospheric carbon species, a central issue of the Large-scale Biosphere-Atmosphere (LBA) program. The experiment consisted of two aircraft campaigns during November–December 2008 (BARCA-A) and May–June 2009 (BARCA-B), which covered the altitude range from the surface up to about 4500 m, and spanned most of the Amazon Basin. Based on meteorological analysis and measurements of the tracer, SF6, we found that airmasses over the Amazon Basin during the late dry season (BARCA-A, November 2008) originated predominantly from the Southern Hemisphere, while during the late wet season (BARCA-B, May 2009) low-level airmasses were dominated by northern-hemispheric inflow and mid-tropospheric airmasses were of mixed origin. In BARCA-A we found strong influence of biomass burning emissions on the composition of the atmosphere over much of the Amazon Basin, with CO enhancements up to 300 ppb and CN concentrations approaching 10 000 cm−3; the highest values were in the southern part of the Basin at altitudes of 1–3 km. The ΔCN/ΔCO ratios were diagnostic for biomass burning emissions, and were lower in aged than in fresh smoke. Fresh emissions indicated CO/CO2 and CN/CO emission ratios in good agreement with previous work, but our results also highlight the need to consider the residual smoldering combustion that takes place after the active flaming phase of deforestation fires. During the late wet season, in contrast, there was little evidence for a significant presence of biomass smoke. Low CN concentrations (300–500 cm−3) prevailed basinwide, and CO mixing ratios were enhanced by only ~10 ppb above the mixing line between Northern and Southern Hemisphere air. There was no detectable trend in CO with distance from the coast, but there was a small enhancement of CO in the boundary layer suggesting diffuse biogenic sources from photochemical degradation of biogenic volatile organic compounds or direct biological emission. Simulations of CO distributions during BARCA-A using a range of models yielded general agreement in spatial distribution and confirm the important contribution from biomass burning emissions, but the models evidence some systematic quantitative differences compared to observed CO concentrations. These mismatches appear to be related to problems with the accuracy of the global background fields, the role of vertical transport and biomass smoke injection height, the choice of model resolution, and reliability and temporal resolution of the emissions data base.


Sensors ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 18 (10) ◽  
pp. 3273
Author(s):  
Lesong Zhou ◽  
Zheng Sheng ◽  
Qixiang Liao

In recent years, Thorpe analysis has been used to retrieve the characteristics of turbulence in free atmosphere from balloon-borne sensor data. However, previous studies have mainly focused on the mid-high latitude region, and this method is still rarely applied at heights above 30 km, especially above 35 km. Therefore, seven sets of upper air (>35 km) sounding data from the Changsha Sounding Station (28°12′ N, 113°05′ E), China are analyzed with Thorpe analysis in this article. It is noted that, in the troposphere, Thorpe analysis can better retrieve the turbulence distribution and the corresponding turbulence parameters. Also, because of the thicker troposphere at low latitudes, the values of the Thorpe scale L T and turbulent energy dissipation rate ε remain greater in a larger height range. In the stratosphere below the height of 35 km, the obtained ε is higher, and Thorpe analysis can only be used to analyze the characteristics of large-scale turbulence. In the stratosphere at a height of 35–40 km, because of the interference of sensor noise, Thorpe analysis can only help to retrieve the rough distribution position of large-scale turbulence, while it can hardly help with the calculation of the turbulence parameters.


2014 ◽  
Vol 763 ◽  
pp. 109-135 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sebastian Wagner ◽  
Olga Shishkina

AbstractDirect numerical simulations (DNS) of turbulent thermal convection in a box-shaped domain with regular surface roughness at the heated bottom and cooled top surfaces are conducted for Prandtl number $\mathit{Pr}=0.786$ and Rayleigh numbers $\mathit{Ra}$ between $10^{6}$ and $10^{8}$. The surface roughness is introduced by four parallelepiped equidistantly distributed obstacles attached to the bottom plate, and four obstacles located symmetrically at the top plate. By varying $\mathit{Ra}$ and the height and width of the obstacles, we investigate the influence of the regular wall roughness on the turbulent heat transport, measured by the Nusselt number $\mathit{Nu}$. For fixed $\mathit{Ra}$, the change in the value of $\mathit{Nu}$ is determined not only by the covering area of the surface, i.e. the obstacle height, but also by the distance between the obstacles. The heat flux enhancement is found to be largest for wide cavities between the obstacles which can be ‘washed out’ by the flow. This is also manifested in an empirical relation, which is based on the DNS data. We further discuss theoretical limiting cases for very wide and very narrow obstacles and combine them into a simple model for the heat flux enhancement due to the wall roughness, without introducing any free parameters. This model predicts well the general trends and the order of magnitude of the heat flux enhancement obtained in the DNS. In the $\mathit{Nu}$ versus $\mathit{Ra}$ scaling, the obstacles work in two ways: for smaller $\mathit{Ra}$ an increase of the scaling exponent compared to the smooth case is found, which is connected to the heat flux entering the cavities from below. For larger $\mathit{Ra}$ the scaling exponent saturates to the one for smooth plates, which can be understood as a full washing-out of the cavities. The latter is also investigated by considering the strength of the mean secondary flow in the cavities and its relation to the wind (i.e. the large-scale circulation), that develops in the core part of the domain. Generally, an increase in the roughness height leads to stronger flows both in the cavities and in the bulk region, while an increase in the width of the obstacles strengthens only the large-scale circulation of the fluid and weakens the secondary flows. An increase of the Rayleigh number always leads to stronger flows, both in the cavities and in the bulk.


2016 ◽  
Vol 13 (15) ◽  
pp. 4595-4613 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alison L. Webb ◽  
Emma Leedham-Elvidge ◽  
Claire Hughes ◽  
Frances E. Hopkins ◽  
Gill Malin ◽  
...  

Abstract. The Baltic Sea is a unique environment as the largest body of brackish water in the world. Acidification of the surface oceans due to absorption of anthropogenic CO2 emissions is an additional stressor facing the pelagic community of the already challenging Baltic Sea. To investigate its impact on trace gas biogeochemistry, a large-scale mesocosm experiment was performed off Tvärminne Research Station, Finland, in summer 2012. During the second half of the experiment, dimethylsulfide (DMS) concentrations in the highest-fCO2 mesocosms (1075–1333 µatm) were 34 % lower than at ambient CO2 (350 µatm). However, the net production (as measured by concentration change) of seven halocarbons analysed was not significantly affected by even the highest CO2 levels after 5 weeks' exposure. Methyl iodide (CH3I) and diiodomethane (CH2I2) showed 15 and 57 % increases in mean mesocosm concentration (3.8 ± 0.6 increasing to 4.3 ± 0.4 pmol L−1 and 87.4 ± 14.9 increasing to 134.4 ± 24.1 pmol L−1 respectively) during Phase II of the experiment, which were unrelated to CO2 and corresponded to 30 % lower Chl a concentrations compared to Phase I. No other iodocarbons increased or showed a peak, with mean chloroiodomethane (CH2ClI) concentrations measured at 5.3 (±0.9) pmol L−1 and iodoethane (C2H5I) at 0.5 (±0.1) pmol L−1. Of the concentrations of bromoform (CHBr3; mean 88.1 ± 13.2 pmol L−1), dibromomethane (CH2Br2; mean 5.3 ± 0.8 pmol L−1), and dibromochloromethane (CHBr2Cl, mean 3.0 ± 0.5 pmol L−1), only CH2Br2 showed a decrease of 17 % between Phases I and II, with CHBr3 and CHBr2Cl showing similar mean concentrations in both phases. Outside the mesocosms, an upwelling event was responsible for bringing colder, high-CO2, low-pH water to the surface starting on day t16 of the experiment; this variable CO2 system with frequent upwelling events implies that the community of the Baltic Sea is acclimated to regular significant declines in pH caused by up to 800 µatm fCO2. After this upwelling, DMS concentrations declined, but halocarbon concentrations remained similar or increased compared to measurements prior to the change in conditions. Based on our findings, with future acidification of Baltic Sea waters, biogenic halocarbon emissions are likely to remain at similar values to today; however, emissions of biogenic sulfur could significantly decrease in this region.


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