Direct measurement of the viscoelectric effect in water

The viscoelectric effect concerns the increase in viscosity of a polar liquid in an electric field due to its interaction with the dipolar molecules and was first determined for polar organic liquids more than 80 y ago. For the case of water, however, the most common polar liquid, direct measurement of the viscoelectric effect is challenging and has not to date been carried out, despite its importance in a wide range of electrokinetic and flow effects. In consequence, estimates of its magnitude for water vary by more than three orders of magnitude. Here, we measure the viscoelectric effect in water directly using a surface force balance by measuring the dynamic approach of two molecularly smooth surfaces with a controlled, uniform electric field between them across highly purified water. As the water is squeezed out of the gap between the approaching surfaces, viscous damping dominates the approach dynamics; this is modulated by the viscoelectric effect under the uniform transverse electric field across the water, enabling its magnitude to be directly determined as a function of the field. We measured a value for this magnitude, which differs by one and by two orders of magnitude, respectively, from its highest and lowest previously estimated values.

Reducing Virus Transmission from Heating, Ventilation, and Air Conditioning Systems of Urban Subways

Transmission via virus-carrying aerosols inside enclosed spaces is an important transmission mode for severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), as supported by growing evidence. The urban subway is one of the most commonly used enclosed spaces. The subway is a utilitarian and low-cost transit system in today’s society. However, studies are yet to demonstrate patterns of viral transmission in subway heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems. To fill this gap, we performed a computational investigation of the airflow (and the associated aerosol transmission) in an urban subway cabin equipped with an HVAC system. We employed a transport equation for aerosol concentration, which was added to the basic buoyant solver to resolve aerosol transmission inside the subway cabin. This was achieved by considering the thermal, turbulence, and induced ventilation flow effects. Using the aerosol encounter probability over sampling lines crossing the passenger breathing zones, we can detect the highest infection risk zones inside the urban subway under different settings. We proposed a novel HVAC system that can impede aerosol spread, both vertically and horizontally, inside the cabin. In the conventional model, the maximum aerosol encounter probability from an infected individual breathing near the fresh-air ducts was equal to 15%. This decreased to 0.36% in the proposed HVAC model. Overall, using the proposed HVAC system for urban subways decreased the mean value of the aerosol encounter probability by approximately 79% compared to that for the conventional system.

Toward full simulations for a liquid metal blanket. Part 2: Computations of MHD flows with volumetric heating for a PbLi blanket prototype at Ha~104 and Gr~1012

On the pathway toward full simulations for a liquid metal blanket, this Part 2 extends a previous study of purely MHD flows in a DCLL blanket in Ref. 1 [Chen, L., Smolentsev, S., and Ni, M. J. (2020)] to more general conditions when the MHD flow is coupled with heat transfer. The simulated prototypic blanket module includes all components of a real liquid metal blanket system, such as supply ducts, inlet and outlet manifolds, multiple poloidal ducts and a U-turn zone. Volumetric heating generated by fusion neutrons is added to simulate thermal effects in the flowing PbLi breeder. The MHD flow equations and the energy equation are solved with a DNS-type finite-volume code “MHD-UCAS” on a very fine mesh of 470×10^6 cells. The applied magnetic field is 5 T (Hartmann number Ha~10^4), the PbLi velocity in the poloidal ducts is 10 cm/s (Reynolds number Re~10^5), whereas the maximum volumetric heating is 30 MW/m^3 (Grashof number Gr~10^12). Four cases have been simulated, including forced- and mixed-convection flows, and either an electrically conducting or insulating blanket structure. Various comparisons are made between the four computed cases and also against the purely MHD flows computed earlier in Ref. \cite{1} with regards to the (1) MHD pressure drop, (2) flow balancing, (3) temperature field, (4) flows in particular blanket components, and (5) 3D and turbulent flow effects. The strongest buoyancy effects were found in the poloidal ducts. In the electrically non- conducting blanket, the buoyancy forces lead to significant modifications of the flow structure, such as formation of reverse flows, whereas their effect on the MHD pressure drop is relatively small. In the electrically conducting blanket case, the buoyancy effects on the flow and MHD pressure drop are almost negligible.

Sluice Gate Discharge From Momentum Balance

Discharge from sluice gate flows is commonly calculated using the Torricelli outflow velocity, which is inaccurate and must be corrected by a discharge coefficient. Moreover, this approach commonly only considers the relative gate opening, without including the impact of 3D effects, scaling effects, different velocity profiles and friction forces. Aiming for a theoretical approach that can address all flow effects for sluice gate discharge calculations, the authors applied the momentum balance theory to this problem. First the control volume was introduced and parameterization equations for the pressure distributions and momentum coefficients at the control volume borders for both the standard and the inclined sluice gates were determined using CFD simulations. The results show good agreements with the discharge measurement results of frequently quoted experimental studies from other authors, demonstrating the potential of this approach. Also, one example of the impact of the 3D effect of various channels widths was investigated with the momentum balance theory.

The Potential Mechanisms of AMOC Multidecadal Periods in CMIP6/CMIP5 Preindustrial Simulations

Observations, theoretical analyses, and climate models show that the period of multidecadal variability of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) is related to westward temperature propagations in the subpolar North Atlantic, which is modulated by oceanic baroclinic Rossby waves. Here, we find major periods of AMOC variability of 12-28 years and associated westward temperature propagations in the preindustrial simulations of 9 CMIP6/CMIP5 models. Comparison with observations shows that the models reasonably simulate ocean stratifications in turn oceanic Rossby waves in the subpolar North Atlantic. The timescales of Rossby waves propagating on a static background flow across the subpolar North Atlantic basin overestimate the AMOC periods. The mean flow effects involving westward geostrophic self-advection and eastward mean advection largely shorten and greatly improve the estimate of AMOC periods through increasing Rossby wave speeds. Our results illustrate the importance of considering mean flow effects on Rossby wave propagations in the estimate of AMOC periods.