Experimental study on the aerodynamic influence of purge flow in a turbine cascade with different mainstream incidence angles

Demand for high reliability and long life of modern turbine requires that turbine components should be cooled adequately. The cooling flow purged into the rotor-stator disk cavity will inevitably interact with the mainstream. The current paper mainly focuses on the aerodynamic influence of cooling flow on the secondary flows in the mainstream. Both particle image velocimetry and blade wall pressure measurement were utilized to study the flow field within the turbine blade passage under different mainstream incidence angles and purge flow rates. The purge flow was found to promote the development of the passage vortex by inducing vortices which can enhance the vorticity of the passage vortex. In addition, the mainstream incidence angle also has an impact on the development of the passage vortex through affecting the blade loading and the horseshoe vortex. Furthermore, the transient results demonstrate that the time-averaged vortex is the superposition of large number of transient vortices, and the purge flow causes more transient vortices with large size and high strength.

Numerical Study of a Wide-angle Near-Perfect Absorber for the Visible Regime Incorporating Metal-Dielectric-Metal Subwavelength Grating Structure

A near-perfect absorber for the visible regime based on metal-dielectric-metal subwavelength grating structure with the refractory metals is designed and demonstrated numerically. The absorber presents an average absorption over 98.4% in the visible regime at normal incidence. Angle-relative analysis shows that the proposed structure has good angle-tolerance. The high average absorption (86.6%) in the visible region can be maintained with the incident angles up to 60°. Through the analysis of the magnetic field, the physical origin is verified that this excellent absorption performance mainly stems from the cooperative effect of surface plasmonic resonances and the intrinsic broadband spectral responses by the refractory metals. In addition, the dependence of the absorption spectrum of the proposed absorber on the structural parameters is analyzed. This work provides an idea for the design of high-performance absorbers and has potential applications in advanced light energy capture and integration systems.

Utilization of Secondary Jet in Cavitation Peening and Cavitation Abrasive Jet Polishing

The cavitation peening (CP) and cavitation abrasive jet polishing (CAJP) processes employ a cavitating jet to harden the surface or remove surface irregularities. However, a zero incidence angle between the jet and the surface limits the efficiency of these two processes. This limitation can be improved by introducing a secondary jet. The secondary jet interacts with the main jet, carrying bubbles to the proximity of the workpiece surface and aligning the disordered bubble collapse events. Through characterizing the treated surface of AL6061 in terms of the hardness distribution and surface roughness, it was found out that the secondary jet can increase the hardening intensity by 10%, whereas the material removal rate within a localized region increased by 66%. In addition, employing multiple secondary jets can create a patched pattern of hardness distribution. Another finding is that the hardening effect of the cavitation increases with the processing time at first and is then saturated.

Effect of Vertical Canard Location on Skin Friction Drag

This study investigates the viscous skin friction drag generation due to the three different vertical canard locations on the mid winger un-swept aircraft scaled-down model by using boundary layer measurements in the wind tunnel. The N22 airfoil was selected for the canard and the modified S1223 airfoil was selected for the wing. The laser cutting technique was employed for the fabrication of the wing, and canard airfoils, which gave sufficient dimensional accuracy to the model. The canard, wing, and fuselage were fabricated by balsa wood and strengthened by Aluminum stripes. The assembled model is tested in an open subsonic wind tunnel a fixed chord Reynolds number 3.8*106. The boundary layers were measured at 70% of the chord and at three different wingspan locations i.e. 30%, 60%, and 90% with 00 incidence angle. The canards were positioned at three vertical positions one at fuselage reference line (FRL) and the remaining two locations at ± 0.16 c from the FRL. The results were compared with wing-body alone and with three canard locations and found that the high canard configuration outperformed the other two configurations and also wing-body alone configuration as it provides half of the total drag. However, the high canard produces 15% more drag than the wing-body alone at the wing tip (90%).The aerodynamic performance of the high canard configuration was found to be significantly promising for the future use in drones and other small aircrafts.

SI-STSAR-7: A Large SAR Images Dataset with Spatial and Temporal Information for Classification of Winter Sea Ice in Hudson Bay

Remote sensing satellites have been broadly applied to sea ice monitoring. The substantial increase in satellite imagery provides a large amount of data support for deep learning methods in the sea ice classification field. However, there is a lack of public remote sensing datasets to facilitate sea ice classification with spatial and temporal information and to benchmark the deep learning methods. In this paper, we provide a labeled large sea ice dataset derived from time-series sentinel-1 SAR images, dubbed SI-STSAR-7, and a validated dataset construction method for sea ice classification research. The SI-STSAR-7 dataset includes seven different sea ice types corresponding to different sea ice development stages in Hudson Bay during winter, and its samples are time sequences of SAR image patches in order to embody the differences of backscattering intensity and textures between different sea ice types, as well as the change of sea ice with time. We construct the dataset by first performing noise reduction and mitigation of incidence angle dependence on SAR images, and then producing data samples and labeling them based on our proposed sample-producing principles and the weekly regional ice charts provided by Canadian Ice Service. Three baseline classification methods are developed on SI-STSAR-7 to establish benchmarks, which are evaluated with accuracy and kappa coefficient. The sample-producing principles are verified through experiments. Based on the experimental results, sea ice classification can be implemented well on SI-STSAR-7.

Arctic Sea Ice Classification Based on CFOSAT SWIM Data at Multiple Small Incidence Angles

Sea ice type is the key parameter of Arctic sea ice monitoring. Microwave remote sensors with medium incidence and normal incidence modes are the primary detection methods for sea ice types. The Surface Wave Investigation and Monitoring instrument (SWIM) on the China-France Oceanography Satellite (CFOSAT) is a new type of sensor with a small incidence angle detection mode that is different from traditional remote sensors. The method of sea ice detection using SWIM data is also under development. The research reported here concerns ice classification using SWIM data in the Arctic from October 2019 to April 2020. Six waveform features are extracted from the SWIM echo data at small incidence angles, then the distinguishing capabilities of a single feature are analyzed using the Kolmogorov-Smirnov distance. The classifiers of the k-nearest neighbor and support vector machine are established and chosen based on single features. Moreover, sea ice classification based on multi-feature combinations is carried out using the chosen KNN classifier, and optimal combinations are developed. Compared with sea ice charts, the overall accuracy is up to 81% using the optimal classifier and a multi-feature combination at 2°. The results reveal that SWIM data can be used to classify sea water and sea ice types. Moreover, the optimal multi-feature combinations with the KNN method are applied to sea ice classification in the local regions. The classification results are analyzed using Sentinel-1 SAR images. In general, it is concluded that these multifeature combinations with the KNN method are effective in sea ice classification using SWIM data. Our work confirms the potential of sea ice classification based on the new SWIM sensor, and highlight the new sea ice monitoring technology and application of remote sensing at small incidence angles.

Modelling and simulation of atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion intakes via direct simulation Monte Carlo

The Air-Breathing Ion Engine (ABIE) is an electric propulsion system capable of compensating for drag at low altitudes by ingesting the surrounding atmospheric particles to be utilized as propellant. The current state of the art of the ABIE performance is evaluated via Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC), due to the rarefied nature of the atmosphere in Very-Low Earth Orbit (VLEO). Nevertheless, the scarce availability of relevant simulation methodologies in the literature limits the repeatability of such numerical studies. Therefore, this paper proposes an independent methodology applicable to the modelling and simulation of Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP) intakes that aims to validate the ABIE DSMC results retrieved from the literature. This is achieved by investigating the ABIE intake collection efficiency and compression ratio through the open-source solver dsmcFoam+ and by assessing the results against the available RARAC-3D DSMC data. First, the variation of grid transparency is discussed and compared between both solvers, yielding a mean percentage error of $$2.97\%$$ 2.97 % for the compression ratio and $$2.06\%$$ 2.06 % for the collection efficiency. Second, the absence of intermolecular collisions is verified for which errors of $$1.61\%$$ 1.61 % for collection efficiency and $$3.49\%$$ 3.49 % for compression ratio are observed. Then, the variation of flow incidence angle is simulated between $$0^{\circ }$$ 0 ∘ and $$15^{\circ }$$ 15 ∘ , yielding differences lower than $$1.80\%$$ 1.80 % . Consecutively, the intake aspect ratio is varied between 10 and 40, for which a maximum discrepancy of $$1.83\%$$ 1.83 % is measured and, finally, the drag coefficient of the intake is obtained in dsmcFoam+ to define the power density requirements.

Angled beam expander telescopes for the Michelson beams in third generation gravitational wave observatories.

The third generation of Gravitational Wave detectors like the Einstein Telescope or the Cosmic Explorer will be Michelson interferometers with Fabry-Perot cavities in the arms, using mirror test masses with diameter at the limit of technical feasibility. Unlike other detectors, the Einstein Telescope will have a 60° angle between the arms. Because of its larger incidence angle, at any given beam size, it would require beam splitters almost double in size and much heavier than the 90° case. It is proposed here to install beam expander telescopes with angled mirrors located inside the Michelson interferometer between the Fabry-Perot cavities and the beam splitter. In addition to reducing the beam sizes and the beam splitter to manageable sizes, the proposed solution allows to bring the optimal recombination angle to 90°. The proposed geometry also offers a natural way to separate the beam splitters of different detectors into individual, smaller and more stable caverns thus improving observatory observation-time efficiency, to provide needed beam diagnostic points and convenient degrees of freedom for beam alignment into both the Fabry Perot cavities and the beam splitter, as well as to provide a method for maintaining optimal mode matching of the two arms onto the beam splitter without thermal compensation plates.

Numerical Investigation of Negative Flow Characteristics in a Centrifugal Compressor with Vaned Diffuser and Internal Volute

Negative flow from the outlet through the volute, diffuser, and impeller to the inlet of the centrifugal compressor can occur continuously as a result of system accidents. A physical comprehension of negative flow dynamics is crucial in evaluating the compressor characteristics under abnormal working conditions, and is also important in exploring the compressor aerodynamics over the entire flow range. However, limited research on the negative flow dynamics in centrifugal compressors, particularly with the consideration of vaned diffusers and volutes, can be found. This study aims to determine the compressor characteristics, including the negative flow rates of a centrifugal compressor, and to clarify the negative flow mechanism under the interaction of the volute, diffuser, and impeller. The last stage of a four-stage centrifugal compressor, including an internal volute, a vaned diffuser, and a closed impeller was simulated under both positive and negative flow conditions using a computational fluid dynamics (CFD) model. The results show that the pressure ratio-negative flow characteristic is almost matched with a parabolic curve. At negative flow rates, the backflow generated on the hub and shroud sides in the impeller expands upstream and causes flow separation in the diffuser. The negative flow enters the impeller at a large incidence angle and results in jet wall impingement on the pressure surface, flow spillage over the trailing edge, and flow separation near the suction surface. The impeller partially acts as a turbine impeller and performs negative work on the fluid. This work is of scientific significance to enrich the compressor aerodynamics in accident scenarios and of engineering value to improve the advanced design of compressor protection systems.