Particle Plume Velocities Extracted From High-Speed Thermograms Through Particle Image Velocimetry

Particle Image Velocimetry (PIV) measurements are commonly used to determine velocity fields from a flow, given that sufficient tracers can be added and tracked to determine their motion. While these types of measurements are typically completed using high-speed cameras to capture the trajectories of the tracer particles, the experiments performed at the University of New Mexico generated extensive time-resolved infrared temperature image (i.e. thermogram) sets of a free-falling particle curtain captured at 300 Hz. The camera used for such measurements was an ImageIR8300 high-speed IR camera which provides a resolution of 640 × 512. The thermogram sets acquired have been extensively analyzed with two commonly used commercial PIV analysis packages, DaVis and PIVlab. The comparison between the two software packages showed consistent velocity fields and contours, along with corresponding average velocity as functions of discharge position. As expected, the vertical velocity component of these gravity-driven curtains follows a trend that resembles a free-falling sphere rather than a falling sphere experiencing drag. The study also found that the discharge velocity showed negligible effects due to the inlet particle temperature of the curtain. These results will be applied to the development of a methodology to estimate the mass flow rate of particle curtain and plumes using a novel non-intrusive image correlation methodology.

Wall Effects On the Flow Dynamics of a Rigid Sphere in Motion

The presence of a wall near a rigid sphere in motion is known to disturb the particle fore and aft flow field symmetry and to affect the hydrodynamic force. An Immersed Boundary Direct Numerical Simulation (IB-DNS) is used in this study to determine the wall effects on the dynamics of a free-falling sphere and the drag of a sphere moving at a constant velocity. The numerical results are validated by comparison to the published experimental, numerical, and analytical data. The pressure and velocity fields are numerically computed when the particle is in the vicinity of the wall; the transverse (lift) and longitudinal (drag) parts of the hydrodynamic force are calculated; its rotational velocity is also investigated in the case of a free-falling sphere. The flow asymmetry also causes the particle to rotate. The wall effect is shown to be significant when the dimensionless ratio of the wall distance to the particle diameter, L/D, is less than 3. The wall effects are more pronounced and when the particle Reynolds number, Re, is less than 10. Based on the computational results, a useful correlation for the wall effects on the drag coefficients spheres is derived in the range 0.75 < L/D < 3 and 0.18 < Re < 10.

Linear versus branched: flow of a wormlike micellar fluid past a falling sphere

Branched micelles show stronger birefringence than linear micelles in flow.

A Simulation Experiment to Retrieve the Atmospheric Density and Three-Dimensional Wind Field by Double Falling Spheres

Falling-sphere sounding remains an important method for in situ determination in the middle atmosphere and is the only determination method within the altitude range of 60–100 km. Traditional single-falling-sphere sounding indicates only the atmospheric density and horizontal wind but not the vertical wind; the fundamental reason is that the equation set for retrieving atmospheric parameters is underdetermined. For tractability, previous studies assumed the vertical wind, which is much smaller than the horizontal wind, to be small or zero. Obtaining vertical wind profiles necessitates making the equations positive definite or overdetermined. An overdetermined equation set consisting of six equations, by which the optimal solution of density and three-dimensional wind can be obtained, can be established by the double-falling-sphere method. Hence, a simulation experiment is designed to retrieve the atmospheric density and three-dimensional wind field by double falling spheres. In the inversion results of the simulation experiment, the retrieved density is consistent with the constructed atmospheric density in magnitude; the density deviation rate does not generally exceed 20% (less than 5% below 60 km). The atmospheric density retrieved by the double-falling-sphere method is more accurate at low altitudes than the single-falling-sphere method. The vertical wind below 50 km and horizontal wind retrieved by double-falling-sphere method is highly consistent with the constructed average wind field. Additionally, the wind field deviation formula is deduced. These results establish the fact that the double-falling-sphere method is effective in detecting atmospheric density and three-dimensional wind.

Experimental Investigation of Diopside Melt Viscosity at High Pressure

This paper presents the experimental evaluation of viscosity of the diopside-based model composition conducted at high P-T parameters (at the pressure of 4 GPa and in the temperature range of 1750°C - 1800°C) in the presence of olivine crystals. The experiments are carried out using the multi-anvil high-pressure apparatus of the “split-sphere” type (Russian acronym — BARS) according to the falling sphere method. The traveling time of a platinum (Pt) sphere in a melt is one of the parameters measured in experiments. Measurement of this parameter starts when the given P-T values are attained and stops when the electric current is turned off. There are three main positions of the Pt sphere observed in the experiments. Viscosity is calculated using the Stokes’ Law. It is found out that the Pt sphere velocity decreases expectedly as the relative viscosity of such heterogeneous compositions (liquid + solid phase) increases (in contrast to homogeneous melts). Viscosity values remain low when there is up to 7-10 wt-% of solid phase crystals in magma. The increase of olivine xenocrysts in magma leads to the progressive increase of viscosity values of the melt: by 1.5-2 orders of magnitude at 20-25 wt-%, by 3-3.5 orders of magnitude at 35-40 wt-%. The obtained experimental results allow concluding that the amount of solid phase in magma should be sufficiently low (less than 20-30 wt-%), otherwise, melts of the investigated composition can be moved only by explosive processes.

Stokes' law, viscometry, and the Stokes falling sphere clock

Clocks run through the history of physics. Galileo conceived of using the pendulum as a timing device on watching a hanging lamp swing in Pisa cathedral; Huygens invented the pendulum clock; and Einstein thought about clock synchronization in his Gedankenexperiment that led to relativity. Stokes derived his law in the course of investigations to determine the effect of a fluid medium on the swing of a pendulum. I sketch the work that has come out of this, Stokes drag, one of his most famous results. And to celebrate the 200th anniversary of George Gabriel Stokes’ birth I propose using the time of fall of a sphere through a fluid for a sculptural clock—a public kinetic artwork that will tell the time. This article is part of the theme issue ‘Stokes at 200 (part 2)’.