Experimental Evidence of Generation and Reception by a Transluminal Axisymmetric Shear Wave Elastography Prototype

Experimental evidence on testing a non-ultrasonic-based probe for a new approach in transluminal elastography was presented. The proposed modality generated shear waves by inducing oscillatory rotation on the lumen wall. Detection of the propagated waves was achieved at a set of receivers in mechanical contact with the lumen wall. The excitation element of the probe was an electromagnetic rotational actuator whilst the sensing element was comprised by a uniform anglewise arrangement of four piezoelectric receivers. The prototype was tested in two soft-tissue-mimicking phantoms that contained lumenlike conduits and stiffer inclusions. The shear wave speed of the different components of the phantoms was characterized using shear wave elastography. These values were used to estimate the time-of-flight of the expected reflections. Ultrafast ultrasound imaging, based on Loupas’ algorithm, was used to estimate the displacement field in transversal planes to the lumenlike conduit and to compare against the readouts from the transluminal transmission–reception tests. Experimental observations between ultrafast imaging and the transluminal probe were in good agreement, and reflections due to the stiffer inclusions were detected by the transluminal probe. The obtained experimental evidence provided proof-of-concept for the transluminal elastography probe and encouraged further exploration of clinical applications.

Combustion Instability in a Swirl Flow Combustor With Transverse Extensions

The present investigation is an analysis of self-excited combustion instability in a swirl flame-based combustor with transverse extensions. Transverse extensions create the possibility of studying flame interaction with transverse acoustic oscillations. Such investigation important for understanding the phenomenon of thermoacoustic instability in annular combustors, where during thermoacoustic instability, azimuthal acoustic modes of the combustor couple with the multiple flames of the combustor. Flame and flow field dynamics during self-excited thermoacoustic instability in the single burner test-rig is presented here. These results are then compared to the dynamics of the isothermal and reacting flows in response to axial and transverse acoustic forcing. Both axial and transverse forcing led to the formation of axisymmetric shear layer vortices. Adding to the insight gained from previous investigations, these results suggest that that swirl flow dynamics in response to transverse acoustics consists of a non-trivial, direct effect of transverse acoustics on the flow field, in addition to its response to longitudinal fluctuations induced by transverse forcing.

Bifurcations, transitions, and attractors of real open flows

In this study, some dynamics that can be referred to as bifurcations, transitions, and attractors of real open flows, including axisymmetric shear flows, variable density jets, and wakes, have been presented. All of them can be considered as the experimental evidences of the quite abundant dynamics of the Navier-Stokes equations. A concept termed as physical territorial attractor (PTA) is proposed according to the properties of real open flows. Spatial evolutions of open flows, subsequently, can be described by different kinds of PTAs. Global relations through which global dynamics within one PTA or different PTAs can be studied are briefly introduced.

Fluid instabilities in precessing spheroidal cavities

We study by direct numerical simulation the motion of incompressible fluid contained in an ellipsoid of revolution with ellipticity 0.1 or less which rotates about its axis of symmetry and whose rotation axis is executing precessional motion. A solution to this problem for an inviscid fluid given by Poincaré (1910) predicts motion of uniform vorticity. The simulations show how the orientation of the average vorticity of a real fluid is influenced by both pressure and viscous torques exerted by the boundaries. Axisymmetric shear layers appear which agree well with those observed experimentally by Malkus (1968). Shear caused by deviations from a velocity field with uniform vorticity triggers an instability consisting of waves propagating around the average rotation axis of the fluid. The Ekman layers at the boundaries may also become unstable.