Applications of Chitosan-Alginate-Based Nanoparticles—An Up-to-Date Review

Chitosan and alginate are two of the most studied natural polymers that have attracted interest for multiple uses in their nano form. The biomedical field is one of the domains benefiting the most from the development of nanotechnology, as increasing research interest has been oriented to developing chitosan-alginate biocompatible delivery vehicles, antimicrobial agents, and vaccine adjuvants. Moreover, these nanomaterials of natural origin have also become appealing for environmental protection (e.g., water treatment, environmental-friendly fertilizers, herbicides, and pesticides) and the food industry. In this respect, the present paper aims to discuss some of the newest applications of chitosan-alginate-based nanomaterials and serve as an inception point for further research in the field.

Stepped Spillway Slope Effect on Air Entrainment and Inception Point Location

Spillway is a crucial hydraulic structure used to discharge excess water from the dam reservoir. Air entrainment is essential to prevent cavitation damage on the spillway, however, without air entrainment the risk of cavitation over the spillway increases. The most important parameter for the determination of air entrainment in stepped spillways is the inception point. The inception point is the location where the air starts to inter into the water flow surface over the spillway. It occurs when the turbulent boundary layer meets the free surface. The location of the inception point depends upon different parameters like flow rate, geometry, step size, and slope of the spillway. The main aim of this study was applying numerical simulation by using the realizable k-ϵ model and the volume of fluid (VOF) method to locate the location of the inception point. For this purpose, by using different stepped spillways with four different slopes (12.5°, 19°, 29°, and 35°) different flow rates were simulated, which gives the location of the inception point of different channel slopes of stepped spillways at different flow rates. The results demonstrated that the inception point location of mild slopes is farther from the crest of the spillway than the steep slope stepped spillway. Non-aerated flow zone length increases when the channel slope decreases from steep to mild slope.

Experimental and Numerical Study of the Effects of Geometric Appendance Elements on Energy Dissipation over Stepped Spillway

In the stepped spillway, the steps, by providing an artificial roughening bed, dissipate the flow of energy more than other types of spillways, so the construction costs for stilling basin are reduced. However, what is important in this type of spillway is increasing the effectiveness of steps in the rate of energy dissipation. The present study deals with experimental and numerical simulations regarding the influence of geometric appendance elements on the steps and its impact on the energy dissipation performances, flow patterns properties, turbulent kinetic energy, flow resistance and the Darcy roughness. The localization of inception point of air entrainment is also assessed. To this aim, different configurations are taken into account. The computational procedure is validated with experimental results and then used to test the hydraulic behavior of different geometric configurations. The results showed that the appendance elements on the steps increased the turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) values and Darcy–Weisbach friction and the energy dissipation increased significantly. By reducing the height of the elements, energy dissipation and the TKE value increase more significantly. With the appendance elements on step, the air entrainment inception locations a positioning further upstream than the flat step stepped spillway.

Numerical Study on the Hydraulic Properties of Flow over Different Pooled Stepped Spillways

This work presents numerical simulations carried out to study the influence of geometric characteristics of pooled steps on the energy dissipation performance, flow patterns properties, velocity rates, and pressure distributions over a spillway. The localization of the inception point of air entrainment was also assessed, being a key design parameter of spillways. With this aim, different configurations of steps were taken in account, including flat, pooled, and notch pooled types. The computational procedure was first validated with experimental results from the literature and then used to test the hydraulic behavior derived from different geometric configurations. The flat step configuration showed the best energy dissipation performance as compared with other configurations. With the notched pooled step configuration, the efficiency performance of the pooled structure improved by about 5.8%. The interfacial velocities of the flat stepped spillway were smaller than those of the pooled structure. The pressure value at the beginning of the step in the pooled configuration was larger than the flat configuration, while for the notched pool the maximum pressure values decreased near the step pool. Pool configuration (simple or notched) did not have a significant influence on the location of air entrainment.

Induced aeration flow over stepped spillways: mean pressures, air entrainment and flow behavior

ABSTRACT Stepped spillways can dissipate a great amount of energy during the flow passage over the chute, however these structures have limited operation due to the risk of cavitation damage. The induced aeration may protect the concrete chute through the air concentration near the channel bottom. Furthermore, some research studies have indicated that the presence of air in flows may reduce the mean pressures. The present research aims to analyze mean pressures, air entrainment coefficient and flow behavior over a stepped spillway with aeration induced by two different deflectors, comparing the results to natural aeration flow. Despite the jet impact influence, the induced aeration does not change significantly the mean pressures compared to natural aeration flow. The air entrainment coefficient, as well as the jet impact position, is higher for the deflector with the longer extension and, although air bubbles can be seen throughout the extension of the chute due to the air entrainment through the inferior flow surface, the induced aeration did not anticipate the boundary layer inception point position.

Numerical Study to Evaluate the Performance of Nonuniform Stepped Spillway Using ANSYS-CFX

The main features that attract hydraulic engineers for designing stepped spillways are their ability to lose a large portion of the flow energy and add or increase aeration to the flow naturally. Hence, smaller size stilling basin and no aeration device may require. This study aims to find the amount of energy dissipation rate and the location of inception point over non-uniform stepped spillway. The numerical 2D ANSYS-CFX code is applied to generate and run thirty-two models of different configurations using two different moderate slopes (1 V:2 H and 1 V:2.5 H) as most of the downstream slopes designed for moderate slope, and two different step heights (hs= 0.08 m and hs= 0.016 m) under skimming flow discharge for different (dc/hs) ranging from dc/hs= 1–2.2, in which dc is the critical flow deptho n the crest. The volume of fluid is implemented and the renormalized group of k-ɛ turbulence model is activated. The computational results demonstrated that the amount of energy dissipation increases with decreasing the flow discharge, chute slope, and step height. In addition, it is observed that the length of the inception point is directly proportional to the discharge and inversely proportional to both the chute slopes and step height. Moreover, for the design point of view, the results revealed that configuration B can be considered as the optimal one amongst the others examined herein.

Control of the Aero-Engine Nacelle Intake Flow Separation Caused by Crosswind Condition Using Plasma Actuation

To develop active flow control technique which can suppress the nacelle intake flow separations caused by crosswind effectively, microsecond plasma actuation is used to control the flow separations of a typical nacelle intake model. Both experimental and numerical investigations have been implemented to uncover the corresponding flow control effects. The plasma actuation is installed near the inception point of the nacelle intake flow separations. According to the experimental and numerical results, the nacelle intake flow separations caused by crosswind are suppressed by the plasma actuation. The frequency of the plasma actuation as well as the scale of the flow separation are influential to the flow control effects. The compressive wave induced by the plasma actuation will act on the separated flow as well as the interface between the flow separation zone and the mainstream zone. This is the mechanism behind the suppression of nacelle intake flow separations using microsecond plasma actuation.