Explicit Finite Element Study of Liquid Sloshing Behavior in Fluid-Structure Interaction Condition

As a common phenomenon in liquid motions, sloshing usually happens in a partially filled liquid tank of moving vehicle or structure. The objectives of this paper are to study sloshing behavior in rigid tank and deformable tank, and to develop a better performance baffle design in the tank under seismic excitations. The tank is surged with a sinusoidal oscillation about horizontal x-direction. The hydro-elasticity effect of sloshing pressure on the tank wall was taken into consideration due to the fluid-structure interaction between impact pressures and tank structures. ABAQUS finite element program using Coupled Eulerian-Lagrangian (CEL) technique was employed to simulate fluid sloshing. The sloshing phenomenon was studied in rigid tank and deformable tank models with three different water levels, and the effect of wall thickness of the deformable tank on sloshing behavior was discussed. One way to minimize the effect of sloshing in a tank, baffles are used and installed in the middle of the tank, and then various heights and material types of baffle were evaluated. The simulation results show that higher water level case creates greater pressure impact on the tank wall than lower water level case, and the elasticity of the tank structure would reduce the impact pressure of the wall. For the simulation tank model with size of 1m (H) × 1m (W) × 0.2m (D), better performance baffle was found to be the one with the height of 0.35m and was made of acrylic material. Moreover, the conclusion of this study can be extrapolated to other dimensions of the model based on similarity theory. This paper also can serve as an aid in further studying sloshing phenomenon. The findings of this study can be applied to restrain or minimize sloshing motions inside a tank.

Experimental Visualization and Numerical Simulation of Liquid-Gas Two-Phase Flows in a Horizontal Pipe

This paper presents the results of both visualization experiment and numerical simulation for two-phase (water-air mixture) flows in a horizontal tube. A visualization experimental setup was used to observe various two-phase flow patterns for different flow rates of water/air mixture flow in a glass tube of 12 mm in diameter. Total of 303 experimental data points were compared with Mandhane’s flow map. Most of the data for stratified, plug and slug flows were found to be in good agreement. However, annular flow was observed for relatively lower gas flow rates and also wavy flow occurred at relatively higher liquid flow rates in this experiment. A three-dimensional Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulation was performed using OpenFOAM employing “interFoam” as the solver to simulate the two-phase flows in horizontal pipe based on Volume-Of-Fluid (VOF) method. The simulated and experimentally observed flow patterns for the same set of superficial velocities shows acceptable similarities for stratified, wavy, plug, slug and annular flows. Also, the computed values of the void fraction and pressure drop for the numerical simulations shows reasonable agreement with well-known correlations in literature.

A DNS Study of Falling Droplets Under Effects of Electric Field

In this study deformation and breakup of a falling drop which is surrounded by another liquid are modeled numerically. The drop is influenced by an external electric field which is applied uniformly on the side walls of the domain. An open-source volume-of-fluid solver, Gerris with dynamic adaptive grid refinement has been used for numerically modeling the three-dimensional deformation of a falling droplet. The numerical results are presented for various values of density ratios and electrical conductivity and permittivity. The current numerical results are compared with previous experimental and analytical works which shows a great agreement between them.

Impact of Bifurcation Angle and Inlet Reynolds Number on Local Pressure Recovery in Biologically-Inspired Flow Networks

This work computationally investigates local flow behavior in tree-like flow networks of varying scale, bifurcation angle, and inlet Reynolds number. The performance of the tree-like flow networks were evaluated based on pressure drop and wall temperature distributions. Microscale, mesoscale, and macroscale tree-like flow networks, composed of a range of symmetric bifurcation angles (15, 30, 45, 60, 75, and 90°) and subject to a range of inlet Reynolds numbers (1000, 2000, 4000, 10000, and 20000) were evaluated. Local pressure recoveries were evident at bifurcations, regardless of scale and bifurcation angle which may result in a lower total pressure drop when compared with traditional parallel channel networks. Similarly, wall temperature spikes were also present immediately following bifurcations due to flow separation and recirculation. The magnitude of the wall temperature increases at bifurcations was dependent upon both bifurcation angle and scale. When compared with mesoscale and macroscale flow networks, microscale flow networks resulted in the largest local pressure recoveries and the smallest temperature jumps at bifurcations. Thus, while biologically-inspired flow networks offer the same advantages at all scales, the greatest performance increases are achieved at microscale.

Bladelets-Winglets on Blades of Wind Turbines: A Multiobjective Design Optimization Study

The work presented in this paper used rigorous 3D flow-field analysis combined with multi-objective constrained shape design optimization for the design of bladelet (winglet) configurations for a three-blade propeller type wind turbine. The fluid flow analysis in this work was performed using 3D, steady, incompressible, turbulent flow Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations in the rotating frame of reference for each combination of a given wind turbine blade and a varying bladelet geometry. The free stream uniform wind speed in all cases was assumed to be 9 m s−1 and rotational speed was 12 rpm. These were off-design conditions for this rotor. The three simultaneous design optimization objectives were: a) maximize the coefficient of power, b) minimize the coefficient of thrust, and c) minimize twisting moment around the blade axis. The bladelet geometry was fully defined by using a small number of parameters. The optimization was carried out by creating a multi-dimensional response surface for each of the simultaneous objectives. The response surfaces were based on radial basis functions, where the support points were designs analyzed using the high fidelity CFD analysis of the full blade + bladelet geometry. The response surfaces were then coupled to a multi-objective optimization algorithm. The predicted values of the objective functions for the optimum designs were then again validated using the high fidelity computational fluid dynamics analysis code. Results for a Pareto optimized bladelet on a given blade indicate that more than 4% increase in the coefficient of power at minimal thrust force penalty is possible compared to the same wind turbine rotor blade without a bladelet.

Observing Fluid Flow Through Carbon Nanotube Arrays and Nanoporous Membranes

Arrays of carbon nanotubes (CNTs) have shown significant promise for delivering biomolecules into cells with high efficiency and low toxicity. In these applications, biomolecules are flowed from a large fluid reservoir, through the lumens of vertically-aligned, open-ended CNTs, and into cells cultured over top of the CNTs on the other side. Over the course of several transfection experiments, it was discovered that biomolecule delivery varied considerably depending on the type of biomolecule being delivered. It was also inferred that the number of CNTs the cells covered would affect the transfection rate. In this work, an experiment was designed and conducted to visually characterize fluid flow through these CNT arrays and other nanoporous membranes. The experiment utilizes a 3D printed flow device consisting of anodized alumina oxide (AAO) membranes and restricts flow to a predefined circular area. Flow data was taken by measuring the intensity of fluorescent dye as it diffused through the AAO membrane. The intensity measurements were then plotted as a function of time from which diffusion times constants were calculated. This work establishes a platform technique for visualizing fluid transport through AAO membranes, which can be applied to CNT arrays, and allow for the testing of the effects of other parameters on flow.

Understanding Fundamental Physics of Aqueous Droplet Generation Mechanisms in the Aqueous Environment

Recent advent of Aqueous-Two-Phase-System (ATPS), more biologically friendly compared to conventional oil-water systems, has shown great potential to rapidly generate aqueous droplets without tedious post-processing. However, understanding of underlying physics of droplet formation in ATPS is still in its infancy. In this paper, we investigate hydrodynamic behaviors and mechanisms of all-aqueous droplet formation in two flow-focusing droplet generators. Two incompatible polymers namely polyethylene glycol (PEG) and dextran (DEX) are mixed in water to make ATPS. The influence of inlet pressures and flow-focusing configurations on droplet sizes, and thread breakup length is studied. Flow regime mapping for two different configurations of droplet generators possessing junction angles of 30° and 90° is also obtained. The results show that droplet size is very susceptible to the junction angle while inlet pressures of the PEG and DEX flows readily control four main flow regimes including back flow, dripping, jetting and stratified.

Experimental and Numerical Investigations of the 3-D Turbulent Flow Characteristics Around Submerged Permeable Breakwaters

Submerged breakwaters are favored for their design simplicity in projects intended to dissipate wave energy and reduce erosion on coastlines. Despite their popularity, the effects that submerged breakwaters exhibit on the surrounding hydrodynamics are not clearly understood, mainly due to the flow complexity generated from 3-dimensional turbulent structures in the vicinity of the breakwaters that affect the mean flow characteristics and the transport of sediment. The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects that various geometric designs of submerged permeable breakwaters have on the turbulent flow characteristics. To meet the objective of this study, laboratory experiments were performed in a water-recirculating flume, in which the 3-dimensional velocity field was recorded in the vicinity of scaled breakwater models. Breakwaters that were tested include non-permeable, three-hole, and ten-hole models. The experimental data obtained was compared to results obtained from numerical simulations. Results demonstrated that permeable breakwaters exhibit more vertical turbulent strength than their non-permeable counterparts. It was also discovered that three-hole breakwater models produce higher turbulent fluctuations than that of the ten-hole breakwaters. The results from this study will be used eventually to enhance the performance of restoration projects in coastal areas in Louisiana.

Characterization of Jumping-Droplet Condensation on Nanostructured Surfaces With Quartz Crystal Microbalance

The spontaneously jumping motion of condensed droplets by coalescence on superhydrophobic surfaces has been an active area of research due to its great potential for enhancing the condensation efficiency. Despite a considerable amount of microscopic observations, the interfacial wetting characterization during jumping-droplet condensation is still notably lacking. This work focuses on applying a novel acoustic sensor - quartz crystal microbalance (QCM), to characterize the interfacial wetting on nanostructured surfaces during jumping-droplet condensation. Copper oxide nanostructures were generated on the surface of QCM with a chemical etching method. Based on the geometry of the nanostructures, we modified a theoretical model to reveal the relationship between the frequency shift of the QCM and the wetting states of the surfaces. It was found that the QCM is extremely sensitive to the penetrated liquid in the structured surfaces. Then, the QCM with nanostructured surface was tested on a customed flow condensation setup. The dynamic interfacial wetting characteristics were quantified by the normalized frequency shift of the QCM. Combined with microscopic observation of the corresponding drop motion, we demonstrated that partial wetting (PW) droplets with an about 25% penetrated area underwent spontaneously jumping by coalescence. However, the PW droplets no longer jumped when the penetrated area exceeds 50% due to the stronger adhesion between liquid and the surface. It shows that the characterization of the penetrated liquid in micro/nanostructures, which is very challenging for microscopic observation, can be easily carried out by this acoustic technique.