Aerodynamic Investigation of a Passive Secondary Jet Exciting a Separation Bubble for a Blunt Flat Plate

The aim of this study is to examine the influence of passive jets interacting with the separation region of the flow around a blunt plate. Experimental and numerical analysis are used to measure the velocity within the separation and reattachment region of the blunt plate with different passive jet configurations. A blunt plate was placed in a low speed wind tunnel to conduct Laser-Doppler anemometry (LDA) measurements at Re = 2.06 × 104. For the numerical procedure a dynamical sub-grid model for Large Eddy Simulations (LES) was used. For all configurations the flow characteristics such as the reattachment length were determined to characterize the boundary layer. The passive jets showed a strong influence by interacting with the boundary layer of the blunt plate.

Divergence Speed Prediction for Practical Slung Load Shapes

Given the innumerable combinations of flight vehicles, loads and flight conditions, alternatives are sought to flight testing, to certify the safe flight speed with slung loads. With well-resolved airload maps now feasible for arbitrary shapes as analytical functions, dynamic simulation predicts divergence speeds, regardless of the symmetry of the object. Likely modes of amplification are found using wind tunnel experiments with free-swinging objects. A robust control formulation enables safe flight close to divergence speed where the flight control system can prevent disturbance amplification.

In-Situ Visualization of Evaporation Induced Self-Assembly Phenomena of Nanofluids Detecting the Interfacial Surface Plasmon Reflectance

Innovative optical techniques based on nano-biophotonics such as surface plasmon resonance (SPR) imaging and R-G-B natural fringe mapping techniques are developed to characterize the transport and optical properties of nanofluids in situ, real-time, and full field manner. Recent results regarding the characterization of nanofluids are summarized and future research directions are presented. 47 nm Al2O3 nanoparticles are dispersed in water with various concentrations. Al2O3 nanofluids droplets are placed on substrates and evaporated in room temperature. In-situ visualization of evaporation-induced self-assembly is conducted to detect concentration, effective refractive index, and different self-assembled pattern including cavity with various nanofluids concentrations and surface hydrophobbicities with SPR and fringe mapping. During the evaporation, time-dependent and near-field nanoparticle concentrations are determined by correlating the SPR reflectance intensities with the effective refractive index (ERI) of the nanofluids. With increasing the concentrations of nanofluids, the existence of hidden complex cavities inside a self-assembled nanocrystalline structure or final dryout pattern is discovered in real-time. R-G-B natural fringe mapping allowed the reconstruction of the 3D cavity formation and crystallization processes quantitatively. The formation of the complex inner structure was found to be attributable to multiple cavity inceptions and their competing growth during the aquatic evaporation. Furthermore, the effect of surface hydrophobicity is examined in the formation of hidden complex cavities, taking place on three different substrates bearing different levels of hydrophobicity; namely, cover glass (CG), gold thin film (Au), and polystyrene dish (PS). These surface plamson resonance imaging and natural fringe mapping techniques are expected to provide a breakthrough in micro-nanoscale thermal fluids phenomena and nano-biochemical sensing when coupled with localized surface Plasmon and metamaterials techniques.

Three-Dimensional Hybrid Vortex-Immersed Boundary Method With Application to Passive Flow Control

In this work, a hybrid particle-penalization technique is proposed to achieve accurate and efficient computations of 3D incompressible flows past bluff bodies. This immersed boundary approach indeed maintains the efficiency and the robustness of vortex methods and allows to easily model complex media, like solid-fluid-porous ones, without prescribing any boundary condition. In this paper, the method is applied to implement porous coatings on a hemisphere in order to passively control the flow dynamics.

A Computational Study of Insect Wing Cross-Sectional Geometry on Flight Performance

The influence of cross-sectional geometry on flight performance is investigated for an insect wing using bee-like kinematics. Bee flight is of particular interest due to its mechanical simplicity, utilizing only three degrees of freedom, a high flap frequency, and mechanically linked front and hind wings. These unique flapping flight kinematics result in extremely agile flight characteristics, capable of carrying extraordinary loads relative to the bee’s weight, at a biologically capable efficiency. The performance of a corrugated insect wing and a more intuitively aerodynamic profile are compared computationally. At velocities from 1–3 m/s, the approximated cross-section is foudn to overpredict the lift generated by the corrugated profile by up to 18%. At higher velocities, 4 and 5 m/s, the approximated profile underpredicts the lift generated by the corrugated cross-section by 15%. Based upon this information the cross-sectional geometry of an insect’s wing is significant to the investigation and quantification of insect flight characteristics, for both computational analysis and future robotic applications.

Study on the Characteristics of Turbulent Flow of Viscoelastic Fluid Through a Planar Sudden Expansion by PIV System

The influences of drag-reducing surfactant additives on the characteristics of a turbulent flow over a planar sudden expansion with expansion ration R = D/d = 3 and aspect ratio A = w/h = 30 were experimentally investigated by a 2D-2C (two dimensional-two component) particle image velocimetry (PIV) system. The 2D-2C velocity fields in the streamwise-wall-normal planes (x-y planes) at three spanwise locations are measured for the flows of water and 50ppm aqueous solution of CTAC/NaSal (CTAC: cetyltrimethyl ammonium chloride; NaSal: sodium salicylate) under the Reynolds number of 1.85 × 104. From the streamline in the x-y plane, it is observed that the reattachment lengths of the vortices in CTAC/NaSal solution are longer. Then the mean streamwise velocity fields and the apparent flow rate at three spanwise locations show that the flow fields in the other two x-y planes are practically symmetrical about the x-y centreplane in CTAC/NaSal solution, as compared with that in water flow. Finally, it is perceived that the Reynolds shear stress for three spanwise locations in CTAC/NaSal solution are obviously decreased.

Dynamic Effects in the Reverse Flow Velocity Field

At high edgewise flow speeds, reversed flow causes excursions in pitching moment and blade torsion on the rotor blades of helicopters and wind turbines. Our prior work has shown that a yawed fixed wing at angle of attack in reversed flow generates a sharp-edge vortex. The sharp-edge vortex is a primary feature of the flow under the rotor blade. During operation as a rotor blade at high advance ratio in a wind tunnel, stereo PIV results show that the well-formed sharp-edge vortex at 240 degrees azimuth resembles that on a forward-swept wing. This vortex stops growing before 270 degrees and convects with the blade by 300 degrees. Static pressure computed from interpolated velocity data show the effects of vortex-induced radial pressure gradient. This explains the finding of inboard-directed radial flow at 300 degrees azimuth, overcoming centrifugal effects. Viscous stress is shown to have only a minor effect on the static pressure field computation.

Experimental and Measurement Uncertainty Associated With Characterizing Slurry Mixing Performance of Pulsating Jets at Multiple Scales

Understanding how uncertainty manifests itself in complex experiments is important for developing the testing protocol and interpreting the experimental results. This paper describes experimental and measurement uncertainties, and how they can depend on the order of performing experimental tests. Experiments with pulse-jet mixers in tanks at three scales were conducted to characterize the performance of transient-developing periodic flows in Newtonian slurries. Other test parameters included the simulant, solids concentration, and nozzle exit velocity. Critical suspension velocity and cloud height were the metrics used to characterize Newtonian slurry flow associated with mobilization and mixing. During testing, near-replicate and near-repeat tests were conducted. The experimental results were used to quantify the combined experimental and measurement uncertainties using standard deviations and percent relative standard deviations (%RSD) The uncertainties in critical suspension velocity and cloud height tend to increase with the values of these responses. Hence, the %RSD values are the more appropriate summary measure of near-replicate testing and measurement uncertainty.

Experimental Study on Two-Oscillating Grid Turbulence With Polymer Additives

In order to investigate the polymer effect on grid turbulence, the experiments study on grid turbulence has been built based on Particle Image Velocimetry. The Newtonian fluid flow and 200ppm polymer solution flow in grid turbulence were carried out at different grid oscillating frequency, such as 5Hz, 7.5Hz, 10Hz and 12.5Hz. The experimental results show that the viscous dissipation rate and vortex vector ωz is smaller and more regular in space distribution in polymer solution case at grid oscillating frequency with 5Hz. It indicates that the existence of polymer additives inhibits enormously the viscous dissipation rate and vortex vector, but this phenomenon can be attenuated with the increase of grid oscillating frequency. From this result, it shows that there exists a critical Reynolds number for the inhibition of polymer effect, which is the same as that in turbulent channel flows with polymers. Then, proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) has been used to extract coherent structures in grid turbulence. It is found that it needs 24 and 4 POD eigenfunctions to examine coherent structure in the Newtonian fluid and the polymer solution cases respectively at grid oscillating frequency with 10Hz. It suggests that the coherent structures can be inhibited due to the existence of polymers so as to the flow field to be more regular. But, with the increase of grid oscillating frequency, the number of POD eigenfunctions for the Newtonian fluid case and the polymer solution case respectively are approaching the same. Through this analysis, it can be also seen that the inhibition effect of polymers is close relation with the grid oscillating frequency.

Numerical Study of Pump-Turbine Instabilities Under Pumping Mode Off-Design Conditions

Pumped storage power plants, using reversible pump-turbines, are a great solution to maintain the stability of an electrical network. The continuous operating area of reversible pump-turbines machines is usually delimited by cavitation or a hydraulic instability called hump phenomena at part load. If the machine operates under these off-design conditions, it might be exposed to vibrations and performance losses. The paper focuses on the numerical analysis of the pumping mode regime and pays special attention to the prediction of the hump shaped characteristic curve and associated rotating stall. The investigations were made on a high head pump-turbine design (nq=27) at model scale for four different guide vane opening angles and a wide range of flow rates. Numerical simulations were performed and analyzed in LEGI and were compared to the global experimental data, provided by Alstom Hydro.