Flat Surface Case Research Articles

Thermo-hydraulic performance of tungsten flat tile type divertor target with two types of novel engineered cooling channel wall

The divertor is one of the key components in magnetic confinement fusion reactors. Improving the heat transfer performance of the divertor has great importance for promoting its service capacity. This work proposed a new kind of cooling surface configuration for a flat-type divertor design, which is based on the concept of synergetic heat transfer enhancement via combination of a sinusoidal undulation structure with a micro-nano structured surface (copper-mesh brazed coating). The combination surface configuration is preliminarily obtained by numerical optimization based on the calibrated model of subcooled flow boiling heat transfer. Then, experimental mockups were fabricated and tests with high heat flux (HHF) conditions were conducted to examine the effects of the new design. Both the numerical and experimental results confirm that the incident critical heat flux is increased from 15 MW/m2 of the micro-nano structured flat surface case to over 22 MW/m2 of the combination case under the conditions of relatively low flow velocity of 3 m/s and low flow resistance increase of 7.3 %.

Effect of Asymmetric Topography on Rupture Propagation Along Fault Stepovers

AbstractComplex fault systems are often located in regions with asymmetric topography on one side of a fault, and these systems are very common in Southern California. Along these fault systems, geometrical complexities such as stepovers can impact fault rupture. Previous rupture dynamic studies have investigated the effect of stepover widths on throughgoing rupture, but these studies didn't examine the influence of topography on the rupture behavior. To investigate the effect of asymmetric topography on rupture dynamics at stepovers, I consider three cases: (a) a flat topography, (b) a positive (mountain), and (c) a negative (basin) topography on only one side of the fault system outside of the stepover. In each case, I use the 3D finite element method to compute the rupture dynamics of these fault systems. The results show a significant time dependent variation of the normal stress for the topography cases as opposed to the flat surface case, which can have an important impact on rupture propagation at the stepover. For a positive topography on the right of the rupture propagation, there is a clamping effect behind the rupture front that prevents the rupture to jump a wider extensional stepover. The opposite is observed for a negative topography or for a positive topography on the left side of the rupture propagation, where the rupture can jump over a wider compressional stepover. These results suggest that topography should be considered in dynamic studies with geometric complexities such as stepovers, and perhaps bends and branched fault systems.

Numerical exploration of buoyancy inspired flow of pseudoplastic fluid along a vertical cylinder with viscous dissipation effects

This research presents a numerical investigation for flow around a stagnation point on a vertical stretching cylinder placed in a pseudo-plastic fluid. An important Carreau fluid model is adopted to account for pseudo-plastic effects in the flow field. Buoyancy force term arising due to the vertical boundary is formulated under the well-known Oberbeck-Boussinesq approximation. Conservation equations simplified under boundary layer assumptions are solved for the similarity solutions for full range of parameter A, giving the ratio of free stream velocity to the cylinder surface velocity. The shape of velocity profile is dependent on the choice of the parameter A. Contributions of buoyancy force term and shear-thinning effect in both assisting and opposing flow situations are scrutinized. A striking influence of rheology is such that resisting wall shear declines and cooling rate of the surface drops whenever shear-thinning effect is present. However, cooling rate amplifies as the strength of buoyancy force is enhanced. Special cases of the model including the case of flat surface and Newtonian fluid are presented separately.

Boundary layer formations over a stretchable heated cylinder in a viscoelastic fluid with partial slip and viscous dissipation effects

An exact similarity solution is worked out for fluid motion in the vicinity of a cylindrical surface in an electrically conducting viscoelastic fluid obeying the Jeffrey model. Cylindrical surface expands axially with linear velocity and has a prescribed surface temperature. The present analysis focuses on the partial slip assumption which gives rise to a nonlinear case Robin-type (mixed) boundary condition in axial velocity. In contrast to a previously published study (J. Mech., vol 31, pp. 69–78, 2015) which only reported local similarity solutions in no-slip case, the present work provides an exact similarity analysis by defining a quadratic surface temperature. The effects of the magnetic field and Joule heating on the momentum and thermal transport phenomena are also scrutinized. A numerical routine is used to solve the equation accurately for a wide range of fluid parameters, including ranges that could not be handled by previous approximate analytical methods that were limited to the no-slip limit. The influences of viscoelasticity and partial slip on the flow behavior are investigated, and the coefficient of skin friction for a Jeffrey fluid is calculated. Obtained results are consistent with the previously published works under special situations. The case of flat surface, which can be obtained as a limiting case of the model, is not even explored in the past.

The effect of a rocky terrain for CubeSat landing on asteroid surfaces

The paper describes a general modelling procedure to build a simulation tool to investigate contact motion of a CubeSat on an asteroid surface. We investigate landing performance and landing success for the case of elastic rocky terrain and flat surfaces. As a case study, we focus on the disposal of ESA’s Hera Milani CubeSat by landing on the moon of Didymos binary asteroid system. The simulation environment includes the modelling of real shape and 6-DOF motion of the lander, the shape-based gravity models of Didymos and Dimorphos and rocks on surface, that are generated as physical obstacles. Trends and estimates on the performance of the landing phase and the most relevant effects on the outcome of the soil interaction process, are inferred. The statistical results on settling time, dispersion area and motion characteristics, such as number of bounces, show and quantify the effect of rocks on a successful passive and permanent landing.

Magnified heat transfer from curved surfaces: A scaling prediction

We report the first definitive Nusselt number scale of thermal boundary layers from curved surfaces characterized by the proposed non-dimensional curvature parameter ξ = R0/(HRa−1/4), where R0 denotes the radius of a curved surface, H denotes the corresponding finite height, and Ra denotes the global Rayleigh number of a virtual reference thermal boundary layer on a vertical flat surface. The Nusselt number scale is given by Nu ∼ ξ−1/5Ra1/4 in which Nu ∼ Ra1/4 is the scale for the flat surface case, revealing that curved thermal boundary layers could present times-of-magnitude larger heat flux with the curvature parameter being ξ ≪ 1. The velocity and thickness scales are also given by Vs∼R02/5Ra3/5H7/5κ and ΔT∼R01/5H4/5Ra1/5.

Cavitation Mean Expectation Time in a Stretched Lennard-Jones Fluid under Confinement.

We investigate the nucleation of cavitation bubbles in a confined Lennard-Jones fluid subjected to negative pressures in a cubic enclosure. We perform molecular dynamics (MD) simulations with tunable interatomic potentials that enable us to control the wettability of solid walls by the liquid, that is, its contact angle. For a given temperature and pressure, as the solid is taken more hydrophobic, we put in evidence, an increase in nucleation probability. A Voronoi tessellation method is used to accurately detect the bubble appearance and its nucleation rate as a function of the contact angle. We adapt classical nucleation theory (CNT) proposed for the heterogeneous case on a flat surface to our situation where bubbles may appear on flat walls, edges, or corners of the confined box. We finally calculate a theoretical mean expectation time in these three cases. The ratio of these calculated values over the homogeneous case is computed and compared successfully against MD simulations. Beyond the infinite liquid case, this work explores the heterogeneous nucleation of cavitation bubbles, not only in the flat surface case but for more complex confining geometries.

The influence of fuel surface roughness on ignition in the mining industry – an exploratory analysis

The environment in mining industries is distinguished by heavy tear and rough fuel surfaces. The surface roughness magnitude of the gauges, dents etc. could be substantial, where the roughness depth would range from less than a millimeter up to several millimeters. Surface structures on vehicle tyres could include treads that are several centimeters in depth. Performing fire experiments and testing the ignition characteristics of the fuel surface, the influence of surface roughness and surface structures should be investigated and accounted for. Ignition would occur first at any part exposed by heat transfer from several directions and we are facing a two/three-dimensional ignition scenario. In this paper the gauge depth, angle and distance were varied to depict roughness. In five out of thirteen experimental cases the average ignition time showed significant difference when compared to the flat surface case, but no clear pattern was detected. No clear patterns were found when studying the two-dimensional analysis results at the time of ignition. In both experiments and the two-dimensional analysis, most of the temperatures were within the one standard deviation variation and did not show any significant difference compared with the flat case, except when comparing the gauge bottom temperatures and upper surface temperatures of the two-dimensional analysis where significant difference was found in all cases.

Numerical simulations of heat transfer around a circular cylinder immersed in a shear-thinning fluid obeying Cross model

Mathematical analysis for fluid flow and heat transfer outside a stretchable hollow cylinder placed in a generalized Newtonian fluid is the focus of present research. Constitutive equations due to Cross model are employed for problem formulation. Unlike power-law model, Cross model is valid for vanishingly low and infinitely high strain rates. Numerical calculations are worked out by two different procedures namely the shooting method and the MATLAB built-in function bvp4c. Solutions are elucidated for a specific range of power-law index n (0≤n≤1) that depicts the shear-thinning character of the fluid. The obtained solution also contains a curvature parameter M, which is inversely proportional to the cylinder radius. A notable outcome of this study is that increasing power-law index n substantially assists the axially directed flow which is accompanied by a reduction in resisting wall shear. However, heat transfer rate from the cylindrical surface is drastically lowered when n is enhanced. A few noteworthy deviations of present model from that of the flat surface are deliberated. Furthermore, numerical solutions corresponding to the flat surface case (M=0) agree very well with the available literature.

Large-Eddy Simulations of Oil Droplet Aerosol Transport in the Marine Atmospheric Boundary Layer

In this study, a hybrid large-eddy simulation (LES) model is developed and applied to simulate the transport of oil droplet aerosols in wind over progressive water waves. The LES model employs a hybrid spectral and finite difference method for simulating the wind turbulence and a bounded finite-volume method for modeling the oil aerosol transport. Using a wave-following coordinate system and computational grid, the LES model captures the turbulent flow and oil aerosol fields in the region adjacent to the unsteady wave surface. A flat-surface case with prescribed roughness (representing a pure wind-sea) and a wavy-surface case with regular plane progressive 100 m long waves (representing long-crest long-wavelength ocean swells) are considered to illustrate the capability of the LES model and study the effects of long progressive waves on the transport of oil droplet aerosols with four different droplet diameters. The simulation results and statistical analysis reveal enhanced suspension of oil droplets in wind turbulence due to strong disturbance from the long progressive waves. The spatial distribution of the aerosol concentration also exhibits considerable streamwise variations that correlate with the phase of the long progressive waves.

Surface reconstruction accuracy using ultrasonic arrays: Application to non-destructive testing

The accurate non-destructive inspection of engineering structures using ultrasonic immersion imaging requires a precise representation of the surface of the structure. Here we investigate the relationship between surface geometry, surface measurement error using ultrasonic arrays and the total focusing method (TFM) and how this impacts on the ability to image a feature within a component. Surfaces shaped as sinusoids covering combinations of surface wavelengths (0.8 to 32λwater) and amplitudes (0.6 to 9λwater) are studied. The surface reconstruction errors are shown to cause errors in imaging, such as reduced amplitude and blurring of the image of a side-drilled hole. These reconstruction errors are shown to increase rapidly with the maximum gradient of the sinusoid. Sinusoidal surfaces with maximum gradients <45° lead to average surface reconstruction errors <λwater and amplitude imaging errors within 6 dB of the flat-surface case. It is also shown that very poor results are obtained if the surface gradient is excessively steep.

Curvature effect on droplet impacting onto hydrophobic and superhydrophobic spheres

ABSTRACTDroplet impact on hydrophobic and superhydrophobic solid surfaces finds numerous applications, while the wide range of the parameters affecting its outcome necessitate a thorough study to reveal the underlying physics. Specific applications are related to the drop impact upon curved surfaces, such as micro-encapsulation in fluidized beds. Three-dimensional numerical simulations by applying Level-Set Method have been performed to investigate the water droplet impact on curved and flat hydrophobic and superhydrophobic substrates. Parameters such as the impact Weber number, the surface curvature and the equilibrium contact angle have been varied in order to assess their effects on the dynamics of the impact process. After providing a strong validation, it is found that impact on spherical surfaces generally presents a higher area of liquid to be in contact with the substrate with respect to the case of flat surfaces, when all other impact conditions are the same.

Parametric Study on a Sinusoidal Riblet for Drag Reduction by Direct Numerical Simulation

The direct numerical simulation of fully developed turbulent channel flow with a sinusoidal riblet surface has been carried out at the friction Reynolds number of 110. Lateral spacing of adjacent walls in a sinusoidal riblet is varied sinusoidally in the streamwise direction. The average lateral spacing of a sinusoidal riblet is larger than the diameter of a quasi-streamwise vortex and its wetted area is smaller than that of ordinary straight-type riblets. We investigate the effect of sinusoidal riblet design parameters on the drag reduction rate and flow statistics in this paper. The parametric study shows that the maximum total drag reduction rate is approximately 9.8% at a friction Reynolds number of 110. The riblet induces downward and upward flows in the expanded and contracted regions, respectively, which contribute to periodic Reynolds shear stress. However, the random Reynolds shear stress decreases drastically as compared with the flat surface case, resulting in the reduction of total drag owing to the sinusoidal riblet. We also performed vortex tracking to discuss the motion of the vortical structure traveling over the sinusoidal riblet surface. Vortex tracking and probability analysis for the core of the vortical structure show that the vortical structure is attenuated owing to the sinusoidal riblet and follows the characteristic flow. These results show that the high skin-friction region on the channel wall is localized at the expanded region of the riblet walls. In consequence, the wetted area of the riblet decreases, resulting in the drag-reduction effect.

Effects of Nanoparticle Shape on Slot-Jet Impingement Cooling of a Corrugated Surface With Nanofluids

Numerical study of jet impingement cooling of a corrugated surface with water–SiO2 nanofluid of different nanoparticle shapes was performed. The bottom wall is corrugated and kept at constant surface temperature, while the jet emerges from a rectangular slot with cold uniform temperature. The finite volume method is utilized to solve the governing equations. The effects of Reynolds number (between 100 and 500), corrugation amplitude (between 0 and 0.3), corrugation frequency (between 0 and 20), nanoparticle volume fraction (between 0 and 0.04), and nanoparticle shapes (spherical, blade, brick, and cylindrical) on the fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics were studied. Stagnation point and average Nusselt number enhance with Reynolds number and solid particle volume fraction for both flat and corrugated surface configurations. An optimal value for the corrugation amplitude and frequency was found to maximize the average heat transfer at the highest value of Reynolds number. Among various nanoparticle shapes, cylindrical ones perform the best heat transfer characteristics in terms of stagnation and average Nusselt number values. At the highest solid volume concentration of the nanoparticles, heat transfer values are higher for a corrugated surface when compared to a flat surface case.

Physical insights of cavity confinement enhancing effect in laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy.

Using cavity confinement to enhance the plasma emission has been proved to be an effective way in LIBS technique while no direct visual evidence has been made to illustrate the physical mechanism of this enhancing effect. In this work, both laser-induced plasma plume images and shockwave images were obtained and synchronized for both flat surface case and rectangular cavity case. Phenomena of shockwave reflection, plasma compression by the reflected shockwave and merge of the reflected shockwave into plasma were observed. Plasma emission intensities recorded by ICCD in both cases were compared and the enhancement effect in the cavity case was identified in the comparison. The enhancement effect could be explained as reflected shockwave "compressing" effect, that is, the reflected shockwave would compress the plasma and result in a more condensed plasma core area with higher plasma temperature. Reflected shockwave also possibly contributed to plasma core position stabilization, which indicated the potential of better plasma signal reproducibility for the cavity case. Both plasma emission enhancement and plasma core position stabilization only exist within a certain temporal window, which indicates that the delay time of spectra acquisition is essential while using cavity confinement as a way to improve LIBS performance.

Turbulence Statistics of Wave-Current Flow over a Submerged Cube

AbstractThis paper describes an experimental study carried out in a laboratory flume to investigate the interaction of a surface wave with a unidirectional current over a submerged cubic obstacle. The three-dimensional velocity field was measured using an acoustic Doppler velocimeter (ADV). The results highlight the changes induced in the mean velocity profile, turbulent intensity, and Reynolds shear stress in a plane of symmetry from the superposition of surface waves of different frequencies. Modifications in the mean velocities, turbulence intensities, and Reynolds shear stresses with respect to the flat surface case, in the vicinity of the cube, are explored. This study also investigates the dominant turbulent bursting event that contributes to the Reynolds shear stress in the near-bed flow influenced by the cube. The results show that near the boundary, the contributions to the total shear stress from ejection and sweep are dominant. However, away from the boundary, the outward and inward interaction...

Turbulence between two inline hemispherical obstacles under wave–current interactions

This paper reports an experimental investigation of open channel turbulent flow between two inline surface mounted hemispherical obstacles in tandem arrangement. A series of experiments are performed under combined wave–current interaction with seven relative spacing L/h, where L is center to center spacing distance and h is the obstacle height for Reynolds number Re = 5.88 × 104. The observations are particularly focused on the changes induced in the mean velocity components, turbulence intensities and Reynolds shear stress due to superposition of surface waves on the ambient flow, and are compared to that of flat-surface and a single hemisphere. The paper also investigates the dominant turbulent bursting events that contribute to the Reynolds shear stress for different relative depth influenced by hemispheres. It is observed that the contributions to the total shear stress due to ejection and sweep are dominant at the wake region for single and double hemisphere near the bed, while towards the surface outward and inward interactions show significant effect for wave–current interactions which is largely different from that over the flat-surface case. Spectral analysis of the observed velocity fluctuations reveals the existence of two distinct power law scaling regime near the bed. At high frequency, an inertial sub-range of turbulence with −5/3 Kolmogorov scaling is observed for the flat-surface. The spectral slope is calculated to show the shifting of standard Kolmogorov scale for both only current and wave-induced tests.

Modelling procedures and properties of rubber in rolling contact

Rubber covered cylinders in rolling contact are studied in two cases; rolling over a flat surface and rolling over a groove. In the first case, two different finite element procedures are compared for the purpose of investigating if computational savings can be made when taking amplitude dependent effects into account by using a modified viscoelastic steady state rolling procedure. This procedure is compared with using a more expensive overlay method with an elastoplastic-viscoelastic material model. The two procedures and material models are shown two give equal results in the flat surface case. For the case of rolling over a groove, it is shown how the non-linear dynamic material characteristics of the rubber layer influence the rolling contact. The groove filling capacity of the rubber is shown to be strongly dependent on the material model. It is shown that amplitude dependent rubber materials have better ability to fill out contact surface irregularities such as a groove.

Triangulations and Volume Form on Moduli Spaces of Flat Surfaces

In this paper, we study the moduli spaces of flat surfaces with cone singularities verifying the following property: there exists a union of disjoint geodesic tree on the surface such that the complement is a translation surface. Those spaces can be viewed as deformations of the moduli spaces of translation surfaces in the space of flat surfaces. We prove that such spaces are quotients of flat complex affine manifolds by a group acting properly discontinuously, and preserving a parallel volume form. Translation surfaces can be considered as a special case of flat surfaces with erasing forest, in this case, it turns out that our volume form coincides with the usual volume form (which are defined via the period mapping) up to a multiplicative constant. We also prove similar results for the moduli space of flat metric structures on the n-punctured sphere with prescribed cone angles up to homothety. When all the angles are smaller than 2π, it is known (cf. [T]) that this moduli space is a complex hyperbolic orbifold. In this particular case, we prove that our volume form induces a volume form which is equal to the complex hyperbolic volume form up to a multiplicative constant.

A semiflexible alternating copolymer chain adsorption on a flat and a fluctuatingsurface

A lattice model of a directed self-avoiding walk is used to investigate adsorptionproperties of a semiflexible alternating copolymer chain on an impenetrable flat andfluctuating surface in two (square, hexagonal and rectangular lattice) and threedimensions (cubic lattice). In the cubic lattice case the surface is two-dimensionalimpenetrable flat and in two dimensions the surface is a fluctuating impenetrable line(hexagonal lattice) and also flat impenetrable line (square and rectangular lattice).Walks of the copolymer chains are directed perpendicular to the plane of thesurface and at a suitable value of monomer surface attraction, the copolymerchain gets adsorbed on the surface. To calculate the exact value of the monomersurface attraction, the directed walk model has been solved analytically usingthe generating function method to discuss results when one type of monomer ofthe copolymer chain has attractive, repulsive or no interaction with the surface.Results obtained in the flat surface case show that, for a stiffer copolymer chain,adsorption transition occurs at a smaller value of monomer surface attractionthan a flexible copolymer chain while in the case of a fluctuating surface, theadsorption transition point is independent of bending energy of the copolymerchain. These features are similar to that of a semiflexible homopolymer chainadsorption.