Effects Of Advection Research Articles

Understanding seasonal variability of mesozooplankton biomass in the upwelling system of central-southern Chile: A modelling approach

Understanding the mechanisms that influence variability in zooplankton biomass in eastern boundary upwelling systems (EBUS) is a critical step in estimating secondary production in the ocean, particularly in the context of biogeochemical modelling and assessing ecosystem productivity. In this study, we utilised a physical-biogeochemical hindcast simulation (2002–2008) to investigate the sources of seasonal and interannual variability of mesozooplankton biomass within the upwelling zone of central-southern Chile. Monthly observations were obtained from an oceanographic time series conducted at Station 18 (36°30′S) off the coast of Concepción, Chile. The first step was to assess the coherence between model outputs and field observations of physical and biogeochemical variables, including the biomass of mesozooplankton. The factors accounting for the variation in biomass at Station 18 were then assessed. In the model, advective flows along the shore and across the shelf control the majority of biomass. The advection effect appears to be more pronounced during the upwelling season (austral spring-summer) than in winter, although it still significantly contributes to biomass variation during the latter. Our physical-biogeochemical model ROMS-PISCES applied on this EBUS showed that alongshore and cross-shelf advection play a crucial role in driving spatial and temporal variability in zooplankton biomass within the upwelling zone. Therefore, it is essential to consider these physical processes when interpreting observational data from fixed time series stations.

Stochastic modeling of turbulent mixing based on a hierarchical swapping of fluid parcels

AbstractTurbulent mixing is an omnipresent phenomenon that constantly affects our everyday life and plays an important role in a variety of industrial applications. The simulation of turbulent mixing poses great challenges, since the full resolution of all relevant length and time scales is associated with an immense computational effort. This limitation can be overcome by only resolving the large‐scale effects and completely model the sub‐grid scales. The development of an accurate sub‐grid mixing model is therefore a key challenge to capture all interactions in the sub‐grid scales. At this place, the hierarchical parcel‐swapping (HiPS) model formulated by A.R. Kerstein [J. Stat. Phys. 153, 142–161 (2013)] represents a computationally efficient and scale‐resolving turbulent mixing model. HiPS mimics the effects of turbulence on time‐evolving, diffusive scalar fields. In HiPS, the diffusive scalar fields or a state space is interpreted as a binary tree structure, which is an alternative approach compared to the most common mixing models. Every level of the tree represents a specific length and time scale, which is based on turbulence inertial range scaling. The state variables are only located at the base of the tree and are treated as fluid parcels. The effects of turbulent advection are represented by stochastic swaps of sub‐trees at rates determined by turbulent time scales associated with the sub‐trees. The mixing only takes places between adjacent fluid parcels and at rates consistent with the prevailing diffusion time scales. In this work, the HiPS model formulation for the simulation of passive scalar mixing is detailed first. Preliminary results for the mean square displacement, passive scalar probability density function (PDF) and scalar dissipation rate are given and reveal the strengths of the HiPS model considering the reduced order and computational efficiency. These model investigations are an important step of further HiPS advancements. The integrated auxiliary binary tree structure allows HiPS to satisfy a large number of criteria for a good mixing model. From this point of view, HiPS is an attractive candidate for modeling the mixing in transported PDF methods.

Investigation on the Intensification of Supertyphoon Yutu (2018) Based on Symmetric Vortex Dynamics Using the Sawyer–Eliassen Equation

This study used the revised Sawyer–Eliassen (SE) equation, taking the relaxed thermal wind balance into account, to chart the development of Supertyphoon Yutu (2018) based on symmetric vortex dynamics. The mean vortex and associated forcing sources for solving the SE equation were taken from three-dimensional numerical simulations using the ocean-coupled HWRF. The SE solutions indicate that the induced transverse circulation is sensitive to the static stability of the mean vortex, which can be significantly underestimated when the static instability is greatly increased. The impacts on the SE solution, caused by the agradient imbalance and nonhydrostatics, were not significantly large in the troposphere. Moreover, the impact of numerical residue in the tangential wind tendency equation mainly occurred in the upper troposphere, below a height of 18 km, and near the lower eyewall. Furthermore, the structural misplaced change in the forcing source may have caused a more disorganized induced transverse circulation, whereas the collocated intensity change only resulted in a proportional enhancement during the same phase. During the rapid intensification of Yutu, the tangential-wind velocity tendency, caused by the revised SE solution, was close to the actual nonlinear tendency; however, the lowest boundary layer exhibited stronger turbulent friction. The mid- to upper-tropospheric vortex intensification inside of the eyewall and outside of the eyewall can mainly be attributed to the mean and asymmetric horizontal advection and vertical advection, respectively; conversely, most of the spindown that occurred in the eyewall was caused by the mean and asymmetric horizontal advection. At lower levels, the vortex intensification near the inner eyewall was mainly induced by the effects of asymmetric vertical advection.

Wall cooling effect on spectra and structures of thermodynamic variables in hypersonic turbulent boundary layers

The wall cooling effect on the spectra and structures of thermodynamic variables are investigated in hypersonic turbulent boundary layers. The density and temperature can be divided into the acoustic and entropic modes based on the Kovasznay decomposition. The intensities of the pressure and the acoustic modes of density and temperature attain the maximum values near the wall, while those of the entropy and the entropic modes of density and temperature achieve their primary peaks near the edge of the boundary layer. In the near-wall region, the pressure and the acoustic modes of density and temperature are significantly enhanced when the wall is strongly cooled, which can be attributed to the appearance of the travelling-wave-like alternating positive and negative structures. Moreover, the intensities of the entropy and the entropic modes of density and temperature become stronger near the wall as the wall temperature decreases, due to the appearance of the streaky entropic structures (SES). The SES are mainly caused by the advection effect of the strong positive wall-normal gradient of the mean temperature associated with ejection and sweep events. It is also found that the profiles of the intensities of the entropy, density and temperature are similar to each other far from the wall, which is mainly due to the reason that the entropic modes are dominant in the fluctuating density and temperature in the far-wall region. The acoustic modes of density and temperature only have significant contributions in the near-wall region.

A hybrid mechanism and ridge regression model to separate the effects of advection and resuspension on suspended sediment concentration

Estuarine and coastal areas are land-sea interaction zones where sediment particles can easily move, leading to water quality and aquatic ecological issues. The suspended sediment concentration (SSC) is an important indicator of the movement of suspended particles and coastal water environments monitoring. However, traditional in situ SSC observations cannot directly separated contributions of advectionand sediment resuspension. In this study we aim to propose a hybrid mechanism and ridge regression model to improve the accuracy of instantaneous SSC estuarine and coastal waters. The new model is based on the application of hydrodynamic factors, functional principles and dimensional evaluation methods, which can analysis the effects of horizontal convective transport, vertical suspended upward movement on the SSC. It is compared with existing formulas (models) and mathematical model (Mike21) calculation results, using field data from single stations at the Yangtze River Estuarine. The comparison shows that the accuracy of the new SSC calculation model based on the equations in this paper is high. The Pearson correlation coefficient of the new model has increased by approximately 0.20, and the relative mean square error and the mean absolute errorhave decreased by approximately 0.26. In addition, the new model can explain the hysteresis of the sediment transport process and water flow change reasonably.

Interplay between Brownian and hydrodynamic tracer diffusion in suspensions of swimming microorganisms

The general problem of tracer diffusion in non-equilibrium baths is important in a wide range of systems, from the cellular level to geographical length scales. In this paper, we revisit the archetypical example of such a system: a collection of small passive particles immersed in a dilute suspension of non-interacting dipolar microswimmers, representing bacteria or algae. In particular, we consider the interplay between thermal (Brownian) diffusion and hydrodynamic (active) diffusion due to the persistent advection of tracers by microswimmer flow fields. Previously, it has been argued that even a moderate amount of Brownian diffusion is sufficient to significantly reduce the persistence time of tracer advection, leading to a significantly reduced value of the effective active diffusion coefficient $D_A$ compared to the non-Brownian case. Here, we show by large-scale simulations and kinetic theory that this effect is in fact practically relevant only for microswimmers that effectively remain stationary while still stirring up the surrounding fluid – so-called shakers. In contrast, for moderate and high values of the swimming speed, relevant for biological microswimmer suspensions, the effect of Brownian motion on $D_A$ is negligible, leading to the effects of advection by microswimmers and Brownian motion being additive. This conclusion contrasts with previous results from the literature, and encourages a reinterpretation of recent experimental measurements of $D_A$ for tracer particles of varying size in bacterial suspensions.

Laminar flow in a channel bounded by porous/rough walls: Revisiting Beavers-Joseph-Saffman

The fully developed, steady, incompressible, laminar flow in a channel delimited by rough and/or permeable walls is considered. The influence of the micro-structured bounding surfaces on the channel flow behavior is mimicked by imposing high-order effective boundary conditions which stem from homogenization theory and do not contain empirical parameters. A closed-form solution of the Navier–Stokes equations is found for the flow in the channel, with conditions at each virtual boundary linking the slip velocities to shear stress and streamwise pressure gradient. The boundary condition for the longitudinal velocity coincides with a little-noticed extension of the so-called Beavers-Joseph condition, first derived by Saffman (1971); it applies to both permeable and rough surfaces, including the case of separated flow (Couette-Poiseuille motion with adverse pressure gradient). The analytical solution obtained for the velocity distribution in the channel is validated against full feature-resolving simulations of the flow for either highly ordered or random textures, highlighting the accuracy and the applicability range of the model. The Stokes-based model used to identify slip and interface permeability coefficients in the effective boundary conditions is found to be reliable and accurate up to ϵReτ≈10, with ϵ ratio of microscopic to macroscopic length scales and Reτ the shear-velocity Reynolds number. Above this threshold, the coefficients must account for advective effects: a new upscaling procedure, based on an Oseen’s approximation, is thus proposed and validated, extending considerably beyond the Stokes regime.

Field study on the diffusion and advection effects of vehicle-emitted soot aerosols on snow albedo in the Chilean Andes

Emissions from road traffic are one of the most important sources of soot aerosols and they can affect the surfaces in the area. In the case of snow surfaces, this effect may lead to changes in the radiative forcing and snow melt, also influenced by particle transport such as particle diffusion and advection. An experimental campaign in The Andes, Chile, was carried out measuring the radiance and irradiance of the snow perpendicularly to a road with high traffic load, together with the meteorological conditions (to identify the diffusion and advection phenomena), the aerosol size distribution, the concentration of particles (PM1, PM2.5 and PM10), and the concentration of black carbon (BC) in both, the atmosphere and the snowpack. The aim of the study was to quantify the contribution of four factors affecting the albedo (black carbon -BC- concentration in snow, grain size, cloudiness, and roughness) by comparing the measured albedo of the contaminated snow surface with that of the same surface prior to contamination, considered as a reference. Results showed a trade-off between diffusion and advection. Close to the road, diffusion was predominant, leading to an increase in BC concentration and a reduction in snow albedo. On the contrary, far from the road, where winds are channeled along the centre of the valley, advection of particles became dominant, leading to another increase in particle concentration and another reduction in snow albedo. Among the factors contributing to reduce the snow albedo, BC concentration dominates at all distances from the road, although the effect of the grain size becomes as significant as that of BC in the centre of the valley, with the effects of surface roughness and cloudiness remaining minor. This information can be used in snow models to get a better knowledge of the effect of particle deposition on albedo reductions.

Real-time tsunami forecasting system with nonlinear effects using Green’s functions: application to near-shore tsunami behavior in complex bay topography

ABSTRACT In this study, a real-time tsunami estimation method was developed using the linear superposition of Green’s functions, which account for nonlinear tsunami effects around coastal areas. To this end, first, the nonlinear effects associated with the inundation and bottom friction and advection terms in a nonlinear long-wave model were investigated, focusing on large tsunamis around Urado Bay in Kochi Prefecture, Japan, which is at risk of future damage from tsunamis produced by the Nankai Trough earthquake. The results indicate that the effects of advection play a more significant role than those of the inundation and bottom friction in terms of accurately estimating near-shore tsunami propagation. Then, based on these results, Green’s functions were modified to account for the linearly approximated effects of the advection terms. By applying the developed method to tsunamis around Urado Bay, it was demonstrated that accurate estimations of the water surface level and flow velocity changes could be quickly obtained at any location around the bay. The developed method can be applied to real-time tsunami inundation forecasting and off-shore evacuation simulations of vessels to support optimal evacuation decisions.

Summer bottom oxygen depletion dynamics and the associated physical structure in the Bohai Sea

Summertime oxygen depletion has been more and more frequently observed in the bottom water of the Bohai Sea in the last decade. Based on comprehensive hydrography and microstructure measurements in summer in the Bohai Sea, the physical structure and bottom dissolved oxygen (DO) dynamics were investigated. The study area is characterized by strong tidal currents and obvious horizontal temperature and DO gradients in the bottom boundary layer. The strong tidal forcing induces large near-bottom turbulent kinetic energy dissipation rates (ϵ ~ 5 × 10-5 W kg-1) which can be well parameterized by the law of the wall. Tidal horizontal advection effects dominate the short-term variations of bottom hydrography. Although the residual current is in a near-perpendicular direction with the horizontal DO gradient (~94°), the horizontal residual DO transport was calculated to be 67.4 mg m-2 d-1 which is ~ 33% of the magnitude of sediment oxygen demand. During the observation period, we observed an intense high-turbidity event leading to a severe drawdown of near-bottom DO concentration (0.16 mg L-1) in 1.5 hours. The DO consumption rate due to this event was then estimated to be ~ 33.3 g m-2 d-1 (1.39 g m-2 h-1) which is two orders of magnitude larger than the sediment oxygen demand. Rapid DO consumption can be induced by the great increase in bioavailable surface area in bottom water and seabed when benthic organic matter is resuspended. This process should be incorporated into the coupled physical-biogeochemical model to improve accuracy in simulating DO depletion.

Roles of thermal advection in setting the Southern Ocean warming pattern

AbstractThe Southern Ocean is the major region of global ocean heat gain. Most of the heat gain is concentrated in the region of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), but SST within the ACC only exhibits a slight increase. Ocean circulation plays a fundamental role in setting the pattern of temperature response to global warming. In this study, a 1/4° Southern Ocean eddy‐permitting model configured based on the Regional Ocean Modeling System is used to study the role of ocean in setting the warming pattern, by examining the response of ocean temperature and heat budget terms to a uniform air–sea heat flux (Qnet) increase. As Qnet increases by a constant value, the SST increases, but with a smaller value within the ACC region. Consequently, more heat flux in the ACC region is induced from the atmosphere to the ocean through thermal adjustment. Heat budget analyses suggest that the surface warming induced by vertical diffusion is largely offset by the cooling effect of heat advection, especially within the ACC region; however, in the subsurface, the effect of vertical diffusion becomes slight, and heat advection dominates the temperature change and induces warming in the ACC region. These results highlight the importance of heat advection in setting the temperature response pattern to air–sea heat flux increase: by transporting more heat from the surface to the deep ocean, the SST increase within the ACC region becomes smaller, and this induces more heat flux from the atmosphere to the ocean and thus makes the ACC region become a major region of heat gain.

Analytical Model for the Design of Permeable Reactive Barriers Considering Solute Transport in a Dual-Domain System

A permeable reactive barrier (PRB) is an effective groundwater in situ remediation technology, and the design methods used for PRBs are significant in ensuring that they meet remediation goals. Steady-state analytical solutions are an effective tool to provide conservative and simple design methods. A steady-state analytical solution is proposed to describe organic contaminant transport through the PRB and aquifer in a PRB and cut-off wall system. The proposed analytical solution may serve as an effective tool to provide conservative and simple design methods. The shape factor (S) is introduced at the PRB-aquifer interface to investigate the effects of a PRB’s layout forms on its performance. The results show that the relative contaminant concentration at the point of compliance for a PRB with S=8 is 11 orders of magnitude larger than that without considering the shape factor. Effects of degradation, dispersion, and advection on PRB design are subjected to dimensionless analysis. Dimensionless analysis shows that degradation plays a key role in decreasing contaminant concentration in the PRB. In addition, increasing advection may promote contaminant transport from the source to the aquifer. Simplified solutions to estimate PRB thickness and source remediation time are derived for the practical design and performance evaluation of the PRB system.

Adverse impact of terrain steepness on thermally driven initiation of orographic convection

Abstract. Diurnal mountain winds precondition the environment for deep moist convection through horizontal and vertical transport of heat and moisture. They also play a key role in convection initiation, especially in strongly inhibited environments, by lifting air parcels above the level of free convection. Despite its relevance, the impact of these thermally driven circulations on convection initiation has yet to be examined systematically. Using idealized large-eddy simulations (Δx=50 m) with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, we study the effect of cross-valley circulations on convection initiation under synoptically undisturbed and convectively inhibited conditions, considering quasi-2D mountain ranges of different heights and widths. In particular, we contrast convection initiation over relatively steep mountains (20 % average slope) and less steep ones (10 %). One distinctive finding is that, under identical environmental conditions, relatively steep mountain ranges lead to a delayed onset and lower intensity of deep moist convection, although they cause stronger thermal updrafts at ridge tops. The temporal evolution of convective indices, such as convective inhibition and convective available potential energy, shows that destabilization over the steeper mountains is slower, presumably due to lower low-level moisture. Analysis of the ridgetop moisture budget reveals the competing effects of moisture advection by the mean thermally driven circulation and turbulent moisture transport. In general, at mountaintops, the divergence of the turbulent moisture flux offsets the convergence of the advective moisture flux almost entirely. Due to the stronger ridgetop updraft, the mean advective moistening over the steeper mountains is higher; nevertheless, the total moistening is lower and the width of the updraft zone is narrower on average. Thus, buoyant updrafts over the steeper mountains are more strongly affected by the turbulent entrainment of environmental air, which depletes their moisture and cloud water content and makes them less effective at initiating deep convection. Saturated updrafts over less steep mountains, on the other hand, gain more moisture from the vapor flux at cloud base, leading to significantly higher moisture accumulation. The lower entrainment rates in these simulations are revealed by the fact that equivalent potential temperature in the cloud decreases less strongly with height than over steeper terrain. The precipitation efficiency, a measure of how much of the condensed water eventually precipitates, is considerably larger over the less steep mountains, also due to lower total condensation compared with the steeper simulations. The relationship between mountain size and precipitation amount depends on the thermodynamic profile. It is nearly linear in cases with low initial convective inhibition but more complex otherwise. The weaker convection over steeper mountains is a robust finding, valid over a range of background environmental stability and mountain sizes.

Atmospheric Wind and Pressure-Driven Changes in Tidal Characteristics over the Northwestern European Shelf

Understanding drivers of tidal change is a key challenge in predicting coastal floods in the next century. Whilst interactions between tides and atmospheric surges have been studied, the effects of wind and pressure on tides on an annual scale over the Northwestern European shelf have not been investigated. Here, a modelling approach using the shallow water MARS model is carried out to understand and quantify meteorological effects on tidal characteristics. The model setup is validated against the GESLA 3 tide gauge database. Combined and relative influences of wind and pressure are investigated using four modelling scenarios: tide only; tide, wind, and pressure; tide and wind; and tide and pressure. Influences are investigated using a single year of tidal forcing, and across multiple years of meteorological data to examine the sensitivity to temporally changing meteorological conditions. It is found that meteorology influences tidal constituent amplitudes by +/−1 cm, yielding changes that may locally reach 15 cm in the predicted highest tide. Analysis of the shallow water equations show three non-linear interaction terms between tide, wind, and pressure (advective effects, quadratic parameterization of bottom friction, and shallow water effect). Part of the observed changes is shown to arise from meteorologically induced mean sea-level changes.

How Do Different Processes Shape Temperature Probability Distributions? A Percentile-Averaged Temperature Tendency Decomposition

Abstract Studying temperature probability distributions and the physical processes that shape them is important for understanding extreme temperature events. Previous work has used a conditional mean temperature framework to reveal whether horizontal temperature advection drives temperature to extreme or median values at a specific location as a method to dynamically interpret temperature probability distributions. In this paper, we generalize this method to study how other processes shape temperature probability distributions and explore the diverse effects of horizontal temperature advection on temperature probability distributions at different locations and different temperature percentiles. We apply this generalized method to several representative regions to demonstrate its use. We find that temperature advection drives temperatures toward more extreme values over most land in the midlatitudes (i.e., cold air advection occurs during cold anomalies and warm air advection occurs during warm anomalies). In contrast, we find that horizontal temperature advection dampens temperature anomalies in some coastal summer monsoon regions, where extreme temperatures result from other processes, such as horizontal humidity advection and vertical temperature advection. By calculating the mean of processes conditioned on the temperature percentile, this method enables composite analysis of processes that contribute to events for all percentiles and a range of processes. We show examples of composites at different percentiles for certain processes and regions to illustrate the conditional mean analysis. This general approach may benefit future studies related to temperature probability distributions and extreme events.

Fluid-flow effects in the reactive decontamination of porous materials driven by chemical swelling or contraction

Following the release of a chemical warfare agent, it is crucial for public health that the affected environment is entirely decontaminated. If the agent has seeped into a porous building material, the decontamination is achieved by applying a cleanser solution to the surface of the porous material, and allowing it to react in, neutralising the agent. Typically, the agent and cleanser solution are immiscible fluids and so the reaction occurs at the fluid–fluid interfaces within the pores. Previous studies have shown that the rate of decontamination of the porous material can depend on both the chemical reaction rate and the transport of cleanser to the reacting interface. These studies have all assumed that the two fluids have the same densities, so that diffusion is the only cleanser-transport mechanism. In this paper, we relax this assumption and investigate the effect of a fluid flow—generated by a change in density of the material (a swelling, or contraction) during the chemical reaction—on the decontamination process. This flow of fluid results in advection as well as diffusion of chemicals. Buoyancy effects are neglected. In particular, we show that when the agent is more dense than the reaction product, the decontamination process is slower, due to the adverse advection effect.

Topographic Response to Horizontal Advection in Normal Fault‐Bound Mountain Ranges

AbstractTectonic displacements consist of vertical uplift or subsidence, and horizontal advection. We consider the effects of tectonic advection on mountain range topography, surface drainage patterns and drainage divides. Through numerically modeling a normal fault and uplifted footwall, we find that advection promotes the elongation of catchments and reduction in outlet spacing at mountain fronts. We demonstrate an erosional disequilibrium associated with the advection‐induced transfer of mass from the proximal mountain front toward the distal mountain front. Our modeling also demonstrates the development of an erosion rate disequilibrium around fixed geomorphic features such as drainage divides, that we deem characteristic of advection. In our model, steady‐state is achieved when the divide migration occurs at the same rate as advection; advection moves topography away from the fault, meaning drainage migration becomes a mechanism for balancing advection. Topographic observations in a mountain range bound by a low angle normal fault, the Sierra la Laguna (Mexico), are consistent with our modeling results when advection is included. These observations reveal a strong influence of advection on the development of the Sierra la Laguna's topography and suggest the main drainage divide is migrating toward the fault to counterbalance advection. Tectonic advection exerts a significant control on erosion rate distribution, topographic and drainage patterns and the stability of drainage divides. This work also highlights that the Gilbert metrics and across‐divide χ disequilibrium cannot always be interpreted in terms of growing or shrinking catchments in settings with a large advection component of tectonic displacement.

Evolution of Entropy Generation on Mixing Process Using a Novel Chaotic Micromixer

This study aims to compare numerically the laminar steady flow of shear-thinning non Newtonian fluids in novel chaotic micromixer. The process is verified for non-Newtonian flow in a complex geometry that is heated with a constant flux. The selected geometry produce secondary flow structures that greatly improve fluid dynamic performance. To measure this performance, the Poincaré map method is used for various cases of fluid power-law index in different geometries. In addition, thermal mixing behavior is studied for shear-thinning fluids in the chosen geometry with two different inlet temperatures.In different cases of fluid power-law indexes, the novel geometry resulted in an 82% increase in thermal mixing degree relative to the thermal mixing degree observed in the C-shaped and serpentine channels. The second law of thermodynamics is examined in terms of entropy generation caused by thermal and hydrodynamic processes, as a function of low rates of generalized Reynolds number and power-law index, while taking into consideration the effects of chaotic advection. As a result, the new configuration showed a significant improvement in the degree of mixing compared to other geometries considered, while also minimizing friction and thermal irreversibilities.

Constructal design of passive micromixers with multiple obstacles via computational fluid dynamics

Passive micromixers have applications mainly in the chemical, pharmaceutical, and materials industries. Two or more fluids mix while flowing through microchannels in these devices. Due to the small dimensions and low flow rates, the flow is essentially laminar, and mixing takes place mainly by mass diffusion. One way to increase the mixing rate in micromixers is the addition of obstacles that increase the advective effects. This work aimed to introduce high-performance designs of passive micromixers with multiple obstacles. These designs were obtained by combining the Constructal Design method with the Response Surface Optimization method and Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The micromixers were Y-shaped tubes with grooves and circular obstacles in cells that repeated along the device. From the first design inspired by a high-performance design from the literature, the evolutionary design of the system was achieved by increasing the number of obstacles and finding the best configuration for each evolution level (number of obstacles per cell, from three to seven). The effects on mixing percentage, pressure difference, and mixing energy cost (MEC) of obstacles’ vertical and horizontal distances were investigated with CFD simulations. Increasing the number of obstacles made it possible to increase the mixture percentage of the micromixer. At the same time, the total pressure drop rises faster than the mixing percentage. However, analyzing the pressure locally, it was shown that the lower the number of obstacles, the greater the local pressure drop, which could cause flow obstructions. The vertical distance of the obstacles had a more significant impact on the mixing than their horizontal distance. Both vertical and horizontal distances had a substantial effect on the pressure drop. As the number of obstacles increased, the effect of the horizontal distance became weaker as its variation was limited. The three-obstacles design presented a MEC equal to 2.47 and a mixing percentage equal to 67.12% mixing index. The latest design evolution (i.e., seven obstacles) achieved the best mixing percentage, 70.30%, with MEC equal to 2.97. By modifying the degrees of freedom, it was possible to understand and propose a path to the evolutionary design of the system to increase its performance while still using simple designs.

Why Does a Stronger El Niño Favor Developing towards the Eastern Pacific while a Stronger La Niña Favors Developing towards the Central Pacific?

By decomposing observed El Niño and La Niña events into a strong group and a weak group, respectively, we discovered that the strong La Niña group has its peak center more towards the west compared to the weak La Niña group, whereas the strong El Niño group has its peak center more towards the east compared to the weak El Niño group. The cause of this structure asymmetry is investigated through an ocean mixed-layer heat budget analysis. It was found that the asymmetry is closely linked to the longitudinal distribution of SST anomaly (SSTA) skewness along the equator, and is fundamentally caused by nonlinear dynamic heating, especially nonlinear horizontal temperature advection. It was demonstrated that near the equatorial central Pacific, the anomalous zonal and meridional currents generate negative nonlinear zonal and meridional temperature advection anomalies for both the El Niño and La Niña events, thus favoring a stronger La Niña and a weaker El Niño. Over the eastern Pacific, due to the dominant geostrophic zonal current anomalies and the southward shift of SSTA centers, nonlinear horizontal temperature advection anomalies tend to be positive for both the El Niño and La Niña, thus favoring a stronger growth of El Niño than La Niña. Nonlinear vertical temperature advection anomalies play minor roles in the central Pacific and tend to partially offset the nonlinear horizontal advection effect in the equatorial eastern Pacific.