Fully-developed Regime Research Articles

Continuous wavelet analysis and proper orthogonal decomposition on particle dynamics in a horizontal self-exited gas-solid two-phase pipe flow

The high-speed particle image velocimetry is applied to measure the particle velocities of a horizontal self-exited gas-solid two-phase pipe flow with soft fins at the air velocity of the minimum pressure drop. The detailed particle dynamics of using fins' cases are analyzed and compared with a conventional non-fin case. It is found that the particle accelerating process is delayed in the acceleration regime and the vertical particle velocity is decreased near the top part of fully-developed regime due to the effect of fins' oscillations. The continuous wavelet transform of axial particle fluctuation velocity suggests that the fins make the particle motions fall into a lower frequency range in the acceleration regime. In the fully-developed regime, the dominating frequencies of large-scale particle flows are decreased and the streaks appearing in the range of high frequency are weakened by using fins. The energy distributions of proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) modes indicate that the relative energy of POD mode1 is increased by using fins in both acceleration and fully-developed regimes, and the dominance is significantly enhanced by using fins in the fully-developed regime. The auto-correlation coefficients and central frequencies of POD modes exhibit that the dominating large-scale particle motion is enhanced by using fins, correspondingly, small-scale particle motion is suppressed. • The particle velocity of a horizontal self-exited gas-solid two-phase pipe flow is measured at minimum air velocity by PIV. • POD and continuous wavelet transform is adopted to analyze the particle fluctuation velocities. • The dominating frequencies of large-scale particle flows are decreased. • The streaks appears in the range of high frequency are weakened by using fins. • The dominance of POD mode 1 is significantly enhanced by using fins in the fully-developed regime.

Numerical simulation of pollutant dispersion in a test ventilated room

The paper presents the numerical study of 3D flow and neutrally buoyant pollutant transport in a model atrium under conditions of test experiment by Thatcher et al. (2004) with a controlled uranine dye spill. For the Reynolds number of 2160 the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes approach was applied. Analysis of CFD predictability for a steady-state fully-developed regime and a transient process was done in comparison with the experimental data on contaminant concentration fields. For various positions of the contaminant source the ventilation effectiveness was computed and discussed.

Flow Adjustment Inside and Around Large Finite-Size Wind Farms

In this study, large-eddy simulations are performed to investigate the flow inside and around large finite-size wind farms in conventionally-neutral atmospheric boundary layers. Special emphasis is placed on characterizing the different farm-induced flow regions, including the induction, entrance and development, fully-developed, exit and farm wake regions. The wind farms extend 20 km in the streamwise direction and comprise 36 wind turbine rows arranged in aligned and staggered configurations. Results show that, under weak free-atmosphere stratification ( Γ = 1 K/km), the flow inside and above both wind farms, and thus the turbine power, do not reach the fully-developed regime even though the farm length is two orders of magnitude larger than the boundary layer height. In that case, the wind farm induction region, affected by flow blockage, extends upwind about 0.8 km and leads to a power reduction of 1.3% and 3% at the first row of turbines for the aligned and staggered layouts, respectively. The wind farm wake leads to velocity deficits at hub height of around 3.5% at a downwind distance of 10 km for both farm layouts. Under stronger stratification ( Γ = 5 K/km), the vertical deflection of the subcritical flow induced by the wind farm at its entrance and exit regions triggers standing gravity waves whose effects propagate upwind. They, in turn, induce a large decelerating induction region upwind of the farm leading edge, and an accelerating exit region upwind of the trailing edge, both extending about 7 km. As a result, the turbine power output in the entrance region decreases more than 35% with respect to the weakly stratified case. It increases downwind as the flow adjusts, reaching the fully-developed regime only for the staggered layout at a distance of about 8.5 km from the farm edge. The flow acceleration in the exit region leads to an increase of the turbine power with downwind distance in that region, and a relatively fast (compared with the weakly stratified case) recovery of the farm wake, which attains its inflow hub height speed at a downwind distance of 5 km.

Al/ oil nanofluids inside annular tube: an experimental study on convective heat transfer and pressure drop

In this work, an experimental study on nanofluid preparation stability, thermo-physical properties, heat transfer performance and friction factor of Al/ Oil nanofluids has been carried out. Electrical Explosion Wire (E.E.W) which is one of the most reliable one-step techniques for nanofluids preparation has been used. An annular tube has been considered as the test section in which the outer tube was subject to a uniform heat flux boundary condition of about 204 W. The utilized nanofluids were prepared in three different volume concentrations of 0.011%, 0.044% and 0.171%. A wide range of parameters such as Reynolds number Prandtl number, viscosity, thermal conductivity, density, specific heat, convective heat transfer coefficient, Nusselt number and the friction factor have been studied. The experiment was conducted in relatively low Reynolds numbers of less than 160 and within a hydrodynamically fully-developed regime. According to the results, thermal conductivity, density and viscosity increased depending on the volume concentrations and working temperatures while the specific heat declined. More importantly, it was observed that convective heat transfer coefficient and Nusselt number enhanced by 28.6% and 16.4%, respectively, for the highest volume concentration. Finally, the friction factor (which plays an important role in the pumping power) was found to be increased around 18% in the volume fraction of 0.171%.

Analysis of particle dynamics in a horizontal pneumatic conveying of the minimum pressure drop based on POD and wavelet transform

In order to study the characters of particle fluctuation velocity at the minimum pressure drop (MPD) velocity in the acceleration and fully developed regimes of a horizontal pneumatic conveying, the particle fluctuation velocities measured by the high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) are first analyzed by time-averaged particle velocity, fluctuating energy, power spectrum and autocorrelation. Then the proper orthogonal decomposition (POD) and continuous wavelet transform are developed to reveal the particle fluctuation velocities in terms of the contributions to the particle fluctuation energy, time-frequency distribution, as well as probability density function from POD modes. The energy distributions of POD modes suggest that the first two POD modes are most energetic and dominate the particle motion, and the dominance increases from the acceleration regime to fully-developed regime. The time-frequency characteristics of POD modes reveal that small-scale particle fluctuations are suppressed in the fully-developed regime. It implies that the suppression of small-scale particle fluctuations may result in lower pressure drop at MPD velocity. The PDF distributions of POD modes exhibit that the particle fluctuation of first two POD modes follows the Gaussian distribution in the acceleration and fully developed regimes. However, the PDF distributions of POD modes gradually deviate from Gaussian distribution as increasing mode number.

Constant Property Newtonian Fluid Flow and Heat Transfer overCascaded Fins

Turbulent flow and heat transfer characteristics were studied and analyzed numerically for a constant property Newtonian fluid flowing through a two-dimensional horizontal rectangular cross section channel with staggered, transverse cascaded rectangular-triangular fins (CRTFs) and a constant temperature along both walls. The governing equations based on model used to describe the turbulence phenomenon, are solved by the finite volume method using the SIMPLEC-algorithm. Computations were carried out in the fully-developed regime for different Reynolds numbers, and geometric locations. In particular, velocity and temperature fields, skin friction coefficient, and local and average Nusselt numbers were obtained. This study can be a real application in the field of heat exchangers and air plane solar collectors.

Multi-scale analysis on particle dynamics of a horizontal self-excited pneumatic conveying at the minimum pressure drop

High-speed PIV is first used to measure the fluctuating particle velocities of a horizontal self-excited pneumatic conveying at low air velocity of minimum pressure drop in the acceleration and fully-developed regimes. Then, an orthogonal wavelet multi-resolution analysis and power spectrum are employed to reveal multi-scale characteristics of particle fluctuation velocity. It is found that the pronounced peaks of the spectra of axial and vertical fluctuation velocities appear in the low frequency range near the bottom of the pipe, and the peaks of the spectra become larger by using fins. In the range of low frequencies (3–25Hz), the wavelet components of the fluctuating energy of axial particle velocity are the main contributions, accounting for 35% and 91% for non-fin and using fins, respectively, near the bottom of the pipe. However, in the range of relatively high frequencies (50–400Hz), the wavelet components of using fins, accounting for approximately 57%, become smaller than that of non-fin, accounting for approximately 66%, in the fully-developed regime near the top of the pipe. The auto-correlation with fins displays large quasi-periodical waves in the low frequency regime as τ increases.

Optimal Coordinated Control of Power Extraction in LES of a Wind Farm with Entrance Effects

We investigate the use of optimal coordinated control techniques in large eddy simulations of wind farm boundary layer interaction with the aim of increasing the total energy extraction in wind farms. The individual wind turbines are considered as flow actuators, and their energy extraction is dynamically regulated in time, so as to optimally influence the flow field. We extend earlier work on wind farm optimal control in the fully-developed regime (Goit and Meyers 2015, J. Fluid Mech. 768, 5–50) to a ‘finite’ wind farm case, in which entrance effects play an important role. For the optimal control, a receding horizon framework is employed in which turbine thrust coefficients are optimized in time and per turbine. Optimization is performed with a conjugate gradient method, where gradients of the cost functional are obtained using adjoint large eddy simulations. Overall, the energy extraction is increased 7% by the optimal control. This increase in energy extraction is related to faster wake recovery throughout the farm. For the first row of turbines, the optimal control increases turbulence levels and Reynolds stresses in the wake, leading to better wake mixing and an inflow velocity for the second row that is significantly higher than in the uncontrolled case. For downstream rows, the optimal control mainly enhances the sideways mean transport of momentum. This is different from earlier observations by Goit and Meyers (2015) in the fully-developed regime, where mainly vertical transport was enhanced.

Multi-scale particle dynamics of low air velocity in a horizontal self-excited gas–solid two-phase pipe flow

The particle fluctuation velocities of a horizontal self-excited gas–solid two-phase pipe flow with soft fins near MPD (minimum pressure drop) air velocity are first measured by high-speed PIV in the acceleration and fully-developed regimes. Then orthogonal wavelet multi-resolution analysis and power spectrum are used to reveal multi-scale characteristics of particle fluctuation velocity. It is observed that the pronounced peaks of the spectra of axial and vertical fluctuation velocities appear in the range of low frequency near the bottom of pipe. These peaks of spectra become larger and their frequencies decrease by using fins. In the range of low frequencies (3–25Hz), the wavelet components of the fluctuating energy of axial particle velocity make the main contribution accounting for 87% and 93% respectively for non-fin and using fins near the bottom of pipe. In the range of relatively high frequency (50–400Hz), however, the wavelet components of using fins, accounting for about 49%, become smaller than that of non-fin, accounting for about 72%, in the suspension flow regime near the top of pipe. The skewness factor of axial particle fluctuation velocity indicates that the wavelet components follow the Gaussian probability distribution as the central frequency decreases.

Downer reactor flow measurements using CREC-GS-Optiprobes

The present study describes the potential intrusive effects of CREC-GS-Optiprobes on the flow pattern in gas–solid downflow units. Granular flows and their interactions with the CREC-GS-Optiprobes are calculated using a CPFD (Computational Particle Fluid Dynamic) numerical scheme in three dimensions, using particle clusters. Once particles dispersed in the column, the numerical simulations revealed that these particles formed a relatively homogeneous suspension with cluster formation and solids accelerating until reaching a fully-developed regime. CPFD simulations showed that two axially aligned CREC-GS-Optiprobes, when placed in the fully developed flow regime, introduce minimum perturbations in the gas–solid suspension. Therefore this CREC-GS-Optiprobe creates a highly illuminated focal region where hydrodynamic parameters can be measured without significant flow disturbance. Thus, this study supports the application of fiber optic probes; such as in the case of the CREC-GS-Optiprobes, which can provide undisturbed axial particle cluster velocity, axial cluster slip velocities, cluster size and solid fraction measurements at strategically selected locations in the gas–solid downer unit.

Multi-scale analysis on particle fluctuation velocity near the minimum pressure drop in a horizontal pneumatic conveying

Multi-scale characteristics of particle fluctuation velocity at the MPD (minimum pressure drop) air velocity in the acceleration and fully-developed regimes are experimentally investigated. The high-speed particle image velocimetry (PIV) is first used to measure the fluctuating particle velocities at the MPD air velocity in a horizontal pneumatic conveying. Then the fluctuating particle velocities in the acceleration and fully-developed regimes are analyzed by the continuous wavelet transform and orthogonal wavelet multi-resolution technique. It is found that the wavelet components of low frequency dominate the fluctuating energy of axial particle velocity in the bottom part of the pipe, and contribute about 70% and 84% to the acceleration and fully-developed regimes, respectively. The more contribution to the fluctuating energy of vertical particle velocity, however, comes from the wavelet components of high frequency, accounting for about 82%. The low frequency component of auto-correlation suggests a large-scale particle flow in both acceleration regime and fully-developed regime. The low frequency wavelet component also makes a large contribution to spatial correlation of axial particle velocity, which increases from the acceleration regime to fully-developed regime. The PDF of low frequency components are asymmetrical near the bottom of the pipe, but the PDF of the relatively high frequency exhibits symmetry and the spread of the PDF evidently shrinks for increasing frequencies, implying a reducing fluctuation of high frequency component.

Laminar-Turbulent Transition of Flow in a Heated Horizontal Tube (Experiment of Air Flow in the Fully-Developed Regime).

We have experimentally studied the influence of buoyancy force and inlet flow conditions on the laminar-turbulent transition process of fully-developed air flow in a heated horizontal tube with uniform wall heat flux at modified Rayleigh number Raq=3.1×106. Eight time-series of the air temperature were simulaneously obtained using eight thermocouples positioned within the tube along a vertical line passing through the tube axis. We have determined the nature of the transition behavior in space and time by analyzing these instantaneous time-series.

Conjugate heat transfer in a channel with staggered ribs

Fluid flow and heat transfer characteristics were analyzed for a constant property fluid flowing laminarly through a parallel plate channel with staggered, transverse ribs and a constant heat flux along both walls. After a finite entry length the flow becomes periodically fully developed. Computations were carried out in the fully-developed regime for different Reynolds numbers, Prandtl numbers, and geometric arrangements. It is found that significant heat transfer augmentation is obtained for high Prandtl number fluids such as water or fluorocarbons. In addition, conduction in the channel walls is found to play a highly beneficial role in enhancing heat transfer.