High-speed Gas Flow Research Articles

Effects of Laser Irradiation in High-Speed Gas Flow for Surface Treatments of Copper

In this study, the impacts of laser irradiation on the surface morphology and hardness of copper (Cu) are investigated under various environments, including air, vacuum, and high-pressure gas flow through a supersonic nozzle. After irradiating Cu targets with laser pulses with energy of 30, 60, and 90 mJ/pulse, the surface structures of the targets are analyzed by scanning electron microscopy (SEM) and X-ray diffraction (XRD). The SEM analysis reveals diverse surface morphologies, including micro-cones, cavities, droplets, ripples, and island-like structures, depending on laser energy and environments. The XRD analysis provides insights into the structural changes induced by laser irradiation. The results indicate a significant enhancement in microhardness by a factor of 2.77, which is attributed to the surface and structural modifications incurred under various environments. In addition, the XRD analysis reveals a shift in the residual stress in the surface layers of copper from tensile before laser irradiation to compressive afterwards, highlighting the effectiveness of laser surface treatment in inducing favorable mechanical properties.

An evaluation of the hybrid Fokker–Planck-DSMC approach for high-speed rarefied gas flows

The Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method has been widely used for simulations of rarefied gas flows. It has been proven that the numerical solution of the DSMC method converges to the Boltzmann equation, providing a solid physical foundation for high Knudsen numbers. However, many aerospace engineering problems include both low and high-density regions in a single domain, making the DSMC method computationally expensive. Over the past decade, the particle Fokker–Planck (FP) method has been studied as a means to reduce computational costs near the continuum regime. While enhancing efficiency, the FP method loses physical accuracy at high Knudsen numbers. Aiming for universal accuracy and efficiency across the whole range of Knudsen numbers, the hybrid FP-DSMC method has been studied. Nevertheless, consistent comparisons among the DSMC, FP, and hybrid FP-DSMC methods have received limited attention so far. This paper presents a consistent comparative study of the DSMC, FP, and hybrid FP-DSMC methods to assess the accuracy and efficiency of the hybrid FP-DSMC method. The hybrid FP-DSMC solver is developed based on the open-source SPARTA framework. The benchmark problems include supersonic flow in a planar nozzle, hypersonic flow around a cylinder, and hypersonic flow around a THAAD-like missile. The results demonstrate that the hybrid FP-DSMC method can be more efficient than the DSMC method while being more accurate than the FP method. The speed-up achieved by the FP-DSMC method ranged from 1.5 to 14 times compared to the converged DSMC simulation.

Modification of temperature jump condition for modified Navier-Stokes equations included molecular diffusivity in high-speed rarefied gas flows

Modification of temperature jump condition for modified Navier-Stokes equations included molecular diffusivity in high-speed rarefied gas flows

An Open-Source Code for High-Speed Non-Equilibrium Gas–Solid Flows in OpenFOAM

This paper details the development and verification tests of an open-source code named hy2LPTFoam intended for solving high-speed non-equilibrium gas-particle flows in OpenFOAM. The solver, based on hy2Foam for high-speed non-equilibrium gas flow, integrates multiple particle force models, heat transfer models, the diffusion-based smoothing method, and the MPPIC method. The verification tests incorporate interactions between shock waves and particle curtains with varying particle volume fractions, a JPL nozzle generating a two-phase gas–particle flow, and a Mars entry body with two particle inflow mass fractions. The tests yield good physical agreement with numerical and experimental data from the literature.

Deformation and mutual influence of two cylindrical water columns in tandem subjected to shock wave

Abstract The interaction between shock waves and multiple cylinders, referred to as shock–cylinder interaction (SCI), is an important phenomenon in science and engineering. However, its underlying physical mechanisms remain unclear. This study entailed the numerical simulation of the aerobreakup of two tandem water columns subjected to a high-speed gas flow by using an adaptive mesh refinement (AMR)-based diffusion-interface model. The objective was to elucidate the changes in water–column deformation patterns over a wide range of Weber numbers. Statistical analysis was performed to examine the deformation of the water columns in vertical directions. Results reveal distinct deformation patterns between the two columns as the Weber number increases. Additionally, an extended exponential stretching law model was devised, and its improved capability to predict the deformation patterns was demonstrated.

Numerical studies of the breakup of the water jet by a shock wave in the barrel of the fire extinguishing installation

This scientific paper delves into the numerical studies of the process of filling the barrel with water and the subsequent breakup of the water jet and water atomization in the barrel of the fire extinguishing installation. The numerical model of the process of water injection into the barrel with the subsequent breakup of water by a shock wave was substantiated. To simulate these processes, the ANSYS software was used. VOF (volume of fluid) method-based model was applied where it is assumed that there is no penetration of one medium into another. The solution is based on the surface tracking method applied to a fixed Eulerian grid. According to the results of the numerical study, it was established that the water injection time significantly exceeds the duration of the gas detonation cycle in the fire extinguishing installation. In particular, we found out that it takes 8 ms just to spread the water jet from one side of the barrel to the other. It was observed that a high quality of water atomization under the action of a high-speed gas flow including the water located along the barrel wall. We stated that it is unreasonable to use the pulse injection of water into the barrel in the designed fire extinguishing installation due to a high fregiency of the shock wave generation exceeding 23 Hz.

Research on the cooling mechanism of low-temperature liquid jet mixing in high-temperature and high-speed airflow

The multi-stage water spray cooling system of the space launch site involves a complex gas–liquid two-phase mixed cooling problem in the process of spraying water onto the rocket engine gas jet. To investigate the complex multiphase flow field of the interaction between the airflow and liquid water jet, the Mixture multiphase flow model is adopted, which is coupled with the vaporization equation and component transport model of liquid water. The computational fluid dynamics method is used to numerically analyze the mixing and cooling mechanism of low-temperature liquid jet in high-temperature and high-speed gas flow. The results show that mixing low-temperature liquid jets in high-temperature and high-speed airflow can cause the exchange of momentum and energy, resulting in pressure loss and temperature reduction in the gas phase flow field. Due to the acceleration of transverse airflow, the diffusion flow range of the jet is significantly increased, and violent vaporization occurs, which further consume a large amount of airflow energy. The mixing cooling effect of transverse airflow and liquid water jet is directly related to the mass flow rate ratio of the jet to airflow. In addition, directly designing liquid water jet orifices on the solid wall of the guiding device can achieve the effect of improving the gas flow field environment. This conclusion can provide theoretical reference for the thermal protection design of ground launch devices in space launch site.

Ceramization of coordinated Zr4+ and Hf4+ in polysiloxane conferring silicone/phenolic hybrid resin with excellent thermal protection

Silicon/phenolic hybrid resins are one of the most commonly used materials for thermal protection. However, the weak ability of SiO2 generated by silicone during ablation to resist the impact of high-speed hot gas flow hinders further improvement of the performance. Therefore, in this work, the ultrahigh-temperature ceramic elements Zr4+ and Hf4+ were integrated into hyperbranched polysiloxanes in the form of coordination bond and then introduced into phenolic resin (PR), obtaining hybrid resin with excellent ablative resistance. During ablation, Zr4+ and Hf4+ will first undergo ceramization, producing ZrO2 and HfO2. Subsequently, they will undergo a solid solution sintering reaction to produce complex-phase ceramic particles (ZrxHf1-x)O2, which are embedded in the SiO2 liquid film and provide excellent pinning effect. This gives the hybrid resin excellent ablation resistance, whose linear ablation rate can be as low as 0.038 mm/s, a 58 % decrease compared to pure PR. This work not only provides a new pathway for ceramization through metal ion coordination bonding, but also provides a new way to prepare high-performance TPS materials.

A high temperature engine materials test facility.

Gas turbine engines subject materials to extreme conditions. Their high temperature materials and co-developed coatings must survive combustion gas temperatures currently approaching 1800 °C, large thermal gradients, severe thermal shock, and static and fatigue inducing applied stresses, all the while operating in highly reactive, high-pressure, high-speed combustion gas flows containing significant partial pressures of water vapor, oxygen, and other reactive species for many tens of thousands of hours. We describe the design and development of a test facility for the study of materials under individual and combinations of test parameters similar to those experienced within legacy and future engines. A hydraulic load frame capable of applying static or cyclic tension-compression stresses up to 400 MPa to flat-dog bone-shaped test specimens is integrated within an environmental test chamber capable of sustaining gas pressures from 0.1 to 1.2 MPa (1-12 atm). An adjustable0.1-2 kW power CO2 laser whose 10.6 µm wavelength radiation is strongly absorbed by ceramic coating materials is used to heat sample surfaces to temperatures of 1800 °C and above, while rear surface air jet cooling establishes through-thickness thermal gradients. Rapid laser heating in conjunction with transiently applied front and/or rear-side air cooling is used to create hot or cold thermal shock effects. This is accompanied by the impingement of a high pressure (up to 1.3 MPa) reactive gas jet upon the sample with speeds up to 300m/s by preheating dry air, mixing it with steam to the desired humidity, heating to 850 °C, and then expanding it through a converging nozzle. Thermal imaging pyrometers measure specimen front and back surface temperature fields, while environmental test chamber view ports permit digital image correlation and strain mapping.

Variations in gas temperature and average velocity during laminar-turbulent transition in high-speed gas flow through microtubes

The primary objective of this study is to investigate variations in gas temperature and average velocity during the laminar-turbulent transition of compressible flow. This investigation encompasses an exploration of the effect of Mach number on transitional Reynolds number. Experiments were conducted utilizing a pair of adiabatic stainless steel microtubes with a diameter (D) of 131.6 μm. The first microtube was dedicated to measuring local pressure to obtain friction factor, local Mach number, and bulk temperature. The second microtube was employed for measuring local wall temperature. Additionally, a stainless steel microtube with a diameter (D) of 124 μm and a rectangular microchannel with a hydraulic diameter (Dh) of 99.36 μm were incorporated in the study. Friction factor, Mach number, and bulk temperature were determined by measuring mass flow rate and local pressure near the outlet. The measured mass flow rate exhibited a slight increase that plateaued during the laminar-turbulent transition as the Reynolds number increased. In laminar flow, an increase in the Reynolds number resulted in an increase of the Mach number and a reduction in bulk temperature. Conversely, during the laminar-turbulent transition, the Mach number either remained constant or decreased, and the bulk temperature increased due to the conversion of kinetic energy to thermal energy. Experimental validation of this phenomenon was achieved by measuring the wall temperature of an adiabatic microtube.

An ELM data-driven model for predicting erosion rate of string in underground compressed air storage

Underground compressed air storage has experienced rapid development in recent years. The string, as a critical component of underground compressed air storage, serves as a channel for gas injection and production. The high-speed gas flow can cause string failure due to erosion. This study presents a data-driven model to predict the erosion rate of string in underground compressed air storage. A Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) model coupling discrete phase and continuous phase is developed to estimate the erosion rate of string. The effect of gas velocity, bending angle of string, string diameter, sand diameter and sand mass flow rate is investigated by implementing numerous simulations to generate a datasets of string erosion rate and its influencing factors. This dataset is used to develop a data-driven model based on extreme learning machine (ELM) algorithm for rapidly predicting the erosion rate of string. The developed model exhibits advantages in robustness and prediction accuracy.

Evolution of a shock-impacted reactive liquid fuel droplet with evaporation effects: A numerical study

We describe detailed numerical simulations of a liquid fuel droplet impacted by a Mach 5 shock wave, considering the effects of chemical reactions and phase change due to evaporation. In our baseline case, a 5μm, n-Dodecane fuel droplet is preheated to 460K, and surrounded by preheated O2 gas at 700K. The simulations investigate the low Ohnesorge number regime (Oh<0.1), where viscous effects are insignificant and therefore not considered in this work. The fuel droplet undergoes significant deformation and morphological changes following shock impingement, as the droplet surface becomes unstable to the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability. The droplet core is also observed to eject a thin sheet near the equatorial plane, which is then stretched by the high-speed post-shock gas flow, affecting the late-time behavior. We find the observed dominant modes associated with the Kelvin–Helmholtz instability are in reasonable agreement with inviscid linear theory (Chandrasekhar, 1981; Jepsen et al., 2006), when the local conditions at the droplet surface are considered. Furthermore, an evaporation-induced Stefan flow is established which blows off the hot post-shock gases surrounding the droplet, leading to droplet cooling. As the fuel vapors react, a diffusion flame is formed on the droplet-windward side, leading to intense droplet heating and enhanced vapor production in this region. We investigated the effect of the Damkohler number on droplet evolution by varying the fuel reactivity, and found the flame thickness decreased with increasing reactivity in agreement with trends predicted by laminar diffusion flame theory. At the highest reactivity, secondary burning of fuel vapors was observed in the droplet wake, while the resulting flame eventually reattached to the droplet surface. Our results show significant spatial inhomogeneities are present in the droplet flowfield in all the cases investigated, which must be considered in the development of reduced order point-particle models for system-level simulations of detonation engines.

A numerical modeling framework for predicting the effects of operational parameters on particle size distribution in the gas atomization process for Nickel-Silicon alloys

Gas atomization is utilized to produce good-quality metal powders. A numerical modeling framework is developed to simulate the gas atomization process. A two-phase VOF flow model in OpenFOAM is applied to track the primary breakup of the melt stream by a high-speed gas flow. The generation of primary melt droplets is extracted from the VOF field. A Lagrangian-Eulerian multiphase flow model in Ansys Fluent is adopted to track the secondary breakup of the primary melt droplets under the high-speed gas flow. The final particle size distribution is obtained by analyzing the particles sampled at the outlet of the atomization chamber. The process of gas atomization can be affected by many factors such as the atomization equipment, operating parameters, and material properties. Sensitivity analysis is conducted through modeling to investigate the effects of these factors on particle size distribution. The model predictions are validated by specially designed gas-atomization experiments.

A DETAILED NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF TWO-PHASE FLOWS INSIDE A PLANAR FLOW-BLURRING ATOMIZER

Flow-blurring atomization is an innovative twin-fluid atomization approach that has demonstrated superior effectiveness in producing fine sprays compared to traditional airblast atomization methods. In flow-blurring atomizers, the high-speed gas flow is directed perpendicular to the liquid jet. Under specific geometric and physical conditions, the gas penetrates back into the liquid nozzle, resulting in a highly unsteady bubbly two-phase mixing zone. Despite the remarkable atomization performance of flow-blurring atomizers, the underlying dynamics of the two-phase flows and breakup mechanisms within the liquid nozzle remain poorly understood, primarily due to the challenges in experimental measurements of flow details. In this study, detailed interface-resolved numerical simulations are conducted to investigate the two-phase flows generated by a planar flow-blurring atomizer. By varying key dimensionless parameters, including the dynamic-pressure ratio, density ratio, and Weber number, over wide ranges, we aim to comprehensively characterize their effects on the two-phase flow regimes and breakup dynamics.

Cartesian grid-based hybrid NS-DSMC methodology for continuum-rarefied gas flows around complex geometries

This work presents a coupled numerical methodology, based on a hybrid Navier-Stokes (NS) and Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) method, for high-speed compressible gas flows—involving a combination of continuum and rarefied flow regions. Implementation details of coupling cycle are presented along with the validation and performance studies for three cases (Mach number M a 1 = 3.38 , 6.5 and 9) of normal shock waves in argon and three cases (Inlet pressure pin = 1.0 atm, 0.5 atm and 0.1 atm) of flow through a micro-scale convergent-divergent (CD) nozzle. In comparison with our DSMC method-based solutions in the complete domain, the hybrid NS-DSMC method solutions achieve almost similar accuracy in a substantially reduced computational time—44% to 50% for the normal shock problem and 67% to 85% for the micro-scale CD nozzle problem. For the first time in literature, the hybrid NS-DSMC method is presented as a Cartesian-grid method, which is becoming popular nowadays.

Computational and Experimental Modeling in Magnetoplasma Aerodynamics and High-Speed Gas and Plasma Flows (A Review)

This paper provides an overview of modern research on magnetoplasma methods of influencing gas-dynamic and plasma flows. The main physical mechanisms that control the interaction of plasma discharges with gaseous moving media are indicated. The ways of organizing pulsed energy input, characteristic of plasma aerodynamics, are briefly described: linearly stabilized discharge, magnetoplasma compressor, capillary discharge, laser-microwave action, electron beam action, nanosecond surface barrier discharges, pulsed spark discharges, and nanosecond optical discharges. A description of the physical mechanism of heating the gas-plasma flow at high values of electric fields, which are realized in high-current and nanosecond (ultrafast heating) electric discharges, is performed. Methods for magnetoplasma control of the configuration and gas-dynamic characteristics of shock waves arising in front of promising and advanced aircraft (AA) are described. Approaches to the control of quasi-stationary separated flows, laminar–turbulent transitions, and static and dynamic separation of the boundary layer (for large PA angles of attack) are presented.

Power Elliptic Bodies of Minimum Resistance in the Gas Flow

For power elliptical body, the drag force in the high-speed rarefied gas flow is calculated based on several local models. The solution of the variational problem determines the degree of minimum resistance in the generatrix of the body, depending on coefficient of the ellipticity and different elongation in a wide range of Reynolds numbers.

Recovering density disturbance spectra from FLDI. Part 1.

Focused laser differential interferometry (FLDI) measures the phase shift corresponding to localized fluctuations in the refractive index of a medium. The sensitivity, bandwidth, and spatial filtering properties of FLDI make it particularly suited to applications in high-speed gas flows. Such applications often require the quantitative measurement of density fluctuations, which are related to changes in the refractive index. In a two-part paper, a method is presented for the recovery of a spectral representation of density disturbances from the measured time-dependent phase shift for a particular class of flows able to be modeled using sinusoidal plane waves. The approach is based on the ray-tracing model of FLDI due to Schmidt and Shepherd [Appl. Opt.54, 8459 (2015)APOPAI0003-693510.1364/AO.54.008459]. In this first part, the analytical results for FLDI response to single- and multiple-frequency plane waves are derived and validated against a numerical implementation of the instrument. A spectral inversion method is then developed and validated, including consideration for the frequency-shifting effects of any underlying convective flows. In the second part [Appl. Opt.62, 3054 (2023)APOPAI0003-693510.1364/AO.480354], results from the present model are compared with previous exact solutions temporally averaged over a wave cycle and with an approximate method.

High Speed Flows

High speed gas flows occur during the movement of aircrafts, rockets, and descent vehicles, as well as in combustion chambers, nozzles, and many other technological applications [...]

Understanding the breakup behaviors of liquid jet in gas atomization for powder production

Gas atomization (GA) is the main method to produce metal powders for additive manufacturing (AM) because of its low cost and high efficiency. However, the liquid breakup behaviors in high-speed gas flow during GA remains unclear, especially the primary breakup in the near field and the secondary breakup in the far field. Great difficulty exists in in-situ observation of the interactions between high-speed gas and high-temperature molten metal because of the limitations of the enclosed environment. Here, we built a new GA simulation system with a close-coupled atomizer utilizing liquids with low melting temperature, such as water, glycerin, etc. We use a high-speed camera to capture the evolution of liquid behaviors at various parameters. We first reveal that four primary breakup modes and four secondary breakup modes exist in the GA process, and these breakup modes significantly influence the particle size distribution (PSD) and the defects of the powder. Besides, the breakup modes are clarified by the dimensionless analysis. This manuscript provides an effective experimental platform to understand the breakup behaviors of the liquid jet in GA and suggests the optimal breakup mode for powder production.