Turbulent Regime Research Articles

Scale-up prediction of the head loss of a high concentration, non-Newtonian particulate slurry

The design of a mineral slurry transportation system is difficult because of the non-Newtonian nature of the flow at high slurry concentrations. The behavior of the slurry depends on many physio-chemical properties such as particle density, particle size distribution (PSD), particle shape, chemical composition, pH etc. This work presents a comparative study between three preferred methods of scale-up of the head loss in larger diameter pipelines, namely Bowen’s Method, rheological method and Wilson’s Method. The performance of each method is validated with the pipe loop test data in a 200 DN pipeline. A high concentration (>50% by weight) iron ore concentrate slurry was used for carrying out the above study. This work would be beneficial for engineers involved in the design and maintenance of the slurry pipelines with respect to the choice of the scale-up methods available for estimation of the head loss for a time independent, homogenous, non-Newtonian particulate slurry for both laminar and turbulent regime.

THEORETICAL PERFORMANCE ASSESSMENT OF A PARABOLIC TROUGH HUMIDIFYING SOLAR COLLECTOR-BASED SOLAR STILL

In this paper, a parabolic trough humidifying solar collector-based solar still (PHSC-SS) is proposed. Its purpose is to apply some important performance improvement techniques to the flat plate humidifying solar collector-based solar still (flat plate HSC-SS), to significantly improve overall system performance. These included the use of parabolic trough solar concentrators and the design of humidifying solar collectors from evacuated tube collectors. The results reveal that, unlike flat plate HSC-SS, which must operate with a turbulent airflow regime to achieve optimum overall performance, PHSC-SS must operate with a laminar airflow regime and high inlet and outlet temperatures of air (at least 55 °C and less than 100 °C, at atmospheric pressure) in the heat collector element. For 900 W/m2 of incident solar irradiance, 2 m2 of solar collector area, and 0,00042 kg/s of air flow rate, the maximum energy efficiency, exergy efficiency and daily freshwater productivity of PHSC-SS were found to be 68,12%, 14,87% and 1,697 kg/h, respectively. Whereas for the same incident solar irradiance and solar collector area, and 0,1 kg/s of air flow rate, those of the flat plat HSC-SS were 72,9%, 1,12%, and between 1,07 – 2,923 kg/h (for inlet and outlet temperatures of air less than 30 °C, at atmospheric pressure), respectively. Although in some extreme cases freshwater productivity of flat plate HSC-SS can be higher than that of PHSC-SS, it should be noted that laminar airflow regime confers great advantages to PHSC-SS. These are higher air temperatures at condenser inlet (which ease water condensation process), no need of an auxiliary cooling device (needed in the flat plate HSC-SS), less mechanical vibrations of system, reduced condenser size, and less energy consumed by air blowers. Furthermore, the upper limit of the PHSC-SS is a PHSC-SS that operates without air flow, but rather by vaporization of water droplets at boiling point from absorber, followed by their suction to condenser, similarly to a flash evaporation.

Experimental study on flow-induced vibration under laminar flow and turbulent flow transition state in helical coiled tube

This study investigates the vibration characteristics induced by single-phase flow at low velocities within helical coiled tube, encompassing laminar and turbulent flow transition regimes. Modal experiments were conducted to ascertain the natural frequencies in the radial and vertical directions within the helical coiled tube. The influence of fluid mass in tube on vibration was considered, revealing the fluid mass has a greater influence on the vibration frequency in the vertical direction. When the coil was filled with water, the radial natural frequency decreased by 0.1 Hz, while the vertical natural frequency decreased by 0.8 Hz.By simplifying the spiral coil into a spring system, the intrinsic causes of the influence of mass on the natural frequency are studied and verified with the experimental data. The results show that the radial natural frequency is only related to the local mass change of the pipe, while the vertical natural frequency is related to the static deformation of the system under the influence of gravity.By conducting single-phase flow induced vibration experiments inside the pipeline, the radial and vertical vibration response characteristics were obtained, and the modal experimental results were analyzed. Findings indicated larger vibration displacements when laminar flow prevailed within the tube, with radial RMS (Root Mean Square) at 10.1 μm and vertical RMS at 14.5 μm. After the transition to turbulent flow, significant reductions in vibration displacements were observed, reducing the radial RMS to 2.3 μm and vertical RMS to 5.5 μm.Based on statistical and frequency-domain analysis methods, the influence mechanism of secondary flow on the vibration of helical coils at low flow rates was revealed, and the importance of friction coupling was clarified. Moreover, this study considered the impact of fluid viscosity on vibration response and experimentally validated the critical role of friction coupling in exciting secondary flows.

CFD Air Flow Evaluation of Finned Tube Evaporator for Refrigerated Display Cabinet Application

This study is aimed to develop a simulation to improve the performance of the finned tube evaporator which is applied to the refrigerated display cabinet. CFD model was developed to be able to analyse the characteristics of air flow inside the fin gap and air side heat transfer coefficient. Geometry of the model of overall finned tube evaporator is considered covering two aluminium wavy fins with an air flow in between, combination of staggered cooper tubes with refrigerant flow inside. Fin gap is designed 4 mm to anticipate frost on the fin surface that can block air flow. Turbulence models used in the study is the realizable k-ε turbulence which had the best performance turbulence model and it was validated with secondary data from previous studies and shows the lowest error only 5.9 %. The use of CFD was found to be sufficiently representative of the heat transfer characteristics of evaporators, and acted as an effective simulation tool to determine the heat transfer coefficient in order to improve efficiency in terms of improved design. The characteristics of air flow between the fin gap and around the tube was obtained various and complex. In the case study the entry velocity of 1.7 m /s at the highest turbulence condition of the first row can reach speeds of 2.75 m/s. Hight turbulence regime in flow can indicate higher the heat transfer coefficient of the evaporator.

The effect of high values of relative surface roughness on heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics in the laminar, transitional, quasi-turbulent and turbulent flow regimes

This study investigated the effect of large values of relative surface roughness on the heat transfer and pressure drop characteristics using simultaneously measured heat transfer and pressure drop data. Experiments were conducted using a horizontal circular tube with a base inner diameter of 5 mm and length of 4 m. One smooth and two rough tubes, with relative roughnesses of 0.04 and 0.11, were tested at different constant heat fluxes between Reynolds numbers of 100 and 8 500. Water was used as the test fluid and the Prandtl number varied between 3 and 7. Contrary to the trend in the Moody Chart, a significant increase in laminar friction factors with increasing surface roughness was observed. Both the friction factors and Nusselt numbers as functions of Reynolds number showed a clear upward and leftward shift with increasing surface roughness across the different flow regimes. Furthermore, the boundaries between the flow regimes were the same for the pressure drop and heat transfer results. The width of the transitional flow regime was narrower for rough tubes and had a differing trend. The quasi-turbulent and turbulent flow regimes occurred at lower Reynolds numbers for increasing roughness. When investigating the relationship between heat transfer and pressure drop, it was found that an increase in surface roughness favoured heat transfer in the quasi-turbulent flow regime. This is useful for rough tubes as the quasi-turbulent flow regime onsets early with regards to the Reynolds number in tubes with large roughnesses.

Predicting the vertical density structure of oceanic gravity current intrusions

Understanding the dynamics and structures in the deep ocean is one of the remaining challenges in oceanography and climate sciences. We present results from large-scale laboratory experiments of rotating down-slope gravity currents intruding into a two-layer stratified ambient, performed in the largest rotating tank in the world, the Coriolis Rotating Platform in Grenoble. By means of velocity and density measurements, we show that no mixing occurs once the current has detached from the boundary. The shape of the vertical density profile in the stratified receiving ambient enables to identify two distinct regimes: the first issued by laminar transport through Ekman dynamics, the second by turbulent transport due to intermittent dense water cascading. Vertical density gradients reveal a piece-wise linear dependence on the density anomaly for the turbulent transport, suggesting an advection-diffusion process. For the turbulent regime, the scale height is deduced and an analytical model based on the critical Froude number is proposed to predict its value. Results show that the total thickness of the intruding current is on average 2.5 times the scale height. For laminar intrusions the scale height diverges whereas the thickness of the intrusion is a few times the Ekman layer thickness. Comparing the intrusion scale height with its measured vertical extension has led to a criteria to distinguish between laminar and turbulent regimes, which is corroborated by two additional independent criteria, one based on the sign of the local vorticity and the other based on the local maxima of the vertical density gradient. The model allows us to connect laboratory experiments to deep sea observations, gravity currents and Meddies and emphasizes the importance of laboratory experiments in understanding climate dynamics.

Modulation of flow, heat, and mass transfer in turbulent double-diffusive convection

The present study addresses numerical simulations of the double-diffusive convection in a turbulent regime. The characteristic concentration and temperature Prandtl numbers (PrC = 700 and PrT = 7) correspond to the typical seawater properties. Here, we applied the Large-Eddy Simulation (LES) approach, with relatively simple subgrid turbulence closures of momentum, concentration, and temperature for the unresolved scales. The wall-resolved LES approach proved to work well on significantly coarser numerical mesh than used in recent Direct Numerical Simulation (DNS) studies of Yang et al. (2016) in the intermediate range of working parameters, 107 ≤ RaC ≤ 109, 0 ≤ RaT ≤ 106, which covers the quasi-Rayleigh-Bénard, fingering, and damping flow regimes. A good agreement between concentration and temperature Nusselt numbers is obtained. The instantaneous Nusselt numbers distribution revealed a significant impact of the imposed strong thermal stratification (RaT = 106) in comparison to the neutral case (RaT = 0).

Hyperviscosity stabilisation of the RBF-FD solution to natural convection

The numerical stability of fluid flow is an important topic in computational fluid dynamics as fluid flow simulations usually become numerically unstable in the turbulent regime. Many mesh-based methods have already established numerical dissipation procedures that dampen the effects of the unstable advection term. When it comes to meshless methods, the prominent stabilisation scheme is hyperviscosity. It introduces numerical dissipation in the form of a higher-order Laplacian operator. Many papers have already discussed the general effects of hyperviscosity and its parameters. However, hyperviscosity in flow problems has not yet been analyzed in depth. In this paper, we discuss the effects of hyperviscosity on natural convection flow problems as we approach the turbulent regime.

Design of a novel ECR ion trap facility for nuclear physics and fundamental plasma processes studies

An innovative ECR ion trap facility, called PANDORA (Plasma for Astrophysics, Nuclear Decay Observation and Radiation for Archaeometry), was designed for fundamental plasma processes and nuclear physics investigations. The overall structure consists of three subsystems: a) a large (70 cm in length, 28 cm in inner diameter) ECR plasma trap with a fully superconducting B-minimum magnetic system (Bmax = 3.0 T) and an innovative design to host detectors and diagnostic tools; b) an advanced non-invasive plasma multidiagnostics system to locally characterize the plasma thermodynamic properties; c) an array of 14 HPGe detectors. The PANDORA facility is conceived to measure, for the first time, in-plasma β-decaying isotope rates under stellar-like conditions. The experimental approach consists in a direct correlation of plasma parameters and nuclear activity by disentangling - by means of the multidiagnostic system that will work in synergy with the γ-ray array - the photons emitted by the plasma (from microwave to hard X-ray) and γ-rays emitted after the isotope β-decay. In addition to nuclear physics research, fundamental plasma physics studies can be conducted in this unconventional ion source equipped with tens of detection and diagnostic devices (RF polarimeter, optical emission spectroscopy (OES), X-ray imaging, space and time-resolved spectroscopy, RF probes, scope), with relevant implications for R&D of ion sources for accelerator physics and technology. Several studies have already been performed in downsized nowadays operating ECRIS. Stable and turbulent plasma regimes have been described quantitatively, studying the change of plasma morphology, confinement, and dynamics of losses using space resolved X-ray spectroscopy.

К особенностям проветривания урановых рудников

The systems of ventilation of radioactive deposits require special measures to minimize the impact of radon on miners. During the production of uranium ores, the working conditions of miners are determined by the content of metal in the broken ore, the intensity of radon emission, and the ventilation quality; therefore, the issues of mine atmosphere quality management become the top of the agenda. The patterns of gas interaction are found by modeling, with the determination of values of leaks through the exhaust space. The depth of regulation of air supply to the shaft bottom is determined as a function of regulation on the outgoing jet, the regime of airflow through the exhaust space, and the leak coefficient. A model of airflow in the direction of the shaft bottom has been compiled with the variables of the movement of ventilation jets. The pattern of airflow movement depending on the amount of air and the dimensions of the collapse area has been obtained. The mechanism to reduce contamination by using gas drainage through the collapsed wall has been identified. The recommendation on airing the mine workings with turbulent jets at a turbulent, laminar, and transient regime has been provided. A method to manage the atmosphere in the mine by adjusting the regime of leak movement through the mine working spaces has been recommended. The possibility of providing a mine with the required air by rationalizing the aerodynamic connection of mining operations with the surface has been substantiated. A practical issue of the airing of a section of an operating mine has been resolved as an example. It has been demonstrated that the substantiation of the possible use of isolated ventilation workings to release the contaminated air ensures cost savings due to the dismissal of a part of ventilation mine workings while ensuring the safety of miners. It has been proved that the possibilities of the injection method of ventilation increase when using an auxiliary drainage system.

Influence of the twisting and nano fluids on performance of a triangular double tube heat exchanger

Abstract The hydraulic and thermals performance of flow in a double-tube heat exchanger with an inner twisted triangle tube of length L = 1 m has been studied numerically. Equations for energy, turbulence, and Navier–Stokes were used to model the fluid flow and heat transfer in a double-tube heat exchanger with an inner twisted triangle tube. The Reynolds number range was 5000–30,000 for nanofluid (water-Al2O3) as a working fluid under a turbulent flow regime. The considered configuration was examined by varying the volume concentration of nanofluid while keeping the twist ratio constant (Tr = 5). Different cases of volume concentration of nanofluid are triggered (0.05 %, 1 %, 2.5 %, and 4 %, respectively). The numerical outcomes of a double-twisted tube heat exchanger with an inner triangle-twisted tube are validated with the obtainable numerical data. The governing equations were solved with ANSYS Fluent 18.2. The findings reveal that the larger volume concentration of nanofluid (4 %) gives a greater Nusselt number and vice versa due to the increased thermal conductivity of the nanofluid in the double twist tube heat exchanger compared with a plain tube. However, the nanofluid Nusselt number grows with the rise of both the Reynolds number and volume concentration (Ø), and the best value of the Nusselt number is 210 when Reynolds number = 30,000 and Ø = 4 %. The effectiveness of the heat exchanger grows with an increase in the concentration of the nanofluid and a reduction in the torsion ratio compared to the normal tube. The effectiveness of the double-tube heat exchanger with an inner twist triangle tube increases to the highest value of 0.38 at Reynolds 30,000 and Ø = 4 %.

Identifying some regularities of the turbulent steady-state plane-parallel motion of incompressible fluid at the entrance length

This paper investigates the structural changes in the turbulent motion of an incompressible fluid in the hydrodynamic entrance region of plane-parallel pressure motion. Movement in pressure hydromechanical systems usually occurs in a turbulent regime. Studying the patterns of changes in hydrodynamic parameters under conditions of stationary turbulent pressure motion in the inlet region is a very urgent task. The study was carried out on the basis of boundary layer equations. Taking into account the dependence of changes in the kinematic viscosity coefficient that occur between layers of fluid, a boundary value problem was formed. Analytical solutions have been obtained that make it possible to obtain patterns of changes in velocity and pressure in any effective flow section. Based on the general conclusions of the study, solutions were found for two cases: a) the velocity of the fluid entering the cylindrical pipe is constant; b) the velocity of the incoming fluid has a parabolic distribution. For these cases, using computer analysis of the data obtained, general graphs of velocity changes were constructed in various sections along the hydrodynamic entrance region. These graphs, which display the change in velocity along the entire length of the inlet, make it possible to obtain the velocity of fluid movement at any point along the inlet length and estimate the length of the transition zone. The results obtained are among the least studied issues of classical fluid mechanics and are of important theoretical interest. The results obtained are applicable for the correct construction of the hydrodynamic entrance region of machinery. A calculation formula has been obtained to determine the length of the hydrodynamic inlet region

Design and scale up of a mixing process for a novel automotive coating

The study reported here was performed as part of a larger project aiming to develop a high performance automotive coating and the associated manufacturing process to enable large scale manufacture of the new product. We report from the process development aspect of the project which aimed at establishing the comparative blending performance of two types of impeller- one currently in use and an alternative- at different scales. Mixing time measurements compared on the basis of volumetric power input were comparable for the sawtooth impeller and pitched blade turbine over the turbulent and transitional regimes at formulation (T= 0.13 m, ∼2 l) and pilot scales (T= 0.30 m, ∼ 20 l). At the largest scale of ∼ 160 l, it took a lot longer to blend when using the sawtooth impeller. Measured mixing time results were in agreement with predicted values using the well-established correlation for both impellers in T= 0.30 m and also for the PBT at large scale, For the sawtooth impeller the correlation underpredicted at large scale unless a higher value for the constant in the mixing time correlation (about twice) was used. This deviation in the performance at large scale has highlighted the complexity of design and scale up using a sawtooth impeller.

A note on cascade flux laws for the stochastically-driven nonlinear Schrödinger equation

In this note we point out some simple sufficient (plausible) conditions for ‘turbulence’ cascades in suitable limits of damped, stochastically-driven nonlinear Schrödinger equation in a d-dimensional periodic box. Simple characterizations of dissipation anomalies for the wave action and kinetic energy in rough analogy with those that arise for fully developed turbulence in the 2D Navier–Stokes equations are given and sufficient conditions are given which differentiate between a ‘weak’ turbulence regime and a ‘strong’ turbulence regime. The proofs are relatively straightforward once the statements are identified, but we hope that it might be useful for thinking about mathematically precise formulations of the statistically-stationary wave turbulence problem.

Low-order modelling of three-dimensional surface waves in liquid film flow on a rotating disk

Using low-dimensional numerical simulations, we investigate the characteristics of complex and three-dimensional surface waves in a liquid film flowing over a rotating disk, focusing on large flow rates from a nozzle. Existing integral boundary layer (IBL) models, which are based on spatially averaged variables along the direction normal to the disk surface, have primarily focused on the formation of axisymmetric waves under relatively small flow rates. In this study, an extended IBL model that accounts for both laminar and turbulent regimes is developed by considering the non-uniformity of the local flow rate in the spreading film flow and incorporating closure models dependent on the local Reynolds number. Our numerical results successfully capture the generation of concentric waves by an impinging circular liquid jet and their transition into three-dimensional solitary waves. These findings are in good agreement with visualization images and time-series data of free-surface fluctuations from a displacement sensor. The backscattering of small-scale three-dimensional turbulence into large-scale horizontal turbulence inside the film plays a critical role in determining the transition of wave modes and the nonlinear dynamics of the waves in the turbulent regime. Furthermore, the behaviour of three-dimensional waves in the downstream region, including frequent wave coalescence in the transition region and the breakup of small-scale solitons, is distinct from that of gravity-driven falling film flows. The amplitude of the three-dimensional waves is inversely related to the generalized Reynolds number defined for rotating films.

Relationship between turbulent image variance and average image gradient

Optical turbulence can cause substantial distortions in imaging over long horizontal paths. For Lambertian objects, these distortions are only seen where there is a gradient in the object’s radiance. It is possible to establish a relationship between the intensity variance of a turbulent image and the average image’s gradient squared. We test the validity of a linear relationship between these quantities using turbulent imaging data. We find that it performs reasonably well for weak and intermediate optical turbulence regimes, but that some discrepancies remain to be explained.

Enhancing the efficiency of a double tube heat exchanger via a novel vibrating woven wire turbulator combined with a helical coiled wire; an experimental study

Vibrating turbulators have emerged as innovative methods for enhancing heat transfer in heat exchangers over the past two years. Previous studies have mainly employed string or strip configurations for turbulator construction. In this research, a novel vibrating turbulator, known as the vibrating woven wire turbulator, is introduced to enhance the thermal efficiency of heat exchangers. This study proposes the first-ever application of a turbulator with this unique geometry. This turbulator consists of intertwined metallic wires, providing a lightweight design with a substantial contact surface area for the fluid. Experiments are conducted for Reynolds numbers ranging from 1000 to 8500, covering both laminar and turbulent flow regimes. The findings demonstrate that this turbulator significantly enhances heat transfer by up to 236 %, while only resulting in a marginal increase in pressure drop. This remarkable improvement in heat transfer, while keeping the pressure drop within acceptable limits, gives rise to an impressive thermal enhancement factor (TEF) of 2.45. To achieve an even higher TEF, this study investigates the synergistic combination of the vibrating woven wire turbulator with a helical coiled wire turbulator. Experiments are conducted on coils with diameters ranging from 0.5 to 1.5 mm. The simultaneous utilization of both turbulators leads to a significant improvement in heat transfer coefficient and pressure drop, with an increase of 545 % and 320 %, respectively, resulting in a high TEF of up to 3.13.

Thermal entropy generation and exergy efficiency analysis of rGO/water nanofluid in a tube under turbulent regime using experimental and fully connected neural network

Analyzing entropy generation is one of the most effective methods for examining how well thermal systems operate. To determine the ideal operating conditions, numerous researchers have examined the entropy generation of thermal systems. In this work, the effects of concentrations of reduced graphene oxide (rGO) nanoparticles on the formation of entropy in water-rGO nanofluid flow through a circular pipe with a constant wall heat flux boundary condition in turbulent regimes are investigated experimentally. rGOs were prepared from Hummer's technique. Experiments are conducted at particle volumes from 0.5 % to 2.0 %, mass flow rates from 0.0333 kg/s to 0.25 kg/s, and Reynolds numbers from 1800 to 21,000, respectively. Later, estimated data points were anticipated with a convolutional neural network (CNN). The model was analyzed through several performances like root-mean-square-error (RMSE), mean-square-error (MSE), mean-absolute-percentage-error (MAE), and the coefficient of determination (R2). Results indicated, with used by 2.0 vol% of nanofluid, entropy generation-thermal is reduced to 39.24 %, entropy generation-frictional is higher by 16.92 %, entropy generation-total is decreased by 37.82 %, and second law efficiency is augmented to 34.17 % at Reynolds number of 13,705, against base fluid data. The correlation coefficient R2 evaluated from CNN for thermal entropy generation, frictional entropy generation, total entropy generation, and exergy efficiency are 0.99297, 0.99924, 0.9989, and 0.99273, respectively.

Definition and application of the Péclet number threshold for water quality analysis in water distribution networks

ABSTRACT To assess the water quality within the distribution networks, simplified models are used, which adopt an advective–reactive approach and neglect diffusion–dispersion phenomena. Although such simplifications can be sufficiently accurate in complete turbulent uniform flow regimes, literature works demonstrated that they could produce wrong results in laminar and transitional regimes that are relevant when analysing low flows, dead-end pipes in looped distribution networks or service connections. On the other hand, advective simplification allows for considerable computational savings during the simulation of large networks. Therefore, a criterion is needed for better discriminate pipes in which the advective approach is sufficient or the diffusive approach is required. The present study aims to investigate the use of the Péclet number to discriminate the use of advective simplification both adopting the two-dimensional (2D) advection–dispersion equation and the one-dimensional (1D) cross-section averaged advection–dispersion equation. The numerical analysis was applied to a linear pipeline using the EPANET, 1D advective–dispersive–reactive, and EPANET-DD (Dynamic–Dispersion) models. The results showed the inadequacy of the Péclet number in discriminating the dominance of the advective–dispersive process in real systems, as it is linked to the pipe's length, regardless of the flow regime occurring on the pipeline.

A pressure-loss model for flow-through round-hole perforated plates of moderate porosity and thickness in laminar and turbulent flow regimes

In this paper, we proposed a novel fluid flow model for pressure loss through plates with circular perforations in both laminar and turbulent flows. The design of this model is based on the recent measurements conducted at ONERA in the framework of the ongoing European Union H2020 INVENTOR project, as well as an existing model for laminar flows. The new model is then validated against existing numerical simulations in the laminar regime and experiments in the turbulent regime. Overall, the predictions given by the new model agree well with the numerical simulations and experiments, and are superior to other models in the literature. This is significant, considering that the present model is much simpler than these previous models. To demonstrate the applicability of the new model in numerical simulations, two-dimensional channel flows are simulated using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes (RANS) equations with the new model as a pressure-drop source term added to the momentum equations. Results show that the RANS predictions agree very well with the present model predictions.