Turbulent Puffs Research Articles

Stabilizing Pipe Flow by Flattening the Velocity Profile

It is important to control turbulence in industrial processes. Past experimental and numerical researches have shown that a turbulent puff in pipe flow can be removed or delayed by flattening the profile of the upstream velocity because a flattened velocity profile causes the point of inflection on it to collapse. The energy gradient theory has been developed to study turbulent transition, and the relevant studies have shown that turbulence arises due to the generation of singularities in the flow field. In pressure-driven flows like the pipe flow, the point of inflection on the velocity profile leads to the appearance of a singular point in the unsteady Navier–Stokes equation. In this study, the energy gradient theory is used to demonstrate why the point of inflection on the profile of velocity of pipe flow is the critical point for generating turbulence. Then, it is shown how flattening the velocity profile leads to the elimination of the point of inflection on the velocity profile of pipe flows to delay turbulent transition. It is also clarified why this technique is not effective at higher Reynolds number because the flattened velocity profile violates the criterion for flow stability relating to transition to turbulence.

Experimental framework to examine turbulent puffs generated by human coughing

Experimental framework to examine turbulent puffs generated by human coughing

Asymmetry and intermittency in the rheo-inertial transition to turbulence in pipe flow

Transition to turbulence in pipe has been extensively studied but is still not completely understood and even more for non-Newtonian fluids. We focus here on yield stress shear-thinning fluids and the mechanism leading to the transition in pipe, the so-called rheo-inertial transition to turbulence. An experimental setup has enabled us to identify flow regimes in a cylindrical pipe, using both flow visualizations and pressure drops measurements for a range of Reynolds numbers. We delimited the non-Newtonian specific regime in the laminar-turbulent transition triggered at a critical Reynolds number below the turbulent puffs onset. This pre-transition regime is associated with a velocity profile asymmetry in which its degree and position evolve as the Reynolds number increases. The origin for the stability of this rheo-inertial regime is discussed, as it could be due to a competition between the nonlinear contributions of rheological behavior and flow inertia. Beyond this regime, we quantified the intermittence of puff transit, revealing the delay to turbulence. We spotted for the first time a different rheo-inertial transitional behavior in the intermittency evolution vs Reynolds number, displaying a smoother transition on a broader range. Finally, the critical Reynolds numbers for different yield stresses are compared with previous works, and the novelty is the linear increase in the delay to turbulent puffs with the yield stress.

Particle image based simultaneous velocity and particle concentration measurement

The aim of this study is the expansion of the application of particle image velocimetry (PIV) to include the determination of particle concentration within the visualized area, in addition to velocity analysis. The assessment of particle concentration is valuable in various lab-scale experiments involving particle dispersion. Additionally, it plays a crucial role in evaluating the quality of PIV images. The research investigates two particle image-based concentration techniques: the exponential averaging-based sliding method and the Voronoi cell-based method on the particle images. The exponential averaging method provides a straightforward approach, utilizing a constant length scale for sliding average application to particle images. However, this method may result in broadened interfaces or a ‘marker-shot’ effect at low concentrations, making it less suitable for scenarios involving highly non-uniform particle distributions, such as concentrated jet emissions into ambient environments. Consequently, detecting interfaces in such cases requires additional effort for reliable results. In contrast, the Voronoi cell-based technique offers the advantage of spatially adaptive resolution, making it well-suited for variable concentration distributions and situations where interface detection is crucial. To comprehensively evaluate the performance of these techniques, a synthetic test case was generated to simulate a diffusion problem featuring an initial step in concentration distribution. Both the exponential averaging and Voronoi cell-based methods were applied and compared using this synthetic test case. Additionally, the effect of particle–particle overlap is analyzed theoretically and experimentally with uniform concentration and comparison with particle counter measurements. A modified Voronoi method is introduced, providing flexibility in capturing a wide range of concentration regions and features. An example experimental scenario involving a turbulent puff was considered demonstrating the application of the developed methods. The results demonstrate that the Voronoi method effectively captures small structures with high concentrations while providing reliable results in regions with low concentrations.

Turbulent puffs in transitional pulsatile pipe flow at moderate pulsation amplitudes

Turbulent puffs in transitional pulsatile pipe flow at moderate pulsation amplitudes

On the stability of a pair of vortex rings

The growth of perturbations subject to the Crow instability along two vortex rings of equal and opposite circulation undergoing a head-on collision is examined. Unlike the planar case for semi-infinite line vortices, the zero-order geometry of the flow (i.e. the ring radius, core thickness and separation distance) and by extension the growth rates of perturbations vary in time. The governing equations are therefore temporally integrated to characterize the perturbation spectrum. The analysis, which considers the effects of ring curvature and the distribution of vorticity within the vortex cores, explains several key flow features observed in experiments. First, the zero-order motion of the rings is accurately reproduced. Next, the predicted emergent wavenumber, which sets the number of secondary vortex structures emerging after the cores come into contact, agrees with experiments, including the observed increase in the number of secondary structures with increasing Reynolds number. Finally, the analysis predicts an abrupt transition at a critical Reynolds number to a regime dominated by a higher-frequency, faster-growing instability mode that may be consistent with the experimentally observed rapid generation of a turbulent puff following the collision of rings at high Reynolds numbers.

Numerical modeling of turbulent puffs evolution

The results of numerical simulation of the formation and motion of turbulent puffs resulting from the blowing of pulsed jets with different initial velocities and durations are presented. A model of an axisymmetric turbulent flow described by non-stationary Reynolds equations is adopted. It is shown that, regardless of the initial conditions, after the same dimensionless time interval from the instant the jet outflow begins, a vortex cloud appears, which has a spherical shape of vortex. The vortex-induced flow in the rest of the space is close to potential. It has been established that the velocity profiles in vortices in the axial and transverse directions are close to self-similar and are similar for different conditions of the outflow of pulsed jets. Time dependences of the geometric and kinematic characteristics of puffs are presented and analyzed: the position of the cloud center (points with maximum velocity) and the radius of a sphere equivalent in volume to a puff, as well as maximum and average velocities. For the studied jet outflow conditions, the characteristics of puffs turn out to be similar.

Scalar transport and nucleation in quasi-two-dimensional starting jets and puffs

We experimentally investigate the early-stage scalar mixing and transport with solvent exchange in a quasi-two-dimensional (quasi-2D) jet. We inject an ethanol/oil mixture upward into quiescent water, forming quasi-2D turbulent buoyant jets and triggering the ouzo effect with initial Reynolds numbers, Re0=420,840, and 1680. We study two different modes of fluid supply: continuous injection to study a starting jet and finite volume injection to study a puff. While both modes start with the jet stage, the puff exhibits different characteristics in transport, entrainment, mixing, and nucleation, due to the lack of continuous fluid supply. We also inject a dyed ethanol solution as a passive scalar reference case, such that the effect of nucleation for the ethanol/oil mixture can be disentangled.For the starting jets, the total nucleated mass from the ouzo mixture seems very similar to that of the passive scalar total mass, indicating a primary nucleation site slightly above the virtual origin above the injection needle, supplying the mass flux like the passive scalar injection. With continuous mixing above the primary nucleation site, the mildly increasing nucleation rate suggests the occurrence of secondary nucleation throughout the entire ouzo jet.For the puffs, we show that the puff with the smallest Re0 propagates the fastest and its entrainment lasts the longest. We attribute the superior performance to the buoyancy effect, which transforms a turbulent puff into a turbulent thermal, and has been proven to have stronger entrainment. Although the entrainment and nucleation reduce drastically when the injection stops, the mild mixing still leads to non-zero nucleation rates and the reduced decay of the mean puff concentrations for the ouzo mixture.Adapting the theoretical framework established in Landel et al. (2012b) for quasi-2D turbulent jets and puffs, we successfully model the transport of the horizontally-integrated concentrations for the passive scalar. The fitted advection and dispersion coefficients are then used to model the transport of the ouzo mixture, from which the spatial–temporal evolution of the nucleation rate can be extracted. The spatial distribution of the nucleation rate sheds new light on the solvent exchange process in transient turbulent jet flows.

Effect of sneeze flow velocity profiles on the respiratory droplets dispersion in a confined space: An experimental and computational fluid dynamics study

In this study, the effects of sneeze velocity profiles, including peak velocity (PV), peak velocity time (PVT), and sneeze duration time (SDT), on the dispersion of respiratory droplets were studied experimentally and numerically. Spatial–temporal datasets of droplet velocity exhaled from several subjects' mouths with different physiological characteristics were obtained by particle image velocimetry. A direct relationship was found between the forced vital capacity and PV, while the subject's body mass index significantly affected the SDT. A transient computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach using the renormalization group k–ε turbulence model in conjunction with the Lagrangian particle tracking was developed and used to simulate sneeze droplet motion characteristics. Both one-way and two-way (humidity) coupling models were used in these simulations. The CFD results showed that the two-way (humidity) coupling model provided better agreement with the data in the turbulent and expanded puff zones than the one-way coupling model. The one-way model led to reasonably accurate results in the fully dispersed and dilute-dispersed droplet phases. The effect of injection duration time and injection angle on PVT was larger than that on PV values, while the effect of initial injection velocity on PV was higher than that on PVT values. In addition, the initial injection velocity and angle significantly affected the maximum spreading distance of droplets dmax,sp. The numerical results obtained from the dilute-dispersed droplet phase were in good agreement with the trajectories of isolated droplets in the experimental data. The findings of this study provide novel insights into the effect of sneeze velocity profiles on dmax,sp, and the sneezer subject physiological effect on the threshold distance for the transmission of respiratory pathogens in a confined space.

Development of parameter-free, two-fluid, viscous multiphase flow solver for cough-droplet simulations

Multiphase flows arise in various fields that involve complicated phenomena. Studies have shown that COVID-19 can occur via air microdroplets, and breathing jets with microdroplets turn into turbulent cloud or puffs in cases of coughing and sneezing (Bourouiba et al., 2014). Microdroplets are upturned by buoyancy in the turbulent cloud and transported without falling. Furthermore, they float in air for hours and can be transported over long distances (Mittal et al., 2020). This scenario also involves a mixed phase flow of air and droplets. To simulate these phenomena, a numerical model assuming mechanical and thermal non-equilibrium multiphase flow is required to predict the range of turbulent cloud transport. In this study, to better simulate the turbulent cloud trajectories, a viscosity term is added to a two-phase flow six-equation model (two-fluid modeling or effective-fluid modeling, EFM) developed by Liou et al. (2008). It is a development of a parameter-free, viscous multiphase flow code, based on a single-phase compressible finite-volume solver (Kitamura et al., 2013). This solver is validated in the Poiseuille flow and laminar-flat-plate problem with an isothermal wall through a comparison with the analytical solutions. A detailed simulation of coughing is performed. The location of the turbulent cloud upturned by buoyancy is compared with the data of past studies.

Percolating transition from weak to strong turbulence in wind-induced water surface waves

Recent studies in hydrodynamic flows and nonlinear plasma waves have demonstrated the turbulent transitions from ordered laminar flows and ordered plane waves, respectively, with the formation of a large percolating turbulent cluster, after the sporadic emergence and decay of turbulent puffs in the spatiotemporal space. These transitions follow the similar order–disorder transition scenario in nonequilibrium extended systems, governed by percolation theory. Here, we experimentally investigate the unexplored issue of whether a similar transition scenario can be extended to wind-driven water waves, especially for the transition from weak to strong turbulent states. Localized sites in the y–t (y is normal to the wind direction) space are binarized into hot turbulent sites (HTSs) and cold turbulent sites depending on the instantaneous energy of the local wave height fluctuations. It is found that increasing the fetch (the distance x from the wind entrance) as increasing the effective drive leads to the transition from the weak to the strong turbulent state with a smooth rapid rise of the area fraction occupied by HTSs, and the formation of a large HTS cluster percolating through the y–t space after the sporadic emergence of HTS clusters. This generic transition behavior and the scaling exponents of the HTS fraction around the critical (percolating) fetch, and of the quiescent time and the quiescent distance between adjacent HTS clusters at the critical fetch, are akin to those around and at the critical point, respectively, for the 1 + 1D (dimensional) nonequilibrium system governed by the directed percolation theory.

Effects of upper respiratory tract anatomy and head movement on the buoyant flow and particle dispersion generated in a violent expiratory event

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, interest in understanding the turbulent dispersion of airborne pathogen-laden particles has significantly increased. The ability of infectious particles to stay afloat and disperse in indoor environments depends on their size, the environmental conditions and the hydrodynamics of the flow generated by the exhalation. In this work we analyze the impact of three different aspects, namely, the buoyancy force, the upper airways geometry and the head rotation during the exhalation on the short-term dispersion. Large-Eddy Simulations have been used to assess the impact of each separate effect on the thermal puff and particle cloud evolution over the first 2 s after the onset of the exhalation. Results obtained during this short-term period suggest that due to the rapid mixing of the turbulent puff, buoyancy forces play a moderate role on the ability of the particles to disperse. Because of the enhanced mixing, buoyancy reduces the range and increases the vertical size of the small particle clouds. In comparison to the fixed frame case, head rotation has been found to notably affect the size and shape of the cloud by enhancing the vertical transport as the exhalation axial direction sweeps vertically during the exhalation. The impact of the upper airway geometry, in comparison to an idealized mouth consisting in a pipe of circular section, has been found to be the largest when it is considered along with the head rotation.

A model to predict the short-term turbulent indoor dispersion of small droplets and droplet nuclei released from coughs and sneezes

We propose a simple model to predict the short-term indoor turbulent dispersion of the aerosol cloud produced by violent expiratory events. Once the air injection ceases, the turbulent jet transitions to a thermal puff that progressively decays due to viscous effects. According to recent literature, the expelled liquid droplets of saliva and sputum smaller than 20–30 μm in diameter stay afloat within this decaying turbulent puff. In contrast, droplets larger than 100 μm tend to leave the puff following quasi-ballistic trajectories and landing on the floor at relatively short times after release. The model presented here is capable of providing good estimates for the shape and dimensions of the cloud composed of the lighter fraction of droplets as a function of the intensity and the duration of the flow injection and the density difference between the exhaled and the ambient air. Predictions agree with Direct Numerical Simulations and experiments reported in the literature. This model can be used as an operational tool to determine the short-term spatial range of expelled droplets and provides realistic initial conditions for simulations of long-term dispersion of pathogen-laden clouds in indoor environments with forced and natural ventilation.

Puff turbulence in the limit of strong buoyancy.

We provide a numerical validation of a recently proposed phenomenological theory to characterize the space–time statistical properties of a turbulent puff, both in terms of bulk properties, such as the mean velocity, temperature and size, and scaling laws for velocity and temperature differences both in the viscous and in the inertial range of scales. In particular, apart from the more classical shear-dominated puff turbulence, our main focus is on the recently discovered new regime where turbulent fluctuations are dominated by buoyancy. The theory is based on an adiabaticity hypothesis which assumes that small-scale turbulent fluctuations rapidly relax to the slower large-scale dynamics, leading to a generalization of the classical Kolmogorov and Kolmogorov–Obukhov–Corrsin theories for a turbulent puff hosting a scalar field. We validate our theory by means of massive direct numerical simulations finding excellent agreement.This article is part of the theme issue ‘Scaling the turbulence edifice (part 2)’.

Short-range exposure to airborne virus transmission and current guidelines

After the Spanish flu pandemic, it was apparent that airborne transmission was crucial to spreading virus contagion, and research responded by producing several fundamental works like the experiments of Duguid [J. P. Duguid, J. Hyg. 44, 6 (1946)] and the model of Wells [W. F. Wells, Am. J. Hyg. 20, 611-618 (1934)]. These seminal works have been pillars of past and current guidelines published by health organizations. However, in about one century, understanding of turbulent aerosol transport by jets and plumes has enormously progressed, and it is now time to use this body of developed knowledge. In this work, we use detailed experiments and accurate computationally intensive numerical simulations of droplet-laden turbulent puffs emitted during sneezes in a wide range of environmental conditions. We consider the same emission-number of drops, drop size distribution, and initial velocity-and we change environmental parameters such as temperature and humidity, and we observe strong variation in droplets' evaporation or condensation in accordance with their local temperature and humidity microenvironment. We assume that 3% of the initial droplet volume is made of nonvolatile matter. Our systematic analysis confirms that droplets' lifetime is always about one order of magnitude larger compared to previous predictions, in some cases up to 200 times. Finally, we have been able to produce original virus exposure maps, which can be a useful instrument for health scientists and practitioners to calibrate new guidelines to prevent short-range airborne disease transmission.

Unraveling the Secrets of Turbulence in a Fluid Puff.

Turbulent puffs are ubiquitous in everyday life phenomena. Understanding their dynamics is important in a variety of situations ranging from industrial processes to pure and applied science. In all these fields, a deep knowledge of the statistical structure of temperature and velocity space-time fluctuations is of paramount importance to construct models of chemical reaction (in chemistry) and of condensation of virus-containing droplets (in virology and/or biophysics) and optimal mixing strategies in industrial applications. As a matter of fact, results of turbulence in a puff are confined to bulk properties (i.e., average puff velocity and typical decay or growth time) and date back to the second half of the 20th century. There is, thus, a huge gap to fill to pass from bulk properties to two-point statistical observables. Here, we fill this gap by exploiting theory and numerics in concert to predict and validate the space-time scaling behaviors of both velocity and temperature structure functions including intermittency corrections. Excellent agreement between theory and simulations is found. Our results are expected to have a profound impact on developing evaporation models for virus-containing droplets carried by a turbulent puff, with benefits to the comprehension of the airborne route of virus contagion.

Extended Lifetime of Respiratory Droplets in a Turbulent Vapor Puff and Its Implications on Airborne Disease Transmission.

To quantify the fate of respiratory droplets under different ambient relative humidities, direct numerical simulations of a typical respiratory event are performed. We found that, because small droplets (with initial diameter of 10 μm) are swept by turbulent eddies in the expelled humid puff, their lifetime gets extended by a factor of more than 30 times as compared to what is suggested by the classical picture by Wells, for 50% relative humidity. With increasing ambient relative humidity the extension of the lifetimes of the small droplets further increases and goes up to around 150 times for 90% relative humidity, implying more than 2m advection range of the respiratory droplets within 1sec. Employing Lagrangian statistics, we demonstrate that the turbulent humid respiratory puff engulfs the small droplets, leading to many orders of magnitude increase in their lifetimes, implying that they can be transported much further during the respiratory events than the large ones. Our findings provide the starting points for larger parameter studies and may be instructive for developing strategies on optimizing ventilation and indoor humidity control. Such strategies are key in mitigating the COVID-19 pandemic in the present autumn and upcoming winter.

Influence of perturbations with hairpin vortices on generation process of turbulent puff in pipe flow

Influence of perturbations with hairpin vortices on generation process of turbulent puff in pipe flow

Laminar–Turbulent Intermittency in Annular Couette–Poiseuille Flow: Whether a Puff Splits or Not

Direct numerical simulations were carried out with an emphasis on the intermittency and localized turbulence structure occurring within the subcritical transitional regime of a concentric annular Couette–Poiseuille flow. In the annular system, the ratio of the inner to outer cylinder radius is an important geometrical parameter affecting the large-scale nature of the intermittency. We chose a low radius ratio of 0.1 and imposed a constant pressure gradient providing practically zero shear on the inner cylinder such that the base flow was approximated to that of a circular pipe flow. Localized turbulent puffs, that is, axial uni-directional intermittencies similar to those observed in the transitional circular pipe flow, were observed in the annular Couette–Poiseuille flow. Puff splitting events were clearly observed rather far from the global critical Reynolds number, near which given puffs survived without a splitting event throughout the observation period, which was as long as outer time units. The characterization as a directed-percolation universal class was also discussed.

A Physics Modeling Study of COVID-19 Transport in Air

Objectives: Health threat from COVID-19 airborne infection has become a public emergency of international concern. During the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, people have been advised by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to maintain social distancing of at least 2 m to limit the risk of exposure to the coronavirus. Experimental data, however, show that infected aerosols and droplets trapped inside a turbulent puff cloud can travel 7 to 8 m. We carry out a physics modeling study for COVID-19 transport in air. Methodology: We propose a nuclear physics analogy-based modeling of the complex gas cloud and its payload of pathogen-virions. We estimate the puff effective stopping range adapting the high-energy physics model that describes the slow down of α-particles (in matter) via interactions with the electron cloud. Analysis Findings: We show that the cloud stopping range is proportional to the diameter of the puff times its density. We use our puff model to determine the average density of the buoyant fluid in the turbulent cloud. A fit to the experimental data yields , where and are the average density of the puff and the air. We demonstrate that temperature variation could cause an O (≲ ±8%) effect in the puff stopping range for extreme ambient cold or warmth. We also demonstrate that aerosols and droplets can remain suspended for hours in the air. Therefore, once the puff slows down sufficiently, and its coherence is lost, the eventual spreading of the infected aerosols becomes dependent on the ambient air currents and turbulence.